As Rockland County government continues to struggle with a growing deficit, County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef announced Thursday evening that he was voluntarily reducing his annual salary by five percent.
Vanderhoef acknowledged even though the county legislature has voted to support his proposed contingenecy budget, additional financial reductions must be made.
Vanderhoef earns $155,087 annually, the reduction will cut that by $7,754.
“This will not heal our budgetary wounds, but I want to lead by example," Vanderhoef said. "This gesture will hopefully encourage others to take similar steps to help the County deal with our serious financial woes."
He went onto to say that the credit agencies are watching the county closely. Moody's Investors Service . Vanderhoef said he hoped his action would signal to Moody's "that we are ready and willing to make difficult financial decisions.”
Part of Vanderhoef's plan for cutting the included the elimination of 150 jobs across departments. Other measures were the creation of a tax on utility usage and community college chargebacks to towns and villages for residents attending community colleges outside Rockland and fees for Board of Elections services.
Howard Feigelman
I really feel that every elected official should take at least a 25% cut.
Scott, what example do you think you're setting? You've run the county into a hole.
This has to do with a County Executive that has had two decades of uninterrupted power and has not paid any attention to a budget, has relied on the sales tax crapshoot, and has squandered our money by giving political cronies six-figures, no-show jobs. And nobody seems to care, even a legislature that doesn't vote along party lines, but votes to keep their friends employed. Democrats and Republicans have screwed over Rockland County. The worst of them all is Murphy, who said, in response to my remarks that the County was in financial trouble, was that he thought it was in EXCELLENT SHAPE, this was only a short time ago. Such people should just resign their positions out of shame, as they're obviously incompetent. And, it is time for Scott Vanderhoef to resign. He's obviously not competent as a manager. I wish some member of the County Legislature would agree with me on this. I asked for this 19 months ago!
County Police???? You can't trust this county to run a hospital, a sewer department or fix a road... and you want to turn over law enforcement to them? No thanks, I'll keep my local police. When I want a cop I don't want them coming from Spring Valley or running errands for the Monsey cult.