FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: HARCKHAM DOES IT AGAIN:
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With $13.3 Billion Budget Deficit, New Yorkers Facing
School and Service Cuts, and Crippling Tax Increases, Peter Harckham Blows More Tax Dollars on
Self-Serving Political Mailings.
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“This is a question of values, and Peter Harckham’s mailings
make it clear that he values his political career over
the basic needs of New Yorkers.”
Hudson Valley-Aug. 4...
State Senator Peter Harckham (SD-40) continues to waste precious tax dollars on blatantly self-serving political mailings, with yet another publicly funded mail piece hitting Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess county mailboxes this week, the campaign of former two-term Westchester county executive and state senate candidate Rob Astorino today reported.
New York is facing a historic budget deficit — $13 billion and counting — and sharp budget cuts for schools, environmental programs, senior citizen services, and infrastructure repairs, not to mention tax increases, are widely expected. Mr. Harckham voted to cut state school funding by $1.1 billion in April, and Governor Andrew Cuomo recently announced that New York’s $3 billion Environmental Bond Act funding will have to be suspended.
“This is a question of values, and Peter Harckham’s mailings make it clear that he values his political career over the basic needs of New Yorkers,” said Astorino spokesman William O’Reilly. “These taxpayer-paid mailers are indistinguishable from campaign mailings in every way other than who’s paying for them — us instead of Mr. Harckham’s political campaign as they should be. Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess County residents deserve to know how much of their money Mr. Harckham has blown on these mailings in the past two months.”
Albany elected officials have enjoyed the controversial franking privilege for decades in which thinly-veiled promotional pieces are mailed to voters at taxpayer expense — even during election years — but New York has never before faced a budget crisis this dire and potentially lasting, the Astorino campaign noted. Common decency demands that the mailings be suspended, the campaign said.
“Tens of thousands of Peter Harckham’s constituents have been put out of work because of COVID-19, and their families are scrimping to get by, with tax and credit card bills piling up high. And this is how Peter Harkcham is spending their money? Who is he thinking about...other than himself?”
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