ALBANY COUNTY — County Executive Daniel McCoy gave his fourth State of the County address on Tuesday, noting that services for seniors, teens, and veterans improved over 2014 while the county kept its tax increase at zero.

McCoy, a Democrat, told The Enterprise that “working together does work.” His address focused on collaboration among county departments; and among county, state, and federal agencies to deal with an opiate crisis, large deficits for the county’s nursing home, and economic development.

After his address, he met little resistance to his reckoning of the county’s state of affairs, McCoy said.

“The biggest hurdle for the last three years was the nursing home,” he said of the county’s residential facility for the elderly in need of care.

Before becoming executive, McCoy spoke against a plan to close the home in order to remove the annual cost of $12 million from the county budget. Then, he favored having an outside company run the home. Now, he said during his address, “We’ve reduced our financial subsidy by nearly half, and anticipate even further savings within the next two years as we move forward with renovations to the facility that were largely ignored for over a decade.”

McCoy acknowledged that his stance had changed on how to continue operating the nursing home.

“We initially disagreed on how to solve this problem,” he said Tuesday of union members, county legislators, and facility staff, “but we ultimately came to an agreement on changing the management structure, and…the finances of the nursing home have truly turned a corner.”

Using state funds over a five-year term, the county will expand its nursing home services to include a primary health-care center to offer dialysis, radiology, mental-health services, and dentistry, he said Tuesday.

He told The Enterprise that the change in the deficit and the new facility plans will “leave space in the nursing home that will bring in income. We have to strive to make a profit for the shareholders, and the shareholders are the residents of Albany County.”

Minority whip Deborah Busch, a Republican representing the Hilltowns, was unsure about McCoy’s description of the facility and its ability to turn a profit.

“I’m a little skeptical about the partnership with the nursing home,” Busch told The Enterprise. “Where are they putting it? Who’s paying for it? Who’s paying for the equipment?” Busch, a registered nurse at Albany Medical Center who holds a master’s degree in nursing administration, said that dialysis and radiology equipment is expensive.

“You have to have volume to make that profitable,” she said. “We need to examine that and look at the project as a whole. The nursing home is still operating $6 million in debt. Before saying it will make a profit, he still needs to be clear on how it will happen,” she said of McCoy.

McCoy told The Enterprise that he does not regret fighting with the legislature over the nursing home because of the end result of a reduced deficit.

“It wouldn’t have happened if I’d backed off at any time,” he said. “I was against closing it and kicking people out on the street…In a true partnership…we worked it out. We cut the deficit down. It’s been going on for 25 years. I’m proud that we finally have an outcome that benefits everyone at the end of the day.”

McCoy spoke of the fund balance or rainy-day account now at $42 million — double the amount when he took office — but he also spoke of county residents still recovering from the recession.

“People are still struggling,” he said. “We have to give relief. We held the line for 2015. There’s still so much to do.”

Busch said she had mixed feelings on the executive’s address, and said that it was weak in terms of an economic development plan — a criticism leveled by Republicans last year, as well.

“We have no tax increase,” Busch said. “That, in itself, is stellar. We do have a surplus in the budget. We’re probably going to decrease taxes next year” in 2016, she said.

In his address, McCoy spoke of new businesses coming into the county, like Capital Bank, and new services, like Schenectady County Community College-Albany classes offered in the county building downtown.

“No one wants to talk about the infrastructure,” McCoy told The Enterprise, noting that the county is more than 300 years old. “We have bridges that need to be repaired.” Updated businesses, like the re-invigorated Huck Finn’s Playland, will continue to bring in revenue for necessary improvements, he said.

Dealing with drugs: Action, Awareness, Progress

McCoy announced a new program to deal with opiate and prescription drug addiction across the county. The first part, titled Action, acknowledges what local law-enforcement agencies are already doing “to target and cut off opiate supplies to the region,” McCoy said.

The second part of the program, Awareness, involves creating or re-inventing programs that offer offenders a chance to go through social services rather than face arrest or jail time, McCoy said. Similar options are currently offered for people found with other substances, like marijuana, that carry lesser charges.

Commercials and literature aimed at students is also part of the Awareness component. McCoy recalled decades-old public announcements that showed the changes that took place in drug users’ appearances and families.

“We have to try to get back to that — the effects this stuff has on your life, your family, the quality of life,” McCoy said.

The final part of the program, Progress, is the creation of a county-wide opiate board.

McCoy on Tuesday also mentioned that the county’s health department will begin offering training classes on Narcan, a medication used to counter the effects of opiates, particularly during overdose. The drug is currently available to some agencies, including the Guilderland Police Department.

Hilltowns

McCoy did not mention the Hilltowns in his speech, but he told The Enterprise, “I’ve spent so much time out there, they actually think I live out there.”

In Berne, he said, the county and the town share services like plowing, and share a maintenance facility and salt supply.

Berne Town Supervisor Kevin Crosier, a Democrat, told The Enterprise that McCoy comes up the Hill during snowstorms.

“He does that on a regular basis,” Crosier said. “He does a lot for the town of Berne.” Crosier said that McCoy has been “instrumental” in several local programs.

“Dan was the leader in getting us senior transportation. He even got our senior [vehicle] donated,” Crosier said.

McCoy said that he worked with leaders in Altamont when the Guilderland Central School District, faced with declining enrollment, too much space, and decreased aid, hired a consultant who suggested five cost-saving scenarios, four of which involved closing Altamont Elementary School.

“I fought for the elementary school, to help save the school,” he said.

McCoy said that the county worked to bring a bus up to Knox from New Scotland, after a Capital District Transportation Authority bus there was canceled.

“It’s working,” he said.

“We’ve helped furnish Rensselaerville’s offices,” he said. Every municipality in Albany County is trying to keep within the state’s tax cap, McCoy said.

“We used our office to help make things easier for them. The most important thing is that we’ve held the taxes,” he said.

Hard decisions

Busch agreed that social programs are good, but said that employment is important for people.

“We have to give them jobs. I didn’t see any opportunities for job growth in any of it,” she said of McCoy’s speech.

Busch wondered “where some of the facts came from for the state of the county address,” she said. “A lot of the programs [McCoy mentioned] were developed by his commissioners. Projects like Narcan went through the legislature by vote. We voted on them. It was a partnership between him and the legislature.”

“We’ve had to make a lot of hard decisions,” McCoy told The Enterprise. “They weren’t easy.” He said that, during a recession, he kept tax increases at zero while keeping the services people are used to, all with less money coming into the county.

“If there’s things people need, you have to reach out to your legislator or to my office,” McCoy said.

“The take-away is, we really need an economic development plan here in Albany County,” said Busch. “The needy and the vulnerable seem to be on the increase here.”