Special Election Coverage: Q&A With Democrat Peter Harckham

Peter Harckham is the Democratic candidate for the special election to fill the 89th state assembly district, which will be held on Feb. 9. He is on the Westchester County Board of Legislators, and has represented the 2nd Legislative District since he was elected in November 2007. Prior to that, from 2004 to 2007, he was president of A-HOME, a group dedicated to providing northern Westchester with affordable housing. Outside of elected office he is president of the Harckham Media Group, which he describes as an advertising, communications and production partnership. His wife, Janet, sits on the Board of Education for the Katonah Lewisboro school district. They have been Katonah residents since 1991 and have two daughters.

This is our second Q&A with the two major party candidates running. To see our earlier Q&A with his GOP opponent, Robert Castelli, click here.

Patch – Why are you running for the 89th district?

Harckham – I'm running because we have to restore people's faith in state government. We've got the highest unemployment in 26 years at nine percent. People are being crushed by property taxes. People are being squeezed by uncertain mortgage security, and they've lost faith that their state government can be a partner to help them address the challenges that they face.

When they look at the state senate and see the last two leaders of the Senate of both parties are now convicted criminals, when they see that there's a looming budget deficit and the legislature and the governor are not even speaking to each other. When they see a billion dollars in debt pushed from one fiscal year to the next, just as a, some sort of a shell game, they have no confidence in their government. So job number one is cleaning up the mess in Albany and restoring faith in state government.

Patch – Now, what are some of your major proposals for the assembly district? What are some of your major issues that you hope to push if you're elected?

Harckham – Well, it all starts with reform, as I mentioned. We need an open and accountable budget process, with open hearings. Currently right now it's the old "three men in a room" negotiating a budget. That's got to stop. There has to be budget transparency. Currently you can't find the state budget online. The county budget, all 6,000 lines of it, are online in great detail. We got to get the budget online to expose it to the light of public scrutiny. We need campaign finance reform to end "pay to play." We need real ethics reform to expose lobbyists and who their clients are. We really need to open up government to the light of public scrutiny. That's certainly job number one.

Job number two is the end of the unfunded mandate. That is what's crushing local property taxpayers. On the county level, we could get rid of more than a third of county government property tax tomorrow if New York acted the way 48 other states did and not pass along Medicaid costs in their property taxes. So, that's a huge unfunded mandate passed onto property taxpayers. Another example is the MS4 storm water retrofits, which particularly in our district, that is in the watershed, they're 80 million dollars where the storm water retrofits that are mandated, and that's going to go right to property taxpayers. We've got to end the unfunded mandates.

Patch – Can you name anything else that you think should be focused on with regards to property taxes?

Harckham – Well those are two huge ones. I mean, $80 million and $200 million dollars, those are massive. Another one is the MTA tax, the MTA payroll tax. In the stimulus package, American Recovery Act that was passed last year, our local federal delegation put in language that said the MTA could use 10 percent of that for operations, to offset the MTA payroll tax, and they opted not to do that. So, we need state-enabling legislation to force them to use that 10 percent for operating expense to offset two years worth of payroll tax. That's costing Westchester County taxpayers $1.3 million a year just on their county property tax.

Patch – I understand also that school taxes play a significant role in property taxes. Do you have any plans to tackle the school district's share of property taxes in the district?

Harckham – Yeah, we've got to, one, begin to look at just the basic inequities in funding that comes to Westchester County. We are under-funded compared to upstate and other municipalities. If you look at the governor's latest budget, he calls for five percent cut across the state. In Westchester County, many of the cuts are 15, 16 percent – $48 million worth of cuts in Westchester County. That's not shared sacrifice, that's not fair and that's not the five percent across the board. So we got to fight for the, to end the inequities in … state aid funding.

Patch – My next question pertains to school district and municipal consolidation. As of late, consolidation has been discussed as an alternative to helping with the tax burden in the area. Do you believe that municipal and school district consolidation should be open issues for the district?

Harckham – All consolidation needs to be on the board, I mean on the table. I've not only discussed it, I've made concrete proposals. This last year in the budget proposal, in the budget negotiations, I recommended, along with several of my colleagues, that several of the departments in the county be merged to recoup administrative savings. It would have saved $7 million the first year, $80 million dollars over ten years. 'Cause what's happened is, as government has grown, these silos have developed, and each department has its own payroll, its own purchasing, its own human resources, its own public relations. We can't afford that anymore, and as business, the business community has broken down the silos, and as the not-for-profit community has broken down the silos, we need to do the same in government.

In the state government there are over 1,000 departments and over 300 authorities. We can't afford that massive infrastructure, so rather than cutting the vital services and things like education aid, what we need to do is cut the massive infrastructure of government itself. We also need to look at it across all levels of government: federal, state, county, local and school district, to see who does what best. You know, we in the county we're trying to get out of the road business. Why should we drive trucks from White Plains up to North Salem to take care of a county road? That's not cost effective. Are there plowing things that towns can do for school districts? We need to have that conversation at all levels of government so we don't repeat and duplicate services.

Patch – Would you support an outright merger of school districts or a merger politically of municipalities?

Harckham – Everything needs to be on the table. You know, this is a home-rule county and it's a home-rule state and we take that seriously. But, for instance, if you look at … the merging of highway departments may make sense. Building infrastructure may make sense. DPW departments may make sense. So without disrupting the local zoning and the local character of each community, communities can get together regionally or at the county level or at the state level, and merge services to save administrative overhead.

Patch – Now, given the fact that you've been on the board of legislators for two years now, what is something that you can outline as a major accomplishment, a singular major accomplishment of your tenure?

Harckham – Sure, several of them. Number one, in the government reform and cost cutting area. We cut millions of dollars from county budgets. We started with ourselves at the Board of Legislators. We reduced our spending by 11 percent. We reduced our staff by three employees. So it begins with streamlining and reforming government yourself. We opposed pay raises for elected officials and top management and we were successful in that. So we set an example there.

The other thing is, is I'm known as a bipartisan consensus builder. People are tired of the partisan bickering and squabbling in Washington and Albany. I passed ground-breaking DWI vehicle forfeiture legislation here in Westchester County and I did it with the support of three of the four Republicans on the board, because we took the time to build consensus from the ground up in a bipartisan way. So those are two example. Third example, to save our municipalities money, again dealing with a mandate, there's an MS4 septic mandate that would've cost our municipalities hundreds of thousands of dollars to inspect and maintain septic systems in their municipalities as mandated by the state. As the chair of the septic subcommittee, we negotiated a package with state DEC, New York City DEP, the county and the local municipalities of the Croton Watershed to create a package where the county would provide a septic database and we would use a public-private-partnership of the pumpers and the county health department to do the inspections and then all the municipalities would be required to do is use that database to report it. That plan will save the municipalities hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Patch – My next question pertains to the county's settlement with affordable housing. I understand that the county has to go along with it, with the federal government. However, I'm wondering what role if any the state legislature or the governor can play in the settlement?

Harckham – In the state there is state funding, DHCR funding. One thing that would be enormously helpful is New York City has its own region with targeted funds. Here in Westchester we have to compete against the rest of the state for those funds. What I would do is I would propose creating a suburban region – Westchester, Rockland, perhaps Putnam – that's targeted with state funds for the creation of affordable housing so that we're not having to compete with the entire rest of the state when we have such demand here.

Patch – Do you believe that can ease the mandate to build more affordable housing that HUD has levied on the county as part of the settlement?

Harckham – It will free up more money is what it will do. The settlement calls for the creation of housing. The county is responsible for a certain amount of that, in terms of cost over $50 million. But that's capped. The municipalities are not on the line for any money and the county cost is capped, so it's about leveraging it with public-private sources, and that is one of the sources of money.

Patch – How do you think your tenure at A-HOME could help you with regards to shaping public policy for affordable housing in the state level?

Harckham – We've been talking about the need for affordable housing in northern Westchester for years, and most people get it. It's a shame that the fear mongers keep going on about affordable housing in this lawsuit, because everything in northern Westchester is more expensive than it needs to be – goods and services – because the workforce needs to be imported. Senior citizens are leaving. Yes, because taxes are too high, but two, at a certain age people want to downsize and there's not housing stock for them. Town employees cannot stay in the communities that they work in and they serve. We're losing volunteer first responders at an alarming rate.

So it's important that people understand what affordable housing is, not listen to the fear mongers and that we know, have a knowledge base about where the funding comes from and how the units are put together.

I'll give you another accomplishment now that we mentioned emergency first responders. I co-sponsored legislation giving emergency first responders a 10 percent tax cut on their county property tax. And again, we did that in a bipartisan fashion. I was a co-sponsor of that. We're very proud of that accomplishment.

Patch – Now, since launching your campaign for the 89th district, is there anything you've learned that you feel is unique to campaigning for a state-level office as opposed to a county-level office?

Harckham – I don't think it's unique … by being back out there in such an intense way is you really get a sense of the fear and the anger that people have. While economists may say we are beginning to come out of the recession, people don't feel it. People are still afraid and they need to know that their government is not wasting their money in these times at are so perilous.

Patch – Can you name anything that might be unconventional about your approach to governing that you can highlight from your tenure in the county legislature?

Harckham – My approach to government has always been pragmatic, not driven by ideology. It's what are the solutions to the problems that are facing my constituents, how do we build consensus and what's the most cost-effective way to do it.

Patch – Do you think that there will be any challenges in reaching out to the other side of the aisle, and also reaching out to different factions within your party that might be different at the state level, as opposed to in White Plains at the county level?

Harckham – Not, because the county is a microcosm of the diversity of New York state, and I work very well with everybody, all of my colleagues on the county board. In this legislative district, as is in the assembly district, about half the elected officials are members of each party. I have to represent everybody equally. I have worked earnestly with members of both parties, both at the local level – the county level – and I continue to do that. That's my style, that's the way I like to approach things.

Patch – What is the one thing you like about holding elected office and serving your constituents?

Harckham – It's the ability to be of service. You know, when somebody … for instance, here's an example of something we accomplished. One of my constituents started faxing me terror sheets of the mortgage crisis and people being foreclosed upon, and he was doing pro bono counseling for the bar association, and he said 'This is serious issue.' I said 'What do you need?' He said the group I'm working with, Westchester Residential Opportunities needs help. We sat down with them. We're able to do a county contract with them for $135,000. They hired two full-time foreclosure specialists, and in the first year we saved over 300 people's homes. I mean, you sit in someone's living room, and they look you in the eye and they say 'Thank you for saving my home.' That's the reward of this job."

Patch – All right. Also, given the fact that your wife is on the Katonah-Lewisboro school district board, how do you think that could impact your policy toward education and property taxes for schools?

Harckham- Well, I hear first-hand the challenges and the strains of the budget as they develop. She and I, from our constituents, hear the same pain that taxpayers are under, that they can't afford to pay more. State aid is decreasing. We've got to find ways to change the formulas for the northern tier of suburbs so that we get our fair share. You know, I hear it first hand from her, as she hears it from her constituents.

Patch – Is there anything else you want to add?

Harckham – You know, just that a lot of people talk about reform, they talk about cutting spending, they talk about cutting taxes. I have a record over the last two years of doing that. You know, I proven myself a reformer, an independent thinker. I've cut taxes, I've cut spending. I've done it here at the county level. I'll do it up in Albany.