Despite cutbacks in federal and state government funds, Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino told seniors and their advocates that not only does he continue to keep their taxes down, but the county's 2013 bipartisan budget added funding that will benefit older residents.
Astorino made his remarks before more than 175 people at the Annual Legislative Breakfast and Speak-Out at the Westchester County Center in White Plains.
The key way to keep living expenses down is to not raise property taxes, Astorino said, adding that he has done so for the third straight year along with a bipartisan coalition of Legislators.
"Protecting taxpayers was a promise I made when taking office, and I refuse to waiver on this pledge," Astorino said. "But it requires making some very difficult decisions."
"I know I don't have to tell you that difficult economic times especially affect seniors," he said, "because so many older residents live on fixed incomes."
The County Executive said that in addition to protecting taxpayers, another of his core tenants is to preserve essential services, especially for ones that many seniors rely on.
So in the 2013 budget, he increased funding for:
• Home-delivered meals for seniors, by $75,000;
• Legal services for abused seniors, by $117,000;
• The county's ParaTransit program, by about $1 million.
"I wish I could say 'yes' to everything." The county executive said. "But government just can't afford it anymore. So we have to assess what we want versus what we can truly afford."
The Speak-Out is sponsored by the county Department of Senior Programs and Services, the Westchester County Council for Seniors and its federal counterpart, the Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council.
The county executive also singled out two initiatives on the Speak-Out agenda for special comment.
One was the new Livable Communities Aging Network Collaborative – a pioneering program where 18 common-interest groups focus on topics that impact seniors, such as housing, hunger, caregiving and economic security.
The collaborative is different from past initiatives in key ways. For example, members in the common-interest groups will come from a mix of public and private organizations. They will then form nontraditional partnerships to deal with problems they all face. In addition, they will share opportunities to coordinate programming, staff training and community education to keep expenses down and avoid duplication of effort.
The County Executive also highlighted the Think Tank project of the Westchester Alliance of Academic Institutions for Aging Related Studies and Workforce Development. Here, nine students from six regional colleges brainstormed to find ways to help the many isolated seniors in the thinly-populated northeast part of the county because there is no public transportation in that region.