RYAN, KAPLOWITZ DRAFT HOME RULE LEGISLATION TO ASSIST MUNICIPAL OPEN SPACE PRESERVATION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 1, 2007

Contact: Betsy DeSoye, Director of Communications
(914) 995-3277; cell (914) 275-6031

Proposed legislation by County Legislators Bill Ryan (D-I-WF, White Plains) and Michael Kaplowitz (D-I-WF, Somers) could ease the way for Westchester municipalities to acquire open space for conservation and passive recreational uses.

Ryan, the Chairman of Westchester’s Board of Legislators, and Kaplowitz, the Board’s Budget Committee Chairman, have prepared a home rule request that would open the way for County cities and towns to apply a small transfer tax to home sales within their borders and use it to purchase open space.

The actual law authorizing local municipalities to raise such revenue is currently pending in Albany. Sponsored by State Senator Vincent Leibell and State Assemblyman Adam Bradley, both of whom represent Westchester, the legislation would also apply to Putnam and Rockland counties.

The Ryan-Kaplowitz home rule legislation would allow a municipality the option to impose the real estate transfer tax—up to 2%, paid by the buyer—but only if it has first been approved by a local referendum. Both Ryan and Kaplowitz said that this mechanism would guarantee that the tax “couldn’t be slapped on by politicians without the consent of their residents.”

“The state proposal makes a great deal of sense,” Ryan said. “It acknowledges that municipalities have a unique perspective on their preservation opportunities and provides them with additional revenue to make those opportunities happen.”

Kaplowitz, a long-time champion of open space preservation in Westchester, said, “I commend Senator Leibell and Assemblyman Bradley for this important and forward thinking piece of state legislation. If approved, it will give a tremendous boost to the efforts being made in Westchester and throughout the lower Hudson Valley to protect and preserve our dwindling and irreplaceable inventory of natural resouces.”

Ryan noted that while the Board of Legislators has “continually allocated money for worthwhile open space projects throughout the County, having local partners would dramatically strengthen the depth and breadth of preservation efforts and would relieve some of the great stress on our environment.”

Along the same lines, Kaplowitz said, “local conservationists and preservationists have done an outstanding job and now they’ll be able to coordinate with certain municipalities and multiply their dollars and their good work.”

Ryan and Kaplowitz said they would ask the full Board of Legislators to act on their home rule request at its June 4 meeting “so that Albany knows Westchester County is completely behind this legislation."