In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow introduced his concept of a “hierarchy of needs” as an explanation of human behavior. You may be familiar with this concept in its pyramidal form: at the top, there’s the ultimate goal of being a human: self-actualization. (Your Editorial Team isn’t 100 percent sure what that is, but it seems to be linked to not giving a crap what people think about you, including yourself.) From there downward, there are things like self-esteem, love, a feeling of accomplishment, et al. At the bottom are the very basics: food, clothing, shelter, personal safety and, as Maslow put it, reproduction.

What does this have to do with the 2027 proposed Ulster County Budget, which dropped last week? We’ll get there, but first let’s refresh ourselves on the details. The budget calls for $519.7 million and represents a spending hike of 4.7 percent over the 2026 budget. It will be paid for by $414.2 million in anticipated revenue, $75.1 million in property taxes (the levy will rise 1.5 percent after years of staying flat) and $30.4 million from the fund balance. Thirteen vacant county jobs have been eliminated, in addition to a freeze adopted earlier this year on creating new ones. (No layoffs.) Overtime is proposed to be cut by 4 percent, saving $250,000. Rising costs for the county’s contribution to the state retirement system, mandated safety net programs and employee health insurance drives much of the spending hike, county officials say. New initiatives include establishing a domestic violence task force; education programs about the dangers of kratom and e-bikes; emergency food grants for local pantries; efforts to address emergency housing (like the Kingston Motel) problems; more money for the county’s housing fund; and a new DMV office in Ellenville.

Taken by itself, the proposal is pretty solid. It trims a few things and supports other urgently needed things, all with a modest increase in a tax levy that’s stayed at the same place for something like a decade. It doesn’t cut back items that your Editorial Team has supported in the past, like expanded mental health care. “In this difficult fiscal environment, we remain committed to protecting and supporting the people of Ulster County,” reads the preamble to the executive budget summary. “The executive budget reflects that commitment, seeking to meet new and growing needs in the most cost-effective way possible.”

But this budget comes with a shadow over it. The summary states that the county will lose SNAP (food stamps) money, $3.1 million in 2027, due to federal funding cuts, with more losses expected in future years. “While much is still uncertain, the county is preparing for the likelihood that we will be required to directly finance a portion of the benefits that appear on residents’ SNAP cards – an unprecedented shift in responsibility,” the summary states. To address this shift, the “tax the rich” plan, a.k.a. The Ulster County For Fair Taxes Act, is being proposed to raise the millions needed to maintain SNAP benefits. All New York counties are in the same boat, with many, including Greene, considering very steep property tax hikes to deal with it. As far as we know, Ulster is the only county proposing an income tax surcharge; the logic being that it’s the most progressive – in both the tax policy and political senses of the word – way to solve the problem.

The county seems locked into this solution. At a recent business forum, Ulster County Legislature Chair Peter Criswell asked Fair Taxes Act skeptics this: “What would you have us do?” That’s a question, we have observed, that’s usually posed when its poser sees no other answers. Barring something unexpected, we think it’s going to be passed into law sometime next year.

While Maslow’s needs model has had many holes poked in it over the last 70 years, we think it accurately points out that food is a fundamental need we all share and that needs to be filled day after day if people are to survive. Looking at the budget through Maslow’s lens, we see something of an inverted pyramid; i.e., other priorities that don’t quite qualify as base-level needs are on the same level as feeding people.

We’ve lived through tough economic times here in the Hudson Valley – recessions small and Great, as well as the loss of virtually all meaningful manufacturing industries and the thousands of jobs they supported. It’s been a challenge for everybody, including local governments. There’s near-universal agreement that things aren’t getting better anytime soon, if they ever do again.

What we’re not seeing in the 2027 budget is much evidence of the county truly taking this to heart. A budget that did would see not just the cutting of jobs nobody had in the first place, but jobs people actually have. No one wants to see people get laid off, but that’s where the real money-saving lies. In the face of an impossible-to-ignore emerging crisis, the budget seeks to do the same thing it has for years: spend more money on things we like, as opposed to cutting some in favor of the “base of the pyramid” things we need. When push comes to shove and people don’t have enough to eat, will spending on any number of county projects to improve society fill their stomachs?

Real talk: Your Editorial Team doesn’t want the county to get the power to levy its own income tax in any form, even a surcharge on people who can presumably easily afford it. Once that power is granted, it won’t get taken away, and it will be subject to expansion and possible (likely?) abuse. Rather, we’d like to see the federal funding gap filled using a more widespread approach. Serious spending cuts, even if it means ending long-cherished programs and cutting payroll, though we acknowledge taking well-paid jobs out of the local economy has its own downside. An increase in the county sales tax and property tax rates, as regressive as that may be, and user fees too. Bring the fund balance down a little closer to the minimum or even lower if it means hungry people get fed. Make an online account to sell print-on-demand Ulster County swag like shirts, coffee mugs and mousepads. Try these before giving Ulster a power no other county north of Yonkers has, or maybe even wants.

We are all responsible for our neighbors and they are responsible for us. We all have skin in this game. We’d like to see a county budget inspired by that, using a diverse array of measures tto free up enough money to support our basic needs. Maybe next year.