Letter to the Editor: Response to Elise Mottel—the town needs new ideas
November 4, 2011
by Robin Murphy
I am writing in response to Town Board member and candidate, Elise Mottel’s Letter to the Editor entitled: GOP candidates are making empty promises; they should know better.
Ms. Mottel’s last sentence of her letter is very telling. She writes: As we have in the past, the town board will continue to encourage businesses to move into spaces as they become vacant. And we will continue to deal with facts—not promises that cannot be fulfilled.” This statement reflects Ms. Mottel and the current Board’s inability or unwillingness to look at things differently than how they’ve already been done and that she’d prefer to state untruths about her opponents than come up with her own plan to address issues in our town.
Instead of accusing the candidates of not doing their homework, Ms. Mottel should have done her own. I didn’t hear Bob Kirkwood and Terence Murphy say that another market should or would move into the old D’Agostino’s facility or any existing location. Furthermore, Bob Kirkwood and Terence Murphy never suggested that an existing site would need a SEQR review. In fact, the word “SEQR” was never spoken at the press conference.
I also didn’t hear any promises that can’t be delivered. Whether or not tax credits are at the discretion of the town, county, state or elsewhere, in 2010, DiCicco’s received a 10-year 75% tax abatement when they opened their market in Southeast which employs 100 people. Unless something has changed since, it seems that they or another market may be able to receive similar support. As Chair of the Downtown Steering Committee and Town Board member, it would be appropriate and advantageous for Ms. Mottel to find out more about this before she says that it is not possible.
Moreover, Ms. Mottel writes here that “these candidates cannot even decide what they want” between a supermarket or a specialty market. This statement is especially ironic given that in her letter she says our town shouldn’t invite in another business to compete with the Village Market yet in her own recently-held press conference, she announced that she personally reached out to specialty markets—including DeCicco’s.
New Castle is a great town and I love it here but it’s clear that our Town Government needs some fresh ideas. Simply replacing stores that close with others is not a business plan that revitalizes our hamlets and I applaud Supervisor and County Legislator candidates, Bob Kirkwood and Terence Murphy for coming out publicly and showing us that they will not settle for the status quo.
Robin Murphy
New Castle
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Related: GOP candidates are making empty promises; they should know better
A town government run by one party does not work! In order to get elected, one simply has to get appointed to run for that party. Frankly, Our current board members are stale and a little too cocky since they have no fear of losing an election. Now that there is real qualified competition, board members are going on copy cat listnening tours. It is absolutely time to get fresh ideas into town leadership, even if not all of them work, at least they can be raised and debated. Let’s elect someone outside our dominant party and shake things up, this election has nothing to do with national politics!
I wish that there were “qualified competition” from the republicans in this election.
All that I have seen from them is misleading information and unfounded accusations.
Robin Murphy seems to be seriously out of touch with the clamor in town about our high taxes. Its the lack of a commercial tax base that keeps our residential taxes so high. Adding business with a 75% tax break for 10 years doesn’t sound like a good deal for our town.
If only the Republicans had put up worthy candidates. Such a lackluster crew is deeply disappointing.
What a missed opportunity!
Didn’t want to vote for the Democrats (except for Susan Carpenter), but have no choice. Will vote for Rob Greenstein, the Independent candidate.
Why such a poor slate of candidates, Republicans, after such a long hiatus?!
If there is one thing that has clearly come out of the lead-up to this election, its that party politics has no place in this town. Would like to see all of the candidates renounce their ties to the national/state parties and worry about representing NC. While I know that can’t happen, would be good to see that go on the ballot ASAP. Many of the candidates either come off as either negative personalities or negligent of the facts.
Kaplowits is the worst. Leaving any body of gov’t in the hands of single party seems like a recipe for disaster and the perfect place for all of our pockets to get picked.
@Sorry-we need the taxes,
Thanks for reading my letter.
I hear you about the town needing tax revenue and I’m not sure why you think I’m seriously out of touch about our high taxes. In fact I’m right there with you.
Regarding tax incentives/stimulus programs, I am personally ambivalent. Nevertheless, with regard to DeCicco’s, the Putnam IDA (Industrial Development Agency) an organization (a government agency?) taking credit for the program states that the town did not lose any tax revenue from the DeCicco’s tax abatement.
From their 2010 Annual Report: “It should be pointed out that the county and Towns do not forgo property and school tax revenues as the State reimburses each of these businesses for their payments to taxing authorities. It should also be noted that DeCicco’s Markets has estimated their annual volume at $15 million per year ... annually, which will contribute significantly to our sales tax revenue.”
Here’s the link where I found this information: http://www.putnamida.org/Accomplishments-2010.pdf
My point in bringing this up in my initial letter to the editor was to point out that Elise Mottel was making unfounded accusations while she herself doesn’t know the facts.
