Malfitano Defends His Financial Record, Eyes Return to Politics

The fact that Harrison is fighting through difficult financial times is common knowledge at this point, but who to blame for the town's current problems depends on who you ask.

In October I wrote a by Harrison Mayor/Supervisor Joan Walsh in which she stated, among other things, that the town had inherited its financial woes from the previous administration.

According to Walsh, her predecessor Stephen Malfitano came into office in 2002 with $7 million in the town coffers and sold town-owned vacant land for development, grossing another $5.2 million. Then, according to Walsh, Malfitano went on to ring up $23 million of town debt while increasing the town's annual budget by $17 million, quickly taking the town from a surplus to a deficit.

Further, Walsh said when Malfitano was voted out of office in 2008—in addition to the increased debt, increased budget and decreased land holdings—the town had a net savings of just $211,000 out of the previously held $12.2 million.

Those figures left me flabbergasted.

I noted at that time that there was talk of Malfitano attempting a return to town politics during this year's election cycle, and said if that were the case I would welcome the opportunity to speak with him about these numbers.

Fast forward seven months and Malfitano is indeed considering a return to the political arena. He called me requesting an interview to discuss those figures and the article.

We started our conversation reviewing the recent talk I had been hearing about Malfitano throwing his hat into the ring to replace Marty Rogowsky as county legislator. Over a one-week period I heard Malfitano was lobbying for that nomination, then a redistricting change moved his home out of the ideal location for a run, then his house was put back in so he could run and finally the redistricting was upheld and Malfitano was no longer considering the position.

Now the former mayor could be interested in a seat on the Harrison Town Board. Malfitano confirmed this, stressing that he is very happy with the outcome of the redistricting process.

“I was thinking about the county position, but realized that my heart is with the town. I think I can be more impactful in a positive way becoming involved in Harrison,” he said.

We then reviewed Walsh’s commentary on his financial management during his two terms as mayor. Malfitano said he had been angered by the current mayor's comments—and my subsequent article—and felt that the implied criticisms were unwarranted.

“It’s important to begin by putting the entire period in context,” he said. “Immediately following my election and post 9/11, we had a terrible market. In addition to that, the New York State pension fund handed Harrison a tax bill of about $2 million in unfunded pension liability that had not been anticipated.”

According to Malfitano, the tax ramifications of such a bill were  huge.

“That pension liability alone would have accounted for a 10 percent increase in taxes, but we never had a single tax increase in any year I was in office,” he said.

Malfitano also cited multi-million dollar legal judgments against the town that hadn’t been provided for in the reserve fund, huge amounts of police overtime and tax certiorari reductions from Pepsico and Westchester Country Club that further decreased town income.

“We ended up with an additional obligation of around $3 million that was not provided for,” Malfitano explained.

Instead of a tax increase, Malfitano decided that the best way to handle the issues was to spread the liability over an extended period of time.

“I still believe that was the best thing to do,” he said.

Malfitano said the end result was that after coming into office with $32 million in town debt, another $22 million was added by the end of 2007, resulting in a total of $54 million.

But Malfitano says the town also made several improvements during that time, including renovations to the Veterans Building, Guagninni Park and the West Harrison streetscape, along with updates to Pasadoma Park and the addition of a new fire training station, among other things.

He added that the town was also in need of public works improvements when he came into office.

“There hadn’t been a public works project since 1975 when town hall was built," Malfitano said. "Our campaign slogan was 'the future is now', so we were simply doing what we were elected to do.”

Given the recession that followed, Malfitano is aware of the criticism that was later leveled at the spending.

“I’ve heard that we did too much too soon and I’ll accept that criticism,” he said.

However Malfitano made  it clear that the financial issues that arose were a matter of the unforeseen economic events, not poor management, and stated that if he had it to do over again in the same situation he would do the same thing.

“None of us knew the recession was coming and given that, I wouldn’t do anything any differently facing the same situation again,” he said.

Further, Malfitano maintains that the numbers Walsh quoted were exaggerated.

“When I left office in December 2007, the town reserves were at $3.6 million, not the $211,000 as stated by Mayor Walsh,” he said.

Walsh, however, maintains that the difference in figures is paper money as opposed to real money.

“On paper, that was partially true,” she said. “However, it is like your credit card—the money you have in the bank does not reflect what you owe on that credit card.  The bills that were left by the Malfitano administration wiped out the general fund.”

Malfitano is awaiting confirmation from his employer, a large stockbroking company, hoping they will allow him running for a board position. Until then he cannot confirm his interest in the Republican ticket, but he does make clear that he has a strong interest in the position.

“We have a clear lack of leadership," he said. "We are not headed in the right direction and the bottom line is that I want to make it better."