Letter to the Editor: Port Chester Man Supports Gelfarb and Astorino

The federal government shut down proves there is a stark contrast to our County Board of Legislators and County Executive Rob Astorino.

Remember last December when the Board was set to adopt the County’s 2013 budget? There was some honest disagreement over budgetary priorities.  But to our credit, our Legislator, David Gelfarb, stuck to the facts and figures as he always does.  Gelfarb always puts Harrison, Rye Brook and Port Chester before politics.

Other legislators operate differently.  Instead of trying to reach a compromise with County Executive Astorino and their legislative colleagues, a minority of the Board members blindly followed the lead of political boss Ken Jenkins.  They stormed out of the legislative chambers right as the budget debate began.  Can you believe they even turned off the lights and sounded an incessant alarm bell?  You can see all of this shamelessness on YouTube.  Through all these shenanigans, Astorino, Gelfarb and the remaining legislators (some Democrat, some Republican) reached a compromise budget that didn’t raise taxes, preserved essential services and protected the County’s reserve fund.

We can’t change Congress until 2014.  We can make sure our county government remains a functional, bi-partisan group working for real results.  We’re fortunate to have Astorino and Gelfarb on our side.   On November 5th let’s re-elect Astorino and Gelfarb.  When the tough decisions call for collaboration, they won’t storm out and turn off the lights.   They’ll deliver for Harrison, Rye Brook, and Port Chester.  Congress has a lot to learn from Astorino and Gelfarb.

Frank Ferrara

Port Chester