Astorino Worsened Westchester’s Debt While in Office
What a shock reading a letter from lifelong New Yorker Rob Astorino, complaining so much about our beautiful, diverse and exciting state.
The complaining of someone who would be governor tries to focus on fiscal issues. This, too, is shocking once you learn that when he was in his last year as Westchester county executive, Standard and Poor’s global ratings downgraded its outlook for Westchester’s debt from “stable” to “negative,” while citing a reliance on so-called “one-shot” revenues to balance its annual county budgets.
To be fair, when Astorino took office in 2010, he was faced with significant debt. Well, everyone was in debt in 2010. The recovery from the 2008 Great Recession was just beginning in 2010. What a great opportunity. Take over during a recovery.
Apparently poor financial management led to Astorino borrowing to pay for expenses and pension costs. Borrowing to cover expenses is usually frowned upon because it implies, you’re spending more than you’re earning. The borrowing only adds to your costs due to the interest charges to cover the added debt, thus increasing your annual expenses further. If you have a credit card or any other debt, you understand this.
At the end of Astorino’s final year as county executive, he left an operating deficit of more than $32 million. And this was during the growth years as his mentor Trump was claiming the economy was having “the best of times.” Birds of a feather, because the federal deficit now hovers around $26 trillion.
Lastly, I would like to proudly state that according to Adam McCann’s “Best States to Live In” on June 11, 2019, he rated New York State as number one.
Mark A. Lieberman
Yorktown
Mark A. Lieberman is co-chair of the Yorktown Democratic Committee.
