Home rule must continue to protects the suburbs from Albany

Regarding "We have to set the record straight on Carmel’s proposed battery energy storage system," lohud.com, June 12:

Suburban communities have been under assault by New York State and the federal government for several years now, and some of our Democratic legislators have outright embraced the effort.

From 2008 to 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development worked to dissolve local zoning in seven Westchester communities, which they outrageously labeled “racist” for having single-family zoning, much of it ¼ acre. The feds, and the local elected leaders who bowed down to them, refused to acknowledge that local zoning determines where projects can be built in towns and villages, not who can live there. It’s worth noting that Westchester is the most diverse county in New York State outside the five boroughs of New York City — something we can be proud of.

Then, in 2022, State Sen. Peter Harckham, one of HUD’s kowtowers, tried to pull another fast one on his constituents. Harckham sponsored legislation to effectively erase local zoning laws in Westchester and Putnam communities near train stations. Under Harckham’s bill, multi-family buildings could be erected as-of-right in quiet residential neighborhoods in Putnam and Westchester, threatening their resources, character, and traffic patterns. Extraordinary organic blowback convinced Harckham to pull his measure.

Now, Harckham is at it again, this time by working to give New York State authority over local communities in placing massive energy facilities. Harckham seems to believe that progressives in Albany, like him, know what’s better for our communities than we do. We only live here.

I mention Harckham by name because he refused to use mine in an attack on me published in these pages on Wednesday. The subject was the proposal to build the largest battery farm in America in the Mahopac-Somers-Carmel area, which I and thousands of my neighbors adamantly oppose. Harckham rudely tried to dismiss me in his piece, writing “my opponent has no clue on the subject.”

In fact I do, including the screaming reality that communities surrounding the planned facility feel under siege from Albany and their own state senator. Once again, local pushback caused Harckham to take a step back, this time saying he’s now supporting a “temporary” moratorium on the project. We all know what “temporary” means in New York.

Harckham and his progressive allies in Albany are making a habit of advancing projects against the will of everyday New Yorkers. The disastrous $15 congestion pricing tax proposal, for example, which Harckham supports, just wasted more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer funds for license plate readers that will likely never be used. Gov. Kathy Hochul, with Harckham’s full support, buried congestion pricing in a budget bill to avoid public debate. Once again, they knew better, and it cost us.

It doesn’t stop there: Also in 2022, Harckham threatened to cut off all state funding for local public schools with mascots he deemed offensive. He walked that one back, too. He also supported the natural gas ban on new residential construction in large swaths of the state. Albany knows better than new homeowners, it seems. Harckham knows better than car owners as well. Under a law he backed, all new vehicles in New York have to be electric by 2035, regardless of whether people want or can afford them.

I won’t even go into his plan to bring socialized medicine to New York, other than to note that Harckham’s legislation would abolish private health insurance in the state and increase personal income tax rates from 6.65 percent to 18.3 percent for those earning $150,000 per year or more. Pete knows best, just as he did in legalizing marijuana without adequate safeguards in place. The result is thousands of illegal pot shops across the region selling completely unregulated products.

I’m running for State Senate to represent the everyday, common-sense residents of Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland who actually know a thing or two about their hometowns. I promise you that, by Election Day, Harckham will know my name.

Gina Arena is a Republican running for State Senate in District 40.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Home rule protects New Yorkers from Albany