Credit Rating Agency Gives Rockland County Negative Outlook
NEW CITY, NY (WCBS 880) - According to credit rating agency Moody's, school districts and municipalities in New York are already strained.
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The new 2 percent tax cap will squeeze them even more.
Now, Moody's has given Rockland County a negative outlook.
Acting finance commissioner Stephen DeGroat is faced with a $50 million deficit, anemic sales tax revenue, and the irony that the state is limiting tax increases while still mandating certain services.
"The state's been cutting aid. The state's been having difficulties, I guess, balancing their budgets also, and you know, some of the ways they're doing that is they're passing on additional costs to the level of local government," DeGroat tells WCBS 880 reporter Sean Adams.
According to Moody's, school districts will have the toughest time because it will take 60 percent of voters to override the tax cap.
County Executive Scott Vanderhoef says he'll have no choice but to make cuts from police, homeland security, and certain health programs in the next budget.
