WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS OP ED. By Larry Giordano. March 24, 2010: The following is the text of an “open letter” to the White Plains City School Board  from White Plains’ Larry Giordano who examines the recently submitted Superintendent of Schools School Budget in light of current budget trends:

Pete, (Bassano, Member, White Plains Board of Education)

It was nice seeing you again. You look very professional up there which leads me to the conclusion that you and the rest of the board members must love PAIN! I want you to know I respect all of you for the fine work and effort you have done over the past years.

 I was in total amazement listening to folks stand up there and air their personal concerns with a total disregard for the rest of the residential city tax payer. For one mother to complain about her son not having a period for BAND class or another about their son NEEDING a study period is totally nuts. Now, concerning the young lady who had issues at a younger age (I do have a heart though some in WP may not think so) my question is, since the same folks that pay taxes to the WP school district also pay taxes to county government why not use their services for social and health services and even other areas where an overlap may exist?

 After looking at the breakdown of the budget it’s very easy to see the real savings has to come from the ~80% area that includes Instruction, Special Ed and Benefits. Let’s face it; going forward NYS revenue is going to continue to be a smaller piece of the revenue pie. This will unfortunately mean all NYS resident tax payers will be responsible for a greater portion of the revenue stream for their community.

To this end for the board to believe they can continue to pass on that additional cost moving forward is both naive and irresponsible. We have a saying on Wall Street, “trees don’t grow to the sky and neither do stocks”. At some point a “pullback” occurs and the price of a company is reset to better reflect current fair value.

The same should hold true with our school budget. It’s very disturbing to see total revenue being reduced by an estimate of $5.8mm yet the WP budget was ONLY reduced by $2.3mm. That is a huge difference… $3.5mm or 60%!  I know all on the board have worked hard and long to even get to this point but unfortunately more needs to be done.

I strongly feel a more aggressive position needs to be taken with the teachers union. The time has come for all of us including the teachers to pay their fair share to both health and retirement benefits. Most folks today pay ~25% for their health care insurance. The folks of WP have been very generous to our teachers and staff members over the years. The time has come for us to reset our school budget to better reflect the current fair value otherwise the bubble we continue to feed with higher taxes will be devastating when it pops! Trust me, bubbles always POP!!

 

 

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. March 23, 2010: The new Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Christopher Clouet presented his “Superintendent’s Budget” Monday evening before a vocal public hearing of 50 to 60 persons, offering a school budget that decreases White Plains school spending budget-to-budget for the first time in the district history.

 

The First Public Hearing on the School Budget.

 

 WPCNR notes that White Plains, with one of the largest school budgets in the county, has turned in a budget below last year’s, one of the few districts, if any, to turn in a lowered school budget.

 

 

Clouet’s budget calls for a 1.21% budget reduction to $183.5 Million, an additional reduction in the budget was achieved by $800,000 in net savings from retirements among the teaching staff, achieved due to retirement concessions granted by the teachers union in a new contract, allowing higher retirement incentives. By anticipating hiring replacement teachers (at entry level salaries, $52,269 in July, 2010) to replace retiring full-time teachers, $800,000 more money was saved.

 

The effect raises the school tax 3.78% even though the budget goes down 1.21%, and raises taxes $600 for the median-priced home in White Plains, ($650,000)

 

 

Your Tax Impact

 

Though the school district did not show the impact of the tax increase in dollars, WPCNR has determined the new tax increase means approximately $600 more in taxes on the median-priced White Plains home with a market value of $650,000.

 

That $600 increase is based on the assumption the state will go along with Governor David Paterson’s 19% reduction of the STAR BASIC EXEMPTION lowering it to $2,398 from the present $2,960. For homes with market values above $650,000 the tax increase approaches $1,000.  

 

Dr. Clouet noted at the outset of the hearing that the State Senate voted to go along with Governor Paterson’s State education aid cuts which presently are costing White Plains City School District $2.5 Million in aid this year, indicating there is at present, no hope of having aid returned. 

 

Will Not Raise Budget Even if Contingency Budget Raised.

 

Dr. Clouet told WPCNR that even if the New York State Assembly passes the Education Mandate Relief Act with a plan to raise the contingency budget increase allowed to 3%, instead of the present 0% the  state has given school districts, he will not increase the White Plains budget 3% just because he could to save jobs and restore programs. “We’ve worked very hard to make these cuts,” he said.

 

Bulk of Cost Savings is in the elimination of 83 Teacher/Teaching Assistants ($6.4M), Summer School Programs, and lower than expected Health Insurance Costs.

 

Concerns.

 

The hearing saw about 30 different persons address the Board of Education for over two hours. Their comments came from parents of high school students protesting the elimination of one period a day at the high school. Parents and students, too objected saying that busy students needed the ninth period to see counselors, advisors, do home work, take extra courses and other activities.

 

Several parents made eloquent appeals that eliminating the period would destroy what makes White Plains High School unique.

 

Afterwards, Dr. Clouet explained to WPCNR the elimination of the period would enable more teaching by teachers instead of assigning them to study halls (not all White Plains students fill up their schedules with course after course, necessitating teacher assignments to study halls).

 

Kerry Roderick, President of the Teachers Union, told WPCNR that each teacher would teach 20 more hours next year as a result of eliminating the 9^th period – a change negotiated by the recent third year extension of the teachers contract – which allowed teachers to teach one more period a day.

 

Adminstrators Suffered the least in the School District Budget Cuts.  It should be noted that the 1,063 full-time employees do not include the cafeteria staffs of all 9 school buildings. It has gone down from approximately 1,450 two years ago (including part-time employees).

 

Transparency Urged

At least a half-dozen speakers touched on the district not informing parents of the proposed elimination of the ninth period when it was being considered.

 

The reason for this as far as WPCNR can tell was the change had to be negotiated with the teachers union,and could only be made public after the teachers union had approved it at the end of April. Dr. Clouet acknowledged he would have to do a better job of informing on sensitive issues like these in the future.

 

 

Revenue Drain: Decrease in Pilots paid by 360 Hamilton Avenue and 333 Westchester Avenue properties contributed a third of the revenue loss. State Aid decrease, almost half. And elimination of a NY Hospital program contributed another $1.6 Million in red ink.

 

DRUG Counselor Supported by Students.

 

Two former students addressed the board urging retention of Susan Murphy as the district student assistance counselor, who specializes in aiding students fighting drug and substance abuse. Eloquent pleas were made on Ms. Murphy’s behalf – one by student who confessed publicly of how she would not be alive today if it were not for Ms. Murphy’s help.

 

Failure to Cut Technology Upgrades Criticised.

 

Jonathan Robie criticized the board for cutting 83 full-time teachers and teaching assistants, while keeping intact with no cuts, $3 Million earmarked for technology, which Robie said could have been cut and a number of teachers’ jobs saved.

 

No one observed that only 3.7 administrators were eliminated, as opposed to 83 teaching personnel.

 

Cutting Remedial Programs

 

A handful of parents complained that eliminating 50% of the Summer School budget and teaching assistants at the elementary level, and cutting back on separate after school programs for students needing help was not productive and hurt those who needed help most.

 

One woman spoke up saying that most persons wanted programs that helped their students kept, but were not stepping up with suggestions as how the “hard-working” school board should address the budget.

 

Dr. Clouet will discuss the budget on the television program, White Plains Week on Friday, May 7,  two weeks before the school budget is voted on.

 

Fred  Seiler,Assistant Superintendent for Business, said that the present budget is actually lower than any contingent budget would be.

 

A parent closed the evening saying all parents and PTA heads should work hard to educate the voting public on the responsive budget presented.

 

 

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. MARCH 20, 2010: Con Edison did not get it done Friday evening, the deadline when they had promised all of Westchester would be reconnected to power. As of4:45 P.M., Saturday, Con Edison’s Storm Center reports 34 Town of Greenburgh customers without power.

Greenburgh, which had 9,000 customers out as of last Sunday has, along with Scarsdale, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Port Chester and Mount Vernon suffered the most this week in waiting for Con Edison to restore them. Thursday, Town of Greenburgh Supervisor called on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Congresswoman Nita Lowey and congressional representatives to take a look:

The recent power outage left over 160,000 people in the Con Ed service territory out of power for days. Many residents of Greenburgh were out of power from Saturday (the day of the storm) to Thursday or Friday. Businesses were impacted, schools were closed, the Greenburgh library was closed for a new days, roads were not open, wires were down causing dangerous conditions and lives in Greenburgh and in the region were lost.

I would like to urge the federal government to consider a new stimulus bill — that would fund power lines being placed underground. A reason for the significant outages was because so many trees came down. If the power lines are placed underground, falling trees would not result in outages to a significant number of people. Our region would not feel like a Third world country after a storm.

My suggestion would result in long term job creation. It is also a proactive action that will reduce the possibility of future long term power outages. These outages have a negative impact on local economies.

A few years ago, after the last storm, I suggested that Con Ed place wires underground. Unfortunately, the suggestion went nowhere. It would be very costly to retrofit the power lines underground. However, if the federal government paid for the costs of this – you would be creating jobs, solving short term and long term problems.

 

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. March 19,2010: As of 9:30 Friday evening Con Edison and “friends,” the crews from around the country from Michigan, New Hampshire, Virginia, Georgia and other states that WPCNR has identified, (Con Edison has not furnished WPCNR with a complete list of the companies coming to Con Edison aid, though requested by WPCNR), had succeeded in restoring electricity to all but 69 customers in Westchester from a high of 79,000 last Sunday night.

At this hour, 18 customers in White Plains are without power, 14 in Yonkers, 33 in North Pelham and 19 in Scarsdale.

Today the Scarsdale Village Manager Al Gatta was quoted in The Journal News, as saying, “It took them (Con Edison) an awful long time (to get to Scarsdale).” Rebecca Baker’s article in the Gannett satellite paper noted that Gatta reported that for the first three days of the storm clean-up, Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday, Con Ed presence was not felt in Scarsdale which according to Con Edison statistics on its own website had 100% of Scardales customers without electricity. Gatta said “They came together Tuesday evening and since then they’ve been all over this place, but it’s a little late.”

Gatta is only the third public official to criticise sharply Con Edison’s reaction and ability to spring into coordinated action on the storm damage. Paul Feiner, Supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh was the other, calling for the Public Service Commission to examine Con Edison repair strategies and deployment.

Adam Bradley, White Plains Mayor was the first to complain bitterly Sunday afternoon that only one Con Edison “De-energizing Crew” was assigned White Plains when the county seat city had over 7,000 customers without power. WPCNR estimates this represented a minimum of  28,000 persons in White Plains without power, which would be about half the city.

No other County, state or federal elected official has uttered a peep of criticism of how Con Edison handled the repair. The Westchester County official position according to the Department of Communications Thursday was that the county was “satisfied” with Con Ed’s response and performance.

Con Edison issued a news release Friday touting the extent of repairs the company has made:

“Over 700 company crews, including utility power crews from Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Massachusetts, labored day and night this week rebuilding the electrical infrastructure destroyed or damaged by fallen trees and 70-mph winds.

“March Madness started a few days early for us, but it wasn’t the kind college hoop lovers began enjoying yesterday,” said Craig S. Ivey, president of Con Edison. “I want to express our deepest appreciation to our customers for their patience and perseverance this week.  I also want to thank our crews and employees for being so dedicated, and send a special thanks to the hundreds of utility workers who left their homes and families from as far away as Michigan and Georgia to help us.”

This week, crews replaced or repaired more than:

• 225 utility poles;
  
• 735 crossarms (horizontal bar on top of the pole that holds the top-most section of cables);
  
• 162,000 feet of cable; and
  
• 175 transformers

The company also had to cut up, take down, or remove nearly 2,000 trees,

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. By John F. Bailey. March 19, 2010. UPDATED 9:55 A.M. E.D.T.  UPDATED 11:08 A.M. E.D.T.:  The New York State Senate has quietly passed a bill that if passed by the Assembly and signed by the Governor would allow school districts to raise property taxes approximately 3% above the 0% currently required by contingency budget legislation now in effect. It replaces the contigency budget formula followed for years, for one year.

The bill if it becomes law effectively would keep in effect any school budget of approximately 3% more than last year presented to voters even if the voters would turn that budget down at the polls. The legislation allows school districts across the state to raise budgets about 3% prior to the school budget vote in May without fear of a voter rejection reducing them to a contingency budget.

In White Plains, Assistant Superintendent for Business, Fred Seiler told WPCNR the average of the last 5 years of inflation was about 3%. He said, when asked if the school district was aware of this legislation, acknowledge, “I’ve heard bits and pieces of it.”

He explained the legislation section 7 of Assembly Bill A10130, noting that the complex formula of 120% of the previous 5 years inflation rate, or 4%  would be the normal raise permitted under the new Senate-created bill.

Asked the effect of an “allowed” 3% increase in the White Plains Budget, Seiler said this would mean an 8% property tax hike, instead of the 4.72% property tax hike in the current budget which will be presented Monday evening.

This works out to a $556.36/$1,000 of assessed valuation for White Plains tax payers if the School Board went along with what Albany is allowing them to do.

Seiler said he had presented the option to the School Board Finance Committee this past Tuesday evening. Seiler told WPCNR the 3% Contingency budget would allow about an $6 Million increase up to $193 Million and allow the school district to avert the 83 job eliminations, including 41 teachers, 38 support staff and 4 administrators currently considered in the current budget of $185.5 Million, that is down 3/4 of a percent — the first budget decline in school district history.

Seiler said the Board had to decide if it wants to raise the school budget (anticipating the Albany legislation) before sending the current budget out to voters, because once a vote passes a school budget, it cannot be raised retroactively.

The New York State Senate passed 56-2 this built-in property tax increase as part of a bill called the Educational Mandate Relief Act, sponsored by White Plains State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer and Nassau County Senator Craig Johnson. The bill now goes to the Assembly, where it will be sponsored by Assembly District 88 Assemblywoman Amy Paulin.

Details are very sketchy on the legislation, but the essence of the bill explained in “The Purpose” section is that it would enable school districts to pool services for such purposes as school busing and purchasing supplies.

However in Section 7 of the bill it allows Districts to increase property taxes 4% over and above contingency budgets if a school budget is defeated by voters. Currently, the contingency budget allowance for districts across the state is a 0% increase.

The background on this little-known, and heretofore untouted bill was reported first by the New York Post at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/tax_hike_back_stab_77q0UCmV7IOeKudeFRwdNP#ixzz0icHvoNJ4

The bill now passed by the New York State Senate goes to the Assembly under the Legislation Number A10130. The key section reads:

S 7. Paragraph a of subdivision 4 of section  2023  of  the  education
   38  law,  as  added  by  section  24 of part A of chapter 436 of the laws of
   39  1997, is amended to read as follows:
   40    a. The contingency budget shall not result in a percentage increase in
   41  total spending over the  district’s  total  spending  under  the  school
   42  district  budget  for  the prior school year that exceeds the lesser of:
   43  (i) THE AVERAGE OF THE PREVIOUS FIVE YEARS OF the result  obtained  when
   44  one  hundred  twenty percent is multiplied by the percentage increase in
   45  the consumer price index, with the result rounded to two decimal places;
   46  or (ii) four percent.

Should this law be passed by the Assembly, it would enable the White Plains School District for example, to increase the school budget over and above the year-to-year decrease currently planned.

The bill should it be passed would expire in May 2011, indicating it is a one-year measure that circumvents the contingency budget legislation in effect for years.