WHITE PLAINS – In one of his final acts as Westchester County executive, Robert Astorino vetoed the Board of Legislators’ 2018 budget that included a two percent tax hike.
In his message to lawmakers on Monday, he said he delivered a balanced and fiscally prudent budget without increasing the property tax.
Astorino cited other “flaws” in the adopted budget including their “unnecessary drain” of $20 million in reserve funds, which he said could adversely affect the county’s AAA bond rating, and its omission of a “legitimate, long-term and sustainable revenue stream from a proposed public-private partnership to operate the Westchester County Airport, which would have provided the county with $30 million in non-tax revenue for the 2018 budget as well as approximately $5 million new revenue for the next 39 years.”
He said with Washington “about to cap state and local property tax deductions, the most irresponsible and hypocritical thing to do is to make matters worse by hiking our already sky-high taxes.”
The legislators could attempt an override of the outgoing county leader’s veto before the end of the year.
