There is an old saying: If you borrow a couple of hundred thousand, it is your problem; if you borrow a couple of million, it is the loaner’s problem. I called the New York State Dormitory Authority (NYDA) and the Office of Mental Health (NYOMH) and asked them a simple question: How much of their budget goes to paying the bonds raised to build the various NYOMH buildings across the state? The responses I got ranged from “we don’t have that information” to “why are you asking” all the way to “that is confidential information available through the governor’s office only.”Here is why I was asking: The Dormitory Authority had held the title to the 850-acre Harlem Valley Psyche Center (HVP) because of outstanding bonds, all $16 million of them, which had been used to finance capital projects at the psychiatric center. The NYDA sold it all for $3.95 million to Dover Knolls Development Company. So, what did they do with the original $16 million construction and refurbishment bonds? Did they pay them off? Nope. Did they defease them? Nope. They simply moved them from an NYDA line item in the state budget to “another line item” somewhere. Taxpayers are still paying off those bonds. When we were first looking at changing the HVP in the early 1990s to private use, the problem was the bonds, big fat bonds, Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky bonds paying “investors” (bond holders) 22 percent and 24 percent a year. Yes, you read that right, almost a quarter of the original investment paid, every year, to Wall Street bondholders.Now, let’s not make a big deal out of one psych center. Never mind that there are 29 such centers in New York state alone. Let’s ask where the other New York state junk bonds are while taxpayers lay out horrendous interest. Airports, tunnels, bridges, highways, power grids, schools — all sorts of bond issues were arranged by Milken and Boesky for mega-interest payments. Across the nation it was happening everywhere. I have no doubt Wisconsin has these same higher-than-normal bonds in its budget. Barron’s magazine estimates that revenue bonds comprise 65 percent of all state debt, up from 40 percent in 1975.I doubt any journalist has ever done due diligence in rooting them out. Why is this a difficult task? Because the politicians want to get re-elected and it is hard to tell the taxpayers to tighten their belts, pay more tax, when your cronies and previous politicians have so poorly run New York state’s finances that taxpayers cough up, at least, $2.5 billion a year in sky-high interest. If the interest rate was closer to commercial rates, the bonds for New York state could only cost $320 million. And what is the state’s deficit projection? $4-plus billion? Seems to me that is reason enough for someone to look into regaining some $2 billion a year.When Argentina was bankrupt and could not pay its international loans, the government there defeased them overnight. In short, they cancelled them, passed a law shredding the contracts, and said, “You money lenders have made enough profit on our backs.” What happened? Outrage in Washington and Europe. Action? War? Sanctions? None. New loans were made in weeks at 1 percent and 2 percent interest. Argentina balanced its national budget within three years and that country is now booming. And they are still playing hardball with outstanding loans at 8 percent, wanting 2 percent! Why not? The country of Argentina is not leaving anytime soon. Simply put, they cannot default, so why pay higher-than-usual rates?I have a suggestion to states’ governors: Stop siding with the fat cats in Wall Street, stop being “honorable” while your predecessors sold the farm from beneath you. Stop blaming the civil servants you hired, the ones you have an honorable contract with, the ones who have paid into pension funds you have raided for decades. Try doing the really honorable thing: Defease the bonds, to hell with bondholders who have profiteered for decades, balance the states’ budgets and bring the economy back. Peter Riva, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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