The race for County Legislator 7th District has heated up in recent weeks. Incumbent Judy Myers, running on the Democratic, Working Families, and Independence Party lines, and Rye City Councilmember Suzanna Keith, running on the Republican and Conservative lines, will face off at The Osborn Candidates Forum, October 24 at 7 p.m., and at the League of Women Voters Forum October 26 at 6:15 p.m. at the Mamaroneck Town Center.
The race for County Legislator 7th District has heated up in recent weeks. Incumbent Judy Myers, running on the Democratic, Working Families, and Independence Party lines, and Rye City Councilmember Suzanna Keith, running on the Republican and Conservative lines, will face off at The Osborn Candidates Forum, October 24 at 7 p.m., and at the League of Women Voters Forum October 26 at 6:15 p.m. at the Mamaroneck Town Center.
The two candidates sat down with The Rye Record, in separate interviews, and shared their platforms and the challenges the County faces.
The Path to Sustainability
For the last few years, Westchester has had the dubious distinction of being the highest taxed county in the nation. County pensions and benefits are going up over 10% annually, while after-tax income for the average resident is on a downward spiral.
To prevent a collision course and put the County on a sustainable path, Ms. Keith said, “The No. 1 thing is taxes. Flood mitigation is not far behind. We have to fight the unfunded mandates and ask for Medicaid relief. We’re one of the few counties that must contribute to Medicaid.
“We’ve seen other states move forward on pension reform. We have to look at ways of doing business more efficiently. We consolidated mental health clinics last year. Going forward, we’re going to have to consolidate more. What happened in Ossinning is a good recent example: the County now runs their Police Department, and the savings are substantial. We need to create more public/private partnerships. Rye Town Park would be a great place to start.”
The Board of Legislators is open to change, according to Ms. Myers. “Everything has changed. People would go to work in the Post Office for not-great money but great benefits. A lot of outstanding college graduates chose jobs on Wall Street, over municipal government, so the only thing for governments to do was try to lure them with benefits.” She added, “In the private sector, it’s easy to cut benefits. Not so in the public sector.”
Last year, Ms. Myers noted, the County cut $30 million out of spending and reduced the workforce by 10% by incentivizing early retirement. “We’ll be looking at doing the same thing this year. It’s a double-edged sword because we’re not hiring enough new people. We need jobs.”
Ms. Keith challenged her opponent’s record in this area. “After five years of her being in office, property taxes have gone up 16%. Now we have the most expensive median property tax in the nation – it’s time to give that trophy away.
“We’ve been missing dialogue on essential services and what we really need. The fund balance is declining and that’s why Moody’s gave us a negative outlook. You can’t draw down the fund balance – there was a lot of fuzzy math last year, and we know in America that comes back to bite you.”
She continued, “Rob has also kept jobs in Westchester, like Arctic Ice in Mamaroneck, the biggest producer of ice in the country, and Pepsi by fighting against the sugar tax. We get the taxes down and we make the community more affordable, so young people can move here, stay here.”
Ms. Myers faulted the County Executive for not doing enough to keep people and businesses here. “The current administration is looking outside the county and even the state when contracts expire. Mr. Astorino sends out an RFP very broadly. Section 8 Housing is now administered in Florida, County Health Care now handled in Tennessee. Is this better for Westchester residents?” She added, “There are lot of jobs we could be offering through DPW, but public works projects are moving ahead slowly.”
Union Employee Benefit Contributions
Governor Cuomo is asking State employees to contribute to their health benefit plans to avoid layoffs. Shouldn’t the County be asking the same of its public workers, as the County Executive has posited?
“I would get behind the County Executive to get union members to contribute to their health care,” said Ms. Keith. If they contributed 10%, that would be a savings of $13 million, she said. “I will go to Albany to fight for pension control for the County. Rob Astorino needs people beside him to do that.”
Affordable Housing Mandate
After a long, litigious process, Ms. Myers said, “It is working and it is getting built. The County is doing everything it can to facilitate the process.” She added, “ It doesn’t help, and I can say as a sitting legislator and having met the federal monitor, when the head of the administration goes on FOX News and talks to Hannity.”
She continued, “One thing that could get scary is if we lost control of a project, as Yonkers did. They had no say in the project and spent a lot of their own money. We wouldn’t want that to happen here.”
While in favor of “fair and affordable housing, no matter where you live — it’s something our nation was founded on — I think the federal housing settlement overreaches those parameters,” Ms. Keith said. “Legislation voted without an action plan and knowing the implications? That’s frightening. What we saw was the ultimate act of partisanship, and a vote against the Sound Shore community. Local mayors advised Judy not to vote for it. The overriding issue for every municipality is: Do we want the federal government coming in and telling us how to handle local zoning?”
A Balanced Budget
Last week, County Executive Rob Astorino publicly stated that the County could be facing a $114 million shortfall for 2012. We asked the candidates where they would make the kindest cuts.
Ms. Myers was quick to inform us that the Board of Legislators (BOL) hasn’t yet seen the budget. “We weren’t invited to the budget presentation.” Public workshops will be held in November and December and the BOL will then go through it line by line.
“Cutting is one of the things the Board does,” said Ms. Myers. “We have more institutional knowledge on our Citizens Budget Advisory group than current staff of the County Executive. We’ll be looking at how every department is spending money and making sure that each one is following up on grant opportunities.”
With cutbacks at every level of government, grant funding, which the County like every municipality depended on to balance their budget, is harder to come by, noted Ms. Keith.
“We’ve got to eliminate unnecessary spending — the $1.1 million in earmarks, we have to cut all those out,” she stressed. “County government is broken. The Board of Legislators keeps obstructing every curb; they overrode 247 of his 249 money-saving line-item vetoes.”
Divisive Politics
Voters decry it because it’s hard to tune out and get to the meat of the candidates’ arguments. How do the candidates feel?
“People around here work hard, get off the train, and want peace,” said Ms. Keith. “They want to know their elected officials are out there taking care of things. The biggest thing is they’re tired of politics, they want solutions, and not the back and forth. Between the Westchester Children’s Museum, Playland, and the 247 vetoes, people want someone who will really listen. I’m a local republican fighting for the community and someone that wants to work collaboratively.”
Ms. Myers responded, “The public shouldn’t be discouraged, but I understand why they are. One of the interesting things about the Board of Legislators is that all 17 work together in committees and everything is pulled together and apart by them. Every bond issue and bit of spending goes through the committees, and that’s where sleeves are rolled up and people get angry. We finally come up with a product and then it’s put on the floor, with 90% being done in bipartisan fashion and unanimously passed. By the time it gets there, compromise has already been attached to it.
“The veto occurs after that by the County Executive. He has line item veto power and utilizes it. In the case of the Westchester’s Children Museum, it was worked and worked and worked on until we crafted something that was unanimously approved. So, the tension is not within the Board of Legislators, it’s between the executive and legislative branches.”
When asked what distinguishes her from her opponent, Ms. Keith replied, “I have a proven track record as a leader in tough economic times. I have 23 years of advocacy work addressing women’s and children’s issues.” She added, “And I’m not a career politician. I have a lot of experience with public/private partnerships and I’m a problem-solver at a grass-roots level.”
Ms. Myers said it is her experience and leadership that distinguish her from her opponent.
