Astorino: Day care program out of money
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino says its day care program is running out of money, so he’s raising fees by 15 percent and capping the number of children at 206.
The Administration today predicted that money will dry up by July 31. The announcement came as a surprise to lawmakers, particularly Democrats on the Board of Legislators, who maintain they have adequately funded the program in the budget, despite Astorino’s vetoes.
“Unfortunately, the current situation was all too predictable,” Astorino said. “The problem has nothing to do with politics. It is simple math. You can’t run programs on good intentions; you need sufficient appropriations.
“I certainly understand that family budgets are tight,” Astorino added. “But you have to look at the alternatives – asking families to pay about $6 dollars a day more for about eight months, or having the families pay 100 percent of the family day care bill starting in August. The whole philosophy here is to adjust payments in order to protect the long-term viability of the program.”
Democrats were caught off guard by Astorino’s announcement and said that the press release was the first they’ve heard of a funding shortage.
The day care divide has been an ongoing battle between the branches and since Astorino took office. In his budget proposal last year, the county executive proposed cuts to day care and increases in parent share from 20 to 35 percent. But the board had fought those through a series of veto overrides and had kept the rate down.
“We put money in the budget,” Chairman Ken Jenkins, D-Yonkers, said. “The board adopted a budget and fully funded it. … If the administration wants to continue to violate the law, then we’ll have to address it.”
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Once again the Dems don’t know how to read a budget!! It is unfortunate for the single parents but apparently it wasn’t funded correctly by the board.
It’s not often that I agre with astorino but I was actually able to watch the BOL meeting today. Has off to you Myers – screw the taxpayers some more. You obviously have no issue jacking up taxes some more. Does she even understand that the welfare day care program is not Headstart. The board of fools has to go.
Republicans at it again, do they have a clue?
Someone should review the history of county government and find out why we have so many departments. When Al Delbello was County Executive he had a relationship with President Jimmy Carter who was a democrat like Delbello, Delbello accepted federal grant money that only lasted for a year or two and Delbello started expanding county government with that federal money. When Pres. Carter left office, Delbello was stuck with all the newly created departments he started and no money to fund them. Here we are 40 years later and Delbello is running around complaining about the size and cost of government. When in fact he is the one who started expanding county government many years ago. The county government has the problems we have today because when Delbello was in charge he had no foresight, he believed in building county government on a credit card that we are all paying for today. If you really want to see the transformation of the county government when Delbello was county executive check the county budget from the previous year Delbello was county executive and then recheck the county budget Delbello’s last year in office. The crisis in Westchester County goes back to the days of Delbello and his inability to lead.
Cant trust the money figures from the same Republican current county executive.
Let’s recall that the same person who is saying we are out of money for this program is the same person who said we had monumental deficts for both 2010 and 2011; he said that 2010 would end with a $166 million deficit and that 2011 would end with a projected $113, 116, 118 million deficit (he kept changing the number with every TV appearance or article)
So why is the man to be believed now ?!?
For 2011 and 2012 the Board of Legislators created a budget that ignored his phony baloney deficits, did not raise the total amount of County taxes, and did not engage in wholesale blood bath of firing hundreds of middle class taxpaying real workers !
So think twice and three times when reading the current county executive’s press releases .