MONTICELLO — Due to projected financial losses because of the coronavirus pandemic, the county is looking at ways to save money. They previously offered a retirement incentive to county employees and on Thursday the legislature voted unanimously during its full board meeting to offer another incentive.

“We had a retirement incentive earlier a couple months ago, we got five or six people to participate,” said County Manager Josh Potosek. “That incentive was [for] employees with a tenure between 15 and 19 years that were generally eligible. It got them the maximum retirement health insurance based on if they were management or union.”

The second incentive is for employees who would be eligible to retire under the criteria established by the New York State Public Employee Pension System.

Participation in the program will be offered on a strictly voluntary basis, with the choice to participate resting solely with eligible employees.

Potosek said there are around 70 employees that would be eligible for the program. Any position that participates in the early retirement incentive will be permanently abolished and attritioned, unless that position is deemed critical to the maintenance of public health and safety.

“This retirement incentive would be more for people who have reached pension eligible age,” Potosek said. “It would be a cash payment versus a health benefit payment. It's a $10,000 payment made over two payments.”

Divided in two equal installments, the first payment will be made August 31, 2020 and the second payment to be made on January 31, 2021.

Employees' payment options will be cash payments (subject to federal and state taxes), Deferred Compensation (subject to FICA/Medicare withholding), or in a fund to offset health insurance costs, depending upon the plan implemented.

Employees must submit a letter with their intention to retire to the Commissioner of Human Resources by June 30. To be eligible, they must be a full-time employee.

Potosek said if they do not fill the positions that retire, there could be “significant savings.”

Legislators expressed concern that a cut in state aid is coming their way, and they are unsure when they will receive federal aid.

“We're still waiting on [Gov. Andrew Cuomo] to give us an answer on where we're at in state aid,” said Legislature Chairman Rob Doherty.

Potosek said the governor could announce state aid cuts soon, probably by June 2, and they won't know about federal aid by that date.

“It's a matter of how much and when as we see some more bipartisan support in Washington,” Potosek said. “The only thing we know now is sales tax was down 30 percent both payments in May, which reflected end of March and April.”

He said the retirement incentive is a way for the county to save money as these cuts are likely to be instituted, as they continue to look at ways to trim expenses.