Politics on the Hudson

In a press conference today, Westchester County Association President Bill Mooney urged state lawmakerers to stay in session until they adopt the 4 percent property tax cap called for by Tom Suozzi’s  Commission on  Property Tax Relief .

If not, Mooney warned, the association would seek to make the tax cap an election issue.

“Absolutely,” Mooney said. “We are going to drive the agenda.”

To do so, the county association is planning a “consensus building campaign” that will include town hall meetings to rally public opinion. The first is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the auditorium at 800 Westchester Avenue in White Plains.

Questionnaires will be sent to members of the county’s state delegation as well as their opponents seeking their position on the tax cap.
“You see a lot of anger, you see a lot of fear out there,” Mooney said of the public reaction to the growing property tax burden.

The special committee created to review and re-work expense policies at the Westchester Board of Legislators will get started Friday morning.

Headed by Legislator Ken Jenkins, the five-member committee will meet at 9:30 a.m. in board’s offices in White Plains. Word of the first meeting was contained in revised weekly schedule that was released late yesterday afternoon.

The committee was created by Board Chairman Bill Ryan, D-White Plains, after it was reported that his top aide had spent more than $12,000 in taxpayer dollars over the past year on books, software and electronics.

It seems that some Westchester legislators have talents beyond their political skills.

A group of them, according to a press release from the Board of Legislators, will be putting their theatrical skills to work tomorrow when “Legislator Bernice Spreckman and her talented troupe of Yonkers Seniors present their ‘2008 Spring Musical.’”

The musical will feature from hit musicals “Gypsy,” “My Fair Lady,”  and “Annie, Get Your Gun.”  Joining Spreckman in the show will be legislators Ken Jenkins, Vito Pinto, Jose Alvarado, Lois Bronz, Bill Burton and John Nonna.

The show begins at 1 p.m. at the  Polish Community Center in Yonkers.

Republican Dan Schorr seems to think that Washington, D.C., campaign donnors will have an interest in who serves as Westchester’s district attorney.

Schorr, a former assistant district attorney under former DA Jeanine Pirro, sent an e-mail to supporters this morning announcing a June 17th event at Lounge 201 on Capitol Hill.

Tickets for the cocktail reception start at $50.

Schorr has not formally announced his candidacy but appears to be the leading contender for the Republican nomination to take on incumbent Janet DiFiore in 2009. DiFiore was elected on the GOP line in 2005 but switched her party affiliation to Democrat last summer.

It was announced today that Legislator Ken Jenkins, a Yonkers Democrat, will head the special committee that was created to review the almost non-existent expense policies at the Westchester Board of Legislators.

“Our focus is internal controls and policies and things that we’re working on,” Jenkins told The Journal News’ Jorge Fitz-Gibbon this afternoon. “Not specific actions, but our procedures and how things should’ve been purchased. That type of thing.”

Board of Legislators Chairman Bill Ryan announced the formation of the committee on Friday, nearly a week after The Journal News first reported that Gary Kriss, his chief advisor, had spent more than $12,000 thousands of taxpayer dollars in high-tech gadgets, software and books over the past five years, with much of the material shipped directly to his home.

In an interview Friday, Ryan conceded that the board had few, if any, written policies on expenses.Also serving on the committee, which was created Friday by board Chairman Bill Ryan, are legislators William Burton, D-Ossining, Gordon Burrows, R-Yonkers, Peter Harckham, D-Katonah, and George Oros, R-Cortlandt, the board’s minority leader.

Noticeably absent on the committee is Vice Chairman Mike Kaplowitz, D-Somers, who has been one of the the most vocal critics of Ryan’s handling of the Kriss matter.

“No comment,” Kaplowitz said when asked about the committee last night.

The races for local state Assembly and Senate seats have only recently gotten started, but several candidates have already seized upon their first issue: the 4 percent property tax cap proposed by  Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi  and the tax reform commission he chaired.

Republicans Liz Feld,  Bill Gouldman and Rob Biagi are among the latest canddiates to challenge their opponents to back the legislation that would create the tax cap.

“My position is clear,” Feld writes in an “open letter” to  her opponent, Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, that was e-mailed to reporters today. “I will support Governor Patterson’s and County Executive Suozzi’s bi-partisan proposal.”

Gouldman and Biagi have issued similar challenges to Assembly members Sandra Galef and George Latimer.

Also getting in on the act is the Westchester County Association, which has announced a Thursday press conference to discuss the issue.

Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano has not been convicted of a crime, but he will be spending a good portion of the day Tuesday at the county jail.

According to a press advisory from Spano’s office, the county executive will take part in a 10 a.m. press conference to tout the new “Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP).”

The program, according to the advisory, began this month at the jail and “is an intensive program that uses peer pressure and empathy to force violent men to confront what violence has done to their lives and the lives of their families and their victims.”

Inmates involved in the program will also be on hand for the press conference.

Hillary Clinton has suspended her campaign for president, but her website is still up and running. It now urges visitors to support Barack Obama.

But Clinton’s website also includes a taped video message from Clinton offering thanks to her supporters and reiterating a controversial claim from the final days of her candidacy.

“We have won more votes than anyone has ever won who has run for the presidential nomination of any party in our country’s history,” Clinton says in the video.

That claim includes the disputed primary results from Florida and Michigan and did not include the estimated vote tallies from caucus states.

Former District Attorney Jeanine Pirro returned to the Westchester County Courthouse this morning, but not to serve as a prosecutor or even an attorney. She’s got jury duty.

According to reporter Rob Ryser, Pirro hugged security guards and staffers as she headed toward the jurors room.

“Do you think they’ll pick me?” she asked one acquaintance.

Barack Obama’s supporters are understandably riding high these days. About 100 or so of them gathered in an upscale home along the Long Island Sound  yesterday to celebrate Obama’s victory and also raise money for their candidate.

According to The Journal News’ Aman Ali, who covered the party, the event also attracted some former Hillary Clinton supporters who are now happily on the Obama bandwagon.

Columnist Noreen O’Donnell was also at the event and writes today that some Obama supporters are still marveling at his victory in the primary race.