Klein’s spending no boon

To the editor:

Shant Shahrigian’s “A Good Year for Riverdale” (Jan. 1) suggests that Riverdale celebrate Jeff Klein as he brings “jaw dropping” money into the district. I disagree, as do the majority of Riverdale voters who cast their ballots for his opponent, Oliver Koppell, in the primary last September. 

Mr. Shahrigian describes Riverdale as a “place of privilege” because of the State largesse Mr. Klein is able to snag. Let’s do a back-of-the-envelope analysis to see what Riverdale gets in exchange for Mr. Klein’s Republican allegiance. We’re told that Councilman Cohen and Jeff Klein between them got $1,500,000 for Van Cortland Park, so perhaps Mr. Klein’s share is $750,000. We’re told that Mr. Klein brought another $618,000 into Riverdale by himself, for a total of $1,368,000. Let’s say that the amount of money that a state Senator who has not sold out his party brings to Riverdale is only half that, or $684,000. Given Riverdale’s population, our payoff was about $14.30 per person for Jeff Klein’s empowerment of Dean Skelos. 

Compare this payoff to what Riverdale would have gotten had Oliver Koppell been in the state Senate last session instead of Jeff Klein. The state Senate’s leadership (which, alas, included Mr. Klein) would not have schemed to bring the Dream Act to a vote when it was doomed to fail. The Dream Act would have provided residents of the area with tuition assistance, and despite the nativist harrumphing about not funneling taxpayer money to those brought to the country illegally as children, the fact remains that they are residents of our area; by not advancing their education, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.

Had Oliver Koppell been in Mr. Klein’s place, perhaps the state Senate could have done better than the anemic minimum wage increase embarrassingly trumpeted by Mr. Klein. (New York’s is now $8.75 per hour and scheduled rise to $9.00 per hour. Compare that to Connecticut, which raised theirs to $9.00 per hour with a scheduled increase to $10.10.) A robust minimum wage hike would have increased consumer demand, benefited our retailers, made it easier for low wage workers to manage and would not have affected employment rates as demand for low wage workers is relatively inelastic. (McDonalds needs to maintain its staff level to operate and does not have a lot of wiggle room to dump workers because of a marginal increase in labor costs.) Oliver Koppell would not have introduced a hostile amendment to the Women’s Equality Act (as Jeff Klein did) whose primary effect and likely purpose was to stall its passage.

If Riverdale is a “place of privilege,” it is not because the Jeff Kleins of the world marginally increase the dribble of funds from Albany for local projects; it is because people like Oliver Koppell understand that Riverdale is not a gated community, and its property prices, crime rate and quality of life rise and fall with those of Yonkers and the South Bronx. In the last Senate session, we needed a Dream Act, a meaningful minimum wage increase and a Women’s Equality Act, and despite his lip service, Jeff Klein thwarted those measures; he sold out his party and his principles for power. That, and not the $14.30 a head we got out of the deal, is jaw dropping.

Charles Rich