The Business Council of Westchester issued the following statement in responce to County Executive Robert Astorino's budget preview.
The Business Council of Westchester strongly supports County Executive Astorino’s call for serious and, if necessary, round the clock negotiations with the county’s largest unions. As today’s budget preview clearly demonstrates, county government is facing its own fiscal cliff. Failure to address the issuesat hand jeopardizes the fragile economic recovery under way in Westchester. Fiscal uncertainty is not conducive to business stability and growth. It also sends the wrong message to businesses we need to attract to Westchester. We can ill afford to see our business base erode. The time is clearly at hand to address headon the rapidly escalating cost of union health care benefits. Employees in the private sector have had to make sacrifices by contributing more to their healthcare benefits. It’s time for the county’s unions to make the concessions necessary to preserve their jobs and the fiscal health of the county. Raising taxes is not an option. We support the County Executive’s fiscally responsible approach and hiscall to the largest unions to work with him. Further, we urge the County Boardof Legislators to adopt a balanced budget for 2013 with no fiscal gimmicks that would risk the County losing its AAA bond rating.
