With something less than the usual fanfare, the county executive announced two new hires in the economic development department. Leslie Wellington, at an annual salary of $101,801, will head the department. She will be joined by her assistant, Kathleen DeWitt, at $78,963.

With benefits and support staff, the county’s latest foray into what they call “ecodev” (everything is reduced to shorthand in government), the county will have invested something approaching $300,000 to create jobs.

This county, over the decades and through different forms of government and leaders, hasn’t been very good at economic development. If it were, we’d see new business sprouting up all over the place instead of affordable housing projects for workers who can’t afford to live anywhere else because there are so few good jobs available.

That the people who have occupied these positions have worked diligently at promoting economic development is not open to challenge. They attend trade shows and seminars and issue periodic press releases on what a great place Ulster is to raise a family.

And yet.

Without good-paying jobs with benefits outside the public sector, medicine and education, a community stagnates.

What’s needed is a clearly defined game plan, followed by accountability and responsibility.

Over the years, economic development has become something of an insiders’ game. On the rare occasion when anybody bothers to ask how’s it going, the answer invariably is, “we’ve made some really good contacts, but it’s too soon to talk about it.” Too soon stretches into years until a new team is put in place.

I’ve always wondered why nobody seems to notice that the county office of economic development is rarely mentioned when that rare ecodev project comes to fruition.

Here, I’m not talking about the county’s Industrial Development Agency, which, while it gives away a ton of taxpayer dollars to attract developers, has something to show for it at the end of the year.

All I know about the Wellington/Dewitt team is what I read in press releases. They seem excited about their new positions and eager to get on with the job. DeWitt comes with deep roots in the farming community, which should herald priority in that area. And why not? Agriculture, behind tourism, is the second leading producer of jobs in the county.

As this latest reboot falls under the direct aegis of the executive’s office, I would hope the exec intends to assign one of her talented and well-paid deputies to regular oversight.

Ever the optimist, I look forward to the department’s first (ever) progress report in about six months.

Budget Business

The county executive’s budget presentations in October always draw a big crowd, whether held in Ellenville, Saugerties or in legislative chambers in Kingston.

County Exec Jen Metzger pretty much said it all in a 17-page speech that consumed almost an hour last week.

Julius Caesar only crossed the Rubicon once (to a bad ending), but Metzger managed it twice.

First, about a third of the way through her speech, she let it drop that for the first time in about a decade, the county will be increasing its portion of the property tax. Only a year ago, jacking up the tax by 1.5 percent would have been unthinkable. I guess this is what a 19-4 majority does for you.

The exec didn’t say it – it came out at a press conference after the speech – but county sales tax projections are projected to rise by 10 percent next year, to another record of $200 million a year. The property tax, with what Metzger called its slight increase, will total about $76 million.

Truly it is written that if anything happens to that sales tax, county officials will be walking around in barrels with signs that read, “Can anybody spare a dime?”

Metzger didn’t even mention that she was applying some $30 million from the fund balance to the county’s first half a billion-dollar budget (plus $19 million). The number was placed in backup material distributed to media.

Last month, county comptroller March Gallagher reported the available fund balance stood at just over $18 million.

What gives? I asked budget officer Ken Juras. “We took it out of different accounts,” he said.

Gallagher advised later in the day that those accounts could add up to more than $100 million.

I get that federal and state budgets may be tight next year with some costs accruing to locals, but perhaps the question is, why would a county flush with cash have to have a property tax increase (by about $1.2 million) it once feared?

If this is an election-year budget, my name is Ward Todd.

And this: When asked if she intended to run for re-election next year, Metzger, who seems to be running all the time, did a little dance and then said, “Yes, I will.”

Hugh Reynolds writes a biweekly column for our sister publication, Kingston Wire. He has fifty plus years of experience covering news in the Hudson Valley.