Protestors moved down Broadway to City Hall.
By Nancy Peckenham
About 50 Newburgh residents marched down Broadway Wednesday afternoon calling for officials from New York State to step in to run the city so it can recover from a fiscal crisis. The activist group Community Voices Heard called for the march, denouncing the pressure put on residents by the city’s 71 percent tax hike. They were joined by members of the newly-formed Change Newburgh, homeowners and union members.
Chanting “We need help, our ship is sinking” and “Whose city? Our city!” the protestors arrived at City Hall, where they burst into the second-floor office of acting city manager Richard Herbek, calling for him to come out to talk with them.
Protestors Demand Action from Acting City Manager
Acting city manager Richard Herbek comes out to speak with the protestors.
When he emerged, Herbek told the protestors that the city has already asked the state for help and the result was the Fiscal Recovery Act passed last year. The people who crowded around him were not satisfied with his response, saying the city had to ask again and again for the state to put the city into receivership, which would mean that the state would take over the business of local government. “Persistence brings about progress,” one woman shouted from the back of the room.
Herbek said there is a price to be paid for a state control board, which he said could cost around half a million dollars.
Several of the protestors accused the acting city manager of being out of touch with city residents who live in poverty in violence-plagued neighborhoods. “Every day I have to worry about will my kids make it home safe,” said Loretta Manning of Community Voices Heard. “You don’t really understand what we’re going through.”
As the group filed out of the city manager’s office, Caroline Rupprecht said she came to the rally because her house is losing money and she can’t afford to live with more tax increases.
State Intervention is Asked
Many of the protestors pulled out cell phones after the impromptu meeting with Herbek and began calling their state representatives to ask them to do something now to help Newburgh. Judy Kennedy, a local businesswoman who recently delivered a petition with more than 1,000 signatures to state officials asking for intervention, said the city can’t get out of “this mess” on its own. Kennedy is pledging to get more state aid as she campaigns to become the next mayor.
Jenny Loeb, of Community Voices Heard, says that members of the group will be meeting with state senator Bill Larkin next week and hope to get his support for more state intervention.
Business Leaders Hold Urgent Meeting on Financial Problems
Meanwhile, city business leaders are getting into the fight. They announced a meeting on Thursday at the Old West Shore Train Station to strategies for reversing the downward spiral before financial recovery becomes impossible. The 10 am forum will include leaders from many of the city’s major employers, including Cosimo’s Restaurant Group, GTI Technologies, Leyland Alliance, Mesh Realty, the Newburgh Performing Arts Academy, Safe Harbors, St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, Wells Fargo, Unitex Textile and William A. Smith & Sons, to name a few. In total, the group will represent more hundreds of people who work in the city of Newburgh.
The discussion will center on asking Albany to place the city of Newburgh in temporary receivership. In a statement, the business leaders said that the current city government has not been able to deliver a fiscal performance plan with a credible revenue strategy, or a long-term plan to reverse the current trend, so receivership may be the only viable option.
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