Herald Endorsement

Vote for Kate Murray for Town of Hempstead supervisor

Posted

As it has in the past, the Herald once again endorses incumbent Kate Murray for Town of Hempstead supervisor without reservation.

Murray is a popular Republican, renowned for balanced budgets and an unwavering commitment to environmental preservation. She is a conservative with a Teddy Roosevelt-like commitment to saving our natural resources — our air, water and soil.

The economic downturn of 2007 to 2009 plunged municipalities across the country into financial dire straits. Hempstead Town, though clearly affected by the national financial crisis, balanced its budgets while maintaining services. It was a high-wire act, for sure, but one that Murray was clearly up to managing.

Now the economy is slowly recovering, and the town is enjoying its status as one of Long Island’s best-run municipalities. Certainly, the bond-rating agencies are impressed. The town has consistently received an AAA rating from them — the highest possible rating.

At the same time, Hempstead has aggressively sought federal and state grants to install renewable-energy sources at facilities across the town, including wind, solar and geothermal projects. The town is even now looking at tidal-action facilities that could harness the power of the Atlantic Ocean to produce electricity.

We appreciate the commitment to open government that Murray’s opponent, Felix Procacci, has demonstrated. He has attended every Town Board meeting for the past three years, and he is so enthusiastic about helping to create a more transparent Hempstead that he has financed his grass-roots campaign with $22,000 of his own money.

Procacci, a Republican from Franklin Square who is running on the Democratic ticket, is correct when he says that the town should post more documents on its website and possibly videotape meetings for viewing on the Internet. He did not, however, make a convincing argument that he could do a better job of managing the town’s finances than Murray, and he had little to nothing to say about the town’s environmental record, only that he is unsure whether its rain barrel program is producing the water savings that town officials say it is.

Murray is the clear choice.