Home Rule Protects Us from Albany. It’s Time Elected Officials Understood That

By Gina Arena

Suburban communities have been under assault by New York State and the federal government for several years now, and some of our Democratic legislators have outright embraced the effort.

From 2008 to 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) worked to dissolve local zoning in seven Westchester communities, which they outrageously labeled “racist” for having single-family zoning, much of it quarter-acre. The feds, and the local elected leaders who bowed down to them, refused to acknowledge that local zoning determines where projects can be built in towns and villages, not who can live there.

(It’s worth noting that Westchester is the most diverse county in New York State outside the five boroughs of New York City, something we can be proud of.)

Then, in 2022, state Sen. Peter Harckham, one of HUD’s kowtowers, tried to pull another fast one on his constituents. Harckham sponsored legislation to effectively erase local zoning laws in Westchester and Putnam communities near train stations. Under Harckham’s bill, multifamily buildings could be erected as-of-right in quiet residential neighborhoods in Putnam and Westchester, threatening their resources, character and traffic patterns. Extraordinary organic blowback convinced Harckham to pull his measure.

Now, Harckham is at it again, this time by working to give New York State authority over local communities in placing massive energy facilities. Harckham seems to believe that progressives in Albany, like him, know what’s better for our communities than we do. We only live here.

I mention Harckham by name because he refused to use mine in an attack on me recently published in these pages. The subject was the proposal to build the largest battery farm in America in the Mahopac-Somers-Carmel area, which I and thousands of my neighbors adamantly oppose. That opposition caused Harckham to take a step back, this time saying he’s supporting a “temporary” moratorium on the project. We all know what “temporary” means in New York.

Harckham and his progressive allies in Albany are making a habit of advancing projects against the will of everyday New Yorkers. The disastrous $15 congestion pricing tax proposal, for example, which Harckham supports, just wasted more than a half-billion dollars in taxpayer funds for license plate readers that will likely never be used. Gov. Hochul, with Harckham’s full support, buried congestion pricing in a budget bill to avoid public debate. Once again, they knew better, and it cost us.

It doesn’t stop there. Also in 2022, Harckham threatened to cut off all state funding for local public schools with mascots he deemed offensive. He walked that one back, too. He also supported the natural gas ban on new residential construction in large swaths of the state. Albany knows better than new homeowners, it seems. Harckham knows better than car owners as well. Under a law he backed, all new vehicles in New York have to be electric by 2035, regardless of whether people want or can afford them.

I won’t even go into his plan to bring socialized medicine to New York, other than to note that Harckham’s legislation would abolish private health insurance in the state and increase personal income tax rates from 6.65 percent to 18.3 percent for those earning $150,000 per year or more.

Pete knows best, just as he did in legalizing marijuana without adequate safeguards in place. The result is thousands of illegal pot shops across the region selling completely unregulated products.

I’m running for state Senate to represent the everyday, common-sense residents of Westchester, Putnam and Rockland who actually know a thing or two about their hometowns.

Gina Arena is the Republican candidate running for state Senate in New York’s 40^th Senate District, which includes parts of Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties.

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