With an eye toward cost savings, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has pitched a plan that would merge the county treasurer and comptroller positions.
The matter will be put to public referendum when the proposition appears on the ballot in November.
Bellone, who held a call-in interview after participating in Friday’s Wounded Warrior Ride, said a bill signing for the resolution, sponsored by Suffolk County Legislator William Lindsay III, took place Thursday.
The goal, Lindsay said, is to streamline operations and effect cost savings. Three positions, including the treasurer, chief deputy, and deputy treasurer, will be eliminated, with the two departments merged.
Hard cost savings over the first two years, should the merger be approved and begin in 2018, would be $1.2 million over two years, Bellone said.
Currently, Bellone said, the chief deputy’s salary is $150,000 per year, and the deputy treasurer’s is $125,000 per year; the comptroller’s salary would not change, at $185,000 per year — or approximately $200,000 by the time the merger would be enacted in 2018.
Additional “soft” cost savings would be realized by merging two departments and staffs, Bellone said.
Because both the treasurer’s and comptroller’s office have peak seasons that are not simultaneous, Bellone said staff can be cross trained, with employees moving from one department to another year-round.
As it stands, temporary staff are hired to cover workflow, but staffers are “still behind.” Currently, Lindsay said, there is an 18-month to two-year wait in terms of taxpayers who are waiting for their grievance, or property, taxes back. “It’s a real area of concern and no matter how many people we throw at it, it’s not getting corrected,” he said.
The initiative, Lindsay said, was one the county executive had pitched last year. “We look forward to putting it to the voters in November and letting them decide.”
Bellone thanked Lindsay for sponsoring the legislation. “This is a very important piece of legislation and an important moment for Suffolk County.”
When he took office two-and-a-half years ago, Bellone said he was looking at a “county in financial free fall, with financial deficits and enormous structural gaps.”
To start, he said. “We began the process of getting the county’s finances on a solid footing by making the difficult decisions.”
With a more than ten percent reduction in the county workforce, Bellone also ended a nearly 20-year subsidy of the John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility in Yaphank, which cost taxpayers an “unnecessary $10 million per year. These and other consolidations have helped Suffolk County turn the corner, and there’s more to be done. This is the only way we’re going to protect taxpayers so that we’e not in a permanent state of fiscal scarcity.”
Merging the two offices, he added, will eliminate “patronage” positions and “create synergies over time” that will streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and save additional taxpayer dollars.
Suffolk County, Bellone said, is the only county of 62 in New York State to have separate elected individuals to the comptroller and treasurer posts.
Some might ask what difference $1 million per year might mean in an over all $2.7 billion budget, Bellone said. “From my perspective, if you can save $1 million in taxpayer money, you should do it. People ask me all the time at chamber and civic meetings, what we are doing to get control of property taxes. I tell them, ‘You have to reform government.’ Every politician will say they’re for protecting the taxpayer. I always tell the public, ‘if they’re not prepared to tell you what reforms they’re willing to make in government, the statement is meaningless.'”
Reform is critical to regaining sound financial footing and in keeping the county competitive, Bellone said.
In the future, additional savings will be realized as technology is utilized to consolidate functions, he added.
Currently, the two departments are comprised of 100 staffers, with both the treasurer and comptroller overseeing operations, something Lindsay said is “not efficient.”
When asked if auditors have concerns about merging the two positions, Lindsay said it is a “misnomer” that the comptroller will be “sitting in an office, authorizing payments and writing checks. Policies will still be in place to be sure malfeasance doesn’t happen,” with controls in place.
