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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. News & Comment By John F. Bailey. April 23, 20222:
On Friday evening, on my weekly news roundup on WPTV, White Plains Week, I delivered a short report on Westchester County Executive George Latimer’s State of the County Address. Here is the transcript of that report:
Westchester County Executive George Latimer’s State of the County Address Thursday evening at the Board of Legislators Chamber in the Michaelian Building, presented an impressive list of accomplishments of his administration.
He is lowering property taxes $7 million in the 2022 budget. He has put Westchester back into financial solvency ending last year with a $64 million surplus.
He noted increasing child care opportunities to respond to the covid pandemic need for child care sites serving 600 children so both parents or single parents could go to their jobs. His administration delivered 416,593 covid innoculations through 200 satellite vaccination locations and conducted 274,167 tests in schools across the county. His listing of the thousands of covid related tasks the county conducted last year was beyond impressive.
The County Executive reaffirmed his administration commitment to affordable housing projects with $50 Million committed to new affordable housing projects in 2022. He said the county affordable facility building mandates ordered by the federal government 4 years ago was deemed brought to a “successful completion,” by the HUD Monitor. He pointed out the county is adding 4,400 more afordable housing units ‘in the pipeline’.
He rattled off commitments made to infrastructure and how the county is growing in population now over 1 million.
You can see the complete address for yourself on the County Facebook website.
He touted the fact that crime in Westchester was down 27%.
He emphasized how “everyone pulls together in Westchester County, because we don’t go it alone. We all help each other.
The body of work the county executive and his team whom he recognized repeatedly during the address is impressive and he promised a master plan for the airport would be coming starting in june with additional public input.
He cited improvements to historical places, parks, trails, and outreach efforts to include more involvement with all minorities.
Addressing the state of war in the world, he said “in the end it is “all we have in the end is love and acceptance.”
The accomplishments were striking.
Westchester there is a lot to be proud of during the last toughest four years any county executive has ever faced.
George Latimer came along when you needed a hands-on leader to be perhaps the best County Executive in decades when westchester needed one and his administration came through.