As the summer heats up to near broiling, there is no rest on the campaign trail for Rockland County Executive candidates.
Republican candidate Ed Day brought his campaign to the central village of Sloatsburg and the western edge of Ramapo this past weekend, accompanied by familiar Sloatsburger Marino Fontana, where some businesses are thriving and some are plain diving.
Day was on the stump to promote his recently released economic plan that he believes will revive and revitalize Rockland’s towns and villages. Day said the 3rd and 10th point in his 10 point economic plan would mostly apply to Sloatsburg.
“I see a village that has a lot of pride,” Day said, calling Sloatsburg a village known to be very independent but fighting an alternate border market nearby. Day said that border states draw both consumers and businesses away from Rockland towns and villages.
Point number three in Day’s economic plan calls for lobbying the state for a “Business Protection Border Zone” that would create sales-related tax exemptions for businesses competing against lower-tax states equal to a percentage of the difference between the two states.
Point number 10 calls for streamlining business permitting and regulations at the county level to promote small and medium business startups and might also be beneficial to Sloatsburg.
“The county executive is the chief economic development officer of the county,” said Day. “That is his or her job. That is what I will do. And the only way we’re going to reverse the condition we’re in is to grow this county.”
Day suggested that current taxes in Rockland are driving people out of the county: “We cannot tax people because people are leaving,” Day said.
“We put this together and we announced this on Thursday,” Day said enthusiastically about his economic plan, “and we had people in support of this plan that ranged from major corporations, business leaders, chambers of commerce, small retail, and unions.
“We assembled a broad spectrum of people with the purpose of saying that there are ways to get out of this if we do it collectively and together.”
Note: SloatsburgVillage.com invites all Rockland County Executive candidates to contact the editor whenever they are campaigning in the area and want to discuss how their policies will support Western Ramapo towns and villages.
