Kate Murray's Fiscal Record

For 10 years now, residents of the Town of Hempstead have been receiving numerous mailings often touting the accomplishments of our Town Supervisor, Kate Murray.

It is long past due that residents have a factual account of her fiscal record. Since 2003, when Supervisor Murray was appointed, the property tax levy has increased from $182.528 to $264.49 million (44.9%), bond debt increased from $238 to $317.35 million, and the town has had three consecutive years of deficits totaling $36 million.

Supervisor Murray always claims she cares so much about town residents, but between 2006 and 2009, while Charles and Michael Scarlatta took $1 million in compensation out of Oceanside’s Sanitary District 7, Supervisor Murray, who could have voted against those compensation increases, did nothing! She could have opened her mouth and told residents in one of her more than 20 yearly mailings. Instead, she chose to keep quite, and deny responsibility.

In November 2012, the state comptroller’s audit of the Hempstead Animal Shelter discovered high operational costs and $3.5 million dollars of unaccounted for expenditures.

In the town’s 2014 budget, there are anomalies that Supervisor Murray would not explain. For example, there are three graphic artists budgeted at a cost of $290,151 and three engineering helpers budgeted at a cost of $234,199. I requested the names and salaries of these employees via a Freedom of Information Law request on Sept. 5 of this year, and still haven’t received the data.

Reforming town government requires transparency. Town board meetings need to be broadcast, and town contracts need to be online, along with their budgeted cost, the day after they are ratified.

I have attended every town board meeting since Aug 2010 and can say with complete certainty that Supervisor Murray opposes any form of transparency that will give residents a comprehensive view of how their money is being spent.

Felix Procacci,

Open Government Advocate

Candidate for Hempstead Town Supervisor