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Committee forwards multi-county workforce budget after allocation questions
Summary
Saratoga–Warren–Washington workforce board leaders defended a multi-jurisdictional FY2025 budget and a recent Department of Labor reallocation analysis; Washington County supervisors pressed for clearer allocation data and earlier budget review before voting to forward the budget to the full board for final approval.
Gretchen Stephan, executive director of the Saratoga–Warren–Washington workforce board, asked Washington County supervisors to approve the board's program-year budget and endorsed a recent Department of Labor analysis that reran allocation formulas by county.
"There's an allocation process that we go through," Stephan said, explaining that funds flow from the U.S. Department of Labor through the New York State Department of Labor and are allocated based on population, unemployment, poverty and other factors. She said the board asked state statisticians to rerun formulas at Washington County's request and that the new run shifts some percentages among the three counties.
Supervisors pressed three themes in the discussion: timing, data vintage and programmatic overhead. Several supervisors noted the board was already halfway through the program year and asked whether the county's requested changes should be treated retroactively. "If we're already halfway through the year, why don't we reduce the request by half a year?" one supervisor asked, pointing to concerns about allocating a full year's funds after six months of spending.
Stephan and board representatives said reallocations are complex and governed by federal/state formula rules. She said the board could consider a transition or phased approach and pointed to three distinct funding "buckets"—youth, dislocated workers and adults—that carry different spending rules. "We have an allocation for the youth population, dislocated workers and adults," she said, noting that dislocated-worker money is highly restricted.
Board staff also described outreach and measurement steps intended to improve transparency: the state Department of Labor presented the recalculation, the board plans to refine its local data management and the workforce board will begin budgeting earlier next year to allow county review before the program year begins. A board representative said the new allocations increase Washington County's adult and youth shares while reducing dislocated-worker dollars.
After extended questions and a motion to forward the budget, the committee voted to send the workforce board budget to the full Washington County board with a recommendation for approval. A written resolution will be posted to the full board agenda for the December meeting.
What happens next: the workforce board will continue allocation discussions and the county requested earlier budget briefings (May) next year so supervisors can ask questions before a June vote to affect the July 1 start of the program year.
