Cuomo Signature ends Mount Kisco Mandate
After repeated requests from the village board of trustees, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed legislation to end an unpopular unfunded mandate in Mount Kisco.
The recent move by Cuomo to sign legislation to eliminate the Mount Kisco Urban Renewal Agency was applauded by Assemblyman Robert Castelli (R-C/Goldens Bridge) and state Sen. Greg Ball (R-C/Patterson), who co-authored the legislation. Castelli and Ball said the new law will save Mount Kisco taxpayers money and streamline the process of approving new businesses in the village.
“I applaud Gov. Cuomo for singing this bill into law. This is exactly the red tape that stifles small businesses and job creation in New York State,” Ball said. “This law is a step in the right direction to eliminate wasteful government spending and to help streamline job creating projects in the Village of Mount Kisco and the Hudson Valley area.”
Castelli agreed. “Dissolving the Urban Renewal Agency has eliminated an unnecessary layer of government, which will ultimately save taxpayers’ dollars,” he said. “I commend Gov. Cuomo, Sen. Ball and Mayor (Michael) Cindrich for helping spearhead this effort with me, and will continue to work with them and my reform-minded colleagues on both sides of the aisle to eliminate and curb other wasteful and unnecessary public authorities.”
Ball and Castelli said the agency has long since become obsolete since its inception in the 1970’s and created an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy which has stymied local development in Mount Kisco by forcing the village board to act as the agency and perform a duplicative function to the planning board. Projects sited in Mount Kisco will no longer require additional action from the newly-eliminated Urban Renewal Agency after they have planning board approval, thanks to this new law, they said.
Cindrich began the effort locally to downsize the authority. “Thank you to Assemblyman Castelli, Senator Ball and Governor Cuomo for recognizing the Urban Renewal Agency is an unfunded mandate which has outlived its intended purpose, and taking the action needed to eliminate it,” he said.
