County Legislature votes to put a hold on foreclosures

By a vote to 15-0, the County Legislature has shown that it does have a heart. In these, the most difficult financial times since the Great Depression, our county can't afford to adopt Rick Santelli "tea bag" politics. Therefore this legislation, which triggers a county tax payback program for some 500 homeowners facing foreclosure, allows those caught in hard times the opportunity and the time to save their homes.

Typically, 30 to 40 local property owners face such a devastating predicament, but the mortgage crisis and overall downward economy appear to have fueled a dramatic increase, county officials said.

So, this number has increased by 1666 percent. This demonstrates that, even in a relatively rich county like Rockland, times are unbelievably tough.

[The] Legislature has amended a 1995 local law to enable more property owners to participate in a pay-back program for that purpose.

"Truthfully, we don't want to take anybody's property," said County Legislator Ilan Schoenberger, D-Wesley Hills. He is chairman of the Legislature's Budget and Finance Committee.

The existing law required property owners to come up with 20 percent of what they owed overall. Vanderhoef proposed lowering that requirement to 5 percent. He also proposed giving property owners three years, instead of the two years called for in the 1995 law, to finish paying off their overdue tax bills.

I am not a fan of Vanderhoef by any means, but I'll give him credit when it's due. Along with the voting members of the Legislature (Republicans John Murphy of Orangeburg and Patrick Moroney of Pearl River were absent for the vote) this is a good idea for all of us. Keeping properties off the foreclosure roles keeps our own property values higher. Beyond that, it also keeps the county from a nasty, time-consuming, and expensive business.