February Update

The February committee agendas were full of important issues that brought up lots of discussion. The Health Committee heard from Amy Cunningham about the state of the Foster Care system in Onondaga County. After a tumultuous 2021 due to COVID restrictions, the adoption processes are back to normal, and our Foster Care program is operating better than ever. Right now, there are just over 500 children in Foster Care through Onondaga County, but our team has prioritized placing as many children with family as possible. Out of those 500 children, 149 are placed in homes with direct family members. This helps children maintain some sense of normalcy during what is inevitable among the hardest periods of their little lives. Our team is working hard to increase the number of kinship placements, and we could not be more grateful.

While Onondaga County is making great strides, we are being hampered by New York State Government and their underhanded fiscal practices. For years, New York State was reimbursing counties 50% for the cost of mental health services to incarcerated individuals. This reimbursement was planned for and built into the County budget. Quietly, and without warning, the State stopped this reimbursement and Onondaga County and all other counties in New York State had to pick up the tab for the whole cost. Similarly, the State was cutting a discount on Centro fees during 2020, which helped the County remain solvent through a difficult financial time. Without warning, the state reverted to its old pricing and charged Onondaga County the full cost plus some, which happened to be equal, to the dollar, of the savings the county had in 2020. Altogether, New York State dropped a $2,480,163 unfunded mandate on our county.

Thanks to this Legislature’s strong fiscal policy and our department heads’ practice of managing costs to the best of our abilities, Legislators will be able to vote on transfers to cover these costs in our upcoming Session on March first without any further impact on County taxpayers. Despite our hard work to stay ahead of the game and take care of our residents, the New York State Legislative and Executive branches are once again turning their backs on us. The New York State Association of Counties is fighting to get these funds back from the State, but we shouldn’t have been put in this place to begin with.

As a caucus, we are thankful for your continued support, in the good times and in the bad. Each committee meeting and each session is a new challenge, but we are thankful that you entrusted us with leadership of the County. We will continue to put our residents first and foremost, and hope others will as well.