A $1.79 billion budget has been adopted. The county”™s property tax levy has been cut by 2 percent. More than $28 million and 10 percent of the work force has been trimmed. Sounds like success for Westchester County, its businesses and its residents.
In some ways it is.
Business should see property taxes fall or at least stabilize. So, in this new year take pause to be thankful that we are going forward with a tighter budget and less expenditure than the year before. We are tilted in the right direction.
But, frankly, the cuts in county spending could have been deeper.
And, the process was very ugly. The Democrat-dominated Westchester County Legislators had enough votes to override the Republican county executive”™s nearly 250 vetoes and approve a budget.
One need only look at the remarks made after the override of the veto.
Board of Legislators Chairman Kenneth W. Jenkins, D-Yonkers, said the budget “right-sizes government, and not capsizes it.” He accused County Executive Robert P. Astorino of grandstanding.
Astorino, for his part, called the final budget “government by gimmicks” by Democrats.
Minority Leader Jim Maisano, R-New Rochelle, in a statement put out on the night the final budget was approved, said: “Too much of the budget process was done behind the closed doors of the Democratic caucus. ”¦ They made questionable decisions outside the review of the media, public and Republican legislators.”
Imagine what our budget would have looked like if Democrats and Republicans had worked together, brainstormed, inspired creative ideas in each other and found true compromise. People in business know the fire from the energy that is created when they work together and innovate; and they unfortunately know the cold exasperation of a project gone awry because egos, factions and self-inflated opinions get in the way of new ideas.
If the county executive”™s office and the legislature worked together would we possibly be looking at a budget that is truly different than past years with an overall cut that is more than just $28 million? Would we have a 2011 budget that is much less than $1.79 billion right now?
