EXCERPT FROM: LoHud.com
By Gerald McKinstry
Democrats and day-care advocates are keeping the pressure on County Executive Rob Astorino over his midyear cuts to child care.
The Board of Legislators is hosting a public hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Westchester County Center.
"These cuts will disproportionately impact working families," said Board of Legislators Vice Chairman Lyndon Williams, D-Mount Vernon. "These actions will force working parents to choose between having to place their children in substandard care or quitting their jobs to take care of their kids. Westchester should not be about deliberately pushing working parents onto the unemployment rolls."
The hearing, sponsored by the board's Committee on Community Services, is the latest in a series of rallies throughout the county. Others have taken place in Mount Vernon, Mount Kisco, Greenburgh and Ossining.
The hope is to show that Astorino's cuts negatively affect working families.
Earlier this year, Astorino cut $1.5 million in programs as part of $16 million in department savings aimed at addressing what is now said to be a $130 million deficit in 2011.
Programs that are jeopardized include the Westchester County Child Care Scholarship program and Title XX child care, a federal program that helps many families.
The county executive also increased parent contributions by 5 percent, bringing it up to 20 percent, or about $80 more on average, of the total cost.