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St. Lawrence County’s finances not on verge of collapse, says legislator

Posted 9/24/14

To the Editor: If you believe what you read coming from Republican members of the St. Lawrence County Legislature and Republican-leaning newspaper editors, you would think that our county is on the …

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St. Lawrence County’s finances not on verge of collapse, says legislator

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To the Editor:

If you believe what you read coming from Republican members of the St. Lawrence County Legislature and Republican-leaning newspaper editors, you would think that our county is on the verge of economic collapse; a pending Conservative doomsday that would rival only the re-election of Barack Obama to a third term as president of the United States. If you believe their rants, you would also think that Democrats are some how to blame for this fallacy. I can assure you that St. Lawrence County is about as likely to suffer an economic meltdown as the president is to seek, let alone be re-elected to, a third term. Neither will happen. Period.

Over the next several weeks, I plan on explaining why the county’s financial outlook is anything other than on the verge of collapse. As a tickler, let’s start with this though...earlier this year, Moody’s, one of the nation’s leading financial institutions that rates creditworthiness, actually upgraded St. Lawrence County’s credit rating. In today’s economy, that’s extremely rare. There is no pending meltdown. None.

What I would like to focus on in this letter though, because I have been asked about it a few times, is county borrowing. As most readers know, two weeks ago, the county legislature authorized borrowing $10 million for cash flow purposes. The budget is, and has been, balanced. This was not done for budget purposes.

In October and November the county has less cash on hand then it does during other parts of the year, particularly in the early spring. This variable is due to a number of factors such as the receipt of property taxes and delayed reimbursements from the state for social programs. The county has borrowed funds for the past few years in order to cover variable cash flow as I just described. Up to 15 percent of the counties in New York borrow in the same manner for the same purpose.

Many of the Democratic members of the legislature, including myself, questioned whether we truly needed to borrow at all this year and, if we did; did we need to borrow the full $10 million for the full 12 months. The county treasurer, a Republican, said that we did and he submitted a resolution to the board that called for that line and term of borrowing.

I questioned the accuracy of his calculations and he reluctantly agreed that he had not included at least one pending revenue stream in his projection. As proposed, his request would cost the county approximately $100,000 in financing fees but it would allow the county to pay its obligation to the state retirement fund early, thereby saving $65,000 for a net cost of $35,000.

Mr. Morrill, a Democrat from DeKalb, offered an amendment that would have reduced the term of the loan to six months. This amendment would have cost the county $50,000 in financing fees and would have still enabled the county to pay its obligation to the state retirement fund early, thereby saving $65,000 for a net savings of $15,000.

Mr. Acres, a Republican from Madrid, laughed off the savings as being “a drop in the bucket” against the county budget as a whole. Frankly, I think 15,000 drops in any bucket is worth saving when those drops are dollars. If I weren’t there, I wouldn’t believe this actually happened either.

Despite the fact that the county treasurer’s calculations were wrong, the amendment failed with every Republican member of the board voting against it. Mr. Felt’s original resolution then went on to pass with three Democrats, including myself, voting against it. On that vote, the Republican members of the legislature cost the county $50,000.

On the topic of county borrowing, this is what happened. If you are at the post office, the diner or the supermarket and someone brings up how the Democrats in the legislature are to blame for some sort of borrowing debacle, please reference the points that I have made here. Then…then ask why the Republican members of the legislature threw away $50,000 of your hard earned tax dollars. If you need further assurance, simply write to the county attorney and request to listen to the recording of the meeting. It’s all there, just as I’ve written.

Jason A. Clark, Norfolk

Legislator, District 12

Editor’s note: Jason Clark is opposed by Republican John Burke for the 12th District seat in the November election.