Stop shifting the tax burden onto homeowners.
The mall challenged its property taxes and won. Clarkstown, Rockland County and the school district refunded $27.5 million, and the mall’s assessed value was cut nearly in half.1
When the largest commercial property in town pays less, every other homeowner pays more.
In February 2026 the mall sold for $175 million, well below the value the town had just agreed to.2 The new owner can use that sale price to ask for another cut, and your bill would absorb that too.
The commitment
Before the town agrees to cut a big property’s taxes, make it hire its own expert to say what that property is actually worth, and hold a public hearing. I will vote against any deal that moves the cost onto homeowners without both.
Keep heavy truck traffic out of our neighborhoods.
A developer wants three warehouses on 41 wooded acres along Route 303. That would require more than 1,600 trees cut down. Hundreds of truck trips every day, past our schools and driveways. 200 residents came out against it in July.3
The land is zoned to allow warehouses, so the planning board cannot say no. The town board sets that zoning, and has not changed it.
The commitment
Change the zoning on Route 303 so a project this size cannot be approved automatically.
Make our roads safer.
Pedestrians have been struck and killed on Route 304.4
The town and county started a safety study in 2024. Two years later, there is still nowhere safe to cross.5
I would fund the simple fixes first: a painted and lit crosswalk, a corner cleared so drivers can see, and the missing stretches of sidewalk connected up. None of it is expensive. None of it has been done.
The commitment
Put a cost and a date on every fix the safety study recommends, and pay for the cheap ones this year.
Build homes our parents and our kids can afford.
Older neighbors want to sell their big house and stay in Clarkstown. There is nothing smaller to move into, so they leave town instead.
Residents who grew up here cannot afford to come back.
Clarkstown’s own 2021 plan called for 1,500 homes for seniors. Five years later the town still describes that effort as being in its infancy.6
The commitment
Publish a dated tracker on those 1,500 homes so people can see whether it is moving. And exempt first-time buyers from the proposed tax on home purchases.
Stop borrowing for everyday expenses.
You borrow for things that last. A culvert. A firehouse. A road rebuilt from the base up.
Clarkstown borrows for photocopiers, office software and gym equipment. Those loans run for years and carry interest that comes out of your tax bill. The copier will be in a landfill before it is paid off.
Town debt was $112 million in 2020. It is $156 million now.7 Fifty borrowing decisions in the last 18 months, and no public vote on any of them.
The commitment
Pay for equipment and yearly road work out of the regular budget. Put the full cost, including interest, in front of the board before it votes to borrow.
Put term limits back on the ballot.
Clarkstown adopted term limits in 2014. George Hoehmann voted for them, arguing that if term limits were good enough for presidents they were good enough for Clarkstown.
In 2023, when those limits would have ended his own run, he sued to overturn them. The board repealed them 3 to 2.8
The state’s highest court let the repeal stand for one reason. A law like that has to go to the voters, and Clarkstown never put it on a ballot.9
Residents were never asked to vote on it.
The commitment
Introduce term limits and send them to a public vote. Two terms. I will hold myself to the same limit.
Sources
- Rockland County Business Journal, “Clarkstown Will Reimburse Palisades Center $27.5 Million In Tax Challenge” (July 10, 2024). The assessment fell from $578 million to $300 million. — https://rcbizjournal.com/2024/07/10/clarkstown-will-reimburse-palisades-center-27-5-million-in-tax-challenge-school-district-takes-18-million-hit/
- Rockland County Business Journal, “Palisades Center Sells To Owner Of Underlying Debt For $175 Million” (February 4, 2026). — https://rcbizjournal.com/2026/02/04/palisades-center-sells-to-owner-of-underlying-debt-for-175-million/
- Rockland County Business Journal, “Clarkstown Residents Call for Planning Board To Deny Warehouse Application” (July 30, 2026). The Cedar Corners application by Vanta Developers. — https://rcbizjournal.com/2026/07/30/amid-political-theater-clarkstown-residents-call-for-planning-boards-to-deny-warehouse-application/
- Patch, “Pedestrian Killed On Route 304 In New City.” — https://patch.com/new-york/nanuet/pedestrian-seriously-injured-route-304
- Town of Clarkstown, Routes 303 and 304 Safety and Sustainability Study, first public workshop. — https://www.clarkstown.gov/press-release/first-public-workshop-for-route-303-304-corridors-study/
- Rockland Post, “Bob Axelrod vying for reelection in Clarkstown's Ward 4” (July 30, 2026). — https://rocklandpost.com/bob-axelrod-vying-for-reelection-in-clarkstowns-ward-4/
- Town of Clarkstown, Preliminary Official Statement, December 9, 2025. Individual borrowings are listed at clarkstownbonds.com, compiled by residents from the board's published minutes. — https://www.munistat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ClarkstownTNDecember25BondsPOS-Federally-Taxable.pdf
- The Journal News / lohud, “Clarkstown Town Board repeals term limits after contentious meeting” (January 2023). — https://www.yahoo.com/news/clarkstown-town-board-repeals-term-100719797.html
- Rockland County Business Journal, “New York's Highest Court Affirms The Demise Of Clarkstown's Term Limits” (May 19, 2023). Hoehmann v. Town of Clarkstown. — https://rcbizjournal.com/2023/05/19/new-yorks-highest-court-affirms-the-demise-of-clarkstowns-term-limits/