A $1.8 billion budget was passed by both the Westchester County Board of Legislators and County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican, this week, even despite lawmakers trepidation over the inclusion of $15 million in tentative revenue from a deal privatizing the county airport.
The 2017 budget, which was passed by the Board of Legislators on Monday by a slim margin of 10-7, and modifies a previous budget submitted to the legislative chamber by Astorino last month, will retain the county executive’s proposed flat tax rate, but will also add four additional engineering positions to the county’s depleted Department of Public Works roster, in addition to injecting $1 million to the county’s Title XX child care program as a result of legislators’ amendments.
After what was shaping up to be a dead-end deal, legislators also voted to include $15 million in projected revenue derived from a deal privatizing the management of Westchester County Airport on the condition that the plan undergo a public bidding process.
Previously, the $130 million, 40-year agreement, which was sent down to legislators on Nov. 3 by Astorino, a little more than a month before the budget’s final approval deadline, would have given the investment firm Oaktree Management the exclusive bid.
After backlash from lawmakers across the board, however, the board voted unanimously to send out a request for proposals, RFP, that could possibly transfer the management of the county’s airport—which is being processed through an FAA-run privatization program—to another company.
Current operator of the county’s airport, AVPorts, has already said it would have bid on the contract if there had been an opportunity to do so.
“The feeling on our floor was that there might be real merit to participating in this FAA privatization program,” said Legislator Mary Jane Shimsky, a Hastings-on-Hudson Democrat, who had previously expressed doubt over the proposal’s efficacy. “And with putting the whole concept out to competitive bid, you could get a deal that is worthy of being signed off on.”
The deal plans to extract revenue from the airport by charging a fee for its management while simultaneously—through the FAA’s program—altering a federal law that dictates that revenue from the airport be used for airport-related expenses. Through the program, the county would be allowed to funnel airport revenue into its operating budget.
Though the money has been budgeted, Shimsky said any deal, and therefore revenue, is still contingent upon a successful RFP process, necessary approvals from stakeholders in the airport—including 65 percent of the airlines operating there—and an expedient processing of the application by the FAA, which has in some cases dragged on for as long as 29 months.
If that revenue doesn’t come to fruition, Shimsky explained, the money budgeted from the airport deal would likely have to come from the county’s cash reserves, which could have adverse impacts on the county’s AAA bond rating and therefore its ability to issue low-interest debt.
The county is already projecting a $30 million budget shortfall for its 2017 budget due to declining sales tax revenue, increasingly high health care costs, and lower gas and energy prices.
Currently, of the 10 airports that applied to the FAA’s program since its introduction in 1996, only one—Luis Muñoz Marín airport in Puerto Rico—has completed the process and has since remained privatized.
Even despite the county board’s unanimous decision to pursue the deal, both Shimsky and other Democratic legislators, many of which voted against the approval of the budget, have continued to express concern over what they describe as an “unbalanced” budget.
“This budget puts the county’s finances at the edge of the cliff without any financial flexibility,” Democrats said in a joint statement this week.
Among the chief concerns listed by the Democratic caucus are what they describe as an overly optimistic sales tax revenue of 3 percent in addition to negotiations regarding the county’s union contracts—all of which are expired this year—which could result in increased salaries and benefits.
Lawmakers cut Astorino’s plans for an enhanced Kensico Dam from the budget; an extensive project to revamp the area was announced by the county executive back in October and would have poured upwards of $17 million into a revamped reflecting pool and skating rink.
But one major amendment to the budget, prompted by the legislators’ review, will be four new engineering positions to the county’s Department of Public Works.
These positions—through supervising construction sites and processing RFPs—will help tackle the $1.5 billion in capital project backlogs that include repairs to roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure.
“[The budget adds] critical positions to our county police and engineering positions in the Department of Public Works to help address a major backlog of capital projects,” said Board of Legislators Chairman Michael Kaplowitz, a Yorktown Democrat.
Nonprofits, some of which have been faced with significant budget cuts in 2016, will see a marginal increase of $210,000 for community-based organizations in the most recent county budget.
