Legislator Sparaco Not Seeking Minority Leader Post

Rockland County Legislator Frank Sparaco (R-Valley Cottage) announced Thursday will not seek the post of minority leader of the Rockland County Legislature for the 2013 session. Sparaco, who was elected minority leader for the 2011 and 2012 sessions,said he can work more independently and in a bipartisan manner if he is not in that post. Legislator Christopher Carey, who is serving his first term, said he is interested in running.

"I am definitely interested so now I have to do the legwork to see if my colleagues will support me," said Carey of Bardonia.

The other four Republicans on the legislature are Ed Day of New City, Douglas Jobson of Stony Point, Patrick Moroney of Pearl River and John Murphy of Orangeburg.  Murphy is currently the deputy minority leader.

Moroney and Murphy both said they were not interested in running but thought Carey would be a good candidate. 

"I'm going to nominate Carey, Mr. Carey," said Murphy. "I think he is a remarkable young man with a bright future. He has a wonderful analytical mind."

Jobson said he was not pursuing the minority leader position.  Day said he and Carey have discussed their mutual interest in the position. Day held the post in 2008 and 2009 and noted that is traditional to rotate it among the Republican legislators every two years. The deputy minority leader is selected by the minority leader. 

Sparaco said he believed he could be more effective working independently.

“I want to work in a bipartisan fashion, as I recently did by reaching across the aisle to work with Legislators Schoenberger and Wolfe to eliminate the college chargebacks to the towns,” stated Legislator Sparaco. “It would be more difficult to do so as Minority Leader, but as an individual legislator, I can work with Democrats to solve Rockland’s problems and address the needs of my constituents.”

Sparaco listed his opposition of tax hikes and new taxes, some of which have been recently implemented, including:

• Property tax increases of over 80 percent
• Doubling the mortgage tax
• Increasing the cell phone tax by 30 cents a month
• Increasing the sales tax rate to 8.75 percent
• Creating a four percent tax on all heating bills
• Creating a “Transfer Tax” of thousands of dollars for home sales
• Creating a vehicle registration tax
• Creating a three percent hotel occupancy tax

Some of these taxes have been recently implemented such as the vehicle registration tax and heating bill tax.

Sparaco said, “I am proud of the record I have built during that time both as a legislator and as Minority Leader – a record of fighting taxes of all kinds, and promoting the ideas of fiscal responsibility during these difficult times.”