BY: Keith S. Shikowitz Editor/Investigative Reporter
Mike Graziano, a devout Catholic, is a father of 4 children – 3 girls and a son, was baptized in Saint Paul’s Church and went to Saint Paul’s School is a lifelong resident of Clarkstown and six year Clarkstown Town Council incumbent from Ward 2 is running for reelection. He has been involved in the community through his 36 years in the Congress Fire Department coaching basketball and baseball. He is involved with Saint Paul’s Church in the Usher Society, so I’m pretty big into my church. He raised his family in Congers
One topic he is adamant about is transgender males playing in female sports. There are people around the country who say that these transgender females are mediocre sports players in male sports and are doing this to win.
“I am a religious person and I believe in the decency of people and I believe in decency of life. There’s some people that I have gone a little bit to the extreme that I do not conform to my lifestyle and, what I mean by that is with the transgender, I don’t believe that boys should be playing in girls’ sports. They don’t belong in the, in the girl’s locker room. I believe males should play against males because I think physically, they are stronger than girls and it’s been proven. Look at the Olympics of last year when the Italian boxer got beat up by a male.
If you want to, say you’re a female, then have transgender against transgender sports and create another league.
Keep the male league, female league, and transgender league.”
He says that you train your kids mentally and physically, you go to all these tournaments and they’re going to go for a scholarship in college. They’re playing sports and they get beat by a male in a female sport. It’s not right.
When it comes to his service to the town, “I’m very involved with my community in every way and aspect of it. I love doing this position because I do help many people, not just in my ward. I have many people that call me from other wards. I appreciate that a lot of times I referred that wardsman to that individual, but then I always ask them, and even Paula asks them our secretary, she says, why are you calling Mike Graziano he’s not in your ward.” The response is, “Well, we hear he gets things done. I’m proud of that, the fact that I have that reputation. It’s that simple.”
Crumbling infrastructure is a major complaint people have in communities around the country. There’s a lot of construction being done on the roads in Clarkstown. Some are state roads that the town has no control over like the repairs to the bridge on Route 304 by Schultz Ford and the work on West Nyack Turnpike by the town.
“I’m all about quality of life, right, so my point is. I meet with real estate agents because I want to know from the real estate agents what they hear from young families what they want out of the town, and they tell me cleanliness, which is very important to me.”
He says it’s really simple. The elderly people are leaving or passing away, unfortunately, and we have young families coming in. He works with Sheriff Lou Falco, to get people who have to do community service to clean the roads which is done once a quarter.
There is also the subject of recreational infrastructure meaning great parks and facilities. “I don’t know if you noticed, but in the 6 years since I become councilman, we’ve done some great work with the supervisor and the rest of the town board to our parks departments look great.
He says that people have, have concerns about it. He grew up around Congress Lake and he has them too. He fished there and it’s so over, grown that it bothers him and he’s glad that when started as a councilman we started attacking this. According to Graziano, they have been successful this year killing it as well as last year, but it takes a while. “It’s a 4 year program that’s why they got the appointment for 4 years from the state of New York.
“But it’s just some of the things, but it’s also the roads. I believe in great roads. It’s unfortunate that I can’t control state roads. I guarantee if Clarkstown controlled the state roads, they will not be in the shape they’re in. Supervisor George Hoehmann is big on that as well as the town board and me, but all the local roads that are in Clarkstown, you can say they’re in great shape like 300 miles of road, and the great thing about it is that we pave the roads.”
“We have a program and superintendent of highways has a program with Bob Malone and Robert Zinowski, our road inspector. He goes around and literally looks at roads and sees what’s got to be done. We work a lot with Veolia, Orange and Rockland, and you say, what do you mean you work with them? We ask them, well, you guys going to do any infrastructure work on these roads? They say no because once we pave it they can’t open up the road for 5 years unless it’s an absolute emergency. If you have your home on that road and your gas line goes bad or your water line goes bad.”
After the utilities do work on a road, the town typically paves the year after the work is done. This is because they put binder down and they want the road to settle. Once the road settles, they come in and pave the road. The infrastructure is improving. I was talking with, Supervisor Hoehmann a couple of weeks ago, that you’re almost done with the current cycle of paving. We’re getting to the end of it, and we’re pushing to get the roads done that we had on the list. If we cannot get to those roads, they’ll be on top of the list. We’ll start paving again in April when the plants open up.
According to Graziano, West Nyack Turnpike should be done hopefully by November. That’s what they’re saying, if not sooner. That job is taking a little bit longer than I thought it would take. “It’s unfortunate. some of the people there got hurt on the business end, and I feel really bad over on West Nyack Turnpike. Well, now thank God it’s paved, but they’re still working there, but it’s going to be beautiful. Think about what we’ve done there. We worked with the state to get us the money, federal government. They’re going to have new sidewalks, streetlamps, new paving, water and sewer infrastructure, along with lots of other infrastructure, so it’s all new. It’s going to be fantastic for them.”
“I come from the private sector it’s the way I work. I build networks, networks of banks and brokerage firms. I also build homes on the side. So somebody who’s an entrepreneur I’m working on your private sector.
You try to cut ways and try to do more with less and you learn from that and that’s what municipalities have to learn and we have to learn that, you know, and we’ve done more with less in the 6 years I’ve been in office so it’s been great. But you mentioned the taxes. I’m a little disappointed with the county. The county has $400 million in surplus. Clarkstown is the number one contributor of sales tax to Rockland County. We received the least amount from all the 5 towns of Rockland County, with being the biggest contributor of the sales tax into
Rockland County. It’s not because of the mall. We should definitely get more money from the county. County legislature won’t give more to Clarkstown and, and I’m a little disappointed, with the way it’s run.”
He feels Clarkstown should get more money. While we’re the biggest, tax revenue producer, as he mentioned, in all of Rockland County he says they are getting the least. That would help their taxes, and that’s not right. The reason he gives for this is greed by the county, they want to make themselves look great.
“While we’re working hard, Clarkston works hard to bring businesses in. I’m pro-business and one of my great things that I like is that I help Chick fil A to get in here. I pushed these things, these projects working with Jeff Gilly, you know, our business development individual working with them.”
He says that they’re pro-business and pro small business and always trying to get new businesses into the town and loves when a small business opens up. He listed some that have opened recently. A restaurant in Valley Cottage, a barbershop came in, in Congers a pharmacy closed, Rite Aid in Valley Cottage one was opened up in Congers. “These are individuals that live in our community that touch our community more direct than the big business franchise. But we also do need the big franchises because they contribute huge taxes to us. I believe in rateables and if we have to get commercial and new franchises to get our rateables up, yes, because I’d rather get rateables from them than small business.
What about things like school taxes and property taxes? “School taxes, obviously school taxes they can’t control. That’s from the school district. We’re all in the same dilemma. I pay school taxes. I have no children in the school system. I think someone who’s been paying into the school system for so many years. Like the seniors like us should definitely be absolved from paying school taxes. I truly believe in that.”
He also believes that people should have school choice and pay only tuition if they want, but not school taxes and tuition. “As a father of 4, one went to Albertus Magnus. I paid school taxes. I also pay tuition I think that’s, that’s not right.
“What is the remedy to that? Well, that’s where the school district comes in. I don’t have control of it, trust me, if I had control of the school district, I would be putting in some kind of laws in here for us to help the seniors that want to live here that have no children in the school system and pay less tax, but I don’t.”
Then there’s the issue of property taxes. “We’re trying to keep property taxes low as much as we can, but there are costs to do keep the town safe, keep the town clean, infrastructure, operate, operate the town, the street. The streetlights, paving the roads, keeping the sidewalks in good shape, plowing in the winter time, leaf pick up. Everybody doesn’t look at, doesn’t remember these things and the men that we have. You bring your leaves to your curb, and we pick them up. I suppose in the old days when I was a kid we had to put in a bag and take them down to the dump and see when I was living on Long Island, same thing. These days they don’t have the dumps where you can do that, right? Now you can just put the leaves on your curb and the town picks it up. So that’s a big amenity and that’s for the fall season. They come around once or twice. It depends on, on the load.
He said that this shows what people actually get for our tax dollars. Safe town, great police department, clean facilities, great parks and amenities, plowing, leaf pick up road paving. This is a great place garbage pickup all these things including fire service even if your fire service is the least tax, on your tax bill, you’re getting great fire services.
The Republicans in Congress and the Senate recently passed the Big Beautiful Bill and the salt deduction was quadrupled. It is going to have a major effect on the country. “I truly believe that, you know, you’re going to get a break on your, on your taxes you’re paying and your interest. I think it’s a great thing and taxes will get lowered, thank God. I think Mike Lawler did a fantastic job with that, and I’m glad the President listened and got it quadrupled. The deduction was set at $10,000 in the 2017 tax bill he got us to 40,000, that’s huge. That’s going to be a great write off for us.”
The economy was a major issue during the 2024 Presidential Campaign. During the past four years prices and inflation were up. Real median income was down. People were complaining about it a lot. What has the economy been like in Clarkstown? “Inflation is at 3% right now, OK, compared to when it was 9% and they were saying there was no inflation. Gasoline prices are down. A year ago, this time we were paying $3.50 to $3.75 a gallon. Now we’re paying $3.01 down to $2.99 and in some places it’s even less and when the, when they start really drilling, it’ll go down even go down even further, fuel affects everything.
Graziano points to groceries which are being delivered by trucks that use fossil fuels to make the deliveries and when that price goes down that’s why inflation and prices have dropped. “They’re still a little high in my opinion, because I still believe what we were price gouged during the pandemic. From food to basics to cars to anything you wanted to do in your home to windows, everybody’s saying oh COVID, COVID supply chain to me they did a terrible job, the Biden Administration and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg did a terrible job and it affected us. We all we all felt the pinch back then.”
One group he’s worried about is the seniors he goes to the senior clubs. “They’re suffering because they’re on fixed income, we all are, we all hurt, but they say prices dropped and we’re happy they’re dropping. We’re hoping we get back down to like 2016 numbers that that’s I like to see it that way.”
In Graziano’s opinion the police in Clarkstown are the best in the county. How safe is it in Clarkstown compared to places like New York City & Chicago, big cities which are not safe.
Overtime is something that many jobs have. The complaint about government jobs overtime is that it costs the taxpayers more money. There is a lot of overtime in Clarkstown. “The reason why we do it is just because we knew, there’s times when police officers take vacation. They’re out ill and we need coverage, so over time does come into play. There was about $2 million in overtime last year. It’s unfortunate but it happens. If you really think about it, with overtime you actually do save money according to the chief, we do save money with overtime as opposed to having an extra 6 or 7 officers because you think it’s not just paying them salaries. It includes benefits, pension and all that other stuff. In general, we know there’s overtime we’re trying to cut the cost. I work with the Chief as well as the Supervisor to get the cost down, we actually cut the cost down tremendously on how when we have events, street fairs and events in Clarkstown. We use the auxiliary police which are fantastic. They’re all volunteers.”
I truly believe the police auxiliary should be eligible like the like the first responders in in Rockland County as the state pushed and Hochul passed the law which the great thing she did was that eligible for a pension. I truly believe that should be done for these volunteer police officers. Volunteer firemen are eligible for pensions after 10 years, and the tax break. Hochul passed that law last year and the tax, they should get a tax break in their school and property tax.
The open border policy from January 2021 – January 2025 made every state a border state, every community is a border community, the border is now closed permanently. What’s going on in Clarkstown with it?
“Well, first of all, let me answer that question in two ways. First, I’m going to say this, they’re not illegal immigrants. It’s an illegal invasion of our country. These people invaded our country, they, and the Biden administration when Mayorkas was saying that the border is secure and safe, he lied to the American public. We know that for a fact, and I believe that we should deport these people. Because we don’t know who they are. We have criminals here in the United States that are violent people, and we’ve seen all over the news, you know, that and, and they cannot read and they drive a truck, a tractor trailer.”
Graziano, like many people in the country doesn’t understand how did they get a license? The answer to that is, somebody in Washington, New Mexico, and California, sanctuary states gave them a license. “These sanctuary states and cities are detrimental to the safety of the United States. These governors and these mayors that don’t want ICE to go in there and the federal government to help out, especially, with what the National Guard in Washington DC did to curb crime there.” He said.
Graziano doesn’t call these people immigrants. He explained about how his family as well as millions of others came into this country LEGALLY through Ellis Island. They, unlike the ones that came across the border during the Biden administration, were interviewed, vetted, had sponsors and a place to go so they did not become a burden on the American Society.
“These people are just these, these migrants came in over the border. We don’t know where the hell they are. We’ve dealt with that here in Clarkstown. We have people out there and we would see these homes that have 20-30 people in the house. One of the particular cases last year was on Hempstead Road had 32 to 35 migrants living there. They had them up in the attic with no egress and in the basement with no egress. They had, them on the main floor scattered with the mattresses, blankets and so forth.”
“That’s how we’re dealing with it. We’re cracking down on this. Also, we’re cracking down on illegal housing and illegal daycare. We cracked one down the road from Maple Avenue. There were 70, cribs in that house. Can you imagine in the basement with no windows. They had a gas can. I don’t know if it was filled, but still, what are gas cans doing in there? They had electrical cords running everywhere. We don’t know if it was full. Could be fumes, could be brand new empty.”
He didn’t see the actual gas can, but he saw the photographs. His point is that they’re cracking down on these illegal homes that have many people. He says they are looking at the stuff.
With the advent of online shopping and the two years of dealing with the COVID 19 lockdowns, the era of the big shopping malls being the place to get everything you want, and need has been coming to an end. The Palisades Mall is no different. It has had stores coming in and out of there since it was built. Major companies like McDonalds, Fridays, Hallmark and others are only a few. The owners have been having major financial problems to the point of being $415 million in debt to the point of bankruptcy. There are people looking to buy it but nothing has happened yet.
Graziano explained, “The creditors of the mall took it over. The pyramid company was not a good company for Clarkstown. Why? They spoke to their creditors and said okay, we need another $400 million and the Conjo family and the and the Pyramid family would take out $60 million out of there a year and leave the debt and that’s why they lost the mall. I believe Summit is the company that came in and took them all over and they’re going to try to redevelop it.”
He believes they have to reinvent themselves and he’s willing to work with them. He’s pro-business and, pro housing if they want to convert some of the mall to housing and make it into an entertainment mecca while still keeping the stores upstairs. He absolutely supports the idea of mixed use doesn’t want to sit with a big white elephant down in West Nyack with a big building if it’s empty.
What is the next step? What are specific ideas and things they have in mind for the mall? “We’re going to be held stuck with the bag on that thing plus it’s a big contributor to the tax rateables, I wanted it to strive. I want to work with these people and we’re hoping they’re going to be coming in soon with a plan. I’d like to see housing happen in there, bringing back retail strong.”
There have been a number of new entertainment centers coming into the mall. “I would love to see the mall in a couple of areas. I’d love to see the housing and make it entertainment mecca, number one. Maybe bring some Broadway plays, make it a Broadway theaters in there, you know, and have Broadway shows in there, have great restaurants in there and bring a couple of anchor stores back like a Lord and Taylor, or Macy’s. More into a multipurpose use, from housing, entertainment, restaurant, to retail stores, major retail stores.
Graziano is up for reelection this year and with the law that Governor Hochul signed in 2023, making all elections in New York happen only in even years, he will have to run again next year, and he is not happy with that.
Hochul’s reason for this is that she believes it will increase voter turnout in local elections because during these off-year elections, odd number year elections, very few people got out to vote. Looking at patterns of voting in local elections, the percentage of people that got out to vote was a lot lower than it is during Congressional and Presidential election years.
“I know a lot less people do but that does not mean that it’s right to do that because the local elections, their message gets lost on a national, the state and the congressional levels so people are just going to hear the national level, which is the presidential the state level, which is gubernatorial or congressional, so our message will not get hurt because they’re going to be hearing this message. People are going to vote across the board, whoever they’re going to vote for wouldn’t it be behoove the local official to have more public events within the community to get your word out. It would, but how many more public events can you have, how many more public events can you do?” He stated.
He added, “You get lost in the shuffle on an even year election. Media and TV, you know, in, in, into, you know, into paper print. You’re going to get lost in that we don’t have that kind of disposable money like they do on a national or on a state level. A local, a local candidate has to raise money to get the local word out. It’s very costly. It’s unfortunate, but you’re going to get lost in that shuffle.”
“The national level, yes, it affects us generally, but on a local level, does it really? What gets really done by supervisor, you know, you want something done like getting a new park, you want something done like a new street sign, you want something done with the roads. Do you go to the president and say, hey, I want to park in my neighborhood? Are you going to the governor and say, I want a park in my neighborhood? No. Where do you go? You go to your local government, and you want people who are going to be able to know how to negotiate with the contractors. People are going to know how to like doing things and, and like I said, more or less they just spend, spend, spend. So that’s why I truly believe local elections should be in the odd year because our, our message gets, gets conveyed.
Should he win, this will be his 4th term. What is it about Graziano that people should say, you know what, give this guy another 2 years?
“Things I’ve done. It’s that simple. Look at my track record, what I’ve done for the community. I’m a family person that lives here. I live in Clarkstown in Congers. I’m a volunteer fireman, involved with my community. I have the pulse of my community, so I know what needs to be done. I hear the people. I listen to people. I go to church. I shop in the local stores in town. I go to events and senior clubs. They tell me what their concerns are, and I listen to them, and I address them.”
He does admit that even he cannot get everything done and that unfortunately he doesn’t have a magic wand to get everything done. “I’ve had a great track record of success in getting the majority of things that I’ve asked that I’ve been asked to get done.”
Graziano says people say he is a doer and gets things done.
“That’s what Hochul wants to do tax the people that’s what she’s been doing. Biden did that tax, tax, tax. We’ve got to help the people out, and that’s why I’m here for.”
Sometimes elected officials have a big project that they’d love to be able to get done. What’s the one thing in Clarkstown that is not here that Graziano thinks would be a great thing to put into the community.
“Well, listen, Clarkstown is a great place to live and one of the things is the burden of taxes here. So, one of the great things I want to do is to get the taxes down is to work with businesses and make sure they are productive and contribute to our taxes to lower our taxes that includes the shops in Nanuet as well. Work with our retailers to get the highest ratables we can get to help us reduce the cost for the people that live here, that’s one of the great things.”
“I mean, there’s not much property left in Clarkstown for us to build anything. We have great pools. These are our pools. There’s really nothing else to do besides keep them, maintain them well in a cost effective manner and reducing the taxes for the people that actually that live here. You can’t. Open up our, pools and our parks to every individual in the state. These are Clarkstown and these should be, enjoyed by the people of Clarkstown.”
He points out that you can’t go to other towns without a permit or showing an ID that you live here to use their parks. I really believe that I believe we should have some kind of control on Clarkstown and those are just some of the things I want to work to make sure that we’re maintaining our controllability of our parks and our facilities.
“I want to say it’s been an honor to work for you. I’ve enjoyed this position immensely. My biggest joy is when I see somebody smile, when they’ve done something good. One guy said to me about a month ago, he goes, oh, you, you guys in the government you make all this crazy money. I average 30 to 35 hours a week for Clarkstown. If you do the numbers, how many hours I put in when I get paid, I think my accountant said I made $13.11 an hour which is below minimum wage. I enjoy what I’m doing. I’m not doing it for the money. I’m doing it for the betterment of all Clarkstown, not only just Ward Two, because, you know, I do a lot for Clarkstown and, and I enjoy it.”
Graziano summed up his candidacy in the following way: “I work with all people. All the constituents, I don’t care what party line you are. If you’re a Democrat, Republican, so-called Independents, but there’s still people listening like that, working family, conservative. I represent all people and it’s funny so much so is that I have prominent Democrats that endorse me. Two years ago, Alex Gromack and Vic Alfieri endorsed me. This year I have other Democrats that want to endorse me and I don’t want to say their names yet, but we’re going to have probably an endorsement letter from them as well, prominent Democrats that that served they know that I represent all people. I’m not just representing a Republican. It’s that simple. I’m a people’s person, that’s, you know, and I work with everybody.