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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Department of Communications with information from WPCNR. October 31, 2013:

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the award of a $1.58 billion  TIFIA  loan to the Thruway Authority for partial funding of the new Tappan Zee Bridge  at about 2 P.M. this afternoon:

“Approval of New York State’s request for this loan is great news for the tens of thousands of commuters who depend on the Tappan Zee every day, for communities in the Lower Hudson Valley, and for our entire state,” Governor Cuomo said. “This is a huge win for New York State, creating thousands of jobs, and an endorsement of one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in our history. It shows that despite over a decade of delay, New York can continue to build big. I thank Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx for his hard work helping New York secure this loan.”

The following is a statement from Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino regarding the federal government’s approval of a $1.58 billion loan to help finance construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge:

“I congratulate Governor Cuomo on this good news. The next step is how do we finance the rest of the bridge and the mass transit improvements to and from the bridge, while keeping tolls as low as possible. The governor has my full support to help the state come up with the best financing plans possible.”

The approval comes three days after Standard & Poor’s downgraded New York State Thruway Authority credit rating from A+ to A.

The S&P News Release on the downgrade said: “The downgrade reflects our view of the NYSTA’s (New York State Thruway Authority) significant increase in leverage and reliance  on frequent rate increases to maintain margins.

Joseph Pezzimenti, S&P Credit Analyst said: “Although we have a general idea of how much tolls will be increased to fund the replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge and ongoing capital needs for the rest of the (thruway) system, the combination of the lack of a specific tolling plan and the potential for lower traffic levels at a time when the NYSTA will incread its leverage significantly led to the the downgrade.”

The lowering of the rating is expected to add millions to the cost of the thruway borrowing the  balance  of $2.7 BILLION more  to build the $4.2 Billion bridge, including loan costs.

The Federal Highway Agency took approximately one year to approve the loan during which time the TIFIA interest rate for a 35-year loan went from 3.1% a year to 3.62% as of today.“Approval of New York State’s request for this loan is great news for the tens of thousands of commuters who depend on the Tappan Zee every day, for communities in the Lower Hudson Valley, and for our entire state,” Governor Cuomo said. “This is a huge win for New York State, creating thousands of jobs, and an endorsement of one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in our history. It shows that despite over a decade of delay, New York can continue to build big. I thank Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx for his hard work helping New York secure this loan.”

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2013.News Comment .October 30, 2013:

WPCNR usually does not report endorsements in political campaigns, but when a candidate’s hometown media radio station that has had the opportunity to view Mr. Bramson’s performance as councilmember and Mayor first hand in New Rochelle for 16 years, declines to endorse Noam Bramson, that’s news. If anything, a hometown radio station would be the first to endorse him. Here is that editorial broadcast by station owner William O-Shaughnessy Tuesday.

William O’Shaughnessy, the President and Editorial Director of WVOX Radio (where WPCNR does an unpaid commentary once a week on Tuesdays, 7:35 A.M.) broadcast the following editorial Tuesday:

Astorino for County Executive

A Whitney Media Editorial of the Air

by William O’Shaughnessy

broadcast October 29, 2013

Despite what you’ve heard … we are endorsing Noam Bramson … for
Congress!

We’re sorry. But Noam Bramson has been running a “Congressional
Campaign” from the get go. Young Mr. Bramson, I tell you, has all
the Kennedy-esque moves. All the gestures. The pace. The cadence.
The rhythm. All the Harvard elocution. He’s got the moves.

But. But downtown New Rochelle, with rare exception (a few good
restaurants, an art gallery, a couple of jewelry stores) is essentially
all “dollar” stores and a for-profit college owned by out-of-towners.
For you see Mayor Bramson has practically turned over most of our
faded and beleaguered downtown to Monroe College and the Jerome
family’s for-profit empire. And he’s trying to jam that ill-conceived
Echo Bay so-called “development” down everyone’s throat. But the
concerned, sensible residents of his city are asking what the hell
Forest City Ratner has ever done for New Rochelle! We can answer
that: absolutely nothing!

We’ve been at the People’s Business for 50 years, ladies and
gentlemen … covering politics and government here in Westchester
… and we’ve had Mayor Bramson at this microphone often during his
tenure as our part-time mayor. He’s articulate. He talks a very good
game of policy-speak. But he’s gone missing during his recent
bewildering “Congressional Campaign.”

Noam Bramson is precocious. He’s brilliant. And he lets everyone
know it. He’s a policy wonk very much at ease with the jargon of
governance and lingo of text book public policy .

But the Westchester county executive is supposed to run the damn
county parks, the county parkways, the county police. And preside
over the 1.7 billion dollar county budget. Mr. Astorino does that all
with great skill and sound judgment.

Our friends at the Journal News have blessed Mr. Bramson’s lofty
aspirations … saying he offers a “holistic” approach. With all due
respect, I’m not sure what the hell that means (we’re sure our friend
Phil Reisman, their star feature columnist, didn’t write that Holy
Holistic headline!) Have it as you will, we believe Rob Astorino offers
a sensible, prudent, common sense approach to regional, local
government.

Mr. Bramson has shoveled hundreds of thousands of dollars down to
Washington, DC consultants and political gurus in the state of
Virginia. But he has almost completely ignored local media – the
local newspapers, and indeed, our local radio stations. There’s no
question he’s shooting for the big time. He’s really … running … for
Congress. And it was ever thus.

Indeed, Mr. Bramson has even ignored the elders of his own Democratic Party in Westchester. No, like I said, I think our mayor is shooting for bigger fish. He wants to go National. We don’t think he’s at all interested in this job of Westchester County Executive.

We go all the way back in this county to Edwin Gilbert Michaelian, the
legendary county executive of sainted memory. The county office
building is named after Mr. Michaelian. He was a wonderful man.
And a great county executive. So too was Andy O’Rourke who we
lost just recently after a long, distinguished career in public service.
Rob Astorino is cut from the same bi-partisan, sensible cloth as
Michaelian and O’Rourke.

Astorino is also astute and smart enough to repair to the wise
counsel of some very intelligent individuals who know Westchester
well … such as his deputy Kevin Plunkett and Kevin’s estimable brother William Plunkett … as well as John Cahill, who, indeed, ran the State of New York at one time as chief of staff to a former governor … whereas Mr. Bramson seems to have wrapped himself in the bosom of those paid gun political strategists from Arlington, Virginia and Washington, D.C. who see big things for him. But the bottom line is: Noam Bramson is … not … a … good … fit … for this job.

We’re sorry but guns and abortion are national issues. And so is gay
marriage. And while we’re at it, it’s one thing to say you’re Pro
Choice. Everybody should be Pro Choice. A state can’t legislate
where it has no power, that is, in a woman’s body. But, in the very
next breath, we think you’ve got to say how horrible and vulgar and
violent abortion is. We haven’t heard that from Noam Bramson.

On his record, on the issues that should count in this race, Mr.
Astorino has been, in fact, a very brave and able executive. He’s
taken bold and, at the same time, prudent, sensible steps to curb the
excesses and sweep away the rubble of the Spano years. And he’s
done it all thoughtfully and carefully and fairly.

The battered and discredited national GOP in Washington can
certainly take a lesson from our enlightened Republican county
executive. He’s reached across the aisle and actually cooperated
with (God-forbid) Democrats.

Astorino has worked especially well with our Westchester neighbor
Governor Andrew Cuomo in whom we are so well pleased. And, in
case anyone failed to notice – the Governor, in what was supposed to
be a huge, momentous endorsement of Mayor Bramson last weekend
… opted instead to just do a perfunctory “shout-out” to Rockland and
Westchester Democratic candidates in general.

And say what you will about wily Bill Clinton. He’s not stupid. And
Bill Clinton’s so-called “endorsement” of Mr. Bramson was along the
same lines. (Anyway, we think he endorsed Mr. Bramson. It’s
“rumored” that he did anyway). But notice that no members of the
press were allowed to witness the grand event. Not one. In fact, the
media was summarily banned from the proceedings (something thatwas very pointedly noted by News 12’s great Janine Rose during the recent debate).

Now despite the outstanding job he’s been doing, Astorino has some
formidable obstacles. He’s got registration numbers against him.
Westchester, in case you haven’t noticed, is heavily Democratic. He’s
most likely got my beloved New York Times against him. He’s
certainly got our friends at “Mother Gannett” – the Journal News –
against him. And to his great credit, he’s got shy, modest retiring
Senator Chuck Schumer against him.

Rob Astorino has also had a lot of endorsements. But he’s going to have one more. We’re very pleased to announce this morning that WVOX and WVIP are endorsing Mr. Astorino, the very able and dedicated … Republican and Conservative candidate for County Executive of Westchester.

We’re glad to stand with Mr. Astorino.

This is a WVOX and WVIP Editorial of the Air. This is William
O’Shaughnessy.