Daniel Zuckerman is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media an amendment to the proposed 2018 Greene County budget that would retain the current retiree prescription plan was approved by the legislature last week. Legislator Harry Lennon, Democrat of Cairo, made the motion to amend the $113.6 million spending plan by taking funds out of the county’s contingency fund rather than pass the costs on to senior citizens. When county employees are planning to retire they have to factor in all costs for the future, including health care, Lennon said. “We didn’t want to increase their costs for health care in retirement,” Lennon said Nov. 21. “I thought it was the right thing to do.” Legislator Michael Bulich, Republican of Catskill, said there is a tremendous amount of wasteful government spending and there are other ways to pay for the health care program without tapping the contingency fund. “We seem to put such a high value on government services — the cost of it continues to go up,” Bulich said. “Property owners are paying the burden of it.” Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.