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 QUILL & EYESHADE. News & Comment By John F. Bailey. October 16, 2007:

Happy Days are here again. Mayor Joseph Delfino,  in a letter to the media Tuesday, campaigning for the ½% sales tax increase he has proposed,( which the Common Council has delayed, pending budget information), wrote  “This action would generate more than $10 Million annually, which would relieve the property tax burden on our residents.”  He also stated “It would also pass on the benefits of new development directly to property taxpayers. Ten Million Dollars is equivalent to a 30 percent property tax increase.”

The Mayor is too modest.

From the looks of the 2008, 2009,2010 and 2011 city projections (reported exclusively  last week for the benefit of the deprived Common Council by  yours truly, The CitizeNetReporter)  start a new era for the White Plains taxpayer who has subsidized the White Plains Renaissance and the City School District the last five years.

The city Commissioner of Finance has  devised  budgets going out the next four years, demonstrating the Mayor’s ability to execute a balanced budget without  the ½%  sales tax increase or a hotel tax.

Looking at the budget figures, (you may look at them along with this article by going to http://www.wpcnr.com/images/pdf/wp_101107.pdf),  the city reports to the state several positive things thanks to the Mayor’s “smart finance” that has put together this long range financial planning.

The Mayor and his administration are way too cautionary about this budget. The Mayor said he could not guarantee the budgets last week in another cautionary letter delivering the budgets to Assemblyman Adam Bradley as requested.

 Look what the Mayor’s projections promise:

1.       The ability to cover a 5% increase in salaries, ($71 Million to $81.2 M)  and an 18% increase in employee benefits over the next four years.

Effect: This ensures labor peace and harmony for half a decade. If the projections hold to the mark, this alone sets up Mr. Delfino for a prosperous fourth term beginning in 2010, or presents an orderly house for any successor to take over, positioned for prosperity. The city by their projections has found revenues to pay for this salary growth plus benefit increases,  raising property taxes 7%.

2.       Strategic Management of Certioraris through Debt

 

Effect: By planning to pay off certioraris in the pipeline using bonding, the administration mitigates fund balance depletion and softens property tax impact by finessing a long term problem.

 

This deft debt management, using debt as a revenue producer gives the downtown development and expected new hotel and residents’ influx the time to catch up to the city debt and perhaps surpass it.

 

It is a prudent way of employing the city’s  credit rating to advantage. What good is a good credit rating if you don’t use it?

 

Though debt service doubles, based on the Mayor’s projections, the sales tax without the ½ % increase, is expected to march on an inexorable natural progression of 5%, as predicted by the city, covers this modest increase in debt service

 

Let’s figure it out, class:

 

2005-2006 generated $43 Million in sales tax, growing 5% as the projections predict, that generates $2.2 Million in 2008-2009 easily handling the debt service increase of $587,500 indicated over the next four years.

 

As long as the development continues to pay off, and there is no reason to expect with the swells coming into the Ritz-Carlton, that it will not, the Mayor is betting that the city’s debt rating and the ability to handle the debt will continue to handle anything the city needs to cover of an extraordinary nature.

 

 

3.       PILOT GROWTH adds $4,183,970 to revenues through 2010-2011.

 

Effect: Since each of the 10 PILOT agreements still in effect goes up a projected 7% in payments each year, they add $583,970 to the tax rolls total over the next three years. The $3.6 Million additional difference is counting the $1.2 Million  payments  a year, Nine West and Clayton Park contribute combined to property taxes when those two properties go back on the tax roll in July 2008. (Together they pay  $484,020 this year)

 

The PILOT growth alone takes care of the extra debt service for the certioraris according to the projected budgets.

 

4.       Property Sales End.

 

The budget projections call for $5,000,000 in real property sales this fiscal year and $1,000,000 in each of the next three years which is the 10 Bank Street parking lot, sold as part of the Bank Street 20% Affordable Housing deal.

 

Effect: The city has apparently according to the projections kicked its one-shot habit of selling city assets, another plus for these projections. The Projections call for no other land sales. (Unless of course the railroad station development is put back in play where there could be a sale of land, and no longer a fire sale either.)

 

5.       $99 Million in Authorized Debt. Plenty of Credit Line Left.

 

According to the 2007-2008 budget White Plains may borrow an additional $386 Million based on New York State guidelines. The city currently has $99.2 Million in outstanding indebtedness, up  15.5% due to the bonding for the Longview Avenue Garage in support of the  White Plains Hospital Medical Center and the assisted living facility project at that location. Debt payments are averaging $6 Million a year through 2013 according to the 2007-2008 budget.

 

Effect: the city has plenty of debt availability, while poised on what projections show to be steady revenue growth.

 

The ½ % Sales Tax Increase Request a Timely Opportunity.

 

For years, this commentator and financial aficionados have criticized the Mayor’s financial decisions.

 

The Mayor’s sales tax increase suggestion of ½%  made this spring is an intriguing opportunity for the Mayor to give back to the taxpayers of White Plains who have had faith in his Three Revitalization Plans. They have retained their faith in Mayor Joe despite apparently necessary double-the-rate-of-inflation property tax increases, due, as the Mayor has long pointed out, to certiorari increases.

 

Giveback Time for Taxpayers.

 

As the Mayor alluded to in his letter to the media, the sales tax increase — if the Common Council takes into account and agrees the Mayor’s projections are on solid ground, and (there is no reason why they should not since they approved all the Mayor’s financial decisions) — is an unprecedented opportunity to turn things around on taxes in White Plains.

 

Once again White Plains can take the lead from the hundreds of cities that bleed their populaces due to their lousy financial management and give the White Plains taxpayer meaningful tax relief in real dollars off the top!

 

When originally presented, Ms. Cuneo-Harwood suggested the sales tax

 

·         Would shift the tax burden back to Commercial Sector

·         Would provide structural balance within the City’s budget in conformance with rating agency criteria

·         Replaces Use of One Shots

·         Would allow City’s revenues to grow with increased economic activity without raising property taxes.

·         Would stabilize future property tax rate increases and offset revenue losses due to certioraris “now and into the future.”

·         Would increase the City’s fund balance without raising taxes

 

Now – with the benefit of these new projections – we can do more.

A 30% Tax Cut!

When these goals were presented to make the case for the sales tax, the Council had no idea the city was so well positioned. Obviously the Mayor was being cautious in not being too optimistic and seeing the sales tax increase and hotel tax as benefits the city was entitled to since other cities had higher sales taxes and most cities have hotel taxes. Perfectly understandable.

However, Happy Days Are Here Again! Sales Tax No Longer Needed.

Based on Ms. Harwood’s projections going out the next three fiscal years now made public, and with the sales tax increase justifiably bringing White Plains equal to Yonkers,  Mt. Vernon and New Rochelle, the sales tax increase appears to be no longer needed.

Because White Plains has balanced its budget over the next three years without it.

To wit, this footnote in the budget projections:  If revenue enhancements are approved, plan will need to be modified accordingly and bonded (SIC)  of tax certs will be eliminated.

However, we ask why have the sales tax increase at all, if it is not needed according to the budget projections?

To Give The Tax Payers Relief.

I answer my own question as the Mayor did Tuesday in print: to give the tax payers relief!

Nuts to providing a budget slush fund to build government!

The Mayor in his wisdom is right: cut taxes, don’t keep them where they are.

What is the Common Council waiting for? Just Do It!

Immediately approving the Mayor’s sales tax increase proposal and tying it to property tax cuts is an election sure thing. Mr. Boykin and Mr. Power and Ms. Lecuona nervous about being elected. Move that half per cent and promise a 30% tax cut.

Not only that but all of us who pay taxes would love a 30% Tax Cut. Wouldn’t you?

Once the sales tax kicked in, its revenues could replace the cut in the tax rate.

If you own a $700,000 home in White Plains you’re paying $9,000 in school taxes and $2,500 city taxes. Your city tax would be cut  $730 if the Mayor and Council decreed a 30% tax cut. Should the sales tax windfall be more than the $10 Million the Mayor predicts, he could spread the wealth to cover School Tax Relief, too.

The hotel tax the Mayor has proposed is predicted to bring in $2.5 to $4 Million. This could cut City Taxes even more should the Mayor devote that to cutting taxes too.

It’s a beautiful thing.

The Mayor and Council, should they choose to do so could emerge as America’s bona fide tax-cutting Champs, and the council winding up heroes.

That’s what the city’s projected budgets show they can do. We’re not as bad off as we thought by constructive clever use of debt and revenue trends.

Development will finally pay off big time – every year, with White Plains becoming the place to live, arresting the decline in home prices and making it even more attractive a place to live. Real Estated values will soar!

Delfino to the Rescue of the School District and their Captive Tax Victims.

Other benefits the Mayor and council could use the obviously growing revenue for would be to relieve school taxes by cutting them after the school budget is set. This way the school district would have incentive to cut the budget instead of spending any increase.

The Mayor, of course, should retain control over the amount of the school tax cut. No monies should be turned over to the School District for them to use as they see fit. We know what would happen to them.  Instead the Mayor can simply deduct and order tax refunds on the school tax portion of the resident’s tax bill, making sure tax relief is given to the school tax payer.

This would have an excellent effect, we think on the school budget, and the Mayor’s resident tax refunds from half per cent sales tax revenues would make Governor Spitzer’s enhanced STAR refunds look like pocket change.

 

Of course, the wish list for the revenues to come are many: gang prevention programs for troubled youth which based on the conference I attended yesterday need to build on what the Youth Bureau has started; a new ice rink; and just perhaps, a saner parking fee and enforcement policy.

Now that the Council knows the budget situation – a Windfall Tax Cut as suggested by the Mayor is a “No-Brainer”

 What are they waiting for? Armed with these projections, the council should send Adam Bradley up to Albany in a limo tomorrow to introduce this thing.

 

 This is a once in a generation opportunity for  an administration to reap the benefits of a dynamic and strategically brilliant financial plan, that is  working as we look out to the White Plains future, and to paraphrase Elvis, “Don’t Be Cruel, The future looks bright ahead.Don’t Be Cruel to a Taxpayer That’s Been True. ”

It’s great to live in White Plains!

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications. (Edited) October 15, 2007 UPDATED: County Executive Andy Spano today proposed a $105 Million general fund capital projects budget for 2008 year that introduces a five-year, $50-million flood mitigation program. The news release  appears to say the county plans to bond for the entire $105 Million, but does not estimate the total cost over the years to the taxpayers. WPCNR is attempting to clarify whether that is correct. The capital budget has been increased 5.9% for 2008

The plan calls for construction of a new County Department of Public Safety Building for $9 Million; a new “Molecular Diagnostic Lab at Labs and Research in Valhalla ($4.58M) which will add “new technologies” the purpose of which is “helping doctors and hospitals make quicker diagnosis to save lives and protect the public”; rehabilitation of the Department of Emergency Services Main Facility($9M); replacement of windows in the Michaelian Building and 112 East Post Road; purchasing of hybrid buses and 20 electric vehicles and a charging station; $31. 5 Million for the the Refuse Disposal and Sewer Districts; and $3.48 Million for airport capital projects — that do not impact the city budget.  (WPCNR has inquired as to the details.)

“The ravages of last April’s Nor’easter have made it clear that we need to act decisively to protect our communities from flooding,’’ said Spano. “Continued development and changes in weather patterns have left our communities more vulnerable than ever. Areas that never had problems before were devastated last April. Homes and businesses became uninhabitable. Some residents who could least afford it, lost everything. This is an issue that crosses municipal lines and we must focus on possible solutions together.’’

To that end, Spano held a Flood Summit last spring and appointed a Flood Mitigation Task Force to propose solutions. Funds set aside in the capital budget could be used to finance projects recommended by the task force. The amount to be spent on such projects in 2008 awaits the task force’s recommendations.

Bonding for $105 Million

The capital budget proposal, which was delivered to the Westchester County Board of Legislators today, is a spending plan for projects that the county would pay for with bonds. The interest costs of these bonds go into the county’s operating budget as expenses. The costs to Westchester of borrowing are kept relatively low due to the county’s triple-A bond rating, the highest rating possible.

Spano’s proposed budget for operating expenses will be released Nov. 15. The Board of Legislators has until the end of December to adopt it along with the capital projects budget. The proposed capital budget is 5.9 percent higher than last year’s.

The $105 million included in the general purpose capital projects budget includes these highlights:

Public Health and Safety

· Funding for the construction phase of a Molecular Diagnostic Lab at Labs and Research in Valhalla. These latest technologies will identify SARS, tuberculosis, whooping cough, and resistant HIV strains more rapidly, helping doctors and hospitals make quicker diagnosis to save lives and protect the public.

· Funds for construction of a new Public Safety Headquarters Building. (The design phase of this project was provided in previous years.) When the original building was constructed, there were only 60 police officers. Today the department has nearly 300 employees. As the demands increase on the Department of Public Safety to protect the residents in the areas of crime, terrorism and security, more space is needed for it to function properly,” Spano said.

· Funding for the rehabilitation of the Department of Emergency Services’ Main Facility. “By reconfiguring the space for additional program use, more first responders throughout Westchester can be trained to better protect our residents,” Spano said.

Energy Savings

· As part of his commitment to leading by example in the efforts to lower energy costs and fight global warming, the budget proposes funding to replace windows in two of the county government’s oldest building in White Plains: 112 East Post Road and the Michaelian Office Building at 148 Martine Ave.

· Funds to continue purchasing hybrid buses.

Open Space

· Funding of $5 million to continue parkland acquisition through Spano’s multi-year Legacy Program. To date, the program has funded skate parks and ballfields in Yorktown, Yonkers, Port Chester, Rye Brook and White Plains, and the Miracle Field in Hartsdale for disabled children.

Other Funds

Separate budgets for capital projects at the airport (proposed at almost $3.4 3 million) and for sewer, water and refuse districts (proposed at almost $31.5 million) do not impact the county’s operating budget.

Airport projects, funded through the Airport Special Revenue Fund, include upgrades to electric systems and infrastructure, taxiway rehabilitation and the resurfacing of the terminal roadway network

It also includes replacement of over 20 gas and diesel powered vehicles with electric vehicles and the installation of a charging station, addressing both energy savings as well as environmental concerns. (Federal funds for these improvements will be sought.)

· The 2008 Proposed Capital Budget for the Refuse Disposal and Sewer Districts in the requested amount of $31,480,000 provides for the continued infrastructure improvements and rehabilitation of plants, pump station upgrades and equipment replacement. .

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. October 13, 2007: White Plains took a 7-6 lead over Horace Greeley in the first minute of the second quarter, and then things went bad. The Quakers mixing up elaborate quarterback draws, counters and getting outside in a hurry behind superb blocking put up three unanswered touchdowns, the second set up by an interception, the third and clinching six coming off a high snap to the White Plains punter that set it up,  to overpower the Tigers, 27-7 at Eastview School.

Mike Howard kicks PAT to Put White Plains ahead 7-6, before Horace Greeley struck for three touchdowns.  Ray Mitchell scored the Tiger touchdown on a 1-yard plunge.

Greeley drove 80 yards in 9 plays, highlighted by a 39 yard run by Joe Yeres to a first and goal on the Tiger 9, followed by an 8 yard touchdown run by Dylan St. John to take a 12-7 lead at the 7:30 mark before the half.

Matt Brophy picked up a Tiger pass at the Greeley 40 on a Tiger 3rd and 8 and returned it to the Tiger 40 with 5 minutes to go. Then  a Brett Garson pass to St. John carried  28 yards to the Tiger 12, and Dylan St. John lugged it in untouched for a 18-7 lead with 4:20  minutes to go. A 2-point conversion lengthened the spread to 20-7.

Next came the Tiger Tamer. With the Tigers facing 4th down on their own 9, a high snap to punter Dan Berroa caused Dan to get the kick off just barely…giving Greeley a first down on the Tiger 24. Not a good thing. On the first play QB Garson hit Brophy leaping high between two Tiger defenders at the 5. Brophy leaped high,  outjumping the double coverage,  making a circus catch and scampered into the end zone to give Greeley a 26-7 lead. With the point, the score was 27-7 at halftime. A long pass to Shavaughn Green at the Greeley 10 was just missed by Shivaugh, leaving the score 27-7 at time ran out. White Plains could not move the ball in the second half.

The Tigers scored their first touchdown keyed by a 15 yard face mask penalty that put them inbusiness at the Greeley 30 yard line. After a run, Maurice Thomas rumbled up the middle to the Quarker 11, a 19 yard ramble.Ray Mitchell carried for a first down on the 1, and scored on the next play. Mike Howard added the point on a kick and the Tigers had a shortlived lead, 7-6 after a minute of the first quarter.

Tigers and Quakers playing in the lengthening shadows of autumn.

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WPCNR CENTERSTAGE. Review by John F. Bailey. October 11, 2007: The first time you hear Kate Rockwell’s shimmering and haunting voice as Christine Daee, you are enchanted. Your first sight of Aaron Ramey as Westchester Broadway Theatre’s new Phantom of the Opera commands you with his magnetism, machismo and tortured soul. Together their romantic chemistry deliver an emotional Phantom that never lets go of your heart and builds to an emotionally draining climax you will not soon forget. It was a Phantom Night! Driving rain. Lightning in the sky, fitting for a return of the Phantom to the Westchester Broadway Theater. Tonight the lightning was on stage!

Aaron Ramey, The Phantom, and Kate Rockwell as Christine, the lovers of WBT’s new Phantom.  The Phantom is ferrying Christine across the lagoon in Act II. The two performers bring out the best in each other. Photos by John Vecchiola, Courtesy, WBT

Phantom, arriving at WBT this week is not the Phantom of Broadway fame. It’s greater. You leave The Phantom of the Opera as seen on Broadway, and you’re talking about the effects and the great songs. When you walk out into the night after WBT’s Phantom, you’re talking about the incredible voices of Ms. Rockwell and Mr. Ramey, made to sing with each other. You’re overwhelmed by the power of a classic denouement. Ms. Rockwell and Mr. Ramey’s voices blend. They soar. Their duets touch deep into the soul. The electricity of them crackles in the theatre as the fate of the doomed couple is played out in what for one night, the WBT becomes the Paris Opera House.

Kate Rockwell assumes the adult role as Christine Daee, the opera ingenue in Maury Yeston’s and Arthur Kopit’s Phantom. Known as a finalist on NBC’s Grease: You’re the One that I Want, Ms. Rockwell, after seeing her tonight, should never rock and roll again. She is born to play the Christine role, and all the great musical roles, for that matter. In the program notes, she described Christine as her dream role. Well she gave it all she had tonight. As did her debonair Phantom. 

Christine is Discovered, singing her own songs on the streets of Paris. From this opening number, Ms. Rockwell captures you and never lets you go.

Ms. Rockwell has it all: range with a confident finesse and control, flowing, sparkling out into the theatre; essence: this woman takes you from the depths of pity to the height of hope to the “stuff that dreams are made of,” with her stop-you-in-your-tracks voice; credibility: her sense of movement, her expressions, her warmth and way with the lyricist’s words, make hers a voice that you will fall for too, as Eric, the doomed Phantom does.

You never tire of hearing Ms. Rockwell and you‘re going to hear her a lot.

Aaron Ramey creates a Phantom any woman would fall in love with. He is a mystery man. His Phantom as created by the writer Arthur Kopit, is a person, not a cutout. From his first appearance, you sense the contradictions within. Tortured. Lonely. Needy. Enigmatic. Roguishly attractive. Every woman loves this kind of guy. His voice commands. The power baritone articulates raw rage, anxiety, desire, pity, despair that grips you, makes you care about him. Ramey creates a monster, unbalanced, but with a heart, who captures Christine’s heart. Here they perform “Lessons” 

When he hears Christine Daee for the first time , she is putting away costumes at the opera house. He is taken by her voice because, as you will learn her voice reminds him of his mother. He offers to teach her and train her voice. And Christine’s love for him grows. Is it his air of mystery? Is it what he teaches her? Will we ever know?

His duet with Ms. Rockwell at the conclusion of Act I, “Home,” and again with her in the beautiful “You Are Music” (such a true song) are magical and well-acted too! You hang on their every phrase.

After a patron of the opera hears Christine sing on the streets of Paris in the opening extravaganza, he suggests she join the opera for singing lessons. However the opera has just been purchased by the Diva, Carlotta, (above) played by Sandy Rosenberg with Cruella De Ville menace and comic grotesqueries, who plans to sing all the lead roles herself. Carlotta persuades her husband Joseph (Gary Marchek) to dismiss Gerard Carriere, played by James Van Treuren who has been protecting Eric (The Phantom) for years while Eric has lived in the catacombs of the Opera House. The audience will discover why in the melodramatic conclusion.

Van Treuren and Ramey perform an amazing duet in Act II that will not leave a dry eye in the house. Van Treuren is a terrific WBT standby whom this reviewer saw step in as understudy a role in the WBT production Kiss Me Kate, when the lead could not go on. He was so seamless in going on that night, this reporter did know the difference. He handles his scene with Eric when they both sing “You Are My Own” with such elan, pathos and again, credibility holding his emotional own against the tortured Phantom. It is one of the most emotional scenes you will see.

Act II of this Phantom takes a great Act I to a higher level, simply lifting you up. Most musicals, the second act is just a wrap-up. Not this show. Act II, you have to fasten your seatbelts for action, hold tight to your heartstrings, and pine with the star-crossed Christine and Eric.

There is plenty of action in this Phantom. After Eric the Phantom takes revenge for Christine’s disastrous opening night as The Fairy Queen, he takes her to his lair beneath the opera house.

There the two perform their most touching duet, Ms. Rockwell singing My True Love, and Mr. Ramey delivering (to thunderous lasting ovation), My Mother Bore Me, and Christine. This sequence is a tour de force of emotion for Mr. Ramey and the audience paid homage!

Ms. Rockwell duets well when she does not have her stage soulmate, Mr. Ramey as her foil.

She performs a coquettishly Cole Porteresque number with the handsome opera patron after her big debut at The Bistro at the end of Act I. At the Bistro, her singing is carefully choreographed by the Phantom, her mentor. Her foil is the debonair Michael Padgett as Count Philippe, who is smitten with her peformance. Together they sing, “Who Could Ever Have Dreamed Up You”. I loved this song and Cole Porter would loved to have written it

The Chase is On.

And then the chase for the Phantom is on. Into the catacombs. Into the catwalks. Across the lagoon under the streets of Paris. Across the ingenious tricks of staging put together by the resident geniuses at WBT, George Puello and Steven Loftus with lighting effects that create a Bistro, the Opera House, explosions, and of course, the flying chandelier, thanks to Lighting Designer Andrew Gmoser.

This production of the Phantom ran for nine months at WBT in 1992. This new version is fast-moving. With no lulls. A realistic book with real dialogue, not just a bridge between songs. The songs in the show fit in nicely with the book and all are appropriate and complex. You have to listen carefully to get the words, but so commanding is the style of Mr. Ramey and Ms. Rockwell and their outstanding company, you do.

My companion who saw the original version of this show in 1992 thought it was as good, and better than the original.

I commend the orchestra tonight, a little larger than the usual WBT ensemble, with twelve musicians including Musical Director/Conductor Patrick Kelley. This orchestra delivered soundtrack interludes to punctuate the drama of the action, much like a movie soundtrack — with a just-right decibel level that did not overwhelm the stage action. They gave you strings, reeds, bass, a completely different sound that created the feel of opera. They were so good they blended , meshed and laid a musical bed that offered the show to the audience, not overwhelmed it.

Christine is discovered at The Bistro in Act I, while the Phantom, her Svengali, looks on from the balcony.

For more on Phantom, which plays through Thanksgiving, and returns again from December 27 through February 9 at the WBT, go to their website at www.broadwaytheatre.com. Or call 914-592-2222.

This is one of the few shows that got a thunderous ovation at the conclusion of the first act.

I loved this Phantom.

So did its composer and lyricist, Maury Yeston.

The WBT Producer and Co-Owner Bill Stutler introduced Maury Yeston, as a guest of the WBT on press night. Mr. Yeston at intermission was heard and seen by this reporter, shaking his head in admiration, saying

“That girl is just terrific.”

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WPCNR FOR THE RECORD. From The Mayor’s Office. October 11, 2007: The following is the Four Year Multi Year Profection the Mayor’s Office issued to Assemblypersons Adam Bradley and Amy Paulin within the last 24 hours. The projection is identical to the document analyzed by WPCNR in Wednesday’s story announcing the city had filed the projects with the State Comptroller’s Office and the State Department of the Budget. It is the latest projections, according to Paul Wood, City Executive Officer, and identical to the projections sent New York State.