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In his first State of the County speech Tuesday night, New Castle County Executive Paul G. Clark said that the county stands on solid ground financially and that in the next fiscal year he does not plan any tax increases or service reductions.
“We had to get our fiscal house in order,” Clark said of previous years.
New Castle County regained a triple-A bond rating this year, keeping it in the top one percent of all counties in that nation to have this rating from all three national rating agencies, he said.
“This past year, the most daunting task we faced was how to control costs and balance the budget without cutting services, raising taxes or drawing on our reserves,” Clark said in his address.
In FY 2011, the county faced a $7 million deficit with a projected deficit for FY 2012 of $10 million.
If the county would have continued on the path it was, Clark said that its reserves would have been wiped out with a cumulative budget deficit of $70 million.
“That’s a ‘state of the county’ we could not allow to happen,” he said.
He said that instead of “flirting with insolvency,” the county would be solvent in FY 2015 given its current trajectory.
But Councilman Bob Weiner (R-Chatham) called Clark’s dire forecast an exaggeration.
“We weren’t flirting,” he said. “We’ve had a triple-A bond rating the past half-dozen years.”
Weiner criticized Clark’s decision to give his FY 2013 budget address separate from his State of the County speech – instead of together as other county executives have in the past – was politically motivated.
“It was designed to get the most free press,” Weiner said.
Clark denied that claim.
When he gives his FY 2013 speech in March, the goal is not to have any tax increases or service reductions, he said.
Last fiscal year’s budget that was submitted and approved by council was the first proposed in 10 years that did not call for tax increases or draw down the county’s reserve fund, Clark said.
He took the stance that the public would be best served if the county could find a way to “conserve the reserve,” as an insurance policy if the economy recovered more slowly than expected.
It’s important before the budget cycle we have some idea where we are heading, Clark said.
Council President Thomas Kovach said that he liked Clark’s optimistic tone, but the address was “lacking specifics.”
Clark outlined the accomplishments the County made in the past year and gave a summary of services provided to residents, including the activity centers, camps, senior activities and sports and recreation programs that he said benefited more than 25,000 residents last year.
In his first State of the County speech Tuesday night, New Castle County Executive Paul G. Clark said that the county stands on solid ground financially and that in the next fiscal year he does not plan any tax increases or service reductions.
“We had to get our fiscal house in order,” Clark said of previous years.
New Castle County regained a triple-A bond rating this year, keeping it in the top one percent of all counties in that nation to have this rating from all three national rating agencies, he said.
“This past year, the most daunting task we faced was how to control costs and balance the budget without cutting services, raising taxes or drawing on our reserves,” Clark said in his address.
In FY 2011, the county faced a $7 million deficit with a projected deficit for FY 2012 of $10 million.
If the county would have continued on the path it was, Clark said that its reserves would have been wiped out with a cumulative budget deficit of $70 million.
“That’s a ‘state of the county’ we could not allow to happen,” he said.
He said that instead of “flirting with insolvency,” the county would be solvent in FY 2015 given its current trajectory.
But Councilman Bob Weiner (R-Chatham) called Clark’s dire forecast an exaggeration.
“We weren’t flirting,” he said. “We’ve had a triple-A bond rating the past half-dozen years.”
Weiner criticized Clark’s decision to give his FY 2013 budget address separate from his State of the County speech – instead of together as other county executives have in the past – was politically motivated.
“It was designed to get the most free press,” Weiner said.
Clark denied that claim.
When he gives his FY 2013 speech in March, the goal is not to have any tax increases or service reductions, he said.
Last fiscal year’s budget that was submitted and approved by council was the first proposed in 10 years that did not call for tax increases or draw down the county’s reserve fund, Clark said.
He took the stance that the public would be best served if the county could find a way to “conserve the reserve,” as an insurance policy if the economy recovered more slowly than expected.
It’s important before the budget cycle we have some idea where we are heading, Clark said.
Council President Thomas Kovach said that he liked Clark’s optimistic tone, but the address was “lacking specifics.”
Clark outlined the accomplishments the County made in the past year and gave a summary of services provided to residents, including the activity centers, camps, senior activities and sports and recreation programs that he said benefited more than 25,000 residents last year.
