Priority Issues

  • With Washington promising little but chaos, corruption, and economic headwinds, local government will be the place where we must make change happen. Here in Westchester, we already know how that can be done. Under County Executive George Latimer and Legislators like Ben Boykin, our local government has provided steady, consistent leadership and delivered progress for Westchester residents. We must continue to earn your trust and that means:

    • Keeping property taxes low to address the affordability crunch for Westchester families.

    • Preserving critical services and improving our aging infrastructure in the face of flooding and extreme weather events.

    • Investing in public safety and keeping your families and our residents safe.

    • Protecting the rights of our residents and expanding access to healthcare.

  • All of New York state and especially high-cost counties like Westchester are in a painful affordable housing shortage whose effects are felt by young families, seniors, communities of color, millennials, non-profit workers and clients, and so many others who are struggling to find safe, decent housing at a price they can afford. Westchester must continue to build on the progress made in the past five years and to be leaders in building the housing we need, and that means:

    • Maintaining support for our best-in-the-state programs that invest in affordable housing, including the New Lands Acquisition fund and the Housing Infrastructure Program.

    • Promoting the Office of Housing Counsel to help those at risk of eviction and homelessness stay in their homes.

    • Supporting villages and towns looking to reform outdated zoning and cut through red tape.

    • Encouraging more than just single-family homes and apartment buildings by creating incentives for senior housing, “missing middle,” kinship housing, accessory dwelling units, climate-friendly and energy efficient housing, infill, adaptive reuse, and other housing that will fit well within our suburban communities, while also producing much-needed tax revenue.

  • Between the aftereffect of the COVID pandemic, economic and inflation anxiety, terror about gun violence and hate in our communities, and the “normal” grind of overwhelming time demands, the mental health of youth and families has never been more precarious. The County must do more to safeguard the mental and physical health, and well-being of our residents, and that means:

    • Exploring partnerships between the County and school districts, funded by the federal Project AWARE program, to foster school-provider partnerships to support prevention, screening, early intervention, and mental health treatment for youth in school-based settings.

    • Expanding and strengthening suicide prevention and mental health services, particular for the highest risk populations, including LGBTQ youth, veterans, African American men, and young adults.

    • Promoting Federal Qualified Health Centers, Community Health Centers, and other nonprofit providers that make up the backbone of our physical and mental health support network.

  • We’ve been here before. In the face of the chaos, corruption, and cruelty of the first Trump Administration, Westchester leaders and residents worked together to protect our friends, our neighbors, our communities and our values, no matter what erupted from the mess in Washington DC. Progressive leaders across Westchester must rise to challenge an emboldened Donald Trump. That means:

    • Never backing down from defending a woman’s right to choose and protecting health care professionals who provide abortion services.

    • Protecting new American and immigrant residents of Westchester, whether from hatred and harassment or from the promised, aggressive and immoral deportation raids designed to tear families apart once again.

    • Making clear hate has no home here and bring our community together to reject anti-Semitism, anti-Asian discrimination, the targeting of trans Americans, and whatever else erupts out of national politics through training, engagement, and increased reporting of hate crimes through the County Police.

    • Supporting our local economy in the face of economic headwinds as the Trump Administration looks to implement inflationary and out-of-touch economic plans that promise to make affordability even worse for working families.