Majority Leader Remarks – delivered March 1, 2011

City Hall, Kingston, NY

William P. Reynolds, Majority Leader

Thank you, Mr. President, my colleagues on the Council and

fellow concerned citizens of Kingston.
As we look at where this city stands tonight, we all know there is
plenty to be worried about – disturbing allegations of misconduct in our
police department, gang incursions in Midtown, rising taxes, budget
woes and uncertainty about the direction of our future financial
commitments as a city.
The picture is a troubling one, on many fronts, not just for
Kingston but for every city in New York State and certainly throughout
most of America.
But tonight I also have confidence, not just in Kingston but in this
Council’s ability to work constructively and with clear purpose toward
solutions.
And that confidence is founded on what we’ve accomplished just
in the past year.
Amid all the smoke, heat and angry words over stray cats and
unregulated yard sales, it’s important to remember that this Council has
achieved some big and meaningful victories for Kingston tax payers in
the past year.
Let me offer you just five examples:
 This year, after more than a decade of talking about it, we have
finally consolidated the Kingston Fire Department’s dispatch function
with Ulster County 911. Lots of folks have said for years it would never
happen, but it did, with this Council playing a leadership role in the
effort. And it makes a difference to you. This move alone promises to
save us more than $300,000 a year – or 2 percentage points on your city
property tax levy – each year.
And this year, also after many years of talking about it, we actually
reduced the city’s investment in the Boulevard transfer station by almost
$150,000 a year, while keeping the facility open for the convenience of
residents and even expanding its operation to include Saturday. That
savings represents another percentage point on your city tax bill. Again,
a lot of voices said it couldn’t be done; we did it.
Those 2 moves were key to a third big win achieved by this
Council: cutting a property tax increase this year from the proposed 7
percent for homeowners by half, to 3 percent.
Fourth, this city, with the able help and initiative of our
corporation counsel’s office, has greatly expanded the scope of our
nuisance-abatement law so that now it can be brought to bear on a long
list of offenses, big and small, that blight our streets and diminish our
quality of life.
And finally, the three newest members of the Council --- Jen
Fuentes, Hayes Clement and Andi Turco-Levin – initiated a long-
overdue dialogue over many months with city employees and their union
leaders over the city’s health-care insurance costs and what has to be
done to curtail those costs. This is an ongoing dialogue and critical to
our city’s financial future, as healthcare and pension contributions now
account for no less than $11 million of our $36 million annual budget –
fully one-third of expenditures, and with no likely end in sight to double-
digit increases in those expenses annually. Solutions are not going to
come easily, but I am much more confident about our ultimate chances
of achieving something here now that union leaders and elected officials
are finally sitting down to find common ground.
Are our efforts perfect? Of course not.
Is there more to be done? Absolutely. A lot more, in fact.
But we are on the right path, in ways large and small, and I’m
confident you’ll see that borne out in the next few months:
Working with Mayor Sottile and Comptroller Tuey, this is the
Council that’s going to institute, in short order, new financial controls
that will prevent any recurrence of payroll or overtime fraud in any city
department.
This is the Council that’s going to keep our spending on the
prudent, fiscally conservative path, regardless of how grim the budget
picture gets in the near term.
And this is the Council that looks forward not just to a new mayor
at City Hall but to working in synch with that mayor to dramatically
raise the bar on how Kingston attracts new businesses, new residents and
grows our tax base, so that one day we might leave behind the tiresome
annual question of what essential services must be cut this time around.
I can tell you with complete confidence: We are on that path
tonight.
And we’re going to make great strides traveling it in the coming
year.
Thank you, and God bless the great City of Kingston.