THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR

WPCNR THE PARKING NEWS. By John F. Bailey. May 14, 2010:

 The $20 Parking Ticket has come to  White Plains.

The new, improved tickets started to be issued May 7, according Commissioner of Parking, Albert Moroni.

The identity of the first recipient of the first $20 ticket has not been revealed.

The WHITE PLAINS WEEK television program became aware of the new $20 “bite” on Friday when one of its news anchors became one of the first recipients of the new, improved more lucrative city fund-raising measure.

It was recently approved by City Court Judge Jo Ann Friia– the new improved $20 White Plains parking ticket. (City Court has the authority to approve Parking Department fees and fines, according to the charter.) The identity of the tardy anchorperson has been withheld until his day in court.

Mr. Moroni said the issuance of the new tickets began after the software for the Parking Enforcement Officers hand-held computer ticket “guns” (CTGs) was updated.  These ingeniously efficient devices read vehicle registration bar codes on the hapless overtime parker’s car windshield and spit out tickets within seconds, like a cash register. The guns enable White Plains PEOs to generate high volume tickets especially on holidays when unsuspecting visitors to the city do not expect tickets to be written.

Mr. Moroni said the tickets were put into service as soon as possible to help make up the gap this fiscal year in expected parking ticket revenues and the actual revenues by the end of June, the close of the 2009-10 fiscal year.

It had been WPCNR’s understanding after a recent budget meeting that the new tickets would not be issued until July, but Mr. Moroni explained that was not the case, that the original letter to Judge Friia stated the measures would be put in place as soon possible and it did, reading

“As per our recent meeting and discussion regarding current parking ticket fines, the purpose of this letter is to officially confirm your approval of the attached Parking Violation Fine and Penalty Schedule with Proposed changes.

Thank you for your support.”

At the bottom of the March 24 letter, Judge Friia confirms:

“I hereby authorize and approve the increases as stated on the attached Parking Violation Fine & Penalty Schedule with Proposed Changes to become(SIC) immediately or as soon as practicable.”

Date March 24, 2010, Jo Ann Friia, Senior Judge,White Plains City Court.

The parking ticket increases came as a surprise to the Common Council because the letter in their Common Council back-up material  supporting their approval of writing tickets for “Parked Without Valid Registration,”  written by Mr. Moroni to Judge Friia  April 5, only concerned the Council approving the writing of tickets for expired vehicle registrations, to wit,

“The Department of Parking has had discussions with City Court Judge Friia, who is in agreement that it would be appropriate for the “Parked Without Valid Registration” violation to be included in the City’s Traffic Ordinance.”

The actual letter to Judge Friia, requesting parking fine increases (included the hike from $15 to $20,  was dated two weeks earlier March 24, and was not included in the Common Council packet for the April 5 meeting when the legislation for the “Parking Without Valid Registration”  was approved.

When parking revenues were discussed April 19, Councilman Benjamin Boykin observed that the parking ticket fine raise to $20 was “a fait accompli,” having been approved by city court. He told WPCNR he knew fines were going up having seen it in the published Mayor’s Budget. Tom Roach, Council President, told WPCNR that the administration had not discussed the policy of raising of the basic overtime parking ticket fine with the council, nor the possible impacts of such an increase.

No member of the council expressed concern over the increase of $15-$20 in the basic ticket  at that meeting April 19.

Mr. Moronie was very complimentary about the efficient updating of the softwared to commence the new $20 ticket to White Plains. He pointed out the $20 is still below the average price of $25 for parking tickets in other Westchester cities.

Within four days last week from Friday May 7 through Monday May 9, the city passed a began issuing the $20 parking tickets May 7 and raised the sales to 8.375% on Monday..

WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT: REAL ESTATE. Commentary By Ruthmarie Hicks. May 13, 2010: “Ruthmarie Hicks,(in the Common Council Public Hearing on the budget May 3) noted that White Plains single family homeowners, if property taxes are not held down, will face continued lowering real estate values and higher taxes making White Plains less competitive. Nick Wolf, the realtor,encouraged passing the tax increase since it amount to about $1 a day for the average homeowner.

I, too, am a realtor in White Plains with a strong sales record.

You can make that $1 argument every year and guess what?  Within three years – taxes have been hiked over $1000.00.  Further, I would note that its going to be well more than $1 a day once the county and schools weigh in. 

So if we put it all together we have a hypothetical $2.50-$3.00 a day which adds up to $913 – $1095 per year.  Frankly, this $1 a day  is a slippery slope because it is the same argument that has caused my taxes to go up over 150% over the past 12 years.  For those hanging onto their homes by their fingernails, it is a straw man argument.  That “small amount” added to the other   unrelenting fixed costs that always go up – is just one extra push over the edge. 

The stats I gathered (and referred to at the budget hearing) were from the Multiple Listing Service and I chose two analogous neighborhoods in analogous communities in terms of  lot size, home size and age, ease of commute, and general amenities.  What the comparison showed (as much as any such survey could) was an apples to apples comparision of two neighborhoods. 

The main difference between them is that the neighborhood in Sleepy Hollow had taxes that were much higher.  The result was much lower sales prices.  (The original blog is on TheWestchesterView.com if you want to reference it.)

I made this comparison because there are those who insist on comparing White Plains to Scarsdale, Larchmont and Rye.  I have closed sales in Scarsdale and Larchmont over the past year and will tell you that there is a world of difference between these communities and White Plains. The fact that single family home values failed -even during the height of the boom – to climb to the heights of Scarsdale and Larchmont says it all.  They can get away with their large tax bite  – we can’t. 

When  other communities started coming down in price, they became more competitive with White Plains. From being the only game in town for most first-time single-family buyers – White Plains has become one of many alternatives. 

For this group of buyers – the biggest carrot White Plains has to offer  is low taxes – and easy access to thruways.  We can’t even include the easy Manhattan commute because most single family home dwellers must drive to a train station that has no parking available for years on end. Take away the low tax carrot – and single family homes could become a  much tougher sell.  

My blog site tends to attract GenX, GenY.  I can tell you that that demographic – likes the idea of downtown White Plains for the single life – but once they start shopping for a single family home – White Plains is not on the list.   Other agents may be getting a different response from buyers,  but I note it for what it is and see it as a warning that White Plains had better get its act together in terms of taxes or single familly homes will suffer further price devaluation.

Development has to be supportable in any economy – not just a boom economy where retail sales are high. By making the “Renaissance” so dependant on retail sales – (Mayor Joseph) Delfino created a downtown boom based on the illusion of an ever expanding economy.   It does not take a rocket scientist to know that retail sales go DOWN during a recession.  It also should be easy to see that having an arrangement so utterly dependent on retail – puts homeowners in an untenable situation when the economy turns.

When I look at how little the residents of Trump and the Ritz pay in their tax bite – it makes me want to throw up. Delfino gave away the store and created a Renaissance that was unsupportable without huge chunks of money from single-family homeowners. Anyone who agreed to the outandish tax breaks on the Ritz and Trump  without an argument were not the sharpest knives in the drawer….

These council members know who they are and need to own up to what they did and seek to correct it.  That means holding the line with unions and their demands.  There was no real inflation last year – but there are a lot of people out of work. That is not consistent granting  wage increases.  Friends of mine (including myself) have lost income in this recession. Salaries have been slashed as much as 30% in some cases.  That’s how the private sector works.  The unions need to take note and realize they have a pretty good deal.