Ulster County News

FROM: ULSTER COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE

DATE: September 2, 2003  

Richard Gerentine of Marlborough, chairman of the Ulster County Legislature, failed to make the list in a Middletown Times Herald Record story about the highest priced municipal executives in the Hudson Valley. As chairman of the county legislature, Gerentine is paid $19,500.

Gerentine and the 33-member county legislature are responsible for a $270 million county business operation. Gerentine said he knew what he was getting paid when he took the chairmanship and explained how each of the 33 Ulster County legislators is paid $10,000.

He thought reducing the size of the legislature to 23 would not save money because it would put an undue and unfair burden of responsibility on the remaining legislators. "I have a problem with that. You are putting an unfair burden on the people who are representing you." Gerentine said another consideration in the downsizing of the legislature was that the county is growing as are the number of state mandates.

He said that the issues underlying the budget debacle in the state of California concern legislation that forced many experienced state legislators to retire and be replaced with inexperienced ones. Gerentine said this downsizing of the county legislation could have the similar pitfalls. If the people want lower taxes, he said, they should ask their state legislators and the governor not to trickle social service mandates down to all of the counties of New York State, which in turn causes "trickle-down taxation."

The twelve-year legislator said, "Our social service costs are 38% of the county budget and services 11% of our population. I am not against helping people, but the taxpayers cannot continue to pay more for these services, which benefit a minority of the population. The pendulum is swinging. Proportionately, it is getting worse and we cannot afford it any more."

Gerentine said the objective of the county’s social programs was to "help people on a temporary basis and not make it a way of life."