KINGSTON – In his State of the County address last week, county executive Mike Hein called for lawmakers to "look at equitable funding for police protection," a rather vague directive that has left some lawmakers scratching their heads.

In his speech, Hein questioned whether it was "right that taxpayers from towns with a police force pay the same as taxpayers from towns with none?"

Without making any recommendations, Hein said that he wants county leaders to examine "every expense" to ensure that county government is "providing services as efficiently as possible."

Speculation over whether Hein is paving the way for an implementation of his proposed shared service initiative within the Sheriff's Department abounds. If so, in addition to decentralizing the county highway services, Hein could argue for transforming the sheriff's patrol into a contract service and charging individual municipalities for the service.

The Ulster County Sheriff's Office provides routine police protection for a number of towns and communities across the county and has substations scattered throughout the county. According to Ulster County Budget Director Arthur Smith, at $3.8 million, operating expenses for the sheriff's office account for 5 percent of the county's entire levy. The funding supports the sheriff's criminal division, which includes the county's road patrol and other units, such as the detective division, the canine unit, the marine division, the water rescue division, and community police training.

An attempt to reign in expenses for the sheriff's department was discussed during the GOP legislative caucus on February 3. In reviewing upcoming resolutions, Legislator Dean Fabiano noted a request by the sheriff's department to replace five marked patrol cars for $145,000.

Fabiano argued that vehicle replacement should be included in the sheriff's department's overall $13 million payroll and operating budget. "It's a matter of principle," he said. "They come to us every year with requests to replace vehicles and every year we say the process has got to change — well, this year, I'm voting against it."

The GOP caucus sided with Fabiano and vowed to vote down Resolution #43 in full legislative session. The resolution, which calls for bonding the five vehicles, will be put to vote before the entire legislature on Wednesday night.