NEWS FROM THE OFFICE OF

ULSTER COUNTY COMPTROLLER

ELLIOTT AUERBACH
ELLIOTT AUERBACH COUNTY COMPTROLLER 244 FAIR STREET KINGSTON, NEW YORK 12401 PHONE: 845: 340-3529 eaue@co.ulster,ny.us
www.co.ulster.ny.us/resources/comptroller

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DIGGING OUT OF THE GARBAGE PILE

Comptroller Applauds Executives Budget Balancing Effort with Recovery Agency

KINGSTON, NY (October 10, 2012) Executive Michael Heins 2013 Budget begins to answer the question we have been asking for the past twenty months about the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency; whats the plan? In February of 2011 the Office of the Ulster County Comptroller issued a report, THE FUTURE OF THE ULSTER COUNTY RESOURCE RECOVERY AGENCY-Planning for Success or Failure, in which it revealed that the Agencys expenses continued to outpace its revenues; the capital assets continued to decrease; as of 2009 there was over $30 million of debt due through 2025; and the debt reserve consistently trended downward decreasing by almost $10 million since 2000. With his release last week of the Executive Budget, Mike Hein has stepped forward and offered a bold plan to address the current escalating net service fee and the future indebtedness facing the Resource Recovery Agency, said Comptroller Elliott Auerbach. He has not backed away from making difficult decisions and has created a starting point with his modified flow control solution toward resolution of a decades worth of fiscal stress and relieving the burden on Ulster County taxpayers. ###

The mission of the Ulster County Comptrollers Office is to serve as an independent agency of the people and to protect the public interest by monitoring County government and to assess and report on the degree to which its operation is economical, efficient and its financial condition sound.