Marcotte, Varian Poised in County Legislature Debate

The two candidates vying for a vacant seat on the Westchester County Board of Legislators squared off on Sunday in a debate at Eastchester Town Hall.

For the third time in four days, Democrat Greg Varian and Republican Sheila Marcotte touted their resumes while accusing each other of backing substantial tax hikes in the past.

Voters will have their say in the special election on June 22.

Varian, an attorney and member of the New Rochelle Library Board, fashioned himself as a political outsider willing to reach across the aisle to pass legislation. Marcotte ticked off some of her accomplishments over a ten-year political career that included a stint on the Tuckahoe Board of Trustees and her current role as a member of the Eastchester Town Council.

Marcotte, echoing County Executive Rob Astorino, advocated for the shrinking of county government, leaving "only those services that are essential and that generate revenue."

"Our high taxes come from bloated budgets," the mother of four said. "If elected, I will vote the most responsible vote, which would be to curb spending and eliminate waste."

She singled out the Human Rights Commission and Department of Social Services as agencies that she would consider axing.

Varian said county government should be streamlined, not shrunk, and claimed that decreasing a resident's relatively small county tax bill could significantly increase local taxes.

"It makes no sense to lower county taxes by ten cents and raise local taxes by a dollar," he said. "We need to make smart decisions, not slogans."

Both candidates said some duplicative services should be consolidated, and Varian suggested that the process of consolidating municipalities should be made easier.

Varian tried to capitalize on the anti-incumbent fervor that has come to define this year's campaigns from Washington to Westchester.

"I'm not sure incumbency is the best qualification for solving today's problems," Varian said. "You don't need to be in government to know how to get things done."

The candidates clashed over Astorino's proposal to cut two day-care programs and require greater contributions from parents for a third. The Board's Democratic majority is mulling a lawsuit over the move, which would force parents in the program to pay up to $840 more per year.

"This would push people out of the workforce and onto welfare," Varian said. "That's not a solution."

Marcotte called the potential lawsuit "a waste of time and money" and said the cuts were necessary to fill a $166 million budget gap.

About ten local residents asked questions during the hour-long forum, which was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Bronxville and New Rochelle. Some of the questioners seemed to be working with the respective campaigns, while others seemed angry.

"Everybody is stressing 'no new taxes', but government doesn't work without taxes and civilization doesn't work without government," said Al Delfino of Eastchester. "I want to know how [the candidates] will get things done, no matter what the cost."

The exchanges were contentious at times, with Marcotte questioning Varian's math when he claimed that she has voted to raise taxes by 42 percent over a decade, and Varian accusing his opponent's campaign of tampering with lawn signs that his workers put up in Eastchester. Marcotte denied the claim.

The 10th District seat covers  Eastchester, Tuckahoe, and New Rochelle. The seat was vacated last month when Democrat Vito Pinto resigned to become the head of  the County Veterans Service and the Drug Prevention and Stop-DWI Agencies.

Democrats currently hold a 12-4 majority in the 17-seat chamber.

The June 22 election will be the last in the county in which voters will use traditional lever voting machines. Federal and state mandates require all counties in the state to adopt electronic voting technology in time for the September primaries. The new machines, called optical scanners, will scan hand-marked ballots and tally the votes.