Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.
county government

Dutchess County’s $629 million budget for 2025 passes

POUGHKEEPSIE — The Dutchess County’s Legislature adopted their 2025 budget on Monday, Dec. 9, with a 23-2 bipartisan vote.

The budget includes a $629.4 million spending plan. The adopted budget included several amendments to County Executive Sue Serino’s budget, which she proposed earlier in October.

Businesses and homeowners will see a 2.7% decrease in the county’s property tax rates. Last year, the property tax rate was $2.23 and with the approved budget, this will be lowered to $2.17 in 2025, marking the tenth consecutive year of property tax rate cuts.

The 2025 budget also aims to improve services that residents rely on for their day-to-day lives. Many new initiatives focus on public safety, youth services and support for seniors, veterans and families. In addition, the initiatives open up support for the Dutchess County Drug Task Force, Housing Trust fund applications, historic investments in Emergency Medical Services and more.

County legislators made several amendments to the 2025 county budget, which were unanimously approved, creating additional funding for existing and new projects including, but not limited to, $750,000 for the Dutchess County Sheriff’s office for overtime purposes at the county’s justice and transition center, $500,000 for the Department of Planning & Development to fund the Municipal Innovation Grant program with a specific focus on the elderly, $50,000 for the Office of Veterans’ Affairs for expanded transportation services, and $50,000 to the Department of Community and Family Services Youth Division to fund after-school programming to serve at-risk youth.

Chris Drago (D-19), was one of two lawmakers who voted no on the 2025 Dutchess County Budget.

“While the budget included a few things that we have been advocating for this year, it did not go far enough in addressing our cost of living, housing, climate, mental health, or EMS crisis here in Dutchess County,” Drago said. “There will be other opportunities to adjust the budget as needs arise in 2025, and I plan to continue to advocate for more resources in the Planning Department to address our cost of living and housing crisis.”

The newest version of the budget will be reviewed and signed by Serino. It will then go to the Dutchess County Legislature’s Board meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 18, for override consideration of amendment vetoes made by the County Executive, if any.

For more information on the 2025 Dutchess County Budget, visit dutchessny.gov/budget2025.

Colleen Flynn
county government

Latest News

The Millerton News - October 1, 2026

The Millerton News - October 1, 2026

Download directly

Doug Tallamy’s work in progress: saving the planet one backyard at a time

Doug Tallamy’s work in progress: saving the planet one backyard at a time

Windacre, a 25-acre property in Millerton will be the site of “Work in Progress,” an afternoon with acclaimed entomologist, New York Times bestselling author and Homegrown National Park co-founder Doug Tallamy.

Provided

For nearly three decades, Doug Tallamy, a professor at the University of Delaware and co-founder of Homegrown National Park, has studied the intricate relationships between native plants, insects, birds and the ecosystems that sustain them. His books, including “Bringing Nature Home” and “Nature’s Best Hope,” have helped shift the conversation about conservation from something that happens primarily in parks and preserves to something ordinary people can practice on the land around them.

On Sunday, Oct. 4, Tallamy will bring that conversation to Windacre in Millerton for “Work in Progress: Toward Native Fields,” an outdoor gathering exploring both the possibilities and the complications of restoring private land for biodiversity.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

Celebrating Dick Hermans’ life built around community

Celebrating Dick Hermans’ life built around community

Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton\u2019s Main Street in 1985.

Provided
No matter what I’ve done, I’m trying to be useful to the communities I’m associated with.
— Dick Hermans

When Dick Hermans receives the Estabrook Community Leadership Award on Oct. 11, he will accept it for a lifetime of work that has taken many forms: bookseller, radio host, school board member, advocate for the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, business owner, volunteer and, perhaps most importantly, a person who has consistently looked for ways to be useful to the communities around him.

The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News will present Hermans with the 2026 award at the annual Jubilee celebration at the Sharon Playhouse. The award honors outstanding leadership in community service and was inspired by Mary Lou and Robert Estabrook, former owners of the newspapers who believed that strengthening a community extended well beyond the work of publishing a newspaper.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Tending the Fire: Homelands PowWow brings Mohican culture home to the Berkshires

Tending the Fire: Homelands PowWow brings Mohican culture home to the Berkshires

Members of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe at Homelands PowWow in 2025.

Joeseph Plante New Media Storytellers
Our goal is to continue building an annual gathering that honors the history, culture and traditions of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans in their original Homelands.


For the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican people, the Berkshires are not simply a place to visit. They are ancestral homelands.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

Ancram Center’s “A Number” doubles questions of identity

Ancram Center’s “A Number” doubles questions of identity

How would you feel if you found out you weren’t the only you — if there was an exact replica of you? What if you found out that you’d been cloned? Would you believe that you’re the real you? Would you suspect you might be a copy of the original? How could you be sure anything about your life was real? These are some of the questions posed in Caryl Churchill’s play “A Number,” opening at the Ancram Center for the Artson Oct. 1.

Churchill was born in London in 1938 and has been hailed by the theaterl world as one of the strongest voices of her time to take on sexual politics and feminist themes. Her works garner pointedly considered analysis from the highest levels of theatrical intellectualism. Basically, it’s about as far from “The Lion King” as you can get. While she’s experimented with dance theater in the past, “A Number” is much more stripped down, highlighting Churchill’s chosen themes and the skills of both actors on stage.

Keep ReadingShow less
performances

Dispatches from the Farm

Dispatches from the Farm

Adamah Farm crew members planning out the day’s tasks on a late September day.

Janna Siller

“Dispatches from the farm” is a new, periodic column offering a firsthand look at the rhythms, challenges and rewards of farming through the eyes of a local farmer.

The thing about plants is that they can’t get up and move. When a storm like last weekend’s nor’easter threatens to roll through, you can’t just round everybody up and settle them safely on the sofa for movie night.

Keep ReadingShow less
dispatches-from-the-farm
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.