The plan involves lowering the rate by 1.6 percent, from $8.99 per $1,000 of assessed value to $8.85, through a combination of salary rollbacks for non-unionized managers and other professional staff, ending county lease agreements on property in downtown Rochester, reducing the number of professional service contracts and cutting cell phones and courtesy cars for county workers.
Legislators said the combined spending reductions would yield $5.4 million in savings that would be passed on to taxpayers.
“We need to do everything we can to reduce taxes, and this proposal represents an important first step to that end,” said Legislator Richard Beebe, D-Greece.
Pugnacious County spokesman Noah Lebowitz countered with his usual drivel. Lebowitz said many of the salaries in question are reimbursed by outside sources, such as Medicaid, and that cutting cell phones and cars would make county operations less efficient. What planet is this guy living on?
He added that the leased building houses government functions and that it was impossible to respond to cutting back on professional service contracts without knowing more specifics. The truth is, this a system by which they handsomely reward their political construction and real estate donors with government contracts. For several years, county taxpayers spend a five-figure rent sum monthly on a building on West Main Street owned by a republican operative. The thing is, the gigantic building only housed 3 county employees.
As the minority party in the legislature, Democrats rarely get traction on any of their proposals because Republicans only care about protecting their own interests at the expense of others.
The most politically sensitive element of the Democratic legislators’ plan is the proposed salary rollback, which they estimated would cut almost $1.5 million from the budget. Their proposal is the third of its kind in two years.
County management and professional staff, which include appointed positions like the director of parks, transportation and human resources and many of their top aides, were guaranteed raises of at least 2.5 percent annually in addition to any step increases in pay they may be entitled to receive under legislation passed unanimously by the legislature in 2009.
Step increases typically amount to slightly more than 2 percent, and many employees climb one or more steps each year until they reach the top step.
Democratic legislators said they voted for the salary increase legislation in 2009 because it was tied to a contract for workers in the Sheriff’s Office. They have since twice tried to repeal that portion of the legislation with no success.
The latest rollback attempt comes as negotiations between the Brooks administration and two unions representing the bulk of county workers, the Civil Service Employees Association and the Federation of Social Workers, are languishing.
Those workers, who combined number about 2,600, have not received raises aside from step increases they may be entitled to since 2008.
The proposed 2012 salary for the lowest-paid professional staffer ranges from $58,555 to $75,511. Without a new contract, the salary for the lowest-paid CSEA worker in 2012 would range from $18,240 to $23,672.
Cris Zaffuto, president of CSEA Unit 7400, which the county recently filed an unfair labor practice complaint against, said the raises for management were unfair.
“The county executive thinks nothing of giving her management and professional people raises every year. Where’s the sacrifice?” Zaffuto said.
Under a Brooks administration, the rich get richer and poor get poorer. Go to a video tribute to our County government, called Monroe County GOP: Nice Work If You Can Get It.
