SUSTAINABLE WESTCHESTER MAKES PITCH VIA MAIL TO WHITE PLAINS RESIDENTS…

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey April 4, 2016:

Look for this envelope in your mail. Open it! Pay attention to it!

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Yours truly received it today.

It is from Sustainable Westchester and it is giving you 20 days to say “No” to joining in a group electricity rate for the residents of White Plains and 19 other communities, if you do not respond you are automatically switched to Sustainable Westchester.

The mailing contains this reply card:

WP_20160404_17_23_08_ProReturn this Reply Card checking the box to the “Please Do Not” LINE to turn down Sustainable Westchester savings and retain your present supplier, most likely Con Edison

The mailing contains this letter:

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The letter offers you this rate .0768 cents per kilowatt hour if you request the 100% Renewable Energy Supply (Green option) or a Basic Supply Option Rate of .0738 cents per kilowatt hour, both rates are compared to thre 12 month Consolidated Edison Rate average of .0809 cents per kilowatt hour.

If you do not wish to change your supplier of electricity to Sustainable Westchester you must call return the Reply Card within 20 days…or call Con Edison Solutions at 1-888-437-1722.

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THE ASSESSMENTS NEXT DOOR: FEINER–GREENBURGH NEW ASSESSMENTS WILL NOT BE IN EFFECT UNTIL 2017. MODIFICATIONS MAY BE MADE UP THROUGH SEPTEMBER

WPCNR THE FEINER REPORT. From Town of Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner. April 3, 2017:

Many residents contacted me this weekend. They just received their tax bills which are due at the end of April. The dollar amounts are using the old assessment numbers.

The reason: The tax rolls are finalized in September- not in April. Between now and September Tyler, the Assessor and the Board of Assessment will continue to make modifications in the assessment numbers that you received last month.

This is in compliance with NYS law.  The new assessment numbers will be finalized in September of this year and taxes will be based on those numbers starting in  2017.  Other questions: Do you have to reapply for STAR?  The answer: Only if you receive the enhanced STAR benefits (which is income based for seniors).

The Assessor, Edye McCarthy and Town Board want to make sure that you are assessed correctly. When I met with the Assessor on Saturday at Town Hall  she indicated that about 2,000 property owners out of 28,000 have so far contacted Tyler technologies making appointments for informal hearings to seek adjustments in the tentative assessment numbers. If you have not asked for an appointment yet please call Tyler at  1-800-273-8605. There are closer to 6,000 properties that will experience tax hikes after the reassessment is completed. I’m hopeful that those who feel that Tyler’s estimated property values were wrong will seek a meeting so that Tyler could make appropriate adjustments.
 
28,000 properties are a lot of properties to assess at one time (the first reassessment in 60 years). Tyler is making some adjustments. If residents meet with Tyler and in June you’re not satisfied with the results – the Assessor (at that time) has the option to make adjustments. And you also have the opportunity to file a grievance with the Citizens Board of Assessment Review. Look at the letter you received from Tyler last month as only a first draft. The final rolls won’t be finalized until September.

During the past few weeks the Assessor, Deputy Assessor, staff in the assessors office and I have been meeting with many residents –answering questions, providing them with records they are requesting that will help them when they meet with Tyler and discussing process. We’re more than willing to meet with individuals, neighborhood civic associations, even a handful of your neighbors during this process. We share similar goals: No one wants you to pay more than your fair share in taxes. If you would like to schedule a meeting with me and the Assessor or Deputy Assessor to discuss the process or to obtain more information about your own property, please e mail me at [email protected].
 What should you bring to Tyler when you meet with them? photographs (inside and out), cost estimates of any work completed or in the process, an appraisal or a market analysis from a realtor, sales listing or contract of sale, comparable sales in your neighborhood, and lastly, everything and anything you feel would change the value of your home, such as, but definitely not limited to: your property floods, you live on a busy corner, or close to a highway or commercial property or tension wires, etc.  another example, may be, your kitchen and bathrooms have not been updated or they have, or the house is under construction.  Again, the more you tell them, the more information they will have to assess your property correctly.  By law, you do not have to let them, but it would surely help if they request an inspection.  There is a lot of information on the town website: www.greenburghny.com (home page). We are also adding more information on the Assessors page (on the left side of the home page there is a category called departments. Click Assessor and you’ll find some additional helpful info.
We are also planning to try to come up with some recommendations that could ease the impact of tax hikes for those who will be reassessed upwards. Most people in town will see no impacts or tax cuts as a result of the reassessment. But -others will experience hikes and it would be great if we could figure out a way to help them.  Please continue to e mail me your suggestions: [email protected]. Some of the mitigation recommendations will probably require State Legislative approvals.
Finally–although some people are upset that we are reassessing after 60 years because their taxes went up– it should be pointed out that reassessment is not a revenue generator for the town. The goal is fairness: people living in the same kind of house should pay similar taxes –not thousands of dollars in different amounts. Over the years some people added additions to their properties without notifying the town. During the reassessment process we’re able to adjust the taxes on these homes -based on the additional work that was done. There are taxpayers who have been overpaying for years. Now, after the reassessment is implemented their taxes will go down and they will pay only their fair share. And–once the reassessment is completed we should see fewer grievances. The town, school, county, fire districts have been issuing up to $10 million per year in tax refunds, paying significant dollars in defending these certiorari actions in legal costs. That will slow down.  So in summary – it was important to reassess. However – we want to make sure that your properties are assessed correctly.
Members of the Town Board are also interested in hearing from you. Feel free to e mail the entire Town Board at town [email protected]. Francis Sheehan, Diana Juettner, Ken Jones, Kevin Morgan and I want you to have confidence in what you’re doing and we would be happy to respond to your questions and suggestions. The Town Board also approved a law requiring periodic reassessments approximately every five years so the town will never experience this tax shift again.
PAUL FEINER
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WHITE PLAINS WEEK ON HILLARY CLINTON RALLY, THE NEW TAXI REGULATIONS, THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK AND DEBATE CHAOS.

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EXCLUSIVE WPCNR VIDEO ON HILLARY CLINTON HIGHLIGHTS–PETER KATZ REPORTING. WHAT YOU DID NOT SEE.

JIM BENEROFE’S TAKE ON AGING AND THE PRESIDENCY

JOHN BAILEY ON THE SURPRISE TAXI REGULATIONS BEING VOTED ON MONDAY AND THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK AND HOW YOU CAN ANSWER IT.

SEE IT NOW

ON YOUTUBE AT

TONIGHT 7 P.M. ON WHITE PLAINS WEEK ON FIOS CHANNEL 45 AND CABLEVISION CHANNEL 76 ON WHITE PLAINS TV

AND LATER ON THE INTERNET AT

www.whiteplainsweek.com

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WhitePlainsWeekkeysign

WHERE THE REAL NEWS IS

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HILLARY CLINTON STAKES OUT NEW HIGH GROUND- MOCKS REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES’ INEXPERIENCE, NAIVETE IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SECURITY, RECKLESS TALK DIVIDING NATION

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Hillary Clinton addressing supporters at State University of New York today in Purchase, NY

Hillary Clinton blasted Republican front runners as unqualified for the Presidency, today  saying she is best qualified for the Presidency because “I’ve done it all.”

She warned women that the Republicans want less government except when that comes to womens rights, voters rights, and immigrants.

She made the case that Republican campaign rhetoric threatened  security if any were elected due to their inexperience with the world community.

She said the key to ISIS is continuing to form a world coalition, a formidable task which she has done in the past in forming the Iran boycott which moved Iran to agree to the nuclear nonproliferation agreement.

On Health Care she chided both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz saying they want to roll back progress on health care.

Her overriding theme was the nation must “get over the inability to listen to opposing views.”

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2016. By John F. Bailey. March 31, 2016:  Hundreds turned up early this morning to wait to see Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally in Purchase in person and on closed circuit television.

You can see the video of Mrs. Clinton’s speech this afternoon at

www.hillaryspeeches.com

They heard a new Presidential-like, no-nonsense Hillary Clinton not only sounding Presidential but walking the walk.

She delivered a message specifically criticizing Republican contenders for the Presidency and her rival for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders for their lack of experience and lack of practical plans to deliver a better way of life for the American people and to keep us safe.

Republicans, she said were creating an atmosphere of hatred and violence, that she said was both “scary and dangerous.”

The messages of the leading Republican candidates, she said would make it very difficult to forge alliances with Europe and allies to defeat ISIS because of Republican anti-Muslim remarks, saying it would be hard to obtain cooperation from Muslim nations to participate in a coalition against ISIS. She said Ted Cruz’s idea of monitoring Muslims in America, was mocked by the NYPD and New York City Police Commissioner William Braaton  as “not knowing what the Hell he (Cruz) was talking about. “ She also pointed out that what would Cruz do with the 1,000 Muslim police officers in the NYPD.

She mocked Mr.  Sanders’ idea that health care had to be redone, by saying now 90% of Americans have health insurance, “so many persons have come up to me and told me how (President Obama’s) Affordable Health Care Act had saved their lives because they were able to go to a doctor. I know how hard it was to put together a Health Care program. It is better to keep what we have and build on it than start over.”

Citing Donald Trump’s statements on abortion,  immigration and women, she invoked Maya Angelou the poet whom she quoted as saying, “Listen to what a person says. They mean exactly what they say.”

She said Sanders idea of providing free college to young people that would be paid for by the states which she mocked as unrealistic. She said she planned to attack the student loan problem by lowering interest rates on the loans students have going forward, and having students work at colleges to lower their financial commitment. This is detailed, she said on her website. Also appealing to students she planned an entrepreneurial program to aid young graduates in starting their own businesses.

In a broader economic  statement she said she wanted to encourage keeping jobs in this country by making it less attractive to move businesses overseas, and  establish an infrastructure fund for the states to establish more jobs while repairing their physical plants.

She ended her 40 minute talk by saying “so much is at stake in this election.”

Shortly after her talk began a group of  Senator Sanders supporters interrupted her and marched out. Mrs. Clinton said, “I’d like to sit down and talk with you, but this is typical, no side wants to hear what the other has to say.”

She alluded to this theme at the close saying the nation has to stop this and work together.

She shook hands with as many persons surrounding the state as she could after the rally. I figured there were about 200 in the room and hundreds more watching on close circuit television in the larger SUNY Purchase theater.

There was heavy security in effect.

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