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Good evening and welcome to the Westchester County Courthouse.

This is our second year having the State of the County address in the

Central Jury room.

It is good to have all of you with us tonight.

Thanks to our host, the honorable Alan Scheinkman, administrative judgefor the Ninth Judicial District, for making this room available to us.

My responsibility tonight is to report on the state of Westchester County to the Board of Legislators.

Chairman Ken Jenkins, Majority Leader Peter Harckham, Minority Leader Jim Maisano and all of our legislators … thank you for joining me.

Also with us are:

I also want to welcome everyone at home watching us on News 12.

Thanks to everyone for being here, especially my family.

Before we start, I would like to acknowledge that our hearts and thoughts are with the victims and families of the Boston terror attacks and the West Texas plant explosion. Please keep them all in your prayers. [PAUSE]

In Westchester, the news of the state of the county begins on an equally serious but more positive note.

Last year, not one man or woman serving from Westchester in our armed forces lost their life on the battlefield.

That is not to say great sacrifice, courage and dedication have been absent.

One example is retired Lance Corporal Nancy Schiliro, who is with us tonight.

A self-proclaimed tomboy growing up in Eastchester, Nancy nonetheless surprised her family when she enlisted in the Marine Corps.

In September of 2004, she was deployed to Al Asad, Iraq, where she served as one of only two embarkation specialists in her unit.

It was February and she was chatting near one of the base’s large diesel fuel tanks when a mortar round struck.

Black smoke billowed and Nancy blacked out.

When she woke, her face was cut but she remembers saying to her

partner. “I feel fine.”

But she wasn’t.

Four surgeries followed. To save her left eye, doctors had to remove her right eye.

She will tell you the emotional pain of having a prosthetic eye was the worst part. Depression and isolation followed.

Then a friend encouraged her to attend a meeting of Project Odyssey, which is part of the Wounded Warrior program.

By bonding and sharing similar experiences with other female soldiers, her recovery began and her confidence returned.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Today Nancy’s life is dedicated to helping returning soldiers readjust to life at home working for Wounded Warriors full time as a benefits liaison.

Nancy, thank you for your heroism and continuing service to our country.

It is particularly fitting that we honor Nancy tonight as 2013 has been declared the Year of the Woman Warrior.

And for any veterans out there, who need any kind of help – whether for

housing, counseling, benefits, or advocacy on your behalf – please contact

our Veterans Service Agency.

It is there to help, and nobody is better at getting you help than our director

Vito Pinto and his team.

Visit our website for more information on any issue addressed tonight and

also feel free to follow and contact me on Facebook and Twitter.

And of course, Westchester residents can always call my office at: 914-

There is another veteran – not with us tonight – whose service to our

county and nation cannot go unmentioned.

As a young man, and throughout his life, he had the distinction of serving

three branches of our military: the Army, Air Force and Navy. He also

served in all three branches of government.

Board of Legislators.

Court.

Of course we are talking about Andrew O’Rourke, who died in January.

Andy O’Rourke touched many with his wisdom and wit, including myself.

He accomplished what we all aspire to do – he made lasting contributions

that left us better than before.

He led by example.

He moved us forward.

And he brought out the best in Westchester.

Tonight, as I stand before you, as he did so many times to give the State of

the County Address, I want to use this occasion to say, “Thank You” and

lead a round of applause for one of Westchester’s great leaders.

Thank you, Andy.

It’s hard to believe that this is my fourth State of the County Address.

The time has passed like the snap of a finger.

I’ve learned a lot. I am grayer for sure, maybe even losing some.

Para mis amigos hispano hablantes…

From day one, our goal has been to deliver results; which the public wants

and deserves.

Government without results is wasted effort.

But results don’t come easy.

Priorities must be set.

Hard choices must be made.

Partisanship must give way to partnership.

Rhetoric must yield to leadership.

To help us deliver results, we have a compass we call “The Three P’s”:

The Three P’s” remind us every day why we are here.

For our social contract to survive, we need to strike the right balance

between what the government takes and what the people can afford to

give, and we work on that balance every day.

government exists – to provide society with the things that individuals

sometimes cannot:

water.

Preserving these essential services requires smart government.

Smart government begins with challenging the status quo; prioritizing, not

simply perpetuating.

causes.

So our department heads are charged every day with using their

experience and expertise to find smart ways to preserve our essential

services and to protect taxpayers.

Jobs keep taxes low and help pay the bills for essential services.

Westchester has many advantages: smart people, great schools, open

space, convenient transportation, outstanding restaurants, shopping and

the arts.

But it is also expensive with multiple layers of government and regulations

to navigate.

If we can maximize the positives and minimize the negatives, people will

want to live and do business here.

That’s our formula for economic growth.

To borrow a line from the late, great Ed Koch: How are we doing?

Cynics will say a 2 percent cut isn’t much.

But contrast it to the 17 percent tax increase over the previous five years.

The direction has reversed and the progress is real.

That progress is so important because Westchester residents need relief.

Whether it’s seniors struggling to stay in their homes.

Or young couples trying to buy their first.

Entrepreneurs with dreams.

Or, families with college tuitions to pay.

Every resident in Westchester deserves tax fairness.

The number is staggering and the combined result is the highest property

taxes in the United States.

County government can’t stop the tax madness on its own.

But it can lead the way. And it has.

A 2 percent cut in the tax levy in 2011.

For the fourth straight year, I will submit a balanced budget to the Board of

In managing the county budget, our goal is smart government. Smart is

when you work together with your unions to forge fair contracts that protect

jobs and taxpayers at the same time.

When I came into office, taxpayers had to pick up the entire $120 million

cost of employee health care. I led the charge to change that.

Year one, we passed legislation so that management and elected officials –

myself included – started paying a portion of their health care costs.

Today, four of our eight government unions are now contributing to their

health care.

To our Teamsters, Correction, Superior Corrections Officers and Nurses

And to our four other government unions, please…the time to start

This year’s budget, like last year’s, was a bi-partisan effort.

We negotiated between two goal posts.

triple A credit ratings, which was critically important because any

downgrade by the ratings agencies – Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch

– would make it more expensive to run government operations.

For counties, Westchester has the highest credit rating in New York State

and a higher rating than the United States of America. To keep it that way,

we took a stand: No more raiding of the reserves to pay for day-to-day

operating expenses.

That left $1.7 billion to build a budget.

We built a coalition of Republicans and Democrats and split our differences

down the middle.

The compromise turned out to be a balanced and responsible budget that

It was a major accomplishment and I want to thank the bi-partisan coalition

of Republicans and Democrats that came together to forge a consensus

around what’s best for Westchester.

Memo to Washington: Bi-partisan government can work and we’ve shown

how to do it.

It needs to be stressed that this year’s budget preserved essential services.

In times of need, Westchester County is there.

Our biggest test came from Hurricane Sandy.

It was a gigantic mess for all of us.

Tragically, the storm claimed three lives.

More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost power, including mine.

It took more than two weeks to restore the last home.

Throughout the storm, I witnessed the damage first hand; visiting every

municipality in Westchester and touring the region with Governor Cuomo,

Senator Schumer and other officials.

I literally spoke with thousands of residents during the storm – at warming

shelters, community centers, and through email, Facebook and Twitter.

They were cold, tired and frustrated but they were making the best of it and

helping others.

We put communication, prioritization and partnership to work day and night

until we got our residents through the storm.

Our Emergency Operations Center in Hawthorne mobilized immediately.

It was intense.

New Castle was typical of many of our municipalities.

Trees down. Power lines exposed. Roads impassable.

I called Supervisor Susan Carpenter from the car and asked:

“Can we help you?”

A couple of minutes later, she greeted me at the door to town hall. Her face

was a picture of frustration.

Inside she pointed to maps. Big parts of town were literally cut off.

Emergency vehicles could not reach people. She needed roads cleared.

Immediately.

But to do that she needed more help from Con Ed.

A short time later we got her that help.

Throughout the storm – from the car, the office and the command center, I

was on the phone and meeting in person with Kevin Burke, the CEO of Con

Edison, and Mark Lynch, the president of New York State Electric and Gas.

Believe me, you didn’t want to be in the room for some of those

conversations.

But they were constructive and produced results. We made our points.

Con ED and NYSEG needed to do a much better job working with our

municipalities and communicating with their customers.

Our residents are a patient and resilient bunch, but when they are told they

will have power back in one week, and find themselves two weeks later still

sitting in the cold and dark… that’s a problem. They deserve better.

Since the storm, we’ve met with our municipal officials and the utilities to

incorporate lessons learned, share best practices and work to improve

before the next big storm hits.

I personally met with Kevin Burke in his office to outline a set of post-storm

proposals and recommendations. These specific steps and other

improvements will be outlined at a press conference with Con Edison in the

coming weeks.

Nowhere is our commitment to essential services more important than

when it comes to safety.

We had not even caught our breath from Hurricane Sandy, when the notion

of what it means to be safe in America was shattered.

On Friday, Dec. 14, disbelief turned to shock and sorrow when we learned

of the murders of 20 children – ages 6 and 7 – at their school in Newtown

Connecticut, along with six adults.

In a kitchen table conversation at my house that night, my son Sean said if

a shooter were in his school, he would try to escape.

Kiley said she would hide in the building or play dead.

They asked me who was right?

I honestly didn’t know. But I needed to find out.

I needed to know what I should be doing as a parent and what I should be

doing as county executive.

That following Monday, I put the question to our commissioners. What can

we do? What should we do?

I gave them three parameters:

I told them to look at the full spectrum of factors that can cause and prevent

violence.

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Don’t tell me the answer is more money and don’t

build more bureaucracy. Mobilize existing resources and get them to

people in ways they can use quickly, easily and effectively.

now but in the future.

The initial reaction to tragedies like Newtown is just – do something. We

wanted to do it right.

The result is our Safer Communities initiative.

In February, we brought more than 300 law enforcement and school

officials together at SUNY Purchase for a Schools Safety Symposium. It’s

said to be the largest gathering of school and law enforcement officials in

the same room ever in Westchester.

The day began with a keynote address by Bill Bratton, the former top cop in

New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

The biggest takeaway was that collaboration is critical.

Two weeks ago, we held a Community Violence Prevention Forum at the

County Center. It drew 400 people.

This time, school and law enforcement officials were joined by community

leaders, judges, doctors, mental health experts, clergy, elected officials and

non-profit leaders.

Here the focus was on treating violence as a public health issue.

Our keynote speaker, Doctor Howard Spivak, the director of the Division of

Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta,

emphasized that just as with illness, violence is preventable. Probably

never 100 percent. But progress can be made, depending on how you

treat it.

The day’s participants formed “action teams” around:

The findings are being compiled into a report. When it’s done, this blueprint

will provide concrete steps every community in Westchester can take to

prevent violence and make our communities safer.

Going forward you have my commitment that Westchester County will

continue to lead a ceaseless effort to keep our kids, our schools and our

What has been so encouraging about this is that it speaks volumes about

the character of Westchester’s residents.

We asked “what can we do” and more than 700 people showed up to be

part of the answer.

So to everyone who participated – and a number of you are here tonight –

let me say thank you.

Special thanks to:

Westchester residents should also know that the county’s social safety net

remains strong.

Since coming into office in 2010, we have increased spending in the

Department of Social Services by $17 million to $559 million, while at the

same time, the feds and the state were cutting aid to our neediest

residents.

Money in the 2013 budget also goes to expand services of others. For

example, $50,000 went to Legal Services of the Hudson Valley to help

them open an office in Peekskill to serve seniors, immigrants and victims of

domestic violence.

Everyone should also know that we are managing the most value out of

every dollar at DSS.

Day care is one example.

Yes, it is true that in a bi-partisan compromise we asked parents receiving

taxpayer-subsidized day care to pay a little more.

But what you don’t always hear is that we were able to increase the

number of slots by 18 percent or almost 600, so that many more low

income families can now get help.

And even with the parental share increase, Westchester families in the

program are still paying much less than those in New York City and most

Perhaps our biggest success has been foster care.

caseloads are at an all time low.

This means we are getting kids out of institutions – many of them far from

Westchester – and into permanent homes near family and friends.

Better service at a lower cost. Another example of smarter government.

But there is more to the story than charts and numbers. Our success is a

very human one – the result of families who are willing to embrace society’s

least fortunate children as their own.

Brenda and Anthony Gears have been foster parents since 2009.

They live in Mount Vernon and both have worked for the City for more than

20 years. With their two daughters now grown, they have opened their

home to four foster children in the last four years.

Marisol and Eduardo Gonzalez live in Scarsdale. Married for more than 20

years, they were unable to have children of their own. In 2011, they

welcomed two year old Danielle into their home as a foster child. Last

year, they adopted her.

A death in the family prevented Brenda and Anthony from joining us

tonight.

Marisol and Eduardo are here.

Marisol and Eduardo – and to Brenda and Anthony – thank you for making

it part of your lives to give hope and love to kids, desperate for both.

From healthy families to a healthy economy.

If you want to understand economic growth in Westchester, there is no

better place to start than with beer and cookies.

What do beer and cookies have to do with economic growth?

They tell the story of two companies that are great at what they do, could

locate anywhere, but have chosen Westchester as home.

They are The Captain Lawrence Brewing Company in Elmsford and Bake-

Me-A-Wish in Peekskill.

In some ways, the stories of Captain Lawrence and Bake-Me-A-Wish could

not be more different.

grew up in Lewisboro on Captain Lawrence Drive.

For Maria and Pablo Morales, the owners of Bake-Me-A-Wish, home was

Mexico.

Scott’s toughest early decision was to convince his parents that he should

leave Villanova University, where he was studying accounting, to become a

Maria and Pablo’s toughest decision was to leave family and friends behind

to start a new life in the United States.

Today, Westchester is the beneficiary of their hard work.

I challenge anyone to come up with a tastier beer or chocolate chip cookie.

Maria, Pablo and Scott we couldn’t be more proud that you saw

Westchester as a place of opportunity for your companies and dreams.

You’ve heard me say it many times: Government doesn’t create jobs. But

we can be helpful.

We do that by fostering an environment that allows businesses to prosper.

We can’t make or sell their product, but we can hold their taxes in check,

provide incentives to help them grow and maintain the quality of life that

attracted them to Westchester in the first place.

I make it a point to give this message wherever I am.

Last week, I was with the CEO and senior team of Regeneron, which just

upped its investment in Westchester – with plans to add 400 new jobs.

The week before, I paid a visit to Perstine Wesley, the legendary owner of

Harry’s Shoe Repair in Getty Square in Yonkers.

Large or small, old or new, we want business to know we are here to help.

Our record of accomplishment is strong.

Last summer, we launched our “Meet Me In Westchester” marketing

campaign to support and strengthen the county’s $1.7 billion tourism

industry.

And since January 2010, the Westchester Industrial Development Agency,

our main outreach organization to businesses, has provided various

financial incentives to 29 companies of every size.

This has led to more than $500 million of additional capital investment in

the county, the retention of 4,800 existing jobs and the creation of 4,600

The biggest project to date – in fact in the history of the IDA – involves

Pepsi’s decision to stay in Westchester and completely modernize its

global corporate headquarters in Purchase.

But we are also helping start ups like Tommie Copper and Candela

Systems.

And just last week, the Board of Legislators ratified our creation of a

Westchester Local Development Corporation.

This will give non-profit companies access to low-cost financing at no risk

to taxpayers. Last week, $128 million in tax exempt financing was made

available to not-for-profit organizations.

Northern Westchester Hospital and Kendal on Hudson, a continuing care

retirement community, are among the first to take advantage of the LDC.

So, if you have a business in Westchester, thinking of starting one, or a

not-for-profit looking for low-cost financing our team is here to help. The

people you need to talk to are Eileen Mildenberger and Jim Coleman.

I want them to stand so people in the room and watching on television

know who they are talking to:

leads our Minority and Women-owned Business program,

which can help these companies learn how to better compete

for government contracts through seminars and training.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to them. They can help your business

and that’s good for all of us.

Another way government can help promote economic growth is by

investing in infrastructure.

We currently have $58 million in capital projects awaiting approval by the

Board of Legislators. Over the course of the year, I will be sending down an

additional $75 million for the board’s approval.

These projects will improve our parks, roads, buildings and bridges, as well

as aid our flood mitigation efforts and put men and women in our trade

unions back to work.

To my colleagues on the board, let’s work together to get it done.

Westchester prides itself on being home to a well educated workforce.

If Westchester were a city, it would be the second smartest in the country.

Of the people 25 and older living in the county, 45 percent of them have a

bachelor’s degree.

It is for this reason, we have branded Westchester as “New York’s

Intellectual Capital.”

It is not surprising that Westchester is so smart when you look at the jobs

our schools do – all the way from kindergarten through college.

The Intel Science Talent Search is one measure of just how smart some

our kids are.

Last year, Westchester had one Intel finalist. This year we had three.

They are with us tonight.

Jiayi created a computer model to study how the brain optimizes

information.

Chris tapped a group of volunteers to track noise levels in the community

by using smart phones.

Apparently, yes, there is an app for this.

Daniel studied KLF6, a protein that induces cell death.

The level and depth of their research is phenomenal.

Can the three of you please stand up?

They have set up booths outside and you are encouraged to ask them lots

of que