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By JEANETTE WOLFBERG

HUDSON–The Columbia County Board of Supervisors adopted the county’s budget for 2025 at its full board meeting December 11. The budget appropriates $179.9 million and calls for a 2.9% tax levy increase to cover 25.8% of the appropriation. 2025’s budget is 4.4% ($7.5 million) more than 2024’s.  2025’s tax levy is $46.4 million. Meanwhile, “no program maintained by the county has been eliminated, and no services have been cut,” said Board Chairman Matt Murell (Stockport) in his November 14 cover letter to the budget proposal.

Key reasons for the budget increase, according to several county officials, include increases in salaries, contributions to the New York State Retirement System, health insurance, early intervention and preschool programs, as well as uncertainty about sales tax revenues.

On December 11 before the vote, the board held a public hearing on the budget. The only people who spoke were several supervisors and County Treasurer PJ Keeler.  

Many speakers acknowledged that this year building the budget was difficult. With costs going up and revenue potentially less, the supervisors wanted to work out a budget that did not eliminate programs, cut services, or drastically raise taxes, explained Supervisor Tistrya Houghtling (New Lebanon), the Minority Leader.

On December 11, three supervisors voted against the budget, two were absent, one abstained, and 17 voted for it. The yes and no votes contained people of both parties. 

The following includes some of what supervisors said at the hearing and on the next day (December 12) explaining their vote:

Supervisor Raymond Staats (Claremont) explained he voted against the budget for two reasons: the tax levy is increasing, despite the county’s Cash Reserve (Unassigned Fund) Balance; and the county is subsidizing Solid Waste when only a third of its residents use the service. However, at the meeting, Mr. Staats began his talk by thanking the people who worked on the budget process. “I appreciate the work,” he said.  

Treasurer Keeler said county policy was to maintain “two months operating expenses” in the reserve fund. He reported that the county’s Unassigned Fund Balance was $31.5 million at the end of 2023.  Some of those funds are appropriated every year for the budget, thus reducing the tax levy, and some of the funds are used for unforeseen capital expenses. For 2025, this amount is $5.9 million, 3.3% of the budget.  For 2024, it is $3.6 million, 2.1% of 2024’s budget. In addition to the Unassigned Fund Balance, there are reserve funds for specific purposes, such as tax stabilization and health insurance, Mr. Staats pointed out.

Solid Waste is expected to make up 2.5% of the 2025 budget and was 2.6% of the 2024 budget.

Later, Mr. Staats added, “I have been voting against the budget for several years as our fund balance continues to grow year after year by several million dollars each year. I do not feel we need to burden our taxpayers with an increase to their taxes while we continue to see these large increases to our bank accounts…I do not want to reduce our fund balance, but we need to stop increasing taxes on our citizens until we actually need it.”

“I also feel very strongly about the subsidizing of the solid waste department,” Mr. Staats continued. “Taxpayers should not be taxed to pay for a service that only 33 percent of the county residents use. For the past several years the taxpayers have paid millions of dollars in tax increases to support this department and I feel very strongly that it needs to stop.”

Also voting against the budget was Supervisor Mike Dvorchak of Hillsdale. He explained, “People are really struggling and now is not the time to raise taxes. I greatly appreciate all the work done on both sides of the aisle along with our County Treasurer to create this budget in these challenging times.  However, I felt it important to use my vote as a member of the minority party to highlight the points about finding alternative solutions that Supervisor Staats made….While I support the continued investment for infrastructure, county programs and salaries, hopefully my vote will call attention to the need keep looking for ways not to raise taxes next year.”

Voting for the budget, Supervisor James Guzzi (Livingston), who chairs the supervisors’ finance committee, explained the need to have a balance fund “in case things go bad.”  The county uses it to pay for things that it otherwise would have to bond (and thus charge taxpayers for the interest for years to come). They dipped into it in the Covid crisis. He compared the balance fund to a piggy bank.  As for the tax levy increase, “Everybody’s bills go up. We don’t want taxes to go up. I pay taxes too.”

Ms. Houghtling said, “I worked on the committee. It was not an easy budget.”  Addressing the salaries increase, she reported she has been pushing for all county employees to earn “a living wage.” When she first got into government, she was surprised that even people in some skilled positions could earn more working in a store. Addressing Mr. Staats’ concerns, she reported that the county had used the fund balance this year on roads, bridges, and buildings. In addition, she suggested the board studying the solid waste situation: “Either everybody gets garbage collection or everybody doesn’t.”

Supervisor Brenda Adams (Canaan) said her vote for the budget was “on condition we look at the Fund Balance.”

Abstaining on the budget, Supervisor Abdus Miah (Hudson, 2nd Ward) also thanked the people who worked on the budget. “My fellow supervisors are working hard and doing a good job. But this is a tough time. Paying taxes is hard on my constituents. We have to look at a better way,” he said.

In his cover letter, Chairman Murell thanked all the county officers for their budget work but especially highlighted Mr. Breig, Supervisor Michael Chameides (Hudson, 3rd Ward), Mr. Guzzi, Ms. Houghtling, Mr. Keeler, Supervisor Ron Knott (Stuyvesant), Robert Lagonia (Austerlitz), Supervisor Richard Scalera (Hudson, 5th Ward) and Human Resources Director Michaele Williams-Riordon.

At the meeting, the board also approved 2025 salaries for itself and various County officials.