Kaplowitz: “low and slow”
WHITE PLAINS – Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman Michael Kaplowitz is stepping down from the leadership position.
In a letter to county residents, he said over his four years as chairman, he engaged members of the Democrat, Republican and Conservative parties “in a unique experience of bipartisanship.”
But, he said the county faces challenges, particularly in the area of budget and finance. The county ends this year with a $15 million deficit and a proposed 2018 budget with “a best-case scenario of $10 million.”
Kaplowitz said both the outgoing administration of County Executive Robert Astorino, a Republican, and his predecessor, Democdrat Andrew Spano, believed “they could defy the laws of budgetary gravity.” Both failed, he said.
Kaplowitz, a Democrat, said he has learned three budgetary lessons: “no one wants to pay more property taxes;” “you get what you pay for” with excellent staff and services; and, “gyrations in county taxes that dramatically fall one year, and dizzyingly increase the next year, is wrong. Equally wrong is the artificial stance of never raising property taxes.”
Instead, he said policymakers should employ a “low and slow” approach. “Adopt a tax cap methodology that allows for minimal one or two percent increases.” That way he said taxpayers will know what to expect and county government can plan for current and long-term strategies.
Kaplowitz said he is hopeful that the incoming administration of County Executive George Latimer will adopt that “low and slow” tax policy to allow the county “to reset our budgetary expectations while working through significant current deficits.”
