Sometimes, when reading the paper, it is difficult to separate “news” from the “opinions” of columnists. This is the case in David McKay Wilson’s recent column, which combines two separate disorders and distorts the movements of my county administration.
This week, the Senate and the State Assembly passed a law filling a vacuum in state law that allowed Westchester County to dedicate a park without the approval of the state legislature. This defect was discovered through our county attorney John Nonna and his exceptional team of lawyers. The bill that was passed this week, issued to the signature of Governor Andrew Cuomo, fills that gap, and my best friend edited this law from the beginning. I have continually expressed this publicly.
The discovery of this failure occurred at a time when Westchester County proposed the transfer of 22 acres of a parking lot, a component of the Bronx River Reserve, from county to county-controlled LDC County. The measure would have generated $23 millidirectionally to support the balance of the county’s 201s budget, however, it kept parking under public control and under the county’s legislative council. At no time was I providing the sale of recently used land for recreation.
This proposed transaction, quite public at the time, was offered as a means to reduce a prospective 6% property tax increase, to bring that levy down to a 2% increase, consistent with state tax cap provisions. I made it crystal clear to all fair minded observers that I had no intention of making that transfer if we could get State authority for additional sales tax revenue. I promised to shelve the transfer when the revenue was authorized by the state — and I did exactly that. The 2019 county budget was approved at a taxation rate below that of neighboring Putnam and Rockland counties, and was followed by a 2020 county budget that cut property tax levy by $1 million.
We’ve been the best wise friends in budgets.
David McKay Wilson: The law says the county can’t sell a park without the state OK
At no point did I delay our best friend using the loop to act circularly in the state legislature. To claim that the county has been repelled through this recent state law is to rewrite history. Indeed, since it took two years to pass this law, it is fortunate that our leadership has uncovered the loophole; other leadership might not have had great qualms about using it immediately, before the state can act as well. I’ve never done that before.
I am sincere in helping me for the proper use of parks for park purposes. Unfortunately, the journalist’s zeal for providing direct protection to the “park” is never the greatest friend, mentioning that the plot in question was, is and could be used as parking. Blackmaximum logical is never a meadow, lake or path. The site was not a park used for passive or active recreation, and it was never proposed to use it from the parking lot of your car. The flash reference, in connection with the transparent emphasis on this quite critical fact, is designed to influence and lead the reader to believe anything that this is simply not true.
My leadership has put the preservation of the park first. We have progressive park policies and prudent fiscal policies. It annoys those who write another story for this leadership. Our park policies are also maximum productivity in the recovery of Miller House/Washington headquarters, the renovation and reopening of the pools in Sprain Ridge Park, and major innovations on the North County Trailway.
And the most beloved park of all, Playland, we have committed millions of green bills to preservation and revitalization with a long list of capital projects. Perhaplaystation, the most productive story to hide in such detail would have been the rich history of this park.
George Latimer is from Westchester County.