KINGSTON – State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill (D-Kingston) has written to Ulster County Executive Michael Hein urging him to “change your tone from the inflammatory rhetoric that has characterized your actions over these last several months and join me in providing the people we represent with the kind of leadership they deserve.”
The county is calling for state legislative approval for an extension of a one percent sales tax. Cahill wants it officially in local law that the county will take over the full Safety Net social services funding by the 2015 county fiscal year. He said he has not received that “binding commitment,” even though Hein has placed it in his proposed 2014 county budget.
Cahill said should the county approve the 2014 budget with the Safety Net takeover, “I will work with my colleagues for the earliest possible floor consideration, leading to passage, of an authorization to extend until November 30, 2015, the authority of Ulster County to impose a temporary additional one percent sales tax on its residents and shoppers.”
Hein said Cahill is “disconnected from the facts,” saying the county legislature has approved the Safety Net takeover, but the county executive said the issue has nothing to do with Safety Net.
“It always had everything to do with Assemblyman Cahill’s attempts to extort county government and exert control over local government,” Hein said. “We are hopeful that he is going to not continue to block what passed overwhelming in the New York State Senate and a bill the governor would gladly sign.”
Cahill has repeatedly maintained that he has not “blocked” any efforts and to call it that is a misrepresentation.
Cahill told Hein in his letter that whether Hein chooses to ease up on his attacks on him, it “will not alter my resolve to continue to refrain from such unproductive behavior.”