NEWPORT — The Sullivan County Commissioners will hold a public hearing on their proposed $44.7 million budget on Thursday.
The budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 represents a 6%, or $2.5 million, increase from the current year and would increase the amount to be raised by taxes close to 10%, or $1.95 million.
The spending increase is primarily in three areas, County Manager Derek Ferland said.
The first is the increase in debt service of almost $400,000 due to an additional $5 million bond needed to cover the cost of the $75 million nursing home addition and renovation. The project includes an 80,000-square-foot addition, which opened last year, and is expected to be completed in early fall.
“That is the last piece of the funding stack for the construction project,” Ferland said. “We delayed as long as we could hoping to get additional grant support.”
The increase in debt service is about 2% of the tax increase, Ferland said.
Besides the bond, personnel and health insurance costs also are driving up expenses, Ferland said. Personnel cost increases are driven by a cost-of-living adjustment of 3.1% for county employees. Health insurance is projected to increase 7.7%.
Combined, those two items represent about 5% of the estimated increase in the amount to be raised by taxes.
Based on the average county portion of 2025 municipal tax rates for all 15 municipalities in the county, the increase will be about 22 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation or about $60 per year for a property assessed at $250,000, Ferland said.
Ferland also said the county nursing home continues to struggle hiring full-time nurses, which means nurses are brought in from outside agencies at a higher cost. Agency nursing this year is a separate line item for $3.8 million.
“It is getting better, but it (agency nursing) is still around 30% of nursing department staffing hours,” Ferland said, adding that other counties are in excess of 50%. “It is still very expensive.”
Ferland said they have fewer vacancies for the LNA (Licensed Nursing Assistants) because of a county program begun a few years ago to recruit and train local high school students.
“It is the LPNs (Licensed Practical Nurses) we are struggling to fill because of below-market wages,” Ferland said. “That is the next area we want to target; to have our own crop of LPNs because we can’t compete.”
Thursday’s public hearing begins at 6 p.m. on the third floor of the Sullivan County — State Court House Complex at 14 Main St. in Newport.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
