Politics on the Hudson

Now that Assemblyman Richard Brodsky is running for state  attorney general, Westchester County Legislator Tom Abinanti is running for the Assembly. He’s expected to announce tomorrow.

After meeting Abinanti at the state Democratic Convention — where Brodsky and four others secured lines on a Sept. 14 ballot — the Greenburgh Democrat told Politics on the Hudson that he is indeed running. And reform is on his mind.

“My history shows my concern for reforming government,” Abinanti said during a meeting in the lobby at Hilton Rye Town where the Democrats held their statewide convention. “We need to send representatives to Albany who will be able to restore trust in government.”

Abinanti, a longtime advocate and defender of county government, said he has shown that he can be independent and put his constituents before politics.

“There are appropriate roles for government and in New York, the government is not properly functioning,” he said. “We need someone who is going to understand the system and not be part of the system.”

Earlier this week, the Westchester GOP picked Tom Bock as its candidate for that race.

The district includes Greenburgh, Mount Pleasant and a small — and by small we mean a sliver — part of Yonkers.

Legislator Tom Abinanti, a Greenburgh Democrat, supports a plan to have municipalities collect taxes in two installments. He’s calling on his colleagues to pass a law permitting that. County law controls the collection of local taxes.

The support comes a day after Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner pitched the idea.

“It is time for the county to review the system of tax collections to see if the benefits to those who don’t pay their property taxes through lending institutions outweigh the additional costs to the municipalities involved,” said Abinanti.

Legislator Thomas Abinanti, a Greenburgh Democrat, was appointed to serve in three National Association of Counties, or NACo positions – a vice chair of the Health Steering Committee, a member of the Membership Committee and a member of the Programs and Services Committee. 

“These are new opportunities to influence NACo policy-and through it the Federal Government-to help our Westchester residents,”  Abinanti said in a release announcing the appointments yesterday. “We all need to use the means available to redirect our national government to meet the needs of our local communities.”

According to the release, the Health Committee is a public policy committee that reviews and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors on the position that NACo and its Washington lobbying staff should take on public health issues. The Membership Committee is a committee charged with recruitment and retention of county members.  The Programs and Services Committee makes recommendations on programs and projects for NACo to pursue that will help counties.

 The Journal News this weekend published a story relating to county travel to NACo conferences. Read it here. 

Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano’s controversial plan to purchase a vacant warehouse/office building in Greenburgh — a property owned by one of his frequent campaign contributors — and use it to store new voting machines cleared a huge hurdle today.

The proposal won approval from two key committees of the Board of Legislators, setting up a vote  before the full board early next month. In addition to new voting machines, which the county must sooon purchase under state and federal election reforms, the building will also house the administrative headquarters of the county’s Department of Public Safety.

“We’ve got a very good price here and we ought to jump at it,” said Legislator Judy Myers, a a Democrat from Mamaroneck.

Spano’s plan calls for the county to spend $13.6 million to purchase and renovate the building at 450 Saw Mill River Road, which is located just outside the village of Ardsley. The building is owned by Ardsley Partners III, whose principal, Jon Halpern, is a major Democratic donor and has hosted a fundraiser for Spano.

Administration officials have argued that the building represents the best-available deal for taxpayers and that Halpern’s contributions have played no role in the process.

After more than a year of debate, Spano’s arguments seem to be taking hold. Several legislators today expressed support for the proposal, describing it as a cost effective deal for taxpayers.

Legislator Thomas Abinanti, D-Greenbrugh, however, remained critical.

“In these economic times, we should not be buying a building,” Abinanti said. “We should be making do with what we have.”

 The MTA faces a new budget gap of between $500 million and $700 million next year because of a slowdown in tax collections, MTA boss Elliott Sander said today at a hearing in Albany.

When asked if that means tolls and train, bus and subway fares might go up, he said not if the state increases its aid to the transit  system. “It’s too early to say,’’ he said.

“I am asking the Legislature and the governor for more financial support,’’ he said at the hearing, conducted by Assembly Authorities Committee Chairman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh.  That’s considered unlikely since the state, too, is under intense fiscal pressure.

One more bit of bad news from Sander: the $20 billion MTA capital plan is “badly underfunded.’‘

Westchester Legislator Tom Abinanti had a curious answer when asked about rumors that he’s considering a primary campaign against Assemblyman Richard Brodsky.

“I’ve had a lot of people ask me to run but I have no plans at this time to do anyhing,” said Abinanti, a Greenburgh Democrat.

Abinanti also said he plans to “sit back and see what happens.” He declined to comment further.

Westchester Legislator Mike Kaplowitz, who opted not to run against state Assemblyman Greg Ball, must have some extra time on his hands. He’s been named leader of the Board’s newly-created Subcommittee on Energy Efficiency.

“Although this county has made great strides in the area of energy efficiency, we need to do more and we need to be aggressive,” Kaplowitz, a Somers Democrat, said in a press release.  “This country is in an energy crisis and due to the lack of leadership on the national level regarding this issue, we must roll up our legislative sleeves and provide energy leadership at the local level.”

Kaplowitz, who is also the Board’s vice chairman, was tapped for the post by Legislator Thomas Abinanti of Greenburgh. Abinanti chairs the Board’s Environment & Energy Committee.

The subcommittee’s first meeting will be 3 p.m. Monday with officials from the New York Power Authority.”

Salaries and staffing level have been a thorny issue for the Westchester Board of Legislators of late.

Yet, Legislator Thomas Abinanti last night declared that the board needed the “political guts” to hire more staff. His comments came during an extended — nearly two hours — debate on $28 million sewer bond issue for New Rochelle.

Abinanti, a Greenburgh Democrat, argued that the board needed additional staff members to review such complicated matters as whether Westchester should have a countywide sewer district and to better challenge some of the positions of County Executive Andrew Spano.

Despite much haggling and the vehement opposition of Legislator James Maisano, R-New Rochelle, the sewer bond issue was approved by a 12-5 vote. The key vote was provided by Legislator Bernice Spreckman, R-Yonkers, who abandoned her GOP colleagues and sided with the board’s Democratic leadership in supporting the measure.

In case you missed it on Sunday, The Journal News looked at the expense reports of the Westchester Board of Legislators and found that spending by lawmakers had jumped sevenfold over the past five years.

Using data, obtained through the state Freedom of Information Law, the newspaper also revealed that four legislators in particular accounted for more than 80 percent of all such costs billed since 2003: Thomas Abinanti, Chairman William Ryan, Majority Leader Martin Rogowsky and former Vice Chairman Clinton Young – submitted more than $70,000 in bills for various expenses.

Ryan defended the expenses, saying they were due to greater involvement in national organizations and constituent services.

The purchase of “Emergency Traffic Diversion Equipment” isn’t something that, on its surface, would seem likely to generate much debate among government officials.

But at yesterday’s otherwise-uneventful meeting of Westchester’s Board of Legislators, that’s just what happened. And the tone, at times partisan, seemed to indicate an underlying frustration that exists among some lawmakers and the administration of County Executive Andrew Spano.

It began when Minoroty Leader George Oros, R-Cortlandt, suggested that the $2.65 million bond issue be sent back to the Budget Committee for further work. He suggested that the county didn’t need to spend so much money when old fashioned saw horses and traffic cones had worked in the past.

That resulted in a chiding from Budget Committee Chairman Michael Kaplowitz, who argued that the measure was needed to purchase new, moveable barriers for the Bronx River Parkway to keep drivers off the road when it floods. He suggested that by opposing the measure, Oros and the other minority caucus members who opposed the measure were voting against public safety.

Oros and other members of the minority, including Legislator Suzanne Swanson, took issue with Kaplowitz’s comments, saying they were acting in the best interests of the county.

Then Legislator Thomas Abinanti, a Greenburgh Democrat, rose to say he too had “grave concerns” about the Spano administration’s plans but would vote for them anyway ecause he was concerned about being branded anti-public safety by Spano.

Then today, Deputy County Executive Larry Schwartz, when asked about the debate in the legislature, did exactly what Abinanti and the GOP lawmakers had feared.

“I think their answers and their attitude were anti-public safety,” Schwartz said about Oros and the other three lawmakers who opposed the measure. “They seemed less concerned with protecting the residents of Westchester County than scoring political points.”

Oros shrugged off Schwartz’s comments.

“I expect that of Larry Schwartz,” Oros said. “That’s the way he is. Instead of addressing the facts, he would rather call you a name.”