By Dan Murphy
Local small business owner Joseph Pinion III has announced his campaign for the Republican nomination in New York’s 90th Assembly District, which encompasses the majority of the City of Yonkers. “I’m running to fight decades of regressive taxes that we now simply accept as a way of life,” he said. “You cannot heal a local economy by asking more of people with little left to give.”
Pinon’s announcement is for the Assembly seat currently held by Assembly member Shelley Mayer, who is currently running for the State Senate seat in the 37th District, which includes East Yonkers. If Mayer wins the special election for the Senate seat, then her Assembly seat will become vacant, and will be filled this November.
“Westchester remains the only county where New York State refuses to pay property taxes on practically all of the land that it owns,” said Pinion. “For nearly 35 years, Yonkers has continued to invest in New York, but New York refuses to invest in Yonkers. Our time of waiting is over.”
Born and raised in Lincoln Park, Pinion attended Colgate University on an athletic grant where he studied English and was a two-year varsity letterman in football. As a community leader and entrepreneur, Pinion has witnessed the decline in affordability and economic opportunity in his hometown firsthand.
“When I look around at the city I love, I see the fear on the face of every single retiree, afraid they may have to sell their home because of runaway property taxes,” he said. “My heart aches for the children we know choose the wrong path in life due to drastic cuts in after school programs that provide the structure necessary for them to thrive.
“If we do not act now, the same dream that brought my mother and so many other families to Yonkers in the first place could slip away forever. Together we can make sure that does not happen.”
Yonkers Rising has also learned that former City Councilman John Murtagh is considering a run for Assembly. Murtagh, who also ran for Yonkers Mayor, is currently a partner in the law firm of Gaines & Novick in White Plains and a political commentator on News 12 and WVOX Radio.
Murtaugh is an experienced GOP legislator who has never lost a primary, and whose outspoken opposition to President Donald Trump may give him an edge with Democrats and independents if he decides to run. “Murtagh is a well known candidate who could help republicans take back this Assembly seat that has eluded them for over a decade,” said one republican.
