The Westchester Tea Party.

Some 2,500 Taxpayers Come Out For Westchester Tea Party In Blistering Heat

A week ago this past Saturday, on April 25, the long-awaited Westchester Tea Party got underway around noon, with a bright, sun-filled sky and temperature around 90 degrees. Still, despite News 12’s blatant misreporting, more than 2500 homeowners, busi-nesspeople and taxpayers, some with an occasional infant on their shoulders, came out in the heat to protest the fact that Westchester is the most heavily taxed county in the nation.

Assisted by a dozen canvassers, 2,261 attendees took the time and trouble to fill out contact sheets, four persons to a sheet, for purposes of notification in order to attend and help out at future events. Despite the reality of those numbers, News 12, as has been its modus operandi, bogusly under-reported the attendance by more than two-thirds.

As it turned out, the White Plains Police prevailed upon the demonstration organizers to move the function one block west, down Martine Avenue, to the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard, a location that provided no shade from the merciless rays of the sun, unlike the protective shadow provided by the nine-story County Office Building, at the original site.

Tea Party demonstrators were treated to live music and some spirited rhetoric from nearly a dozen speakers, including longtime Greenburgh Supervisor and advocate for the abolishment of County Government, Paul Feiner, Dave Spano, son of the County Executive, and party organizer and underwriter, Publisher Sam Zherka.

Zherka told the crowd, “My father used to tell me how do you know when a politician is lying? He’s lying when his lips are moving.”

Nick DiTomas, of the Cable Access Channel, told the protesters, “The trouble with government is that they attempt to solve problems with the same kind of thinking that created them.”

Sam Zherka came back with, “We need to instill fear in those overtaxing, corrupt politicians.” He reminded everyone, “Every person here owns stock in Westchester County. Every person here is the Board of Directors.”

Dr. Guilio Cavallo reminded everybody, “There are 450,000 Independence Party voters in New York State.”

Introduced by Zherka as, “a true public servant,” Supervisor Paul Feiner declared, “We need a referendum initiative. It is catching on now. People realize that we need to reorganize the way government is run.”

A reporter for News12 collared Dave Spano, asking him about the tea bag pinned to his shirt, “What does that tea bag mean to
you?” Spano snapped right back, “It means we’re taxed enough already!”