Vanderhoef screws up Rockland County's budget once again

On Thursday, Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef mandated that all county agencies freeze overtime and cut all non-essential spending, moves which Vanderhoef said that should save the county $4 million this year. Additionally, all county employees, with the exception of law-enforcement personnel, would have to give up the privilege of taking home county vehicles, which should save the county another $50,000. Also, some departments, notably the Department of Highways will cut back to a 4-day, 10-hour daily work schedule.

Unfortunately, Vanderhoef has failed in this test of his ability to govern the county. It's apparent the Republican county executive—and perennial candidate for other offices—did not plan for an economic downturn of this size and got caught more than $18 million short.

A small county, the size of Rockland, doesn't have $18 million deficits unless its budgeting processes are short-sighted and poorly thought out. Most notably, Vanderhoef over-predicted the revenues from sales and mortgage taxes over the last few years, and his unwise formulations didn't take into account the current recession.

This is an economic mess, not just a small budget deficit. If fiscal incompetence was a crime, we'd have a good case against Vanderhoef.

However, it's my fear is that service cutbacks will soon be coming whether we want them or not. Of course, there isn't a single government department—local, state, or federal—that can't benefit from a nip here and a tuck there, but county services cannot be slashed. County services have already been cut severely under Vanderhoef's tenure.

Remember, this is the same C. Scott Vanderhoef that attempted to give himself an outrageous 9.3 percent pay raise for himself and seven of his cronies last year as the county faced another budget shortfall. This shows us just how little Vanderhoef thinks of this county: While taxpayers have to suffer by paying more and county departments had to cut back last year, Vanderhoef thought he deserved a $14,200 per year raise. It was only a little outrage from the cash-strapped voters that stopped him from getting his windfall.

When Vanderhoef put that raise in his 2008 budget back in November, he already knew the county was in trouble. Our property taxes were increasing mostly because his previous budget, for 2007, was also flawed and overestimated the revenue from taxes by millions. Does this sound like a politician that cares for his constituents?

History will remember C. Scott Vanderhoef as Rockland County's own King Nero that fiddled as the Rockland County budget burned.