A standing room only crowd of local residents, business owners and public officials turned out at the Ossining Public Library last Tuesday night to discuss a variety of issues with County Executive Rob Astorino.
The event was part of the popular "Ask Astorino" town hall series.
Ossining Supervisor Sue Donnelly delivered welcoming remarks and introduced the county executive. Astorino then started by providing an overview of the goals of his administration (providing tax relief, preserving essential services and promoting economic growth), the results that have been achieved to date, and the challenges that must be overcome to continue making progress.
View the "Ask Astorino" Powerpoint presentation in pdf format.
Since Astorino took office, the county property tax levy has been reduced by 2 percent and spending has been reduced by 5.2 percent. In the five years prior to Astorino taking office, the county tax levy had increased by 17 percent and spending had skyrocketed by 23 percent.
To continue in this positive direction, Astorino led a bipartisan coalition to pass a $1.7 billion budget for 2013 that did not raise taxes and safeguards the county's reserve fund.
Astorino also provided an update on the status of the 2009 housing settlement with the federal government and his Safer Communities initiative that was created in the wake of the Newtown tragedy to improve school safety, as well as community safety.
Before taking questions, Astorino told the crowd how he came to Ossining frequently when he was first getting his start in the radio and television industry. When he was 15 years old, he taped his weekly show out of the public access studio in Ossining. Astorino went on to work professionally in broadcasting, before he was elected county executive.
Questions from the audience included a wide range of topics including services for the developmentally disabled, funding for county parks, infrastructure challenges, public health, small business assistance and maintaining the safety net for the neediest residents.
"Almost 50 cents out of every county tax dollar goes to social services," said Astorino. "Spending for the Department of Social Services has gone up since I came into office. Nobody can say that we have shirked our responsibility or turned our backs."
Astorino invited the attendees to stay in touch with him via email or social media, to speak to their state and local officials about the issues that matter to them and to encourage their friends and neighbors to get involved as well.