POUGHKEEPSIE — Last December, the Dutchess County legislature passed its 2025 budget by a vote of 23-2.
While it wasn’t a unanimous decision, the bipartisan support of the $629 million-plus spending package reflected the collaborative inroads County Executive Sue Serino, R-Dutchess, has been striving toward over the past year.
While Serino didn’t win over lawmakers Chris Drago, whose district includes North East, Millerton and Pine Plains, and Brennan Kearney, D-11, she was not discouraged, saying, “I’ll just have to try harder next time around.”
Serino’s budgetary package includes a record $2 million in funding for EMS service.
The lack of EMS access was a concern Serino weighed in on last November prior to the budget’s passing.
“Emergency medical services are a vital lifeline for our residents,” Serino said. “This funding will not only improve EMS response times but [will] also reduce pressure on mutual aid services, ensuring each community has the coverage it needs.”
As part of Serino’s strategy to address emergency service deficiencies, a temporary supplemental ambulance coverage plan was launched at the beginning of 2025 to fill coverage gaps after the county entered into an agreement with Empress Ambulance Services.
A potential secondary provider, Ambulnz by DocGo, may eventually be added into the mix, contingent on contract negotiations.
DocGo, the proposed secondary supplemental ambulance transport provider, is probably best known as the organization which controversially partnered in 2023 with New York City mayor Eric Adams in a highly lucrative no-bid contract to fill immigrant needs such as housing and meal delivery to recent arrivals in the city despite its lack of expertise in these service areas.
While improved ambulance service rolls out, Serino has continued work on additional EMS-related goals including workforce development initiatives aimed at bumping up recruitment numbers for emergency responders and a social media campaign designed to raise awareness of EMS service in the county. Additionally, her budget is focused on community and public-safety programming.
Serino’s Real Time Crime Center, an initiative with a $200,000 price tag attached to its launch from the Community Benefit Fund, debuted at the end of 2024. It enables law enforcement to monitor events as they occur via video feeds and other technology. It also provides a rapid response to incidents in progress.
Real Time Crime Centers, which can be found throughout the United States, enable collaboration between law enforcement entities in the sharing of information through audio, video, cameras, license plate readers, and other methods.
The data collected is funneled into a cloud-based view to provide mutual access and awareness by law enforcement. While some may find its surveillance-heavy approach unsettling, Serino maintained Real Time Crime Centers are a valuable and effective tool in preventing and combating crime.
“[It’s] additional security and safety,” Serino said. “I’m all for it.”
Youth-based initiatives are also a target. As part of her youth advocacy, Serino has set up in the budget a new $250,000 grant for the establishment of YOU — Youth Opportunity Union — Drop-In Centers, which provide gathering spaces for young people to make connections and positive choices by engaging with peers and mentors.
Additionally, $75,000 is being provided for YOU mini-grants to establish recreation programs for Dutchess youth. An additional $400,000 has been allocated to an anti-vaping initiative and another $250,000 will go toward the preservation of children’s mental health, a program in partnership with Family Services, Inc.
Also included in the budget were community-based items supporting seniors, veterans, and individuals with challenges as well as food insecurity initiatives.
Serino remains committed to her current responsibilities, and was quick to shoot down rumors of a gubernatorial run. She confirmed she’s been asked to run on the Federal level, but higher office is not an ambition.
She was even quicker to quell any whispers of retirement and plans to remain active, one way or another. “I always keep busy,” she said, maintaining that her priorities outside the county executive’s office are her family and her dog.
She was also quick to dispense chatter about discord in local government, pointing out how much she enjoyed coming together recently with her fellow lawmakers at county comptroller Dan Aymar-Blair’s swearing-in ceremony in January. She maintains cooperation in politics tends to yield positive results which, in turn, benefits Dutchess residents. Said Serino, “That’s what it’s all about.”
