Sarah Trafton reports for Columbia-Greene Media that Greene County legislators adopted a $122.35 million for 2020 Nov. 20. The budget includes a fifth flycar, an emergency vehicle to provide medical services before an ambulance arrives on the mountaintop. The budget increases from $119 million to $122.35 million with a tax rate increase of 1.7 percent. Eight of 14 Greene County towns will get tax rate reductions. Debt service for the new Greene County jail is the leading reason for the new spending. New mandates from Albany mean the county will hire an additional full-time employee in the probation department, in the Department of Social Services, in the Department of Motor Vehicles, and in emergency services to help with the discovery process; and two full-time employees in the district attorney’s office. There were three votes against the budget: Catskill-based legislators Matthew Luvera and Michael Bulich, both Republicans, opposed the flycar resolution because they said it meant Catskill was paying double for emergency services. Legislator William Lawrence, a Republican Cairo, was absent, so his vote counted as against. “I don’t think that life on the mountaintop is worth less than a valley life,” Republican Legislator from Durham, Patricia Handel said. “It is a Greene County flycar, not a mountaintop flycar. Catskill chose to do its own system. I don’t think other towns should suffer because Catskill did its own thing.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.