NEWPORT — The Sullivan County delegation of state representatives will hold their annual convention Thursday to vote on the county commissioner’s proposed budget of $44.4 million
In its final meeting on June 17, the Executive Finance Committee — which includes three Republican and two Democrats — voted to cut $253,700 from the commissioners’ proposed budget.
The budget now carries an increase from this year of 5.4%, or about $2.2 million, which is down slightly from the 6% increase in the budget finalized by the commissioners.
The committee stipulated where it believed the cuts should come from, but ultimately, those decisions rest with the three Sullivan County commissioners.
“The delegation votes on a bottom line,” County Manager Derek Ferland said.
Most notable among the recommended reductions is in county grants: the commissioners’ proposal of $109,000 versus the $60,000 approved by the EFC.
The current budget appropriates $227,000 for grants to nonprofit agencies. Examples of grant recipients include the Claremont Soup Kitchen, the Fall Mountain Food Shelf, the Center for Safer Communities (formerly Turning Points Network) and TLC Recovery in Claremont.
State Rep. Hope Damon (D-Croydon) voted against the EFC reductions with Brian Sullivan (D-Grantham). Reps. Walter Spilsbury, R-Charlestown, and Dale Girard and Wayne Hemingway, both R-Claremont, voted in support of the reductions, which trimmed the amount to be raised by taxes from 10% to 8.6%.
There is a “profound difference in the value systems (among the representatives) of how people’s needs are met,” Damon said in a phone interview.
Cutting funding for agencies set up to help those in need will only cost more in the long run, she said.
“Do you help people thrive now or not and then help pick up the pieces later,” Damon said.
Spilsbury, who chaired the EFC meetings, was not available for comment.
Other reductions proposed by the EFC include: $86,000 of previously appropriated funding originally intended to pay for an interconnection study for a solar array; 50,000 from a reduction of the annual transfer to Capital Reserves for the Sheriff’s vehicle fleet; $25,000 reduction to eliminate county funding for Discover Sugar River Region; $23,200 cut to Information Technology tech refresh; $20,000 reduction to Sheriff’s Office salary line.
Judy Aron, (R-Acworth) is on the board of the Discover Sugar River Region, a nonprofit established to promote the region to outsiders. Aron had been EFC chairwoman but was removed by Steve Smith (R-Charlestown), chairman of the delegation.
Spilsbury was appointed chairman and Girard was appointed to the committee.
Girard said Monday two residents raised conflict of interest concerns because of Aron’s affiliation with the Discover the Sugar River Region, which had received funding from the county.
Messages left for Smith and Aron were not returned.
Ferland previously said the budget increase is primarily in three areas. The first is debt service, which increased about $400,000 with a new $5 million bond to complete the renovations and additions in the county nursing home. The $75 million project, with an 80,000 square foot addition that opened last year, is expected to be completed in the fall.
Other factors driving the increase are salary and health insurance increases. There is a cost-of-living increase for county employees of 3.1% and health insurance is projected to increase 7.7%. Those items plus the debt service account for about 7% of the tax increase, Ferland said.
The delegation’s annual convention and budget vote will begin Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Sugar River Technical Center in Claremont.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
