Amid charges that they were over-reacting, that the employees they were cutting were the same ones who'd "had their backs" during Hurricane Irene, and that CSEA had never asked workers what they were willing to give up-sick days, vacations, health insurance-Schoharie County supervisors Friday adopted a $59 million budget that cuts 30 jobs and raises taxes 1.8 percent.
"Everybody, welcome hope," said County Attorney Mike West in supervisors' first meeting in Schoharie since Irene, whose specter, like the still-dark homes nearby, haunted the session.
"We need to deal with the here and now and county workers need to remain in place," said Schoharie Supervisor-elect Gene Milone, the first to speak in the two-hour public hearing on the budget.
"Now is not the time for layoffs."
Others echoed that call.
"I think these layoffs are an overreaction to current events," said County Treasurer Bill Cherry. "I agree that we have to watch the backs of the people who have been there.
"I'm always the guy who doesn't want to spend money, but I never proposed a layoff."
"We shouldn't be laying people off," agreed former Fulton Supervisor Tim Hardendorf. "There's too much to do. We need to do the same thing everyone else has had to do to recover: Go to the bank."
Corrections officers at the jail may have escaped the knife for now (see related story) but the Health Department was hit particularly hard.
Penny Grimes, a public health educator losing her job, said she cancelled her vacation because of the flood.
"I got to Gallupville when no one else could," she said.
"I was the most experienced employee in the Health Department and now I'm gone."
Eva Gigandet, another Health Department employee being cut, said both of their positions are completely grant-funded.
"If you can retain people at no cost to the county..."
Corrections officer Jennifer Carlson begged supervisors to reconsider cuts there.
Though the jail was destroyed by Irene, eliminating $900,000 in revenue from housing other counties' inmates and forcing the county instead, to pay to farm its inmates out, corrections officers have been providing security in places like Schoharie and Middleburgh.
"We didn't complain; we did everything you asked us to [after the flood]," Ms. Carlson said.
"We don't want a handout. We want to work. How about having our backs?"
Supervisors also heard from supporters of the Schoharie County Historical Society, which had been slated to lose $36,000 for docents.
They didn't replace that money, but instead shifted $12,000 for windows at the Old Stone Fort for the part-time positions.
"This has happened before," said Jeff O'Connor, a past Historical Society president.
"In 1780, Johnson came through and burned everything but the forts. The Old Stone Fort was a refuge. There's no difference between now and then. Learn from history or you'll be doomed."
Before their final vote on the budget, supervisors turned down a local law that would have allowed them to exceed the mandated two percent tax increase "just in case," even as they pointed out the state has done nothing to cut unfounded mandates.
"A lot of our problems started long before August 28," said Blenheim Supervisor Bob Mann, who chairs the Finance Committee.
"Economic development is what's driving this."
Salaries and benefits continue to climb, he said, "and if the state doesn't do something to ease these mandates, it will become a feeding frenzy on public employees.
"No one is taking any enjoyment out of this budget."