Thursday, March 27, 2014

2014 NYS governors race: Rob Astorino



Westchester county legislator, 2003-2005

Westchester county executive 2009-


Ran for the executive on a platform to cut spending and lower taxes, Weschester county at the time being one of the highest taxed in the country

He has dropped the property tax levy 2%, and has not increased it for the last 4 years,
however, he has recently claimed that he " cut the county property tax levy more than any county in New York."

yet, as TWC news points out:

“In fact, while Astorino did reduce the tax levy in Westchester by $12 million, Onondaga County cut its tax levy by more than $38 million.”

In response, he states “we are going in the right direction, that's the point” true, but doesn't really address his blurring of the numbers


He has stood strong against the federal housing department trying to force the county to change zoning to allow for low income housing, stating :

“This is a federalism issue,” says Astorino. If the Department of Housing and Urban Development “is permitted to wander into Westchester County and basically blow away local zoning and seize control over [housing] issues,” he tells me, “then it can and will [do that] everywhere.”
Source: Weekly Standard

Agree with him on the issue or not, I do agree on the federalism point...


From what I have been able to find on him, he does seem to have a solid fiscal background, and he seems to be pretty solidly pro 2nd amendment.

He seems to be pretty solidly pro fracking, an issue that I am on the fence on, but worth mentioning

I have my doubts about him as governor, to me, but he's a no brainer better choice than Coumo on gun rights alone.

I think the best vote for Upstate NY is a vote to separate from downstate and the city, short of that, voting for Astorino wouldn't be the worst choice, I'm considering it, but not on board yet.

Yes, I want someone besides Coumo, but I'd rather vote for a candidate than against one, and, while there are parts of Astorino's campaign I like, I'm not on the bandwagon just yet

(personal pet peeve, his site loads to a landing page with an autostarting campaign video, you have to click through to get to his actual page, otherwise I rather like his website)

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