Westchester's $197 Million Problem. And Why the Answer Should Never Be "Raise Taxes on Working Families."

Westchester Count elected officials pose for photo after increasing property taxes by 5%

Westchester County walked into its 2026 budget process with a $197.7 million deficit. That is a staggering number. And the way county leadership handled it tells you a lot about the priorities driving decisions in White Plains right now.

The county blamed the federal government. They blamed shifting aid formulas. They blamed flat sales tax revenues. They blamed the loss of the MGM casino project. Some of those explanations are legitimate. Federal instability does trickle down to counties. That part I will not dispute.

But here is what bothers me. When a $197 million problem shows up at the door, the first instinct of this county government was to pass a tax increase and slash department budgets across the board. Not to ask hard questions about structural spending. Not to examine which programs were delivering results and which were not. Not to challenge the assumption that every dollar currently being spent is being spent wisely.

The county budget has grown by $400 million since 2020. Let that number sit for a moment. Four hundred million dollars in additional spending over six years. And now, when revenues slow down, the answer is to ask working families to pay more.

Count Executive Ken Jenkins blaming the federal government for the county's budget shortfall of $197M.

I am not saying all of that spending was wasteful. I am saying nobody seems to have asked. The answer was simply: cut everything 8% and raise the tax levy. That is not fiscal management. That is a panic response.

There is a better way. It starts with treating the county budget the way a family or a business treats their budget when times get hard. You look at every line. You ask what is working and what is not. You protect what matters most and you eliminate what does not justify its cost. You do not simply pass the pain to the people who can least afford it.

The families of District 16 have already seen their property taxes rise year after year. They cannot absorb another increase simply because the county did not do the hard work of reforming how it spends. That changes when I get to that chamber.

Related: Your Property Tax Bill Has Three Parts. The County Controls One.

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