Hudson Valley News

 The City of Poughkeepsie will lose $2 million in Dutchess County sales tax revenue in 2013, but that was not the topic when County Executive Marcus Molinaro sat down with Mayor John Tkazyik and Common Council Chairwoman Gwen Johnson on Tuesday.

The discussion looked beyond next year and into the future, said Tkazyik.

  The Rockland County government public employees represented by the CSEA are speaking out against proposed cuts to programs and layoffs in the 2013 county budget.  The proposed spending plan was the topic of a public hearing in New City Tuesday night.

The budget, which includes the elimination of 70 positions and cuts to public health programs such as mosquito control and the county’s breastfeeding initiative for new mothers, was presented in late October and has been going through detailed review in the legislature.

  Rocket attacks by militant Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza on Israel have prompted area police agencies to keep an extra sharp eye out.

Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois wanted to be sure the unrest in the Middle East doesn’t spill over to the Mid-Hudson Valley.

  All five people who spoke during a public hearing on Poughkeepsie’s proposed 2013 budget urged city officials not to lay off any sanitation workers or firefighters.

Mayor John Tkazyik’s budget would stay within the state two percent tax cap, but would lay off 18 city workers.  The $68.6 million spending plan would essentially privatize garbage collection, something that city resident Frank Clark told officials, in his mind, will go the way of other failed concepts.

Prosecutors have decided to retry the ex-mayor of a New York suburb whose domestic violence conviction was overturned. WAMC's Dave Lucas has more...