County Government

Friday Afternoon Rant Supplement

November 30, 2012 CAFR

At the risk of prolonging the agony – for myself and readers of my most recent Friday afternoon rant, here are a couple of extras to further the point that counties charging cities, towns and villages, for Community College tuition is a political dodge, but likely one that will lead to even higher taxes. The […]

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Unfunded Mandate? A Bad Idea Unless We Should Do That Ourselves

November 30, 2012 Budget

Of late, I’ve been trying to avoid Albany County issues. But sometimes, you just can’t. We’re now looking at a backdoor property tax increase by Albany County – and even with that, the County would not be able to stay within the property tax cap. The latest is that a group of Democrats are withholding […]

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Albany County: Working Hard to Make it Harder for the Public to Understand its Budget

November 3, 2012 Budget

The past several years, Albany County made its tentative (proposed) budget available online, not only in a readable format (PDF), but in a format (Excel) that the public and occasional legislators could actually do calculations with. No more. When the County Executive’s Tentative Budget was released last month, the PDF documents were posted online, but […]

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Finally Selling the Albany County Nursing Home?

October 9, 2012 County Government

Referring to the Albany County Nursing Home, back in February, we said, “Sell it Now!” So if New York does the right thing and tells Albany County that no, they cannot build a new money-losing nursing home, what happens next? And before the State acts, if the odds are say 50/50 or higher that the […]

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Nassau and Suffolk County 2013 Tentative Budgets

September 26, 2012 Budget

Report that budgets for Nassau and Suffolk Counties in NY have been released. Nassau has no property tax increase. Suffolk’s is reported to be under the property tax cap. More later.

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Before Heading Off on Another Fool’s Errand, Perhaps Looking at the Last One’s Results Would be Worthwhile

September 26, 2012 County Government

As Albany County Legislators and others get themselves into another tizzy about the Albany County Nursing Home, it’s worth a quick review of the discussion at the PHHPC Committee meeting last week before their unanimous vote to disapprove the County’s certificate of need application. Some may be ready to accept the cover that the State […]

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Conners Knew His Staff Abused IT System Privileges Long Before Social Security Number Release

September 24, 2012 County Government

In addition to a looming tax increase and other financial challenges, its inability to set a sensible direction on long-term care, Albany County, New York has been suffering from County Comptroller Mike Conners’s release of Social Security numbers (SSNs) of staff of the District Attorney. There’s been some confusion about the sequence of events, but […]

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Key Vote Unanimous to Disapprove New Albany County Nursing Home

September 20, 2012 County Government

Key committee of Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) voted unanimously a short time ago to disapprove Albany County’s application to build a new nursing home. More details later.

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Perhaps If They’d Owned Their Own Homework in the First Place

September 20, 2012 County Government

Another quote of the day. Mine. Pretty obnoxious, huh? In this case, the day was March 20, 2012. this is what I said when the Albany County Legislature first became aware of the projected costs for a new nursing home that their own leadership had submitted to the State as part of a certificate of […]

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The Albany Times Union Offers the County Executive Some Advice

September 20, 2012 County Government

Time to put on your big boy pants, Danny: Face reality, Mr. McCoy – Times Union Editorial (perhaps I’m taking a liberty here, but in its entirety): THE ISSUE: The state shows every sign of denying the county’s quest to build a new nursing home. THE STAKES: The elderly, especially those who are poor, still […]

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