Westchester county exec: Raise phone, gun fees

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Westchester county exec: Raise phone, gun fees By KEITH EDDINGS THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: Feb. 15, 2002) WHITE PLAINS - The cost of using a telephone or owning a gun would climb in Westchester County under a wish list of bills that County Executive Andrew Spano and the county legislature may ask the state to enact this year. Other bills that may go on the list would provide low-interest loans to property owners who improve their septic systems, extend rent regulations beyond their 2003 expiration date, and give volunteer ambulance drivers and emergency medical technicians a property tax break. Each would require approval by the state. In all, Spano has proposed asking the state to enact at least 17 new laws and programs, a list that the county Board of Legislators is expected to add to before paring back down to one that "everyone is comfortable with," said Legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Yonkers Democrat who chairs the county board's Committee on Legislation. Already, the committee has indicated that it is likely to chop Spano's most controversial request - to increase the local sales tax 0.25 percent - from the list. Spano and Stewart-Cousins said they hope to send a joint list to Albany, which would give their requests more force. But both said they could send up separate lists if they are unable to agree. "We'll work toward it, but some of the comments I've heard may mitigate against it because they usually like to have a unanimous situation down there," Spano said, referring to a policy in the legislature of keeping bills off the list that do not have unanimous support. "We don't want to make it bland. We want to bring up something that has some reality to it." Members of the legislation committee are scheduled to visit Albany on March 4 - before the list is ratified by the full county board - to discuss the requests with the 13 state senators and assemblymen who represent Westchester. A second meeting will be scheduled after the full board adopts the legislative package, probably on March 11, Stewart-Cousins said. Several proposals have been on one wish-list or another for several years, including one to remove the Yonkers toll plaza on the New York State Thruway and another that would require the state to take over the 25 percent share of running Medicaid that counties pay. The bill would save Westchester $171 million this year, but has little support in Albany. Other proposals would: Increase the monthly surcharge that is collected on land line telephones to support the 911 emergency response system from 35 cents to $1. The charge earns Westchester $2.6 million a year, which would jump to $7.8 million if the increase is approved. Allow Westchester to set its own fee for licensing pistols. The proposal does not say what Westchester would charge, but notes that Nassau County, which has a special exemption to set its own fee, charges $200 for a five-year permit. In Westchester and the other counties, the fee is now $10 for a five-year permit. Lower the blood-alcohol content at which a driver is considered drunk from 0.1 percent to .08 percent. Extend the state's anti-discrimination law to protect gays and lesbians. The law now prohibits discrimination based on age, race, religion, sex, disability and marital status in areas that include housing and employment. Upgrade the charge for reckless conduct that causes the death of a child from manslaughter to murder. The law would be called Cynthia's Law, after the 8-month-old Yonkers girl who died from a skull fracture she suffered in day care two years ago. Her parents, Darryl and Barbara Gibbs, testified this week before the county board's legislation committee about the bill, which has been introduced in the state Senate by Nicholas Spano, R-Yonkers. http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/021502/15wishlist.html