Ball: Kaplowitz's Proposal to Save Hilltop Hanover Farm a "Shell Game"

Assemblyman Greg Ball, who's seeking the State Senate Seat in the 40th District, held a news conference today calling his opponent's plan to save Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown a "shell game" and nothing more than a "tax diversion scheme."

On Friday, Westchester County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz proposed transferring the Farm's annual budget of more than $427,000 from the County's Operational Budget to the Westchester County Waste Management District, a special district that collects approximately $45 million in taxes annually for the collection and disposables of recyclables and garbage in 36 of the county's 43 municipalities.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino has hinted that Westchester may no longer be able to subsidize the farm, which it purchased in 2003m due to the County's massive budget deficit.

On Friday, Kaplowitz, along with fellow Legislator Peter Harckham, proposed the farm be funded out of the County's solid waste district fund, a move Harckham says will "In five years allow the farm to be entirely self-sufficient."

Ball called such a move "Environmental racism" saying the tax burden would be "Unfairly shifted to  Peekskill, Cortlandt and Yorktown" which are in the water district.  The Assemblyman added "This is actually a small window into what we would get if God forbid, 'Tax Hike Mike' was ever elected to the New York State Senate.The problem with the New York State Legislature is they feel the answer to every problem is a new tax increase. Tax increases are not the solution, they are the problem."