Westchester County legislators blasted elected officials in Albany for their continued imposition of mandates without financial relief. Hand in hand with that is the state imposed two percent tax cap.
Legislator Michael Kaplowitz (D-4) said Albany is “a mess.”
Fellow Democrat lawmaker William Ryan (D-5) was highly critical of state legislators.
“They find it very easy to walk into the chamber up there and pass laws that deliver a whole lot to the people of this state, but they can’t in the same day in that same chamber pass laws that include how these things are going to be financed unless the answer is shift the cost to local property taxpayers; they are not able to do it with their own revenues,” Ryan said on Monday.
The Westchester Citizens Budget Advisory Committee presented its recommendations to the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the Board of Legislators as the lawmakers review the proposed $1.7 billion budget for 2013. They include mandate relief on the state level and pension reform and researching the possibility of small county sales and property tax increases.