To The Editor:
The date is December 14, 2017.
The place is the floor of the Oswego County Legislative chambers.
The purpose: Vote on an Oswego County 2018 budget.
Questions, concerns and ideas were voiced.
The Majority Leader had made some statements prior to the meeting referring to the Minority Caucus not understanding the budget process and the use of the fund balance.
During the meeting the Majority Leader made comments regarding how strong the fund balance was and how much there was in the fund balance, also how the sales tax revenue was increasing.
The financial basics 101 was missed completely by all members of the Majority Caucus.
The use of the fund balance to balance the budget was not understood by all the Majority Caucus.
They proved it by voting yes on the 2018 budget which included using $1.9 million out of the fund balance.
What the Majority Caucus isn’t understanding are the basics of finances and budgets.
First up is balancing a budget by using the fund balance (savings account) is giving the public a false budget and the public a false feeling of security.
Second is a financial problem. Simple.
If you take $10 out of your savings account every month and only put $5 back in, you are losing money and it won’t be long before your savings account is empty.
That is what the Majority Caucus has been doing for the last five years and the Minority Caucus has been trying to stop.
They have taken $38 million out of $42 million fund balance in the past five years and only returned $23 million.
Not smart!
They keep telling the public that they are helping them when they are misleading them.
It is like the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Telling you what you want to hear and not the truth.
We must stop living a fairy tail and start being part of reality.
Minority Caucus Leader
Frank Castiglia Jr.
Legislator 25th District
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Mr Castiglia what have you done for the city of fulton and the people that elected you here. what have you done for us ?
Steve, What did you want me to do.
I think that Steve should have addressed the topic and not attacked the messenger. Steve, do you dispute what Frank has said?
Frank, and the Minority Caucus, thank you for fighting for a responsible county budget. I completely agree with you that the county should trim spending before dipping into the people’s savings account. Every responsible homeowner, and every responsible business owner knows to cut expenses before taking from the emergency savings account to pay normal bills. The emergency fund is not monthly budget money, it is catastrophic emergency money. The minority caucus recommendations to trim department budgets by 3% have been refused by the majority caucus year after year, while the majority caucus instead insisted on no budget trimming; “use the emergency fund first”, while voting themselves raises against the will of the minority caucus. The majority caucus didn’t “give balance money back to the taxpayers”, they spent the emergency fund balance on themselves, and prevented responsible trimming of inefficient and ineffective budgets, which WOULD have helped the taxpayers. Trim first, then only use emergency savings as a LAST RESORT. Keep up the good fight Minority Caucus. We thank you.