You can watch the speech here, with closed captioning that, let's just say, added an unintentional air of comedy.
The successes included a budget surplus, increased sales tax receipts, significant economic impact from the amphitheater, and increased revenue from the Turning Stone gambling compact payments. Property taxes are lower than ever, and there's a lot more collaboration across all jurisdictions, including with the City of Syracuse.
Here are a few of the initiatives he mentioned:
- Implementing a ThinkDifferently plan here. Developed by Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a ThinkDifferently program ensures residents with special needs - those on the autism spectrum, or who have mental health issues or physical disabilities, are given appropriate support and services. There's a new position for a Deputy Commissioner of Disability Services included here, too.
- Creating a Chief Diversity Officer; expanding minority representation in the county workforce to 20% by 2022, and recruiting county workers from the poorest zip codes in the city, the suburbs, and rural areas.
- Promoting a bill that will make all plot and burial services for veterans and eligible dependents free at the Onondaga County Veterans Cemetery.
- consolidating all of the waste water infrastructure under the county, so that we can "fix the pipes once for the next 100 years" instead of making incremental repairs over and over and over for the next 100 years.
