Politics on the Hudson

It wasn’t just newspaper editorials and good government groups that opposed the attempt by Westchester Board of Legislators Chairman Bill Ryan and the board’s Democratic leadership to boost stipends.

During a meeting of the board’s majority caucus yesterday, four Democratic lawmakers refused to go along with the pay plan, which, among other things, would have boosted Ryan’s total compensatioon to $124,000 from $89,200.

The four legislators were Michael Kaplowitz of Somers, Lois Bronz of Greenburgh, Judy Myers of Mamaroneck and Vito Pinto of Tuckahoe.

Without those votes, Ryan did not have enough support to push the package through the legislature. Instead, he decided to put the issue off and have an advisory panel review the matter early next year.

“There were a lot of questions that were raised by my constituents on both sides of the aisle,” Pinto said. “Every man and woman on this board has to vote their conscience and I just wasn’t ready to vote for this.”

The opposition from Kaplowitz was somewhat surprising since he earlier defended Ryan’s proposal.

“A defense is not a vote,” Kaplowitz said today. He added that: “There are a lot of subtleties and lot of shades of gray in decision making. There is not all right and there is not all wrong…A compelling case was not made and the public did not have adequate input.”