A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms runs from 2 to 5 this afternoon, and more shower chances follow through the evening. Carmel tops out near 82 before temperatures slide to around 77, the southwest wind blows 5 to 9 mph, and the spots that get hit could pick up a quarter inch of rain. No watches or warnings are posted for Putnam this morning.
Saturday dries out under full sun near 68, and Saturday night falls to a crisp 49. Sunday reaches 63 before a 30 percent chance of showers returns after 2 PM and lingers into the night. Monday opens the new week sunny near 66, Tuesday near 59. Mahopac runs within a degree of Carmel throughout.
Two things worth your time. Byrne handed legislators his 2027 executive budget Thursday with a $6.5 million levy cut inside, and the three county executive candidates argued it out at the Mahopac Library. Both stories are below.
The questions Putnam searches this week, answer first, source after.
What is in Byrne’s proposed 2027 budget?
A $229,742,582 spending plan with no new borrowing and a $6.5 million cut to the county property-tax levy as the centerpiece. The levy drops from $45.2 million to $38.7 million, a cut of more than 14 percent. The $6.5 million is not a new number: legislators set that amount aside last year for a taxpayer rebate program, and no legal mechanism to send the checks ever passed. Byrne put it this way: "Rather than asking taxpayers to continue waiting for a rebate program that has not materialized, I am proposing providing the same amount of relief through a direct reduction in the county property-tax levy." The budget also carries his proposal to make the sales-tax exemption on clothing and footwear under $110 permanent, and it continues sharing sales-tax revenue with the county’s six towns and three villages. Your entry points: review copies sit with the Clerk of the Legislature in Room 321 at 40 Gleneida Avenue during business hours, the Finance Department posts the tentative budget online by close of business today, Byrne presents it Monday at 7:00 PM at the Historic Courthouse in Carmel, and the legislature’s public hearing follows at 8:00 PM. Numbers can still move before the legislature adopts a final plan, so Monday is the time to ask.
Who faced off for county executive, and what did they promise?
Incumbent Kevin Byrne, a Republican who also carries the Libertarian line, debated Democrat Brett Yarris and Conservative Tatiana Brahimi at the Mahopac Library; Yarris has the backing of the Working Families and For the People committee. Yarris called Putnam the second most unaffordable county in New York and pitched a community college and trade schools to bring down living costs, plus tax cuts he says would help young people and seniors stay in their homes. Byrne pointed at his record: tax cuts, lower county debt, a reduced sales tax and a strong bond rating, while arguing state policies squeeze the county. Brahimi ran on restoring conservative values, ending what she called the good old boys’ club, and stopping the hiring of family and friends. The Board of Elections’ Thursday count frames the field: 24,723 registered Republicans, 22,080 Democrats, 1,689 Conservatives, and 22,476 unaffiliated voters who can tip the race when Election Day arrives next month.
The care-package nonprofit worked out of 34 Gleneida Avenue in Carmel for ten years, in the old Putnam Motors building the county now owns and plans to demolish. Starting next year it operates from the former Mahopac School District administration office on Croton Falls Road, which the town bought from the district and once considered for police headquarters. The catch is in the arrangement: it is a temporary home for one year. Jim and Patty Rathschmidt started the organization after their son Luke deployed to Iraq, and volunteers have shipped more than 40,000 care packages over 20 years. Patty Rathschmidt died earlier this year, and Jim Rathschmidt thanked the county for the decade in Carmel while admitting the hunt for space was not easy.
The payback window. Governor Hochul signed the Students for Solar Act, sponsored by Senator Peter Harckham, and it stretches the time school districts have to recover energy performance contract costs from 18 years to 25 years, matching federal standards. A longer recovery makes more solar and conservation projects work financially for districts, which is the point. The bill grew out of a student group that began as Students for Solar and became Students for Climate Action. If your district has floated a solar project, this is the law that changes its math.
Plan around the afternoon: showers and thunderstorms are possible between 2 and 5 PM, and more showers can follow in the evening, so the ride home on Routes 22, 301 and 312 may be the dampest drive of the day. Wind stays out of the southwest at 5 to 9 mph, and no advisories are posted for Putnam as of this morning. Saturday begins the dry stretch.
No Putnam rail notes this morning. Check mta.info for Harlem Line work out of Brewster and Southeast before you travel; construction notices land there first.
AI Corner: one plain-English AI thing, every issue
This week: read the 2027 budget with an AI, then ask it one hard question.
The tentative budget lands on the county Finance site by close of business today, and it runs to numbers most people never get through. Paste the figures that matter, the $229,742,582 total and the $6.5 million levy cut, into your AI chat and ask what a 14 percent reduction means for the county share of your property tax bill. Keep asking until the answer makes sense: what stays funded, what the switch from rebates to a levy cut replaces, and what happens at Monday’s hearing. Then pick one number that matters to you and check it against the county document itself, because a chatbot can grab the wrong figure and sound certain anyway. If you would rather ask in person, have the AI draft your question for the 8:00 PM hearing at the Historic Courthouse.
Reply with questions; they become future AI Corners.
The county executive’s budget address at 7:00 PM, then the legislature’s public hearing on the 2027 tentative budget at 8:00 PM, or right after the address ends
Historic Courthouse, Gleneida Avenue, Carmel · per the county’s legal notice
County flu clinic, 2:00 to 6:00 PM, adults 18 and older, walk-ins welcome, $30 cash or credit, free with a Medicare card
Garrison Fire Department · register at putnamcountyny.gov/fluclinic
Art and Conversation with illustrator Michael Garland, reception 5:00 PM, presentation and Q&A at 6:00 PM, adults 18 and older, registration required
Patterson Library, 1167 Route 311, Patterson · about 48 of 60 spaces remained as of Friday morning, register on the library calendar
County flu clinic, 2:00 to 6:00 PM, adults 18 and older, walk-ins welcome, $30 cash or credit, free with a Medicare card
Carmel Fire Department · register at putnamcountyny.gov/fluclinic
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