Somers Supervisor Murphy Seeks Leibell’s Senate Seat

Mary Beth Murphy Mary Beth Murphy, who is seeking the 40th state senate seat being vacated by Senator Vincent Leibell, believes she embodies the remedy for the ills afflicting New York State government. Murphy, who for 12 years has served as supervisor of the Town of Somers, looks to be part of “the spark and spearhead of change” this November, but first she must face Assemblyman Greg Ball in the September 14 Republican primary.

A life-long resident of the Hudson Valley, she majored in geology at Syracuse University and then went on to receive a juris doctor from Fordham School of Law. She said that at the beginning of her career she never considered pursuing public service.

In 1989 when she moved to Somers, Murphy said she slowly became involved politically within the community due to a local growth initiative that impacted school taxes. At the time, she had three children enrolled in Somers public schools. She was elected as supervisor in 1998.

During the past two fiscal years, Murphy managed a budget reduction of $800,000. “I look to places where the budget could be trimmed [such as] consolidation of manpower.”

She cited facing some opposition during her dozen years leading the town of Somers. “For 20 years there was an issue that couldn’t be fixed,” she said regarding an water system within the community. Murphy “created a tri-town water system” to solve the problem.

“When I became supervisor the town was in throes of rezoning,” and Murphy established zoning laws that would quell rapid expansion. “I tried to create a steady and controlled growth rather than one that would burden the tax base.”

Looking at her accomplishments, she also cited how she “negotiated a contract with the highway Teamsters [that included] a zero-salary increase for three years in exchange for limited layoffs.”

Having worked with Senator Leibell, who is now running for Putnam County executive, Murphy said she respects his accomplishments. Murphy said the time was right to run for an office that, she “had been contemplating for some time.”

She said she was motivated to run for the New York Senate because of frustrations in the “lack of decisions coming out of Albany.” Citing that 39 percent of taxes are spent on Medicaid in New York State, Murphy said the state surpasses any other in the nation for taxes devoted to the program. “The Medicaid program that New York State runs is way over-bloated,” she said.

Regarding local job creation, Murphy said New York State needs a program to encourage business to invest in Hudson Valley job creation. Taxes make businesses anticompetitive and when these companies look to move, they don’t look at the Hudson Valley,” she said.