Orange County legislature revises municipal legislative grant rules and approves awards to municipalities

The Rules Committee approved amendments to the county's municipal legislative grant program to equalize allocations across municipalities and then voted to award grants to municipalities based on requests submitted.

Kevin Hines, Chairman of the Orange County Legislature, explained the proposed change: the program previously allocated up to $10,000 per legislator to distribute to municipalities, which resulted in unequal coverage because some legislators represent multiple municipalities while others represent a single large city. To address that, the committee recommended every municipality be eligible for up to $4,999, an amount intentionally set below $5,000 to avoid additional contracting requirements.

Hines said Orange County has 44 municipalities but recommended treating certain coterminous town‑village governments as a single recipient (for example, the town and village of Woodbury counted as one), which would reduce the count to 41 municipalities and align allocations with the $205,000 budgeted sum. The committee discussed possible tweaks to program rules in future terms (for example, clarifying eligible uses such as recreation, senior programs and public safety and ensuring all legislators representing a multi‑legislator municipality sign off on allocations).

A selection committee composed of the majority leader, the minority leader, the Rules Chair and the Ways and Means Chair reviewed the submitted requests and recommended awarding each municipality the amount it requested up to program limits; the resolution to award grants carried in committee. Staff said they expect to issue checks in June and that some payments would be by ACH where required.

Committee members indicated the program will be refined for next year to clarify eligible expenses and to ensure representation where multiple legislators represent one municipality.