ANTHONY MERANTE’S COMMITMENT TO YOU!

GETTING BACK TO BASICS
Government is a service business you, the taxpayers, are the customers. Your hard-earned tax dollars fund City Government, so YOU deserve responsiveness, respect and to having your needs addressed. Anthony believes that getting a building permit, a tree trimmed, or a pothole filled should not be a frustrating experience. You deserve an improved quality of life and a mayor who will put you first. As Mayor, Anthony Merante will listen to your problems. He will make City Hall work for YOU!

KEEPING RESIDENTS SAFE
The primary job of any Mayor is to keep citizens safe. When a 16-year-old student is stabbed in his middle school, over 300 cars are robbed of their catalytic converters while owners slept, when snatch and grab robberies occur in broad daylight while you’re shopping at Marshal’s, this is just to cite a few incidents. Then there is the nightly Yonkers Cable TV news that is filled with reports of robberies, drug violence and shootings in Yonkers. This does not make residents feel safe. It’s obvious to everyone that we have an urgent crime problem that can’t be washed away with manipulated safety statistics. Many crimes are not reported as store owners do not want to reveal that a crime was committed in their establishment. In addition, numerous crimes do not end in arrests because victims do not prosecute. This results in false crime statistics.

We must back our police by ending Albany’s “catch and release” bail bond laws. Additionally, we need to increase our community policing efforts to rebuild and strengthen the relationship between the community and our Yonkers Police Department. Building a strong partnership with communities and law enforcement will aid in identifying individuals at-risk of violence. A proactive initiative maybe to place police presence in at risk neighborhoods. Community police storefronts would foster better relations with locals and create an opportunity to draw troubled youth away from gangs and into the PAL and other youth programs.

CONTROL CITY SPENDING TO KEEP TAXES LOW
As a businessman and CPA Anthony Merante has the knowledge and expertise to manage City Hall more productively and with greater fiscal efficiency. As the City Council budget chairman in 2020-2021, he was able to push through a 0% tax increase and deliver a budget surplus of $176 million in the fiscal year ending June 2022. Anthony Merante was the only Councilmember to “Vote No” on a Property Tax increase in the 2020/21 budget. Anthony will work relentlessly to get the City’s fair share of funding from the State. We have been locked at $108 million for over 10 years. with inflation that amount should now be at least $120 million per year. Anthony leads by example; he has refused a taxpayer funded City vehicle. He doesn’t believe Yonkers taxpayers should be paying for his car. Yonkers taxpayers will have no better friend than Anthony Merante.

REPAIRING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE
Our city’s infrastructure has been badly neglected. Our aging water lines are continuously breaking. Our sewers are consistently causing flooding. Our roads are in such bad shape they are forcing unnecessary repairs to your vehicles. Yonkers cannot flourish without a strong core infrastructure. As Mayor, Anthony Merante will make rebuilding our infrastructure a priority for his administration.

SUPPORTING OUR SCHOOLS
Yonkers is fortunate to have strong schools, educators, stakeholders, and parents dedicated to ensuring every student can succeed. Education is one of the key pillars to accessing good paying jobs and set students up for future success. As Mayor, Anthony would encourage YPS to explore of trade apprenticeship and STEM programs through corporate partnerships. During Anthony’s five years on the Yonkers City Council, he increased school funding over $40 million a year. However, the City’s greatest challenge continues to be getting its fair share of State aid for education. Albany’s revenue sharing formula is unfair and broken. Anthony will fight for our Yonkers schools to get the funds which they are entitled.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Yonkers seniors, who have lived here for decades, and would like to remain here, are leaving because of the lack of affordable housing. We urgently need to build affordable senior housing and support our seniors’ ability to safely age-in-place in comfort and with dignity. Our City has seen a burst of luxury apartments erected on our waterfront but yet we’ve had limited affordable housing for seniors, workforce and other residents on fixed and modest incomes.

SMART DEVELOPMENT
Anthony Merante wants to build a growing and thriving economy that lifts every Yonkers family. As a longtime Yonkers businessman, Anthony understands how the economy works and knows how to increase economic opportunities. He believes in “smart development” that will enhance Yonkers’ economic growth. Anthony will incentivize development projects which positively help lift our neighborhoods. He will encourage affordable ownership rather than luxury rentals that have turned the vast Yonkers waterfront high rise rentals into a ‘bedro” stop overs for NYC commuters. He will push for manufacturing and tech businesses that can truly deliver good paying jobs for Yonkers residents and contribute to our corporate tax base.

CLEANING UP OUR CITY
Our City’s appearance speaks volumes to prospective businesses and residents when visiting. We desperately need to remove eyesores. As Mayor, Merante will address illegal dumping, abandoned or unkempt property and crack down on illegal apartments and slumlords. It’s our Yonkers we must keep it clean. Anthony will undertake a program to encourage residents through incentives and recognition to show their pride in Yonkers by beautifying their property.