If you live in Westchester County, get ready for public housing and higher taxes at a town near you. County residents will be forced to pay the price for the fraudulent actions of County Executive Andrew Spano, who was caught red handed in an embarrassing scheme that defrauded the Federal government of $180 million.

In February 2009, a Federal Court Judge found Westchester County an “utter failure” when it comes to access to fair housing and that Westchester County provided “false or fraudulent” documentation to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) amounting to racial discrimination.

After six months of settlement negotiations between Spano, his attorneys and the U.S. Justice Department and HUD, the parties announced a settlement agreement in August 2009 to the dismay and surprise of the County Legislature and the public.

The agreement will force the County to build 750 units of fair and affordable housing in virtually every part of the County and pay $62.5 million in the process. The massive project will usurp property rights of the individual, abort local zoning laws and environmental constraints, and give funds back to the same politicians that were derelict in the first place.

The settlement absolves Spano of any criminal or financial liability, he will not be impeached or asked to step down, but instead Westchester County residents are branded as racist and will have to pay tens of millions of dollars because of the discriminatory practices of Spano and his administration.

Whistleblower and not-for-profit community group the Anti-Discrimination Center (“ADC”) based in NYC who initiated the lawsuit plead in Court that Westchester County was guilty of discrimination against African Americans and Hispanics in its housing program, and were awarded $7.5 million in the settlement.

“Westchester is no longer able to ignore either the residential racial segregation that continues to plague it, nor the municipal resistance to affordable housing development that stymies the possibility of changing those patterns.” says ADC on its website.

This is an insult to the people of Westchester, not the individuals involved in the scandal. Westchester after all is a county that voted 63% for the first African American President, and the birthplace and home town of civil rights hero Michael Schwerner, who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964, Mississippi, and the subject of the 1988 film “Mississippi Burning”.

Absurdly enough what has stemmed out of county government fraud has grown into a national template for governing housing development, at least according to the White House. In a press release issued after the settlement, the White House expects to use this case as the ground work for forcing other American communities to mix private homes with public housing.

Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano is running for re-election this November. Do not reward Spano by permitting him to continue the façade of immunity. There is an important choice in this election contest. Westchester residents can vote for the candidate that has already failed them, or vote for former Westchester County Legislator Robert P. Astorino, who has a proven record of serving the public.