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 MAIN STREET JOURNAL. From a White Plains CitizeNetReporter. September 23, 2004 (EDITED):  The SEIU Local 32BJ (Service Employees International Union)  rallied in White Plains yesterday, in an open air special union meeting to ask members permission to call a strike against suburban employers. Identical rallies took place in New Jersey and Long Island today. AFL-CIO affiliated unions also plan a speakout at the Common Council Meeting October 4 to protest and inform the Council and the Mayor on alleged Wal-Mart anti-union practices.

Custodians Rally for Health Care Coverage in front of County Office Building Wednesday. Photo by a White Plains CitizeNetReporter.

Another meeting will take place in the New Yorker Hotel in New York City today, followed by a mach to the Empire State Building. The union’s major concern is health coverage.

PUBLIC OFFICIALS SUPPORT RALLY AT MICHAELIAN COUNTY OFFICE BUILDING WEDNESDAY: Left to right, the Mayor of Harrison, Steven Malfitano, (representing State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer, Councilman Robert Greer, New York State Assemblyman Adam Bradley and Assemblyman Michael Spano. Photo by a White Plains CitizeNetReporter

Union organizers (WPCNR’s correspondent reports),  are in process of planning a AFL-CIO affiliated union presence for the 7 o’clock Citizens To Be Heard segment at the October 4 Common Council Meeting to rally the city to reject Wal-Mart as a tenant of the former Sears building adjacent to City Hall. The Council Speakout is being organized by RWDSU 338, (Retail Wholesale & Department Store Union, representing 100,000 workers nationally). The union objective is to alert and teach the public of the corporate practices which “make Wal-Mart bad corporate neighbors.” The union will be sending a Vice President/ Health and Safety Director, plus a few more will unbdoubtedly be there.

The object is to have Mayor Joseph Delfino and the Council understand at least some of what  labor and elswehere already understand (about Wal-Mart). Mayor Delfino has made known he is opposed to Wal-Mart renting space in the Sears building, currently being renovated by Ivy Equities.

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WPCNR CITY HALL BLUES.  By John F. Bailey. September 21, 2004, Updated 12:17 P.M. E.D.T.: The Council of Neighborhood Associations invited newly minted Councilperson Larry Delgado to address issues with them last week at Education House. In the course of that evening last week, Mr. Delgado reported that the city Finance and Budget departments were going to attempt to get financial data on the pace of sales tax collections  in a more timely, more accurate manner from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and the Comptroller’s Office to prevent the budget trauma of last year.

MAYOR JOSEPH DELFINO ON MISSION TO GET ACCURATE SALES TAX REPORTING  FROM ALBANY ON SALES TAXES. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

 

 

 

 

Councilman Larry Delgado, (CENTER), with, L to R, Robert Levine, Lisa Tarricone of The White Plains Watch, Mr. Delgado, and Judith Higgins,  in speaking to the Council of Neighborhood Associations said he found it hard to believe with the business being done in the downtown that our sales tax figures were not running way ahead of last year at this time.  Delgado said White Plains collected over $38 Million in sales tax for fiscal 2003-04. Speaking to WPCNR at the Sculpture Garden Opening, Budget Director Anne Reasoner confirmed that. Photo by WPCNR News.

PAUL WOOD, ACTING EXECUTIVE OFFICER of the City of White Plains, expressed concern on the sporadic reporting of sales tax figures, and announced the Mayor’s new initiative to Albany at the Sculpture Garden opening at the Library last Wednesday. Photo by WPCNR News.

Last Wednesday the sun-bronzed Paul Wood, the Acting Executive Officer for Mayor Delfino, confirmed that the city was going to attempt to get the sales tax numbers “in real time.”  He reported that Mayor Joseph Delfino will be going to Albany in October, (no date set), to discuss what can be done to get real numbers on what the city earns from sales tax each month.

 

“Now they just give us estimates based on last year, “ Wood told WPCNR. He said that the city needed timely figures, “in real time” based on actual receipts, not estimates. He said the Mayor was going to discuss the possibilities of the state instituting timely, actual coin-in-the-till-as-of-this-moment reporting to the city.

 

Tom Roach, Common Council President, told WPCNR last week, he, too, was “all in favor of  more (financial) reporting, the more information, the more timely, the better,” he said, and added that  he had spoken to New York State District 89 Assemblyman Adam Bradley about it, that that Mr. Bradley indicated he would aid in the White Plains quest for more key numbers, more often, to improve financial planning.

 

Still Using Green Eyeshades and Ledgers?

 

As an example of the confusion the “Green Eyeshade Reporting”  (in the age of the number-crunching computer), now used by the state to report the numbers to the state’s cities, there is a tendency on the part of  responsible city governments to overcompensate if the numbers estimates from Albany look low.

 

This is what White Plains did last year in its budget process. For example, if the city had known they were going to get an estimated $10 Million in sales tax in the last quarter of 2003-2004,(April, May, June)  or were in a better financial position on actual sales tax receipts in March than they thought they were, the Common Council might have trimmed its property tax increase slightly, or bonded for a million less.

 

Still No Numbers Three Months Later.

 

The footdragging among Albany Eyeshaders  kills the ability of cities to plan finance responsibly for the next year, or at least gives them a good excuse to extra more taxes from their citizens and businesses.

 

The $10 Million (About $3.35 Million a month in April, May, and June, 2004)  of sales tax revenue White Plains got (we think) in the last quarter of 2003-04 is a WPNCR estimate as to what the city actually raked in sales tax in the final quarter because that was the gap the city was facing, again based on estimates of sales trends as last year played out based on city hall figures.

 

Financial Ballparking

 

WPCNR estimated that the city was at $28 Million in Sales Tax revenues at the end of three quarters, based on the figures the city provided at the end of March. This meant the city needed $10 Million over April May and June to make their budgeted sales tax revenues for 2004-05 of $37 Million, or about $3 Million and change a month in April, May, June. They got it.

 

Meanwhile, Budget Director Anne Reasoner told WPCNR at the Sculpture Garden opening last week that the city still has not closed the books on 2003-04, and has no handle on the newest sales tax figures for the first two months of 2004-05 (July & August, 2004). She said the city would be reporting the figures on the budget in about the middle of October.

 

Something the U.S. Government Does that New York State Cannot?

 

Considering that the United States Government reports job figures nationally every month, as well as price information (Consumer Price Index), it would seem that the New York State Comptroller’s Office and the Department of Taxation and Finance could do the same thing. If they can’t, why can’t they?  If they can, why don’t they? Maybe they are making a lot of mistakes in rechanneling sales tax back to the cities? That’s what hopefully Mayor Delfino and the rest of the New York Conference of Mayors will be able to find out when they meet next month.

 

Earl Skeptical In Her Last Days.

 

 

EILEEN EARL, FORMER CITY BUDGET DIRECTOR, NOW A CONSULTANT AS SHE APPEARED BEFORE THE COMMON COUNCIL, JANUARY, 2003. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

On January 26, 2003, WPCNR published an article revealing that other budget directors agreed with Ms. Earl’s skepticism that Albany is not splitting the take correctly.

 

Here is an excerpt from that article:

 

In January, 2003, just before she left her post,   former Budget Director Eileen Earl at a Council Work Session on the budget , said she did not believe White Plains was getting the right amount of sales tax back  it was due. She revealed that the state does not send White Plains an audit of sales tax receipts  Budget Directors in New Rochelle and Yonkers went on record with WPCNR questioning the sales tax receipts the state sends back to their cities.

 

What Ms. Earl said about the state not sending the city an audit interested the CitizeNetReporter. I talked with Howard Rattner, Financial Manager of New Rochelle. He confirmed to us that the state never sends New Rochelle any kind of audit. He said he has asked the Department of Taxation and Finance for reports on how much revenue different business groups in his city generate to New Rochelle, and has been told “they don’t have the ability to do that.” Rattner wryly said that in this age of computers this was hard to believe.

Asked if the state was sending New Rochelle its fair share of sales tax, Mr. Rattner, said “Supposedly.” He said there are “occasional period adjustments. No real projections (from the state). You (as Budget Director) get projections (from the state). You (as Budget Director) have little control over that. How they distribute (the sales tax revenue) is up to them.”

Yonkers Budget Director, James LaPerche, confirmed that Yonkers did not receive detailed audits from the Department of Taxation and Finance either, saying, “he just accepts the checks as they come in.” LaPerche said the Department of Taxation and Finance was not too responsive to requests. They don’t really respond to him, was what he said. Asked if Yonkers felt the sales taxes were being redistributed correctly, LaPerche said, according to Hezi Aris of The Yonkers Tribune, who interviewed him,” they don’t know, they assume that’s their share.”

Cash First. Count Later.

There’s a reason for that.

WPCNR learned that sales tax receipts are not collected and recorded to a city’s or county’s account on a real time basis by the Department of Taxation and Finance, such as credit card sales in the consumer sector are.

Sales tax receipts are sent weekly by businesses to the Department of Taxation and Finance, but not reconciled until actual returns are filed quarterly. This creates an artificial “float,” a “cash gap” between estimated sales tax receipts and actual receipts due the municipalities. According to our sources it can take about six months while Department of T & F personnel literally “eyeball” the sales tax returns. As the budget directors we talked to, explained it:

 

The Process

Rattner of New Rochelle said that the sales taxes are collected by the businesses in the state, and filed directly with the Department of Taxation and Finance. Cuneo-Harwood of White Plains added that the sales tax receipts are sent directly by businesses weekly to the State, but their tax returns are filed quarterly.

It is only when the Department of Taxation and Finance receives the businesses’ tax returns that they reconcile and determine actual sales tax amounts collected for a city such as White Plains for a specific period. A city or said there are “occasional period adjustments. No real municipality with its own tax jurisdiction such as New Rochelle, Rattner said, has the sales broken out and sent to the state in the return.

No “W-2’s” for Businesses.

Jurisdictions, WPCNR learned, are determined based on reading the addresses on the returns. Rattner said businesses do not file the equivalent of a “W-2” or copy of return to the cities or towns where they do business and collect the sales tax.

 

 

Consequently, it appears, the only budget tool any city or town has as to what they can count on in sales tax receipts is the amount sent to them last year. The state simply returns last year’s collections, and adjusts on a quarter to quarter basis, after they check returns.

Westchester County, too has no handle on “their handle.”

Donna Green, a spokesperson for the Westchester County Department of Communications, confirmed that Westchester County does not receive a state audit, town-by-town, city-by-city, as to what “handle” (Race Track parlance for total monies bet on a single day), Westchester generates from year to year, either by business type, or business location.

She said the county receives a lump sum payment for the county tax, then distributes the share to the towns for which it collects by a percentage based on the town and city individual tax rate. The cities of Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains and Yonkers receive their payments from the state directly because they are separate tax jurisdictions.

The county can only assume they will receive approximately the same sales tax as the previous year, and more if the economy turns up, or such as may be the case this year, turns down. The county then apportions the receipts to cities, towns, and municipalities, who of course, have to trust the county’s formula after taking the county takes their share. They have to trust the county because there is no return filed by municipality for individual businesses collecting sales tax.

Eyeshades and Paper?

The state appears to be collecting sales taxes the way they have always collected them. There are no “real time” transactions, no instant classifying of sales tax revenue collected by county or municipality, which is baffling in the age of electronic banking, internet sales, and computerized business operations, and international money transfers.

 

 

The fiasco of  the loosey-goosey sales tax reporting to the City of White Plains last year underlines the need for monthly actual figures reporting of sales tax receipts for the city, and a full state audit of the sales tax collected, city-by-city, county-by-county, across the state every year.

 

No State Self-Audit.

 

According to the city budget people we spoke to in Yonkers and New Rochelle, the state does not audit itself on the sales tax collections.  The New Rochelle Budget Manager at the time said he has asked the state Department of Taxation and Finance for breakdowns of sales tax collected by business type, such as sales tax from auto dealerships, retail stores, restaurants, and the state has told him they cannot provide that.

 

 

Mayor Delfino’s visit to the Eyeshades next month perhaps will start a process where budgeting might be more orderly and intelligent in White Plains than the process the city indulged in last year in which they dissolved the Parking Authority, bonded for rolling stock, and raised property taxes, forced to make budget fixes based on sales tax reporting from the state that needed to be more timely.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. September 20, 2004: Louis Cappelli confirmed  to WPCNR today  he has leased the street level floor of the Bar Building for 15 years, including frontage of the Bar Building, 199 Main Street, from its owners, Frank and Anthony Longhitano.  

 

 

Meeting of the Minds on the Ground Floor: Cappelli told WPCNR Monday he made the lease agreement with the Longhitanos so he could control the  ambience of first floor, and “control” the look of the store frontage adjacent to his hotel/condominium complex he is developing one doorway down. Entrance to the historic former headquarters of the Westchester Bar Association is at the far right. Photo by WPCNR News

 

The existence of the agreement came to light when LC Main LLC, Mr. Cappelli’s corporation developing the hotel/condominium (221 Main Street), filed Registered Agreement # 442460483 with the County Clerk’s office September 2 officially giving notice of an agreement with 199 Main Street Realty Corporation, the owners of the Bar Building.  

LOUIS CAPPELLI pausing to answer questions from Reporters from Kids Xpress from the Slater Center at his most recent public appearance, the opening of Zanero’s, August 16. Photo by WPCNR News

 

Monday, Mr. Cappelli explained to The CitizeNetReporter  what that agreement was. It signals the start of a new relationship between “The Superdeveloper” and Anthony Longhitano. Asked if this indicated a “thawing” of the relationship with the Longhitanos, Mr. Cappelli said, “He’s a great guy.  It’s just busness. You can’t argue with a man who bests you in business.”

 

A Meeting of the Minds

 

Mr. Longhitano had held out from selling the Bar Building to Mr. Cappelli, and in an effort to protect his building from possible use of eminent domain proceedings by the City of White Plains, sought and received New York State Office of Historical Preservation designation as an historic building. Longhitano has steadfastly maintained the building was not for sale. However, he had never ruled out the possibility of a lease.

 

Cappelli said he has leased the space for $100,000 a year from the Longhitanos for the 1,900 square foot space, approximately $50 a square foot. Asked if he had a lease with an option to purchase, Cappelli said it was a lease deal, and that the Longhitanos would continue to own and rent the upper 19 floors.

 

Longhitano & Cappelli?

 

The SuperDeveloper said he and his company is currently in discussions with Mr. Longhitano on the details of refurbishing the existing South and West exteriors of the Bar Building, which Cappelli said would include removal of the window air conditioners and cleaning up the façade. Cappelli said the rear wall of the Bar Building will be  fitted with a mirrored glass façade to harmonize with Mr. Cappelli’s glass architecture planned for his hotel fronting on Court Street. No work would be done on the East wall of the Bar Building, Cappelli said because that would abut his hotel and not be visible.

 

Asked if he planned to lease or buy the rest of the building, Cappelli said that would continue to be owned by Mr. Longhitano, and tenants of that space would be paying their rent to Mr. Longhitano.

 

Demolition of Main Street Derelicts to Begin within “A few weeks.”

 

Cappelli said he was awaiting  the Department of Housing and Urban Development to approve him as the “designated developer” of the urban renewal portion of the 221 property and after that approval, demolition would begin.

 

Present Tenants on Ground Floor Will Not Remain.

 

Mr. Cappelli said he would begin negotiating with the present tenants of the first floor of the Bar Building, including a Subway Sandwich shop, a telephone store and a third leased space would be negotiated with to buy out their leases. The owner of one of those stores confirmed to another tenant of the building, who asked their name not be mentioned, that they have been advised by letter to pay their rents to LC Main LLC, Mr. Cappelli’s company.

 

A letter to this effect had been apparently been delivered to a tenant of the Bar Building on the seventh floor, leading WPCNR to check with the County Clerk’s office to see if Mr. Cappelli and Mr. Longhitano had been collaborating. Three other tenants in the upper reaches of the Bar Building have told WPCNR they have received no such letter advising them that Cappelli was now their landlord.

 

Trump Tower at City Center Marketing Showcase to Open Friday.

 

Mr. Cappelli said he was on target to open the sprawling Trump Tower at City Center sales office Friday next to Grace Church, after converting a portion of the 221 Main building. He said he has 480 private inquiries into the availability of the the TTCC condominiums in the South tower of the City Center.

 

Opening Friday for Private Clients by Appointment Only: The Trump Tower at City Center Showcase on Main Street. Photo by WPCNR News

 

“This (level) of interest is unheard-of,” Cappelli said, and speculated that he expected to sell out the South Tower “very quickly.”

 

Predicts Bar Building Cache Will Be Enhanced.

 

Asked what effect the interest in the City Center and hotel condomiums would do for  the value of office space in the Bar Building, Cappelli said he expected rentals in the Bar Building to go up 30% or more. The Bar Building currently rents in the $18 per square foot range, and Cappelli predicts that after his hotel opens, office space in the Bar would rise into the “high $20s per square foot.”

 

More Cappelli News – Ginsberg Deal Off.

 

In a free-ranging discussion, Mr. Cappelli brought WPCNR up-to-date on East Main Street developments.

 

He said, he would contest the plans of A. J. Rotundi and Martin Ginsberg to build a 28-story apartment complex on top of the former A & P building adjacent to the City Center, because he said the building would obscure the Westward view of the City Center.

 

“Unfortunately the (any new 28-story) building just blocks the view. In my building you’d see him, in his building, they’d see me. It would look horrible. We were actually going to do a deal with him, (selling the Corner Nook-Citibank-Main Street Book Store property owned by Mr. Cappelli), and let him do the building,”  Cappelli said. But then he said, he had been admiring the view of the City Center Trump and City Center One citadels driving in on I-287 West, and he revised his thinking:

 

“But, after seeing that (the view from the eastern approach to the city) in the last week or so, we decided we’re not going to do it. Because I think low rise needs to be on that site. I have the highest regard for Marty Ginsberg and his company. They’re one of the top developers in the county. Unfortunately, I think we’re going to have a bit of a difference of opinion. ”

 

Cappelli said he did not expect Mr. Ginsberg and Mr. Rotundi to sell their property to him. “I think it’s just an issue of lawsuits filed back and forth. They’re trying to get control of the property I already own.”

 

Sees New Lowrise building on Corner Nook Site.

 

 

ATLANTA BREAD FACTORY READIES OPENING ON MAIN STREET at City Center. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

He said in view of the imminent opening of Atlanta Bread Factory, and the café in Barnes and Noble, that the Corner Nook was going to see increased competition. He said he would begin discussions with them soon to make them a settlement to leave the block. Asked what he planned for the block, which is adjacent to the entrance to City Center, Cappelli, said he planned a low-rise building with retail on street level, featuring another café “to activate the Center on both sides (of City Place.”

 

TRUMP TOWER AT CITY CENTER RISING. Mr. Cappelli plans a low-rise building with posh retail and a cafe to round off the City Place plaza, foreground to rise in the location at lower left of complex, where The Corner Nook cafe now does business. Building rising behind the traffic light is the City Center Garage. Photo by WPCNR News

 

Lining the Sewer to Begin in 7 days.

 

Cappelli announced American Water Systems would begin lining the Main Street Sewer next week.
 

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WPCNR SCREEN GEMS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. September 20, 2004: Saturday was definitely a movie day, and a moviergoer relates his experience taking his daughter to the City Center De Lux, finding the consumer at somewhat of a disadvantage:
 I took my 19 year old daughter, home from college for the weekend, to
the movies the other day.  Without checking any times, we arrived early for
a 9:20P showing of Sky Captain.  Seeing a long line at the register we went
to the machines on the opposing wall nearer the piano. Paying 24- for (2)
movie tickets is a little steep  I’ll admit, but after all it
would be in the “directors hall”.  We went to a restaurant on Mamaroneck Ave
for dinner and came back in plenty of time to see our chosen flik.

    I must say, the directors hall is no big whoop. I mean I paid extra for
us to sit in this “special room” with what seemed like fake leather seating
with identical paper murals of San Francisco bay on each side of the room
and then had to sit according to our assigned seating while only two other
people were in the theatre.(three rows up from Center aisle and the extreme
left)

    When you buy from the machines it doesn’t ask where in the hall you’d
like to sit based on the still available seating, apparently the machine
seems to give you what IT thinks is next.  Maybe there’s a little more to it
than that because after all, we weren’t in the first row looking up but
based on the time the tickets around, where we would have chosen to be had
we been asked, were sold (ours were bought 2 hours before show time), the
two tickets we got were (sort of) arbitrary.

    We waited for the show to start and just moved in on the many still
unfilled seats in the middle of the house in our aisle plopped down for a
good old fashioned adventure. Except for the woman seated near me who seemed
to have missed the part about suspending disbelief at the door and couldn’t
help herself from reminding the theater goers around her that she wasn’t
fooled or her male partner, we actually had a good time in spite of the
price gouging, the inappropriate seat assignments or some theater goers
incapable of shutting up.

    Had I gone to the real live person with the long line, they would have
asked, of the still available seats, which seats did I want for 24 dollars
at 9:20P show.  Being that a corporation is saving on personnel in this
exchange the machine purchase (with the arbitrary seating) should be less
expensive then with a real person at the register or be giving the same
options as the real person.

Movie theater goer

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications. September 19, 2004: County Executive Andy Spano has recognized the local government expertise of Cheryl Winter Lewy, the  former mayor of Larchmont, by appointing her the chair of the Westchester County Planning Board. 

Spano said, “To guide the future of Westchester County, we need a Planning Board chair with first-hand knowledge of how a municipality works —  financially, physically and even politically. Cheryl served 10 years as mayor of Larchmont. She’s been on the Planning Board since last year and we’ve already benefited from her experience, energy and enthusiasm for public service. I’m confident that her leadership skills will serve the county well.” 

Planning Commissioner Jerry Mulligan also praised the selection, saying, “In the time she has been on the Planning Board, Cheryl has worked closely with staff and local officials on a number of land use, housing and environmental issues. We have all been impressed with her abilities, interpersonal skills and her insights into planning issues. Cheryl has already led the way for the board to focus on urban design issues through formation of a committee focusing on county design policies and standards, and the role of architectural, design and historic review boards.”

 

Said Lewy, “I am honored and excited to be selected by the County Executive for this important role. I  look forward to working with the other 11 members of the Planning Board and the Planning Department staff to continue the strong tradition of regional planning for which the board and the department are well known.  My background in municipal government and my involvement in land use issues at the local and regional level have