To The Editor:

I would like to congratulate Catherine Borgia, the Majority Leader of the County Legislature and our representative to that body, on working to create a unanimous consensus to override, just before Christmas, County Executive Rob Astorino’s veto of the County budget. This show of leadership and fiscal responsibility stands in stark contrast to the fiscal recklessness, mismanagement and tea party politics of the Astorino administration. How fitting that by vetoing a thoroughly responsible budget on his way out the door, Mr. Astorino once again reminded us why his brand of know-nothing economics was not in line with our County’s electorate.

In a recent Westchester County Association business survey, 53% of respondents wanted greater government investment in infrastructure, in order to keep the County competitive. According to the NY State Comptroller’s office, under Astorino’s inept fiscal leadership Westchester’s fiscal stress rating has grown by more than 15%, from 53.3% to 63.3%, just in the last 2 years. And just one month ago, Moody’s downgraded the County’s credit rating.

A commanding majority of us in Westchester should be proud of ourselves for seeing through Astorino’s smoke screen of fiscal “magic tricks” by electing George Latimer as our new County Executive. Thanks to that decision, and the change in the majority on the County Legislature, we may once again expect that rational financial decisions will be made going forward. In that spirit, I hope that we will all support Mr. Latimer and Ms. Borgia through the long and challenging process of digging us out of the hole that the Astorino administration dug for us during his eight years in office.

Sincerely,

Richard Masur, Chair
Croton Democratic Committee