To the Editor:

As a finance professional, and a candidate for St. Lawrence County’s 10th Legislative District, I’d like to respond to some of the assertions made by Legislator Clark in his September 24th letter.

Point 1: Mr. Clark stated, “…earlier this year, Moody’s, one of the nation’s leading financial institutions that rates creditworthiness, actually upgraded St. Lawrence County’s credit rating.”

This statement is incorrect. Moody’s downgraded St. Lawrence County’s credit rating in 2012, partially due to the shrinking fund balance. We still have the downgraded rating. All Moody’s did this year was to change the county’s “rating outlook,” which indicates that they no longer expect our credit rating to get even worse.

Point 2: Mr. Clark stated, “…the county legislature authorized borrowing $10 million for cash flow purposes.”

Yes, the borrowing of $10 million each year is due to a cash flow problem. However, the cash flow problem is due to the Legislature having allowed the fund balance to drop too low. One of the primary reasons for carrying a healthy fund balance is to prevent having to borrow to cover the lean months.

Point 3: Mr. Clark stated, “Up to 15% of the counties in New York borrow in the same manner for the same purpose” (cash flow).

Simple math tells us that at least 85% do not. In addition, the other counties that are forced to borrow just to pay their bills were also on the short list of counties designated as being under “significant fiscal stress” by the State Comptroller.

Point 4: Mr. Clark stated, “…the County Treasurer’s calculations were wrong.”

A budget is an educated guess about expected revenues and expenses. Budgets have to be adjusted when actual revenues and expenses turn out to be different from what was expected. Treasurer Felt correctly made adjustments based on actual cash flow to come up with his forecasts.

Point 5: Mr. Clark stated, “Mr. Morrill, a Democrat from DeKalb, offered an amendment that would have reduced the term of the loan to six months….for a net savings of $15,000.”

Treasurer Felt’s more realistic numbers predicted the county would need money for the full year. By reducing the term of the loan to six months, the county would have had to go through the borrowing process twice. Borrowing twice could possibly have hurt the county’s credit rating. It would definitely have cost the county an extra $10,000 instead of saving Mr. Clark’s predicted $15,000.

As a final note, I would encourage the voters of District 12 to consider voting for Mr. Clark’s opponent, Mr. John Burke.

Joe Timmerman

District 10 Candidate, Potsdam