Officials in five Westchester and Putnam County municipalities outlined economic development plans for their respective communities during a business breakfast sponsored by the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber President and CEO Ron Forehand, said the event was designed to give members the chance to hear about each municipality”™s business and economic growth plans for 2008.
The events featured Cortlandt Supervisor Linda Puglisi; Putnam Valley Supervisor Robert Tendy; Peekskill Mayor Mary Foster; Croton-on-Hudson Mayor Greg Schmidt; and Buchanan Mayor Daniel O”™Neill.
O”™Neill said his top priority is to revitalize downtown Buchanan.
“We have worked with (the town of Cortlandt) to obtain grants and set a tone that is pro-business,” he said. Buchanan sits within the town of Cortlandt”™s borders.
He said a major focal point of promoting economic development in the village is by focusing on the adaptive reuse of older, unoccupied buildings in the village.
He said the one major advantage the village has its low municipal taxes, which is due to the Indian Point nuclear facility sitting within the village”™s borders.
O”™Neill said the village will continue to pursue ways to reduce spending, including sharing services with the town, and exploring the option of sending the village”™s insurance coverage out to bid.
Puglisi said her 17 years as supervisor have taught her the importance of “balancing the economy, open spaces, and keeping low taxes.”
She said Cortlandt has been very successful in keeping taxes low, as it has never had a local tax increase of more than 2.7 percent during her tenure. This year, the increase was 1.7 percent.
“Finances are the key to a thriving local economy,” she said.
Tendy, in his first year as Putnam Valley supervisor, said the key to economic development in the town is to develop a commercial base.
“That”™s my number on priority,” he said.
Tendy said his job is to balance the concerns of residents who want to preserve the rural nature of the town with the need for measured, planned growth in certain areas.
“A thriving commercial base provides town tax relief,” otherwise all the burden falls on residential taxpayers, he said.
Tendy also is among the growing number of politicians speaking on the need to change the way public schools are funded in New York.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer last months created the state Commission on Property Tax Relief, to explore alternate ways other than property tax of funding public education, and floated the idea of a “tax cap.”
Foster, in her first term as mayor of Peekskill, also spoke of the importance of expanding the commercial tax base in that city.
“We need to revitalize our downtown,” she said.
Foster discussed using tax incentives such as the state”™s Empire Zone program and other subsidies as one way to lure business and development to Peekskill.
She also said the city will begin hosting joint city council/school board meetings where the two entities will discuss ways to work together to reduce costs.
Schmidt, like the other officials who spoke, discussed the importance of municipalities being actively involved with their chambers of commerce.
