Legislators pass 2.2% Property Tax cut Countywide–Dependent on Sewer/Refuse $$

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER.From Westchester County Board of Legislators. February 15, 2011 (EDITED):


In a bi-partisan unanimous vote of 14-0, the County Legislature approved a budget reducing spending by $28.5 million dollars (from the 2010 budget), reduced the County workforce by 10%, restores critical services for most in need, provides transitional timetables as the County continues to recalibrate agencies and presents a more fiscally responsible alternative to the County Executive’s budget proposal.


This tax cut is the second largest tax cut approved in Westchester County history. 


 “This budget right-sizes government, and does not capsize it,” Board Chairman Kenneth W. Jenkins (D-Yonkers) said. “This year, the County had to make exceedingly difficult decisions.  Despite these obstacles, we have finally moved forward with a budget that preserves the most critical County services, while delivering a tax cut.” 


 “This action will finally put an end to this budget process,” said Majority Leader Peter Harckham (D-Katonah). “The Board’s budget delivers badly needed tax relief, eliminates the bonding of tax certioraris, restores cuts to public safety and health, and provides adequate transition time to downsize certain services.”  The Finance Department computes and creates annual tax billings, known as Tax Warrants, for all 25 cities and towns in Westchester for the county portion of property taxes. This responsibility is mandated in the Westchester County Charter. The cities and towns, per County Charter, collect the county portion of real estate taxes and guarantee the full amount to the county government.


JURY is Out on How Low your White Plains County Taxes will actually Be:


Will your White Plains county tax go down 2.2%. it depends on whether the sewer district taxand refuse disposal charge also included in county tax bill go down or, worse,go up.


 Your individual total county tax (which includes your sewer district tax and solid waste disposal tax) will vary depending on your individual home assessment. Depending on your assessment, sewer district charge  and Refduse Disposal Charge, you may or may not receive a decrease in your overall county tax bill.


This is what happened last year in White Plains, when the county in a newsletter patted themselves on the back for only raising the budget 1.7%,but White Plainsians got a 5.68% increae, as reported only by WPCNR:


The 2010 tax bill analyzed is for a $671,818 home. Here are the numbers, they do not lie, but through the magic of lump sum reporting,  (the county loves doing aggregate reporting a 1.7% increase,  only deals in lump sums,  giving White Plainsians the impression the county was frugal in their budgeting. Not where White Plains was concerned. 


 


The County Property Tax Rate in White Plains went from  2009’s $102.80 to  $110.88 in 2010 that’s up 7.86%.


 


The Mamaroneck River Valley Sewer District tax rate per $1,000  escalated from $17.53 in 2008 to $18.44/ $1,000  in 2009.


 


And Refuse Disposal? You guessed it. Tax Rate, surprise, up from $9.82 in 2008 to $10.17 in 2009.  Just small change, right, no big deal. But that is no 1.7%.


 


On that $650,000 White Plains  home, property taxes increased from $2,404 in 2009 to $2,577 in 2010 – an increase including the county property tax, sewer tax  and refuse disposal tax – of 5.69%.


 

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No strings attached to FEMA grant to bring back firemen

 


 


WPCNR Common Council Chronicle Examiner by John F. Bailey. February 14, 2011:


 


There are no strings attached to the safer grant that would enable White Plains to bring back nine laid-off firefighters for the next two years.


 


FEMA, government agency issuing the grant that enables the city to bring the firefighters back, has no stipulation they would have to be retained beyond the two years.


 


However any new firefighters brought on would have to be retained for three years. 


 


Presently,according to Firefighter union president just one new fireman would have to be hired and trained; one former laid-off firefighter has already come back, and the seven laid-off firefighters could be rehired for two years under the $1.9 million grant from SAFER.


 


The Council  may not have the guaranteed money for the year three (2013-14) after the nine firefighters are brought back to keep them, unless the city revenues take an approximate $1 million upturn that it can use to keep the firefighters on the payroll in 2013-14. I shared what I do. There is.


 


The Federal Emergency Management Administration confirmed to WPCNR Friday that the SAFER grants of $1.9 million awarded the city of White Plains, for the purpose of rehiring firefighters who were laid off last May had no long-term implications beyond the two years for which the grants are not affect if the firefighters, the city brings back were previously laid off by the city.


 


FEMA issued this statement to WPCNR Friday afternoon:


 


“Grantees that are rehiring laid off firefighters do not have to commit to retaining the safer funded firefighters beyond the two-year period of performance. For newly hired firefighters, the grantee must maintain the firefighters for the two-year period of performance, with a commitment to retain the newly hired firefighters for one year after the completion of the period of performance.


 


Previously, the Common Council balked at bringing back the nine firefighters laid-off ten months ago. The rehiring of the “May Nine” is now made possible by a $1.9 million grant acquired for the city of White Plains by Rep. Nita Lowey and Senator Charles Schumer. T


 


The Council has said it is seeking more information from the city before they accept the grant and rehire the firefighters.


 


Joe Carrier, President of the firefighters White Plains Local 474, told WPCNR Friday that there were no obstacles or downside to bringing back the nine firefighters. Carrier told WPCNR, the city would be getting its full complement of firefighters of 159 men for the price of 150, if the Council accepts the grant.


 


Currently, Carrier said the city has at its disposal at any one time: 5 engines, 2 trucks and one emergency response unit. If the nine firefighters laid off are brought back, this would increase the city response availability to 5 engines 3 trucks and the emergency response unit.


 


Asked if the lack of the one frog affected firefighting performance, Carrier said, “It definitely puts us at a disadvantage.”


 


Asked if this affected the Bengal Tiger fire in July, Carrier said that fire could only be contained, eventually destroying half a block,  because the fire department was responding to another fire at the Con Ed station, when the Bengal Tiger fire started.


 


Carrier said that Lowey and Schumer had worked hard to get the grant for White Plains through the safer program and the Council should bring the firefighters back as an issue of safety, because it would cost the city nothing to do so.


 


Changing of the guard.


 


Joe Carrier reported that the firefighters union has begun labor talks with the city, with a preliminary meeting on February 20 and the next scheduled meeting March 7.


 


Carrier said that these talks were exploratory and that the fire union has not crafted any proposals to the city, yet.


 


Carrier also volunteered the information that his brother Jim, is no longer is president of the police union, the new president of the White Plains and Police Benevolent Association, the negotiating unit for the police is Robert Riley.

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Looking at the Long Tall Lean Guy from Illinois

WPCNR’s The Daily Bailey. By John F. Bailey. February 12, 2011 Retrieved from the WPCNR ANNALS OF ANALYIS VAULT. 


Today marks the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, whose Presidential performance during the Civil War (1861-1865) was perhaps the most admirable of any American President. He had to create things as he went, dealing with a complex political issue: slavery, while deciding to fight a war to preserve a divided nation.



How did Abraham Lincoln handle pressure and political opportunists? He did not have press agents and spinmasters and talk show hosts and superior punditry critiquing his every move and loading him up with advice. 


Though he did have the “crusading editors” and “editorial boards” of his day.  Let’s take a look at the Big Guy  from Illinois



 



In the days of Lincoln, media coverage was simply print media, however, the amount of reporting on the burning issues of the day was far more detailed than today with dozens of newspapers presenting the chronicles of burning issues. For Lincoln’s presidency was the presidency of the nation’s greatest crisis in its eighty-five year history:


The Civil War.


 It is interesting to note how President Lincoln conducted himself in dealing with America’s interests, its factions, pulling him to free the slaves.

When Lincoln was running for the Presidency in 1860 at the Republican Convention in riproaring Chicago, he was up against James Seward, a powerful New York politician. However, the western states at the time were highly distrustful of the New York political machine. Lincoln won over support by taking a position of what was good for the nation as a whole.

Taking a Position and Working To it

Lincoln first gave notice of his potential for the Presidency when he impressed Horace Greeley, influential editor of the New York Tribune with a fiery speech at the Cooper Union in February, 1860, delivering a sharp criticism of the South, hard on the heels of South Carolina’s secession from the Union. The speech included these words,

You say you will not abide the election of a Republican President. In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! (The northern states) That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, “Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!”

Greeley printed the speech in his Tribune the next day, scooping the other New York papers, by simply asking Lincoln for a copy of the speech. The subsequent printing in the popular Trib, sent Mr. Lincoln on his way. As William Harlan Hale’s biography of Mr. Greeley (Horace Greeley: Voice of the People)describes the scene at “The original Trib’s” offices, as remembered by Amos Cummings, a young proofreader:

Amos Cummings, then a young proofreader, remembered the lanky westerner appearing over his shoulder amid the noise of the pressroom late at midnight, drawing up a chair, adjusting his spectacles, and in the glare of the gaslight reading each galley (of the Cooper Union speech) with scrupulous care and then rechecking his corrections, oblivious to his surroundings.

A Comeback President

Lincoln had been a highly successful politician from Illinois in the 1830s and 1840s. He was three times elected to the state legislature, and The Kunhardts’ The American Presidency reports he was “a recognized expert at forming coalitions…he learned how to keep secrets, how to trade favors, how to use the press to his advantage. And he cultivated his relationship with the party hierarchy.”

Graff’s book writes that Lincoln was described as “ruthless,” that he “handled men remotely like pieces on a chessboard.” Humor and frankness were character traits.

Lincoln was elected a congressman, only to serve just one term.

Lincoln had been practicing corporate law privately and had lost interest in politics by 1854, until the repeal of The Missouri Compromise, which had restricted slavery to the southern states. Lincoln felt stirred to come back. He spoke out against the spread of slavery, running for the senate in 1858 against William Douglas, unsuccessfully.

Saving the Union His Mantra

As the furor over slavery and the South’s threats to secede grew, a crisis of spirit and purpose in this nation which makes today’s concerns about terrorism as a threat to America, pale in comparison, Lincoln realized that the Union was the larger issue. He expressed this in response to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, an influential figure at the Republican (Whig) Convention in Chicago in 1860. Greeley was the kingmaker at the 1860 Chicago convention who eventually swung the western states for Lincoln, giving the man from Illinois the nomination on the third ballot over William Seward, the candidate of the Thurlow Weed “New York Machine.”

Greeley then tried to influence the President-Elect to free the slaves. (Lincoln was being lobbied by the still-powerful Weed-Seward faction to compromise with the southern states on the issue of slavery).

Standing Tall Against Pressure.

Lincoln refused to free the slaves as one of the first acts of his presidency, standing firm to hold the union together, when he announced his attention not to do so, on his way to Washington after being elected. His words in this time of international tension, are worth remembering as America considers starting a war for the first time. Lincoln said:

I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy (the Union, he means), so long together. It was not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the single people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.

Seeing the Big Picture.

After Fort Sumter was fired upon, Lincoln was pressured harder to free the slaves. Still, Lincoln held firm. Mr. Greeley published a blistering open letter to the President, he called “The Letter of Twenty Millions,” meaning his readers (slightly exaggerated)in The New York Tribune. Greeley’s letter took the President to task for not freeing the slaves now that the Civil War was on, writing, “all attempts to put down the rebellion and at the same time uphold its inciting cause are preposterous and futile.”

President Lincoln responded with an open letter which Greeley published in The Tribune. President Lincoln’s letter is instructive as to how a President moves in crisis, when a nation is ripped apart to calm and state his position. He begins with a conciliatory tone, calming Greeley’s bombast:

…If there be perceptible in it (Greeley’s letter) an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing,” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the Constitution.

The sooner the national authority can be restored the nearer the Union will be – the Union as it was.

If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.

If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.

If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it – if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it – and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.

What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause.

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be new views.

I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free, Yours

A. Lincoln

Wearied by War

Horace Greeley described the toll the Civil War had taken on Mr. Lincoln, seeing him in person shortly beforeGeneral Lee surrendered. Greeley wrote:

Lincoln’s face had nothing in it of the sunny, gladsome countenance he first brought from Illinois. It is now a face haggard with care and seamed with thought and trouble…tempest-tossed and weatherbeaten, as if he were some tough old mariner who had for years been beating up against the wind and tide, unable to make his port or find safe anchorage…The sunset of life was plainly looking out of his kindly eyes.”




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Dish with the Passionate Hausfrau.SuperHeroine Mom Takes WP on Laugh Coaster

WPCNR Stage Door Theatrical Review by John F. Bailey, February 11, 2011:

 


Hey Mom, hey Dad snow got you down? Tired schlepping kids to activities, slipping on ice? Climbing ski slopes to put change in the parking meters?  Back aching from shoveling?  If you have one more snow you’ll go insane?


 


Look! Down there on the White Plains Performing Arts Center big stage. It’s a housewife! It’s a superheroine in tight jeans instead of tights! It’s The Hausfrau!


 



Who, in the secret identity of Bess Weldon,  mild-mannered housewife from Portland, Maine, is here to save you moms (and Dads) with children in The Passion of the Hausfrau.


As a 2011 version of “Our Gang”-like music introduces the show, The Passion of the Hausfrau captures your interest from the first segment when The Hausfrau is taking kids to the supermarket and they don’t want to go(remember that torture?)  You can catch Ms. Weldon in last two showings of  The Passion of the Hausfrau at White Plains Performing Arts Center, Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 2.  


Ms. Weldon holds on and sells every scene on the “Momma Coaster”– the creative metaphor that co-author Nicole Chaison has created to symbolize the never-ending drama of everyday motherhood and fatherhood, sustains your interest  throughout. What a Ride it is! 


 


About  20 different scenarios are portrayed by Ms. Weldon in this show. They are breezy, dramatic, to the point where you feel the pain and sense of frustration of the housewife, but never losing that feeling of amusement. It’s a fine line here that Ms, Weldon tightropes. She rides the Mommy Coaster and never jumps the track.


Chaison, the author, Weldon, the Co-writer/actor, and Annette Jolles, the Co-Writer/Director have  cut a sophisticated, punchy script delivering pathos that’s palatable, understanding that is not sentimental, and still genuinely originally funny, that is (for a change} really laugh-out-loud funny. It captures the joy of  babies in spite of their perpetual aggravating idiosyncracies.


Ms. Weldon, solid in the role, brings back snippets about your marriage and raising children.  Hausfrau is a Valentine show  giving young lovers and the newly married a textbook on how to handle and what you can expect when the + sign comes up on the baby tester.


The Hausfrau, more than any show here since the WPPAC revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, delivers the genuine guffaw; the open mouthed wonder of, well, what is going to happen next.


The mark of a good comedy is delivering the real laughs with a peppy message: It takes a superheroine and a superhero that can keep her sanity and Weldon, with the mugging of the late Gilda Radnor, the over-the-top faces of Lucille Ball, and the zaniness of Imogene Coca harnesses this script. She paints understanding and meaning in the parent chaos that will almost make you want to go back to baby days again – to discover yourself as the heroine in this “must-see” does. (Almost.)


That’s The SuperPower of The Hausfrau. She’ll bring back the passion of your life, your kids and your era.


I know. One hilarious vignette brought back memories of exactly what Weldon  was talking about when daughter Dora,was scribbling a magic marker on the walls . I can remember an incident that is similar when my little creative daughter and her friend carved their initials  on a priceless antique.  That is all part of the wonderful world of raising kids.


 


Ms. Weldon is The Hausfrau, rivets you with one scene after another that could seem eerily similar to many incidents in many marriages and family experiences on her every word as she goes through scenarios of motherhood that anyone who has ever been a mother or dad raising children will instantly recognize. See yourself and remember incidents in your raising children that will make you laugh and even conjure up memories.


 


 It is a unique show, based on a graphic novel created by Nicole Chaison. It’s easily the funniest new production, we’ve seen at the WPPAC.


 


The set gains lots of laughs from the original drawings by Nicole Chaison, the original author of the graphic novel from which this play was developed. Very funny cartoons, drawn by Chaisson of the Mommy Coaster illustrate the points of Ms. Weldon’s monologue, which goes on for an hour and a half. It’s genuine laughter. You won’t have to chime in with polite chuckles.


 


WPCNR is pleased WPPAC reached out and invited us. The Passion of the Hausfrau is the kind of good new work that needs exposure and if this is going to be the mission of the theatre, Hausfrau (which has performed in Portland, Saco, Lewiston, Brunswick,Lanesboro, all in the state of Maine, and in Portsmouth,New Hampshire) needs exposure. The music composed by Hans Indigo Spencer sounds like a Sit-com, and it may soon be one or a movie if some producer has the intelligence to pick the show up and get a option on it. It’ll be a huge hit.


 


Bring Bess Weldon too,  an actress who is just so believable in the part. The audience can identify with this woman. Bess Weldon  is the real deal.


 


She delivers a fast-moving very short hour and a half without interruption. The incidents go on and on – not missing a nuance: fighting with the kids in the car fighting with the kids in the supermarket in during your mother’s acid criticisms of the way you manage your home. The delightful memories of your grandmother. The joys of pregnancy. The jealousy and the pang of perhaps losing the career you thought you once would have had and how you can recapture it.


 


I mean, Ms. Weldon’s imitation of the deadpan husband’s, “Hey, hon, how you doing?” will bring sheepish grins to any husband. Well, it is so typical. Anyway, I chuckle as I write this, but this is unlike a lot of shows you will see.


 


 .


 The unique thing about this is if you’re a young couple thinking about having children. This may scare you off. On the other hand, it points out the real pleasures to be had in a family, how a person can grow and find themselves and perhaps find their true mission.


 


Sometimes she talks and she delivers her lines a little too fast and we miss one or two, but that may simply be due to timing, and my hearing. The lines are so good. The production is quite sharp. It does not drag


 


 How the passion of the hausfrau came to be is a story all in itself. Two housewives,living in Portland.  Nicole Chaison, one of them, a writer who draws a lot and comes up with the graphic novel. Another, Weldon says, hey, can I do a play about your work? You know  what? They do. And it’s funny and it’s good. They hook up with the director,Jolle and they do this show.


 


Call Buddy Fidler!


 


Where is Mr. DeMille? They’re ready for their close-up!


 


And get me Sondheim for the score.


 


And you Mr. and Mrs. White Plains can say you saw it when The Passion of the Hausfrau got its start.


 


To inquire for tickets about Saturday evening’s show and the Sunday matinee contact, WPP a C at 877-548-3237 or contact the box office before the show, the box office phone is 3281 600 extension 13 or go to the WP PAC website at www.wppac.com


 



 


 


WPPAC Footlights:


 


Sunday evening after the  matinee performance of Hausfrau, The WPPAC will present its annual fundraising gala at 6 PM, honoring  Margaret Preston of U.S. Trust Bank of America Private Wealth Management.


The evening begins with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception and silent auction which includes a wide range of items from sports memorabilia to family vacation and entertainment options, restaurant, spa and hotel certificates and designer jewelry to cultural and sporting events.   The program for the evening will be the award ceremony followed by a Gala musical performance hosted by Tony Award®  and Emmy Award® winner (and new WPPAC Board member), LaChanze (The Color Purple).  Joining LaChanze will be Broadway performers Carter Calvert (It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues), Darius de Haas (Rent), Kecia Lewis-Evans (The Drowsy Chaperone),  Cady Huffman, (Tony Award®  Winner, The Producers), and J. Robert Spencer (Jersey Boys and Tony Award®  nominee, Next to Normal) as well as Jazz Vocalist and International Recording Artist, Gregory Generet. Regular tickets are $125.

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