Katz Touts Benefits of Public-Private Partnerships
Assemblyman Steve Katz, joined by Putnam County officials and local figures in the business community, held a press conference Thursday morning outside the United Cerebral Palsy building in Brewster to promote public-private partnerships in New York State and in the Hudson Valley.
“In our country, we are not a socialist nation and we are not a purely free market economy. We, in the United States and in New York and in our counties, are striking the balance between public and private partnerships,” Katz (R-99) said. “In a time when municipalities are being forced to make tough decisions, these partnerships, as we will show today, help provide quality services for the residents of the community.”
Putnam County Executive Paul Eldridge talked about how public-private partnerships, including the privatization of the county’s mental health services in 1997, have helped save the county money.
“The savings that we have had over the course of those 14 years have been tremendous,” Eldridge said. “Had we left that as a governmental entity, I know that we’d be talking about millions of dollars at this point. It’s a lot, lot less than that because we did the partnership with the private sector.”
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.