“The idea that County Executive Brooks will be forced to raise property taxes to cover what is a net positive impact from our State budget represents nothing more than a red herring. Should she carry through on her threat to raise property taxes, she will be doing so because of her own choices and own judgments, not because of a State budget that amounts to a net win for the county’s fiscal books. As all governments feel the squeeze of a worsening economy, it’s important we work together to responsibly address this challenge without burdening New Yorkers. We look forward to continuing to work with county governments to that end.”

Question: Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks is having a press conference at 2 criticizing your budget. The push onto counties or burden onto counties for the juvenile detention centers and social services. Your reaction to that?

Answer: “Let me be very clear. She’s wrong. The problem we have here is County Executives who are spending too much money. And we will disseminate the data that will show that County Executives are trying to take the easy way out by blaming somebody else for their inability to make the tough judgments. And what the County Executive did by taking the money that we had intended to support education and turn that back into a regular budget and using it for an election year, small property tax cut was wrong. I spoke about it then and said it was the wrong thing to do. It is a lack of financial management on her part and I think it is wrong and disingenuous of her to blame the state for some of these steps. We have assumed the Medicaid burden to an enormous extent for the county. We have infused more money into the educational system of Monroe County than in any time in history and that is something I believe in doing, but what we are seeing is County Executives not willing to make the tough decisions and I think that is a mistake on her part. We will get everybody the data that will show that.”

“The Monroe County GOP Theatre Group led by Maggie Brooks!”

(clap clap)