MONTICELLO, NY — “The partnership,” said legislator Joe Perrello, “is the gateway to Sullivan County.” 

He questioned why the contract for the Partnership for Economic Development only allocated them $100,000 rather than the $125,000 that they received for some years prior to 2020. 

The new contract was up for a vote at last Thursday’s executive committee meeting. 

The initial reduction happened in January 2020 before the pandemic hit, and the reason given was that the IDA was willing to bump up its contribution to the partnership by $25,000. That increase never happened, Perrello said. 

He wanted to see the county’s share returned to $125,000, and a four-year contract signed, rather than renewing it each year. 

The partnership “brings business and industry, they do a lot of research, they do a lot of work. They need this money to operate,” he said. “They have a wealth of knowledge on their board that we could never pay for with $125,000.”

Chairman Rob Doherty, who spearheaded the original reduction, responded that they only requested $100,000. “We’re giving them what they asked for.” 

“That’s what they were told,” Perrello said. “That that’s all they were going to get.”

Doherty and George Conklin said that changing it now would set a bad precedent.

The chairman proposed an amendment that would give the partnership a contract, set at $100,000, that would expire at the end of 2023. The amended resolution passed, 5-3, with Doherty, Conklin, Nick Salomone, Alan Sorensen and Michael Brooks in favor.