White Plains, NY – Democratic members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL) were astonished today to find that County Executive Astorino had authorized payment of over $93 million of pension costs that were not included in the 2011 County Budget. The County Charter clearly dictates that transfers of appropriated funds to address excess spending must be approved first by the BOL, but this did not occur.
The payment, which is not due until February 2012 and has been paid historically in early December, was made to New York State in mid-November. In testimony this morning to the BOL Budget & Appropriations Committee, Westchester County Finance Commissioner Ann Marie Berg admitted that the early payment cost the County tens of thousands of dollars in lost interest revenue. (The exact amount is yet to be determined, said Berg.) This comes at time when the County Executive is bemoaning the need to save money while he is wasting County dollars to make a political point.
The issue here, the BOL Democrats asserted, is not just about money going up in smoke—it’s about purposefully undermining the BOL and the budget process. County Executive Astorino ordered early payment of pension costs to strip fund balance just as the BOL is beginning to deliberate on the 2012 County Budget, a political act that subverts the BOL’s open, transparent budget process. Surely, no governing body should pay a bill far in advance and pass up substantial interest revenue.
“This administration is so obsessed with scoring political points that it has lost sight of sound fiscal decision making,” said BOL Vice Chair Lyndon Williams (D-Mount Vernon). “It is fiscally irresponsible to pay out over $93 million of taxpayers’ money before it is due in order to undermine the legislative budgetary process.”
To come up with the $93 million, Berg, who reports to the County Executive, may have dipped into a fund balance specifically created to help with pension costs, and transferred millions between several other fund balances. The problem is that some of this may not be legal.
Berg noted in her testimony that she was “directed to make the payment,” and admitted she doesn’t question directives as such that come from her superiors.
“By these actions, County Executive Astorino is limiting the Board’s ability to make corrective actions to the 2012 Budget, and he has wasted County resources by dispersing funds early,” said BOL Budget & Appropriations Chairman José Alvarado (D-Yonkers). “As much as I understand that Commissioner Berg was simply following executive orders, she has a professional duty and obligation to make decisions that are in the best interests of the people of Westchester. Here, she did not.”
According to Westchester County law (83-167.121), “No money shall be spent by the county or any agency thereof, nor shall any obligation for the spending of money be incurred, unless in pursuance of the annual appropriation act thereof, except as provided in this section. Transfers of appropriations between general classifications of expenditures within the same department may be authorized by the County Executive on the recommendation of the Budget Director and with the approval of a committee of the County Board, designated by the resolution of such board…Supplemental appropriations from any moneys not otherwise appropriated may be made at any time upon recommendation of the County Executive by a majority vote of all members of the County Board.”
“County Executive Astorino needs to tell the Board and everyone in Westchester why he felt it was necessary to clandestinely pre-pay this $93 million expenditure,” said BOL Majority Leader Peter Harckham (D-Katonah). “His talk of ‘open government’ clearly does not match his actions.”