 John Degnan, landlord, contractor, and local Brewster politician, is remembered for his failed 2007 initiative to grant ID cards to illegal aliens, when he invited the Guatemalan consulate to come to the village to offer its mobile ID card service to distribute identification cards to illegal aliens. Assemblyman Ball, who opposed the measure, also orchestrated the defeat of a similar plan by ex-Governor Eliot Spitzer to grant driver's licenses illegal immigrants.
In his 2006 state of the village address, Degnan promised that the village would construct a hiring site for Brewster's day laborers, which was defeated by a protest led by Assemblyman Ball that included agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement agency and hundreds of residents of the tiny village.
During an unsuccessful 2007 campaign for office, Degnan left the Republican party to run as a Democrat. Hispanic residents of Brewster complained of a decline in their quality of life during Degnan's mayoralty, citing overcrowding and joblessness. The ex-Mayor's opponents labeled Degnan a "slumlord", a charge which he rejected. Although he later hired a worker to fight the overcrowding, even Degnan's own supporters concede he did little to tackle the immigration issue.
He claims to be a "life-long Republican", although he was an unaffiliated voter until he ran for office, and ran for Southeast Town Supervisor and Mayor of Brewster as a Democrat. Over the years, John has transformed into a liberal extremist and puppet of the Putnam County patronage machine. He proudly notes that he was against a day laborer hiring site, before he was for it.
Degnan's version of Republican values can be described as "Democrat light". Statism, patronage, cronyism, state-run social services, higher taxes, expanding government, gun control, out of control spending... The list goes on. He has espoused his belief that the taxpayers should fit the bill for social services, ID cards, and an employment center for illegal aliens. He recently came out in favor of taxpayer funded abortions. Worst of all, John has enlisted as a lock-step voting foot soldier in Sheldon Silver's "War on Taxpayers" and stands in ardent opposition to a cap on property taxes.
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