It was reported in the November 15 edition of the Ellenville Journal that the Ulster County Department of Social Services (DSS) is considering a one-year pilot program to be housed on the fourth floor of the newly opened Ellenville Government Center. Since then there has been a great deal of reaction for and against the proposed plan.

In last week's issue of the Ellenville Journal, outgoing Wawarsing Town Supervisor James Dolaway said that his chief concern regarding the DSS pilot program is the way that Ulster County handles its funding for social services in contrast to any other county in New York. He explained that in every other county, the cost of social services program known as Temporary Assistance or Safety Net is disbursed so that every county resident pays a similar share. In Ulster County, however, the county government charges the municipality from where the DSS client originates half of the total funds disbursed.

As a follow-up, the Ellenville Journal asked a number of Ulster County Legislators why Ulster is the only county to charge back DSS in this manner.

Among the legislators from District 1 (Marbletown, Rochester and Wawarsing), Susan Cummings (R-C-I) responded that she did not have the information but would find out. Mary Sheeley (D-I) also did not know but said that it has long been the county policy and attempts to revoke it have largely failed. Neither Leonard Distel (D-I-W), a DSS oversight committee member, nor Joseph P. Stoeckeler, Jr. (D-I) could be reached for comment at press time.

DSS CHARGEBACK COSTS YEAR 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 COSTS $81,430 $84,719 $82,574 $88,435 $110,036 $125,575 (through September)

District 10 Legislator Hector S. Rodriguez (D-I-W, New Paltz) explained that Ulster County has always used this chargeback policy.

"Other counties in New York used to do it our way but then switched to have Safety Net costs assumed by the entire county. Minority Leader [Glenn P.] Noonan claims that other counties are looking to go back to our model but I have not heard anything concrete on that."

Rodriguez went on to say, "While I think that Safety Net should be discussed in relation to the City of Kingston/Ulster County sales tax negotiations, I do think that we have to end the current system and I voted in favor of a staged assumption bill that was defeated this year. Basically the county would have assumed Ellenville's, Kingston's and Saugerties' share of Safety Net over a seven year period."

The bill Rodriguez is referring to is Resolution #309, which was defeated on September 10. The resolution can be found on the web at: http://www.co.ulster.ny.us/resolution-archives/2007/309-07.pdf.

District 3 Legislator Robert Parete (D-W, Hurley, Marbletown and Olive) said that he supported Resolution #309, "which directed the DSS Commissioner to assume responsibility for the administration of all assistance and care for which towns are now responsible. Essentially, this plan mandated that Ulster County take over full responsibility over a seven year phase-in program."

Parete continued, "The reason Ulster County charges back Medicaid costs to municipalities is not clear to me. The popular theory is that passing costs down to municipalities was a way the Ulster County Legislature could save money. This was in an effort to give a false impression of appearing more conservative…I feel Safety Net should be administered and funded solely by Ulster County — and not charged back to the respective towns. This is a great inequity that must be addressed. If you look at this from another perspective, Ulster County doesn't charge municipalities based on the number of bridges they have, nor the number of miles of county roadways. Therefore, Ulster County should not charge towns based on the number of Medicaid recipients living within their municipal borders."

However, District 8 Legislator Peter J. Liepmann (D-W, Gardiner, New Paltz and Shawangunk) argues that Ulster County's current policy works in favor of the Ellenville-Wawarsing area.

"The people you cited for your [November29] article are confusing the total DSS budget with what's called 'Home Relief'. The total DSS budget is about $300 million. [New York State and the federal government pick up roughly 75% of that number.] Home Relief is very roughly about $2 million, so it's a very small percentage of the DSS budget. Every town except the city of Kingston pays less for Home Relief as a direct payment than they would paying for it per capita out of county taxes… The city of Kingston pays more for Home Relief than they would if it were per capita, but they also get a larger share of the sales tax revenue than the towns do, which offsets their expense."

On the issue of placing a DSS satellite office anywhere in the county, Liepmann believes it is a matter of providing service to local residents.

"Ellenville has a higher proportion of the population on Medicaid or some kind of public assistance than the county as a whole. Putting an office in Ellenville would make it easier for people to make initial applications for assistance and would reduce the problems involved with travel."

As for whether he sympathizes with DSS workers who have raised security concerns about the proposed Ellenville office, Liepmann responded by saying, "It doesn't happen often, but once in a while somebody totally loses it, goes into the Child Protective Services office and starts shooting. Because people dealing with DSS sometimes get very emotional, in particular in regard to Child Protective Services, the DSS workers wanted a metal detector and a guard at the entrance. Since the Ellenville police occupy the first floor of the building, that shouldn't be too difficult."

Liepmann concluded, "Commissioner Rodriguez is right when he says there would be no significant extra expense to the county, because in reality he's just reassigning people to a different office. Because it would provide better service, New York State would pay for the expense of wiring the office for high-speed communication and would pick up some of the other costs as well. His idea of dispersing the intake offices throughout the county is, in my opinion, a good one, as is the idea of having well baby clinics and mental health centers spread throughout the county. There's no reason everybody has to go to Kingston."

According to DSS Commissioner Roberto Rodriguez, there are currently more than 1,700 Wawarsing residents receiving some kind of social service assistance. Mary Sheeley said that, of that number, only Safety Net expenditures are charged back to the town. According to Sheeley only seventy cases in September were attributed to Wawarsing; the bulk of the cases involved rent and utilities.

Sheeley said that Wawarsing costs have gone up, due in part to the recent layoffs and factory closings [see sidebar].

She added that it is hard to estimate how many cases to expect in the future but the increase in 2006 and 2007 can probably be attributed to the factory closings and layoffs.

District 4 Legislator Gary Bischoff (D-I-W, Kingston, Saugerties and Ulster) warned of the complexity of the DSS funding issue, arguing that it has ramifications with regards to how the county distributes its sales tax revenue.

"I don't know the entire history of the way Ulster County uses the chargeback system. However, I do know that Kingston pays a very high percentage of the chargeback. This is because the City has a high percentage of lower income people. When the sales tax agreement was made between the County and Kingston, an allowance was made to make sure that Kingston received additional sales tax in exchange for the burden of paying more for the Safety Net chargeback. When considering restructuring the chargeback, the sales tax distribution must be addressed at the same time."

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