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WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT.By John F. Bailey. May 1, 2014:Tonight, Robert P. Astorino, candidate for Governor of New York and Westchester County Executive on his day job, delivers a State of the County speech.

So before he tells you how well the county is doing under his leadership, suppose I tell you what the state of the county is in reality.

Adrift.

The economy is not recovering.

Businesses are staying if they get tax relief and deals, which costs you money, and look for the business landlords of the county to begin another round of demands for tax refunds for the lean last four years, especially by the big mall owners and the vacant storefront buildings. (In White Plains, I counted 19 storefronts on Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY, USA, last week.) And that will be happening all over the county, too.

Real estate, despite the rosy forecasts of realty organizations is anemic.

Prices are not going up. As Timothy Idoni, Westchester County Clerk pointed out Tuesday in an appearance before the County Legislature  committee on housing, new foreclosure filings which he says are new filings on troubled properties of the past, now being refiled on,  are on the same pace as last year (626 in the first quarter). This is not good. The properties are in limbo. Idoni said strongly this condition is really holding back the county recovery, despite rosy forecasts.

Communities cannot foreclose on them for back taxes for the most part because the banks are refusing to take title of the properties. So they fall into varying stages of disrepair. This condition lowers neighborhood appeal and prices. Homeowners simply hold back from putting their homes on the market, then have to lower their prices to move their houses, finally.

Medical costs, as White Plains Hospital CEO said on People To Be Heard, my interview program on White Plains TV  this week (www.whiteplainsweek.com)  are not slowing down—another pressure on cities and school districts.

In order to get business to come here, the cost of living in the county need to come down, and includes property taxes. But they are not. Governor Cuomo’s tax levy cap has not decreased your property taxes because there are too many exclusions in the formula, but has allowed school budgets and city budgets to float up double the rate of inflation (1.5%). It may have slowed the rate of tax increases, I’ll give them that.

Compliance with the Department of  Housing and Urban Development settlement with the county continues to be an issue that the Board of Legislators continues to ignore reality. Norma Drummond the Deputy Commissioner of Planning for the County, detailed  before that County Board of Legislators Housing Committee Tuesday morning that the county has committed and funded over 400 affordable units of housing (more than half way on the HUD requirement of 750. Drummond told the Committee that when a property comes on the market in the 6 upscale, mostly white communities targeted by HUD in the housing settlement , the county Planning Department has attempted to evaluate those properties as potential for affordable housing. So, in  spite of the politicians on the Board of Legislators who say that the Astorino administration is not working to comply with the settlement, they are working to comply with the settlement.  She did say they have a long way to go by the deadline next year to comply.

Yet HUD is threatening to withhold another $7 million in community funds this year.  Chair of the Board of Legislators  Michael Kaplowitz also said on the White Plains Week People to Be Heard program last month, that the HUD monitor, James Johnson,  is working with the six towns on their zoning and that Kaplowitz expected this would be worked out this year.  Mr. Johnson has not responded yet to a WPCNR query on the details of how Mr. Johnson is interacting with the targeted six. How about the Board of Legislators holding a meeting with the leadership of the various towns to speed the compliance up? Have they ever done that? Mr. Astorino could call on the BOL to do so.

Mr. Astorino should layout this housing settlement reality, olive branch HUD and call on the Westchester Democrat congressional representatives to call on HUD to call off their strong arm tactics  and at least put that aid in escrow. Who are they hurting? People.

I expect Mr. Astorino to ballyhoo his tax record of keeping the county property taxes from going up the last four years, while chiding the governor for delivering another tax and budget increase. However, once again the County Board of Legislators has not been agreeing to cut really the county spending.

Mr. Astorino, has used fund balance and has kept taxes from going down.  But one strategy he can point out is he has not created a mythical surplus out of “proposed” savings to deliver all kinds of aid to constituencies. I expect he might refer to that if he wanted to take a roundhouse swipe at Governor Cuomo’s miracle budget of the $2.5 Billion surplus achieved through cuts that have not been realized yet.

Snidely Whiplash Banks

In my opinion, Mr. Astorino has to address the need for Westchester County banks to be more customer friendly. The bank reluctance to give mortgages on homes sold for higher than appraised value is a disservice and is killing real estate growth. The banks also have to stop foreclosing and foreclosing proceedings.

This kind of  bank behavior prolonged the Great Depression of the 1930s. Perhaps a county bailout for troubled homeowners or continued payments at a lower rate? It’s time to put the pressure on Westchester banks. But, I do not think Mr. Astorino will do that in tonight’s speech. The banks are killing the real estate market; holding young potential home buyers to impossible credit to income ratios and forcing them into becoming lifelong renters. The market is stagnant.

Affordable housing is the war cry of Mr Astorino’s political opponents, but the Board of Legislators has done very little in exploring why there is a dearth of it. Mr. Astorino could declare a war on unaffordable housing, which seems to be the only thing selling or renting – unaffordable housing.

The Creeping Death of the Tax Cap

Many Westchester cities and towns are having to deliver huge tax increases to keep their services at present levels. But do they need to be at present staffing levels? Governor Cuomo’s proposal for property tax rebates if cities and towns keep expenses below the tax cap is impossible to comply with in White Plains next year, given the Common Council and administration mindset of raising taxes with rollover budgets. The same is true for other communities.

Mr. Astorino might want to expand his extension of police services of the County Police to communities with small police forces, as well as county public works services, park services. And turn it into a campaign issue against the governor. Just a thought.  But then, it takes individual communities willing to cut services. This actually might be a way to fool taxpayers with the idea their taxes are being cut by the towns where they live (while county taxes go up modestly,”quite understandable,”  after all the funds are all fungible, right?)

Education in Westchester.

Mr. Astorino will probably aim a strong haymaker at Governor Cuomo for  moving too little and too late to address the Common Core failures.  Mr. Cuomo, through his own  personal “CNN (Cuomo News Network)” released a rerun of a previous press release yesterday detailing his 2014-15 budget Common Core reforms.  Mr. Astorino, if I were he, should point out that these reforms postpone action, prolong education practices that may or not be working, and do not get at the core problem: the preparers of the common core materials were late materials, and the preparers of the assessment tests were out of touch with how to prepare the tests.

If I were he I might charge the Governor has been protecting the incompetent performance of the Education Department and the Board of Regents which was responsible for supervising the preparation, delivery, and content of the materials which teachers are saying is flawed. Astorino could call for a task force of educators in Westchester to ask hard questions about what is actually happening in the county on  achievement gaps, education of the Spanish speaking children, and what kind of progress constitutes real progress. Task forces are always good.

Tappan Zee Bridge.

The Governor has to address how this massive Mass Transit Task Force report is going to affect Westchester County and the need for an effective decision-making process. After the report, there appears to be no clear cut indication of what decisions to implement Bus Rapid Transit have been made and set in stone. How can the Governor fund something when you don’t know what it is?

I asked the spolesperson for the New NY Bridge what decisions have actually been made . And he just referred me to read the report. I went over it and in regard to the White Plains BRT routes on route 119, I see three suggestions…what has been picked? Who will pick it? I think the County Executive needs to address this for the report-challenged. Then again, maybe I did not read the report fine print.

Ramp Metering, which came to light in the Governor’s press release on Bus Rapid Transit funding this week,  will have great impact on various communities. Despite MTTF assurances that ramp metering has been shown to cut 20 minutes off trips, TJ McCormack, the WVOX morning host, and a person who lived in Los Angeles for 9 years, said the ramp metering on the L.A. freeways works well off-peak, but in rush hours it does not work at all in his experience. Is the County Executive in favor of ramp metering? If he is—don’t expect him to bring it up. But he needs to take a stand on this report which thinks three lanes will do fine on I-287 if we get  10,000 new people a day to ride Bus Rapid Transit if they are rapid

Ramp metering – something the County Executive has to pay attention to.  It will build traffic on Route 119, that is for sure. Something you do not want. Mr. Astorino should also note that the very idea that the squeeze down of lanes from 4 to 3 from the New NY Bridge into I-287 will be handled by I-287 is preposterous. It will be the same.

I am sure we can expect a lot of talk about bring new businesses into the county, too. Perhaps with even more tax breaks. But how does Mr. Astorino feel about Governor Cuomo’s tax free campus zones the Governor proposed? That may kill the county.

Gambling in Westchester

This is another hot issue. Is Mr. Astorino going to endorse a full-tilt casino at Empire City? Under what terms? Is Mr. Astorino more inclined to get a casino into New Rochelle on Davis Island, for example—does he support legal gambling in Westchester at all?  I could stake out an issue on this. However, there are definite declines in quality of life in casino neighborhoods.  I think he might want to state a policy on bringing gambling to the country’s most taxed county. Westchester needs those casino “handles.” Will Mr. Astorino attach the governor on tax policy towards casinos (not enough fees to state…special tax bracket…etc.)

I look forward to the County Executive telling us how he is going to proceed on these issues now that he is off the campaign trail at least tonight anyway.