Jim’s evidence that Sleepy Hollow has plenty of cash on hand for current and future projects is riddled with both contradictions and errors. Our past 5 years of financial audits, culminating with the 2024 financial audit clearly outlines that Sleepy Hollow had a huge $4M deficit last year. Year after year, Sleepy Hollow’s expenses outpaced its revenues – plain and simple.
In each of those years, Sleepy Hollow had to use the Unassigned General Fund, or the Village’s reserves, to balance the budget. It is concerning that Jim and his team do not seem to understand basic accounting!
Edge on Hudson (EoH) finally started contributing taxes starting in 2023, after 30 years of land cleanup and infrastructure development. The pandemic and ensuing supply chain chaos contributed to the delay, but the major takeaway is the Village of Sleepy Hollow does not control the pace of development or inflow of taxes. It will be many years before EoH is fully built and we have a full understanding of how much additional taxes these new properties will provide. While we await these new revenues, we’re already paying the debt servicing on the bond USH took on in Dec 2020. That new debt accounts for half of the $7.5 MM increase in our Village expenses since 2020 and directly caused your tax increases of the last two years. Expenses not related to bond debt have actually been declining for the last three years, but it hasn’t been enough to outweigh the payments due under those bonds.
The town of Mount Pleasant, with an all-Republican board, was downgraded from Aa1 to Aa2 in September because of a decline in reserves and liquidity, and failure to put together a structurally balanced budget. USH, meanwhile, is bragging about our Aa3 rating which is even lower.
The stark difference between our opponents and the Sleepy Hollow Dems are our values, and can’t be better articulated than Bloom’s heart-felt October, 19th letter to the editor. We are responsible to each other and to our community’s long-term success. We use the Village’s audited financial reports to make thoughtful decisions that will improve the affordability and quality of living in Sleepy Hollow. Quoting Jim’s letter: “USH believes that borrowing at such rates is prudent for long-term projects. Our basic philosophy is that for capital investments, prudent borrowing enables payments to be spread over a long-time frame and paid by the residents living in the Village during those years.” USH likes debt that other people will pay for with no foresight on whether that debt is affordable for our Village. USH will drive a huge tax increase in the future for young families or bankruptcy for the Village.
This is their playbook. While in power for a decade, Unite Sleepy Hollow drained the unassigned general fund from $8M in 2020 to $1.7M in 2025 to reduce their own taxes. The unassigned general fund are the hard-earned taxes paid into by residents and is how the Village pays for unbudgeted expenses. And now USH wants to take on more massive debt so that young families and new Edge on Hudson neighbors will pay for everything going forward.
The Sleepy Hollow Democrats are committed to restoring the fiscal health of our Village and well-being of all our neighbors, investing in the quality of life for the entire Village while keeping taxes and debt low. Let’s not get back on USH’s dangerous fiscal roller coaster. Please review our plan to restore fiscal stability on our website. And vote for us on ‘Row A all the Way’.
Signed,
Marjorie Hsu
Candidate for Sleepy Hollow Mayor
