Minority Leader maintains county executive’s proposed spending plan must be reduced
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 16, 2007
Contact: George Oros,Tel: (914) 995-2828, Goo6@westchestergov.com
Minority Leader George Oros (R/Cortlandt) reacted to County Executive Andrew Spano’s proposed 2008 budget with a 4.7% tax increase by saying it was anything but acceptable and needed some careful scrutiny.
While Spano maintained his $1.78 billion proposal was “a good budget,” Oros strongly disagreed, noting the tax hike was well above the rate of inflation.
“It’s not good,” Oros said. “We have to get closer to zero than to five percent. The taxpayers cannot be constantly faced with these increases. We can do better.”
Oros said in the past eight years county taxes have increased an astounding 54%--double the rate of the cost of living. He pointed out earlier this year the county executive admitted he was dumbfounded on how to get a handle on taxes.
Last year, the Republican minority proposed $20 million of spending cuts, which would have eliminated the need for a tax increase in 2007, but those cuts were ignored. For the last four years, the minority caucus has also offered to work with a private public partnership to identify areas of waste, duplication and overlap in county government.
“The Minority Conference has repeatedly offered and will continue to offer suggestions on how we can think outside the box and get a better handle on county spending,” Oros said. “This terrible trend of out-of-control spending and rising taxes must stop. Taxpayers deserve better.”
“We look forward to working in a bi-partisan effort to do whatever we can to reduce the budget and assist our constituents during these very challenging economic times,” Oros added.
