SARATOGA SPRINGS – The city Finance Department submitted to the City Council on May 5 the First Quarter Financial Report of 2020.

The submitted material is as follows:

Please note that this report is prepared on a cash basis and no adjustments have been made for receivables or payables.

REVENUES:

General Fund Revenues

Property taxes in the General Fund are recognized as revenue for the full amount levied at the time the tax roll is posted to the general ledger. The Finance Office has reviewed the payments made as of 03/31/20 and 57% has been collected or $9,137,251.

Last year at this time 55% was collected. You will recall that property taxes can be paid in four installments with the first installment due March 1. However, the City offers a discount of 2.25% if the full year is paid on or before March 1. This accounts for the greater than 25% collection rate after only the first due date has passed.

As of 03/31/20 the City has not received many of the larger revenue streams.

- Sales Tax figures include only one month since February and March collections are not distributed to the City from NYS Taxation and Finance until April and May, respectively.

 - VLT Aid is paid in June.

- Hotel Occupancy Tax is paid to the City from the County on a quarterly basis. The first quarterly payment for 2020 will be received in April.

- County surplus distribution is paid on a quarterly basis too, with the first payment due in April.

- NYRA Admissions Tax is paid annually after the racing season has closed.

- The bulk of Franchise Tax is paid annually, in the last quarter of the year.

- State Aid Revenue sharing is distributed in two installments, September and December. The largest share is received in December.

- Mortgage Tax is paid semiannually in May and November.

Finance – When actual revenue is adjusted to reflect actual property tax receipts, then the Finance Office is at 24% collected.

Please note that Recreation revenues are only 11.8% as of March 31st. Recreation implemented a new online registration and payment system on January 13th. The company is required to provide a daily file that can be imported into the City’s financial software. As of 03/31 this process had not been completed and so revenue is not reported in the year to date budget report.

Taking into consideration the property tax revenue recognition issues, approximately 25% of revenues were actually received as of 03/31/20. In 2019 the adjusted approximate revenue collected was 26%.

Water and Sewer Revenues: The first quarter water and sewer bills for 2020 are mailed in April for a May 15th due date.

Capital Revenues: The City will issue a General Obligation bond in June to finance the 2020 capital projects.

EXPENSES:

General Fund Expenses

Mayor’s Office – Many contributions to outside organizations and events have been paid in full as of 03/31/20. Most other expenses are fairly consistent.

All – Liability insurance has been paid in full for the year. Additional expenses would be for claims or additional coverage. Most departments’ expenses are running at about 25%, which is on target for 03/31/20 and is consistent with the first quarter of 2019. Variances are due to seasonal expenses and grants.

Capital Expenses

Capital expenses are usually larger in the months where weather is more conducive to construction. In addition, large vehicle purchases often take many months to be built according to bid specifications.

Community Development

Since the Community Development block grants are awarded on a different schedule than the City’s fiscal year, no budget is established.

Submittal Date: May 5, 2020

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, out of concern for the health and safety of the staff and community, and in accordance with guidelines from Skidmore College, is extending its temporary closure through the summer months. 

This difficult but necessary decision comes after considering current projections about the outbreak, and means the cancelation of beloved Tang summer traditions such as the annual community open house, Frances Day, and the popular Upbeat on the Roof concert series. These traditions will be back in 2021. The summer closure also means changes — but no cancelations — to the Tang’s previously announced exhibition schedule.

 “Summer at the Tang is a time of coming together for music, art, art-making, and community, but these extraordinary times require us to do our part to slow the spread by practicing social distancing,” said Dayton Director Ian Berry, in a statement. 

The Museum launched Tang at Home, an online hub for art-making activities and projects for all ages that bring the Tang experience into people’s homes at tang.skidmore.edu/education/tang-at-home. The Tang is adding new projects each week. The newest community project is Tang Extra Credit, in which everyone is invited to re-create works of art from the Tang collection with what they have around them. Email your re-creation to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and include your name, email address, and the name of the artwork that inspired you. Discover people’s re-creations at the Tang Extra Credit page.

New Dates for Exhibitions

• Energy in All Directions, originally set for a July opening is now scheduled to open Oct. 10 and will stay on view through May 17, 2021.

• Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond, originally scheduled for Aug. 26 is now scheduled to open Sept. 17 and stay on view through June 6, 2021. 

• Lover Earth: Art and Ecosexuality will open as scheduled on May 30 as an online exhibition. 

For more information go to: tang.skidmore.edu/exhibitions. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS —  NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week announced the possibility of some regions of the state gradually “reopening” after May 15, although he warned that potential phased-approach would not include attractions that would cause a large number of visitors flooding in from other areas. “You can’t do anything in one region that would increase the visitors to that (reopened) region,” he said. As such, the waiting game is in full swing in the Spa City -   just wishing and hoping and planning and dreaming, to paraphrase a Dusty Springfield song -  regarding the anticipated waves of the COVID-19 virus and its effect on everything from the competition of thoroughbreds at the racecourse to the staging of concerts at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. 

In a letter posted on SPAC’s website, organization President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol writes: “We understand that your own future planning may be affected by public concerns around the spread of COVID-19. The health and safety of everyone in our SPAC family and the Community are of critical importance to us, and we are adhering to guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as consulting continuously with local and state health authorities about the safest path forward for the coming months.” 

The New York City Ballet, scheduled to stage their residency at SPAC mid-July, have cancelled their Spring Season 2020 performances at Lincoln Center, which was slated to run through May 29. 

The Philadelphia Orchestra, whose homestand at SPAC is set to stage in August, have cancelled all their rehearsals, performances, and events through June. 

The SPAC Jazz festival June 27-28, headlined by Nile Rodgers & Chic, and Kool & The Gang, is still on at this point, as are the majority of summer pop concerts presented by Live Nation, with few outright cancellations - June 7: Celtic Woman; June 13: Zac Brown Band, and Aug. 3: Dead & Company, among them. 

Cancellations may come at any time. As it stands at this moment, the schedule of summer pop concerts at Saratoga Performing Arts is as follows: 

June 6: The Lumineers - III: The World Tour
June 24: KIDZ BOP Live 2020 Tour
June 30: Steely Dan with Special Guest Steve Winwood
July 2: Tedeschi Trucks Band - Wheels Of Soul 2020
July 3: Lindsey Stirling 
July 8:  Alanis Morissette with Special Guest Garbage and also appearing Liz Phair
July 9: Bob Dylan, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, The Hot Club Of Cowtown
July 10, 11: Dave Matthews Band
July 12: Countryfest 2020 with Brantley Gilbert & More
July 21: Chicago with Rick Springfield
July 22: Nickelback: All The Right Reasons Tour
July 24: Matchbox Twenty 2020
July 25: The Black Crowes Present: Shake Your Money Maker
July 26: The Doobie Brothers - 50th Anniversary Tour
July 29: Rod Stewart
Aug. 1: Journey with Pretenders
Aug. 4: Disturbed: The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour with Staind & Bad Wolves
Aug. 9: Foreigner: Juke Box Hero Tour 2020
Aug. 11: Incubus with 311
Aug. 18: Sammy Hagar & The Circle and Whitesnake with Special Guest Night Ranger
Aug. 23: Goo Goo Dolls: The Miracle Pill Summer Tour
Aug. 31: Daryl Hall & John Oates
Sept. 6: Maroon 5
Sept. 6:  Meghan Trainor
Sept. 11: Backstreet Boys: DNA World Tour
Sept. 12: The Australian Pink Floyd Show - All That You Feel World Tour 2020

Visit spac.org for more details.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — An increasingly dangerous sign of the coronavirus lockdown has come to light in recent weeks in communities across the country where there is a marked increase of people delaying seeking care when they are sick or hurt.

The issue has grown from a reluctance of people willing to go to hospitals or urgent care facilities for fear of contracting the COVID-19 virus. 

Last week, the Washington Post reported on the international phenomenon of the pandemic producing a silent sub-epidemic of people who need care at hospitals but are frightened to go to the ER. Titled “Patients with heart attacks, strokes and even appendicitis vanish from hospitals,” the article described how people with everything from inflamed appendixes to those suffering chest pains and stroke symptoms were avoiding seeking medical treatment out of fear of physically seeking care, resulting in illness and mortality concerns among the medical community. This has also played out on the local stage. 

“If you’re having a medical problem that concerns you and goes beyond what a physician in their office can manage then you should really come to the emergency department, or Urgent Care and let us take care of you. People should not wait until things can go very bad for them,” says Dr. Timothy Brooks, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Saratoga Hospital. 

“Since this started, we’ve watched our volume drop off 40 to 50 %. The number of people who would normally come in by ambulance or by foot have disappeared. Our perception is that people are terrified about coming in because they have the belief they could catch COVID-19.

 “This drop in volume really concerns us, because the disease progression that people have for all the other medical problems continues on, and what we’re seeing is people waiting far too long to come in. Instead of having a problem that might require a brief hospitalization, they are critically ill and end up on a ventilator in the ICU. And that’s happened multiple times,” says Dr. Brooks, who was born in Detroit, studied at medical school at the University of Michigan and relocated to Saratoga Springs in the late 1980s

Saratoga Hospital assures that precautions are in place to take care of all patients, and everyone admitted to the hospital is tested for COVID-19. “At the hospital and at Urgent Care – we have mechanisms in place to keep people separated and to take care of them safely. There’s not a single person in the building where we don’t know their status relative to being covid-positive or covid-negative. That way we can separate people out with COVID-19 infections,” Dr. Brooks says. “They are isolated on a separate floor and are taken care of by specific nurses, and other parts of the hospitals do not have those types of patients. Once a patient leaves our department, their room is completely sanitized with the appropriate cleaners and virus-cides.” 

Inside the hospital, the work goes on. “The day has changed in the sense that when you approach patients who may be infectious it takes a little more time and preparation before you go into each room, as well as when you leave that room,” Dr. Brooks says. “I have to say I am so proud of the staff in this emergency department. Everybody stepped up to the line.” 

Regardless of when an un-pausing or reopening occurs, Brooks says until a vaccine is introduced, he anticipates the virus will circulate among the population, and that the hospital is prepared to deal with ongoing public issues. 

As for hospital occupancy, there is ample space for people to address issues both in the emergency room and the rest of the hospital. This week, Gov. Cuomo announced he will sign an Executive Order allowing some hospitals – Saratoga Hospital among them – to resume conducting elective surgeries, a practice which he had ordered halted in March as the virus was spreading across the state.   

Saratoga Hospital currently describes three working criteria for beginning what is broadly termed “elective” surgery. The procedures are defined as: medically necessary, time-sensitive surgeries for patients with significant symptoms or serious illness, and a predicted negative health impact without the surgery. 

“Cases that needed to be done and should be done, we’re in the process of bringing those back and getting them going. We’re still holding off on some areas that I would call discretionary – cosmetic plastic surgery is a good example,” says Saratoga Hospital President and CEO Angelo Calbone. “People who are in pain, conditions that may worsen if we don’t get to them. This is work that needs to be done.”

Approximately 3,000 people work under the Saratoga Hospital banner. At the hospital, there are approximately 170 licensed beds. 

“This has been a learn-as-you-go situation. We know how to run a hospital. We know how to respond to emergencies. This has been a new struggle challenge for all of us. I can tell you the staff here have been beyond remarkable, gearing up, understanding the new protocols. They’ve done a wonderful job,” Calbone says. “Frankly what has been a challenge has been the lack of testing materials, getting access to personal protective equipment for our staff and the bottleneck supply chain that emerged. That really threw a wrench into every institution’s ability to respond to this. But how our staff managed COVID in the building isn’t that different to how they managed every infectious disease. I think the entire industry was startled as to short supplies and access to supplies and how limited testing was at the time we needed it most. That’s what made this unusually challenging.

“We have had our heads down, seven days a week, making sure this hospital is well-positioned and capable of taking care of the community. Hospitals and health care providers are very used to taking care of infectious diseases – we know how to do that. And we’ve taken great strides making this a very safe environment. We’re confident and comfortable saying to our entire community: if you need to access health care, this is as safe of an environment as you will enter anywhere in the community. Being afraid to come in, isn’t a good reason to avoid care,” Calbone says. 

“We get concerned when we see patients end up in our ER with conditions that have worsened and potentially even threatened their lives that could easily have been managed if they sought care – as they would have – three months ago. That’s a message we’re been trying to get out there.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, who represents the 113^th Assembly District, issued a statement Thursday morning arguing against Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “instinct to cancel” the Saratoga meet, and recommending the region prepare to move forward planning to hold the summer card at Saratoga Race Course.     

 The portion of the statement pertaining to Saratoga Race Course is as follows:

“I couldn't possibly disagree more with the Governor’s instinct to cancel this year’s meet at Saratoga Race Course, even without fans. The equine industry is a core component of New York State agriculture, the largest sector of the state's economy. Opening the rest of the economy while keeping the track closed disrupts a major economic driver and the livelihood that thousands of people rely upon.

 The Governor has lumped together various forms of entertainment and referred to them as 'attractive nuisances.' I would like to stress that horse racing is unique and needs to be approached differently than concerts and sporting events.

 We need to move forward planning to hold this year’s race meet. Maintaining the schedules and operations of the dozens of different sectors of agriculture including foaling farms, stables, hay farms, equine veterinarians, and tack shops all necessary to making a race season possible.

 Our region, state and nation are continuing a trend that points to a resilient and healthier society and economy by July and August.  

Cancelling now would leave us no ability to decide to race later. However, continuing to prepare for a meet will allow for a variety of potential opportunities including but not limited to social distancing, limited viewership, and personal protective equipment. “