Referred to: The Economic Development, Tourism, Housing, Planning and Transit Committee (Chairman Cahill and Legislators Archer, Corcoran, Delaune, Litts, Maio, and Uchitelle), and The Ways and Means Committee (Chairwoman Archer and Legislators Bartels, Gavaris, Haynes, Maio, Parete, Ronk, and Walter)

Chairman of the Legislature, David B. Donaldson, and Chairman of the Economic Development, Tourism, Housing, Planning, and Transit Committee, Brian B. Cahill, offer the following:

WHEREAS, this resolution has been submitted at the request of the County Executive on behalf of the Department of Economic Development; and

WHEREAS, Article 5-G of New York State General Municipal Law provides municipal corporations and districts with the authority to enter into, amend, cancel and terminate agreements for the performance among themselves or one for the other of their respective functions, powers and duties on a cooperative or contract basis; and

          WHEREAS, The FY 2018 Enacted State Budget established and the FY 2019 Enacted State Budget extended the County-Wide Shared Services Initiative (“CWSSI”), designed to generate property tax savings by facilitating operational collaboration between local governments; and

          WHEREAS, Part BBB of Chapter 59 of the Laws of 2017 requires that a Shared Services Panel (“Panel”) must be established in each of the 57 counties outside of New York City, to be chaired by the Chief Executive Officer of the county, and further requires each Panel to develop, and ultimately approve, a Plan through intergovernmental cooperation to find new opportunities to share and coordinate services; and

          WHEREAS, Article 12-I of New York State General Municipal Law further expanded upon the CWSSI by, among other changes, extending the program through calendar year 2021; and

WHEREAS, Per Part BBB of Chapter 59 of the Laws of 2017, each county that has an approved Plan is eligible to apply to the State for a one-time match of the net savings resulting from new shared service actions set forth in and implemented pursuant to such Plan; and

WHEREAS, in keeping with the statutory requirements related to implementation of the CWSSI, the Ulster County Executive did convene the Panel on three separate occasions during calendar year 2019 for the purposes of developing the County’s 2019 County-wide Shared Service Tax Savings Plan (“Plan”), and did further hold three public hearings to gather feedback and input from the residents of Ulster County on the Plan; and   

WHEREAS, following the satisfaction of all statutory requirements, the Panel did vote and on December 27, 2019, did approve the Plan, following which the County Executive did submit the Plan to the Secretary of State, as required by law; and

WHEREAS, based on the recommendations of the Panel, and consistent with the goals of the CWSSI, the Plan includes a proposed project wherein the City of Kingston will contract with the County of Ulster for the provision of Economic Development services, which project is estimated to generate net taxpayer savings in the form of avoided future costs totaling $75,000 per year; and

WHEREAS, the Ulster County Department of Economic Development has assessed the costs and benefits of providing such services to businesses currently located within the City of Kingston, as well as businesses that may be attracted to Kingston, start-up in Kingston or expand in Kingston and finds that it is mutually beneficial to those businesses and to the City and the County to streamline and centralize business services offered by local government; and

WHEREAS, the Ulster County Department of Economic Development has determined that the provision of economic development services to businesses within the City of Kingston, as proposed under the Plan, will have no financial impact on the County; now, therefore be it

          RESOLVED, that the Chair of the Ulster County Legislature is hereby authorized to enter into an agreement, and any amendments thereto, with the City of Kingston for performance by the County of Economic Development services, which shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, business retention and expansion services, support for startups and new business formation, and attraction of new businesses, in the form as filed with the Clerk of the Ulster County Legislature or as modified with the approval of the County Attorney,

and move its adoption.

ADOPTED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE:

AYES:                       NOES:    

Passed Committee: Economic Development, Tourism, Housing, Planning, and Transit on _______________.

Passed Committee: Ways and Means on ________________.

FINANCIAL IMPACT:

$75,000 – ANTICIPATED 2021 REVENUES