Toni Hokanson
Toni Hokanson. (Photo by Lauren Thomas)
If reelected, Hokanson said that her top priorities would be to “continue to focus on environmental protection, clean air and water, protection of critical open space and working farms, adopting the farmland protection ordinance, our proposed Wetlands Law, while at the same time continuing to expand our recycling center, which is poised to become a revenue source for the town.” According to the supervisor, the expansion of the recycling center program “brought us almost even until the storm hit — and to help our residents and families who had suffered flood damage, we allowed them to bring their debris and rotten sheetrock in without charge. But as our reimbursement grants come in and that program continues to expand, it will make money for the town next year, while providing a critical environmental service that keeps our waste stream down and reduces our landfill.” Hokanson said that the future board will have to determine “whether or not we utilize that revenue stream to help offset taxes or reduce fees for our residents.”
Another priority for Hokanson, similar to her opponent, is to “get water and sewer infrastructure onto South Putt Corners Road, either by grants and/or through bonding, with a system in place that could pay back that seed money from future development.” Like Zimet, Hokanson said, “The development of infrastructure in that area, which is zoned Light Industrial and ready to go, just off the Thruway, is critical to getting a handle on our ever-increasing taxes by being able to finally attract businesses that add to our tax base, provide good jobs and utilize the highly educated workforce we have graduating SUNY-New Paltz and within our existing community.”
In addition to environmental and farmland protection measures, and wanting to bring water and sewer to South Putt Corners Road to attract businesses, Hokanson said that she would like to continue to “focus on and expand our recreational opportunities for all ages within the community.” To that end, she said, she has “insisted that the town maintain and operate the Moriello Pool and Park to make it affordable for all of our residents. We continue to expand all of our parks, to create more fields for our youth and adults, as well as walking trails and other venues for all generations. We’ve expanded our programming at the Community Center, and I would like to see it continue to offer more courses and to bring many of those courses outdoors to our various parks.”
As for taxes, Hokanson said quite honestly, “I can’t promise that I will be able to lower them. Anyone who says they can is not admitting that they’ll have to cut services drastically, and I think that cutting essential services to our residents without thinking through the consequences is reckless.” Instead, she said that she would work to “stabilize the taxes while at the same time trying to work on building up the tax base and exploring all grant opportunities that are out there. I think that we also can save money by signing intramunicipal agreements — not only with the village, but with the school district and the college. The relationships I’ve established with these entities over the past six years will enable me to work closely together to share services, apply for grants together and work cooperatively to stabilize taxes while not cutting critical services.”
As for criticisms that arose during the preparation and adoption of the 2011 fiscal budget (which was passed four-to-one), Hokanson said, “Last year I made an error [of approximately $600,000] in the budget early on. It was the first budget where I had to be concerned about bonding, and I was so overly cautious that I made an error.” That said, Hokanson defended claims of sloppiness by saying that she “found my own mistake. No one else found it. And when I found it, I admitted it publicly and brought it to the board’s attention. I didn’t try to hide it or cover it up; instead I put it right out there. The result? Instead of being applauded for open government, my mistake is being overly emphasized and exaggerated by those with political motives. I made a mistake, I admitted it right away and it was corrected long before we came to adopting the budget.”
As for hot-ticket items in front of the public now, Hokanson responded to the question as to how she felt about consolidation of the town and village as being proposed in several ways by the Government Efficiency Committee. “I helped to write the grant, to pursue the grant to work on the Government Efficiency Committee, not because I have an agenda, but because I felt that our residents deserved to have all of the latest, most up-to-date, accurate information they could on what various forms of consolidation would look like so that they could choose — not me. It’s their choice as to how they believe New Paltz could best be governed.”
As she has shown at the table over the last six years, Hokanson said that she supports the Floodplains Law (which resulted in a lawsuit by certain property owners, yet was upheld by the courts in the town’s favor) and the proposed Wetlands Law. “I truly believe that those two zoning laws are what’s best for our environment and for our residents. Yes, certain homeowners are upset because they may not be able to do whatever they want to with their property; but it’s up to government leaders to make hard decisions that might be burdensome to a few, but better for the public health and well-being of the community on the whole.”
As for what she might do better in her fourth term, if elected, Hokanson said, “There were times this past year that when attacked, I became reactive. After a lot of self-reflection, I believe that my nature and history of being proactive in public service for years is what I need to return to — and that’s what I’ve already begun to do.”
In response to being on the Working Families line and not the Democratic line, Hokanson said, “It’s an honor for me to be on the Working Families line. I could be the poster child for that party, as I was a single mother who had to utilize the social services available to me to raise my children, then was able to go back to school, earn my degree, get a job and buy my first home with the assistance of the USDA Farmers’ Home loan. I’ve personally proven that when government can help out with people’s basic needs, they can excel and get off those programs and make valuable contributions to society.”
The long-term incumbent, who served for years before becoming an elected official on the town’s Environmental Commission and Planning Board, said that she’s most proud of her “environmental initiatives, beginning with my work and the board’s work to protect steep slopes; our clearing and grading law; elimination of flag lots; passing the Open Space Plan; having the voters support the Open Space Bond; preserving our first, key parcels of critical open space, followed by the Floodplains Law and hopefully the Farmland Protection Law. That is my background: environmental protection and planning.” ++
Hokanson has often been wasteful with our taxpayer dollars. i.e. spending a ton of our tax dollars on the community center when we were told it was “free.” Also, the so called “free” field of dreams was far from free with all the cost to us tax payers. Let’s add the ice skating rink financial fiasco and the questionable expenditure for parking near the BMX track. How about the raises to workers above cost of living and the huge raises to herself. No wonder she cannot guarantee a decrease in taxes.