Following the Memorial Day Parade, which honors our fallen war heroes, we had occasion to run into Assemblyman Democrat Tom Abinanti, who was doing the politician’s dance, Pressing The Flesh. In passing he made a comment about how he contributed to getting the Saw Mill River corridor cleaned out, aiding the homes and businesses that get flooded from storms every year. And, we challenged him that he has done nothing to aid the residents and businesses along the Bronx River corridor. His response was the usual, “I introduced a bill mandating the County be responsible for maintaining the river." It's a page right out of Mr Feiner’s playbook. Appear concerned, promise to "look into it" and then write a letter to another higher-up elected official and he has completed his obligation to do something.
When pushed, Abinanti tried to flip the conversation as to why we weren’t at some non-existent firematic event in Mt Pleasant the previous weekend, we countered this query with a response, "It wasn’t our district." His response was predictably, "Exactly.” He explained that the Bronx River corridor isn’t under his district. Oddly, it is! So why lie about it? Probably because he knew he’d been exposed. Then he claimed he couldn't talk because he was already late, mostly, we believe, for the pictures with local officials (re: media exposure – especially in a desperate election year).
Not surprisingly, Mr Feiner also panders to the media while excelling at pandering to residents. When residents along the Bronx River corridor were über-flooded by storms Irene and Ida, Mr Feiner once again promised action, which turned into a letter to Representatives Stewart-Cousins, Abinanti, A. Williams, Shimsky and probably a few others that wouldn’t be significant other than to reference a number of people he reached out to. The disingenuousness of this action was after he wrote the letter, not only was he done with his responsibility of helping his constituents, but he went to Fulton Park and promised residents there that FEMA (similar to another four-letter word) would purchase their homes from them, eliminating their nightmare. Never happened, plus FEMA explained there were numerous benchmarks the Town must meet before that would happen. Mr Feiner conveniently left that out.
Back to the campaigning, Abinanti claims he submitted the bill to the County, which passed and then he left for the State Assembly. He maintains it was then up to newly elected Shimsky to pick up that mantle and run with it. Maybe. The reality is it was up to Williams as “the Bronx River corridor falls in her jurisdiction” - to use Abinanti's words. The bigger issue that feel-good politicians like Abinanti utilize is pretending to address an issue through introducing legislation but not including funding for it. Yes, Abinanti drafted the plan but never drafted funding for it -- a waste of time!
“The Board of Legislators has done nothing on it since,” Abinanti said. “This is not a state function. My opponent is just trying to deflect from the failures of the Board of Legislators.” Shimsky countered with, “County government will need support at the state and federal levels on a year-over-year basis. Given the degree to which the problem is going to become more pervasive and severe, county government can’t do it alone.” Sounds good, but did they do anything about it? You know the answer.
His supporters claim he has co-sponsored over 500 bills, which passed both houses and he has been the prime sponsor of over 100 bills alone. One such “co-sponsored bill” was for fire department ambulance billing for fire departments that operate ambulance service to their community. What he doesn’t mention was that he only got on board as a co-sponsor after it left committee and it was assured of passage and being signed by the Governor. By the way, this bill has been introduced over 10 years ago and only got traction after the former Governor resigned. So, while Abinanti has been in office for 14 years, he again played it safe and sat on the sidelines. Just like with his impotent County flood responsibility bill.
I in a recent debate and discussions of housing and the high cost of living, Shimsky underscored that much of the county needs significantly subsidized and affordable housing.
“We have to make sure we get more affordable housing units built and think about where housing for a broader array of income levels can be built where it would not be as expensive,” Shimsky said. The obvious answer, never to even be whispered, would be upstate. Abinanti's solution? He said he and fellow state legislators have worked to control the high cost of living by eliminating taxes on gasoline, cutting taxes for the middle class, finding alternative resources for local governments to cut property taxes and allowing Westchester to increase its sales tax. For Abinanti’s 40 or so years as an elected official, he has helped increase all of these same taxes without regard to how expensive he has caused the area to get. “We’ve got to decrease the cost of living for people at this very expensive time,” Abinanti said. An expensive "time" that he is culpably responsible for creating as a 40-year career politician.
On an upcoming Tuesday near you, the Democratic primary will be held. Between early voting and other contrivances that have been added to the existing system, It promises nothing new. We’ll be saddled with the same old faces, clichés, hollow promises and ultimately less action with more finger-pointing and blame. The Democrat stalwarts will come out and either decide more of the same with Abinanti is ok or they’ll decide he should be pastured and give Shimsky a shot. Either way, the people whose homes and businesses flood will be forced to endure more of the same as well as the deck gets shuffled yet again.
