If a budget document is a statement of priorities, Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo's for 2018 are clear: job creation, economic development and protecting the interests of children.
Her $1.2 billion spending plan for 2018 passed the Republican-dominated County Legislature on Tuesday night by a bipartisan vote of 26 to 3. The plan does not increase the property tax rate of $8.99 per $1,000 of assessed value, holding to a pledge Dinolfo — a Republican — made when she took office in January 2016.
With an overall spending increase of about 1.3 percent over 2017, Dinolfo's budget does fully fund county job growth programs and economic development initiatives while also boosting spending on child protective services and on programs intended to prevent child abuse before it can start.
"This is a huge win for the county and for county taxpayers," said Dinolfo, who sat on Wednesday morning with representatives of the Democrat and Chronicle to discuss her priorities for the coming year. "We looked long and hard at where we want to go and how we want to continue to move the community forward."
Skills Gap
While meeting with more than 100 area businesses over the past year, Dinolfo said she heard a common refrain that employers can't find potential employees with the skill sets they need to fill open positions. She said the county started and will continue to fund programs such as LadderzUp, a job training and placement program run in conjunction with Monroe Community College that offers training and educational certifications in a variety of in-demand job fields, and Paths to Employment, which helps people transition from public assistance to self-sufficiency through training in financial literacy, self-sufficiency planning as well as job coaching and training.
She said such programs have been essential in helping to draw in new businesses such as Clearwater Organic Farms LLC., which will open the nation's largest hydroponic greenhouse to produce organic baby leaf greens in 650,000 square feet of space in Eastman Business Park, as well as fill open positions at the Maximus call center in Rochester Technology Park.
Having a trained, skilled workforce to offer companies looking to remain in Monroe County or relocate here has a multiplier effect; helping to brighten the economic future for families and improving the business climate here, Dinolfo said.
In addition to continuing to hold local job fairs that only allow employers with actual job openings to participate and efforts to boost interest in skilled manufacturing by providing area school districts with high-tech equipment and hands-on experience, the county in 2018 will start up the Excel Center, a public/private partnership with Goodwill of the Finger Lakes to provide education and training to adults without diplomas.
"Think about an adult learner who can't read or lacks basic math skills," said Dinolfo. "Then add a layer that they have school-age children — it would have been difficult for me to have been a successful parent if I couldn't sit and read to my children at night — but we can also help those kids be successful if we take an adult learner who doesn't have skills, shorten the timeframe for their learning, bring them to proficiency and get them back into the workforce so they can help their own families."
The Excel Center here — which will begin with an initial enrollment of 150 people — will be based on a dropout recovery charter school program that began in Indiana and offers free public high school for adults, flexible class schedules, free drop-in child care, transportation assistance, year-round operation and life coaches.
Family services take up 40 percent of spending
The budget provides more than $500 million for programs that affect families and children, nearly 40 percent of all spending. Of that, about $19 million goes to child protective services, $15 million for child abuse prevention services and more than $10 million for early intervention programs.
In the aftermath of the high-profile trial earlier this year of Erica Bell, who was convicted in September of second-degree murder in the 2016 beating death of 3-year-old Brook Stagles, Dinolfo announced an 8-point plan to improve the county Department of Human Services' Child Protective Services unit. The 2018 budget provides $1.6 million in funding to add 30 more child protective caseworkers, hire a recruiter, launch a marketing campaign to draw in new workers, provide pay increases to existing staffers and give workers new technology so they can increase efficiency.
Dinolfo said the initiative is already paying off: a recent recruiting drive drew more than 100 applicants. She also said plans to reinstate an in-county child abuse hotline are moving forward.
An additional $1.7 million will be spent next year on preventive programming for children, something local faith leaders, physicians, parents and child advocates called for back in November.
A budget analysis prepared by The Children's Agenda commended Dinolfo for "taking important and meaningful steps forward in addressing the crisis of our community's rising reports of child abuse and neglect," and for increasing funding for prevention programming, thereby "saving county tax dollars that would otherwise be spent on remedial services, and changing the trajectory of a child's life."
Democrats react to budget
Cindy Kaleh, D-Rochester, the minority leader of the county legislature, said while there are things to like in the county budget — the dissolution of another local development corporation and the addition of more resources for Human Services, both of which she credited as Democratic ideas — there were also reasons for criticism.
"This budget perpetuates the illusion that taxes are flat despite what residents see with their own eyes," she said in a statement released Tuesday. "The truth is that county taxpayers continue to see their tax bills creep higher as the county collects more revenue and fees while continuing to itemize services 'below the line.'"
She was referring to "chargebacks," a rate outside the property tax rate that the county uses to collect money for specific services that the county provides for each town. It is listed on property tax bills as "county services - localities," and funds various services including support for town residents attending Monroe Community College, firefighter training, the Board of Elections and snow and ice removal from county roads.
And, she noted, while it is true that the county tax rate is stable at $8.99 per $1,000 of assesed value, the overall amount of tax the county collects from property owners is expected to increase next year.
Under the 2018 plan, the tax levy will increase by approximately 1.7 percent.