It probably isn't news to locals that in Ulster County, the city of Kingston pays for the lion's share of Safety Net, a statewide welfare program. In most of the state, the buck stops with the county. Not so in Ulster County, which bills towns for half the cost of its Safety Net payments -- providing a perfect excuse for towns not to invest in affordable housing, and also an environment ripe for bookkeeping errors.
Speaking of errors: Ulster County's largest city has been overpaying for Safety Net to the tune of $25,000 to $40,000 a month, says the Daily Freeman -- and that's going to stop.
Concerns about the way the county charges municipalities for the cost of its Safety Net program arose after Kingston Mayor James Sottile discovered the city had been billed for a number of clients in the program who had Kingston mailing addresses but actually lived in the town of Ulster and other towns that share Kingston’s 12401 ZIP code.
Still unclear: whether the county is going to take over the payments, or whether Ulster is now looking at a hefty (and unexpected) welfare bill.
