Legislator Boykin’s First Weeks in Office
The new County Legislator for District 5, Benjamin Boykin (D-White Plains), has had a busy few weeks since his swearing in on January 6th.
Out and about meeting up with his constituents in White Plains, Scarsdale and Harrison, Boykin says he is keen to make sure the residents in his district get what they need.
Interested in the bipartisan coalition that delivered a BOL chairman, Michael Kaplowitz (D-Somers) and vice chair James Maisano (R-New Rochelle), Boykin contends he will only support those measures that work for his district.
As far as improved working relationships across parties goes, Boykin said the new seating arrangement on the eighth floor of the County office building did offer opportunities for mingling with colleagues who might otherwise have been located “at the other end of the hall.”
Boykin says he also is eager to begin work on improved communication between the Executive Branch of the County under the Astorino administration, residing on the ninth floor in the same building, with members of the Legislature.
Legislative agenda items that will be addressed in coming weeks, which particularly interest Boykin, include deciding on the best course of action for Playland and making serious progress with the County’s Affordable Housing settlement with HUD.
White District 5 is not affected by the settlement, Boykin said: “We have to get this behind us. There is $11 million at risk. Lost money because the County is not complying [with certain elements related to the settlement] is hurting the most vulnerable in our communities.”
Boykin is also eager to get going on discussion concerning the County’s Charter revisions. The first meeting of that committee in 2014 was held Monday afternoon.
As with most legislative districts in the county, Boykin’s constituency covers several municipalities. This puts the BOL in a perfect position to work on issues that cannot be held to municipal borders. These include applying the $600,000 funding for County roadwork and creating jobs and promoting local businesses.
“The governor’s freeze on property taxes will drill down to the municipalities,” Boykin explained. “We have to look at ways to share services municipality to municipality and municipality to county and stay below the property tax cap.”
While serving on the White Plains Common Council, Boykin spent some time as chairman of the city’s Shared Services Committee. He has found ways for the city and the school district to save on energy and technology costs. “This is doable and can be done,” Boykin firmly believes. “We have to look everywhere for ways to save.”
Boykin reiterated that while he is dedicated to continue to hold down property taxes, he is concerned that the County protect its most vulnerable citizens. He was happy to see in the current budget, $900,000 returned to fund Title XX agencies, which had been closed since 2010. “This has allowed 100 or more child care slots to be made available for children of the working poor in our community,” he said.
