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

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. March 19,2010: As of 9:30 Friday evening Con Edison and “friends,” the crews from around the country from Michigan, New Hampshire, Virginia, Georgia and other states that WPCNR has identified, (Con Edison has not furnished WPCNR with a complete list of the companies coming to Con Edison aid, though requested by WPCNR), had succeeded in restoring electricity to all but 69 customers in Westchester from a high of 79,000 last Sunday night.

At this hour, 18 customers in White Plains are without power, 14 in Yonkers, 33 in North Pelham and 19 in Scarsdale.

Today the Scarsdale Village Manager Al Gatta was quoted in The Journal News, as saying, “It took them (Con Edison) an awful long time (to get to Scarsdale).” Rebecca Baker’s article in the Gannett satellite paper noted that Gatta reported that for the first three days of the storm clean-up, Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday, Con Ed presence was not felt in Scarsdale which according to Con Edison statistics on its own website had 100% of Scardales customers without electricity. Gatta said “They came together Tuesday evening and since then they’ve been all over this place, but it’s a little late.”

Gatta is only the third public official to criticise sharply Con Edison’s reaction and ability to spring into coordinated action on the storm damage. Paul Feiner, Supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh was the other, calling for the Public Service Commission to examine Con Edison repair strategies and deployment.

Adam Bradley, White Plains Mayor was the first to complain bitterly Sunday afternoon that only one Con Edison “De-energizing Crew” was assigned White Plains when the county seat city had over 7,000 customers without power. WPCNR estimates this represented a minimum of  28,000 persons in White Plains without power, which would be about half the city.

No other County, state or federal elected official has uttered a peep of criticism of how Con Edison handled the repair. The Westchester County official position according to the Department of Communications Thursday was that the county was “satisfied” with Con Ed’s response and performance.

Con Edison issued a news release Friday touting the extent of repairs the company has made:

“Over 700 company crews, including utility power crews from Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Massachusetts, labored day and night this week rebuilding the electrical infrastructure destroyed or damaged by fallen trees and 70-mph winds.

“March Madness started a few days early for us, but it wasn’t the kind college hoop lovers began enjoying yesterday,” said Craig S. Ivey, president of Con Edison. “I want to express our deepest appreciation to our customers for their patience and perseverance this week.  I also want to thank our crews and employees for being so dedicated, and send a special thanks to the hundreds of utility workers who left their homes and families from as far away as Michigan and Georgia to help us.”

This week, crews replaced or repaired more than:

• 225 utility poles;
  
• 735 crossarms (horizontal bar on top of the pole that holds the top-most section of cables);
  
• 162,000 feet of cable; and
  
• 175 transformers

The company also had to cut up, take down, or remove nearly 2,000 trees,

WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. By John F. Bailey. March 19, 2010. UPDATED 9:55 A.M. E.D.T.  UPDATED 11:08 A.M. E.D.T.:  The New York State Senate has quietly passed a bill that if passed by the Assembly and signed by the Governor would allow school districts to raise property taxes approximately 3% above the 0% currently required by contingency budget legislation now in effect. It replaces the contigency budget formula followed for years, for one year.

The bill if it becomes law effectively would keep in effect any school budget of approximately 3% more than last year presented to voters even if the voters would turn that budget down at the polls. The legislation allows school districts across the state to raise budgets about 3% prior to the school budget vote in May without fear of a voter rejection reducing them to a contingency budget.

In White Plains, Assistant Superintendent for Business, Fred Seiler told WPCNR the average of the last 5 years of inflation was about 3%. He said, when asked if the school district was aware of this legislation, acknowledge, “I’ve heard bits and pieces of it.”

He explained the legislation section 7 of Assembly Bill A10130, noting that the complex formula of 120% of the previous 5 years inflation rate, or 4%  would be the normal raise permitted under the new Senate-created bill.

Asked the effect of an “allowed” 3% increase in the White Plains Budget, Seiler said this would mean an 8% property tax hike, instead of the 4.72% property tax hike in the current budget which will be presented Monday evening.

This works out to a $556.36/$1,000 of assessed valuation for White Plains tax payers if the School Board went along with what Albany is allowing them to do.

Seiler said he had presented the option to the School Board Finance Committee this past Tuesday evening. Seiler told WPCNR the 3% Contingency budget would allow about an $6 Million increase up to $193 Million and allow the school district to avert the 83 job eliminations, including 41 teachers, 38 support staff and 4 administrators currently considered in the current budget of $185.5 Million, that is down 3/4 of a percent — the first budget decline in school district history.

Seiler said the Board had to decide if it wants to raise the school budget (anticipating the Albany legislation) before sending the current budget out to voters, because once a vote passes a school budget, it cannot be raised retroactively.

The New York State Senate passed 56-2 this built-in property tax increase as part of a bill called the Educational Mandate Relief Act, sponsored by White Plains State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer and Nassau County Senator Craig Johnson. The bill now goes to the Assembly, where it will be sponsored by Assembly District 88 Assemblywoman Amy Paulin.

Details are very sketchy on the legislation, but the essence of the bill explained in “The Purpose” section is that it would enable school districts to pool services for such purposes as school busing and purchasing supplies.

However in Section 7 of the bill it allows Districts to increase property taxes 4% over and above contingency budgets if a school budget is defeated by voters. Currently, the contingency budget allowance for districts across the state is a 0% increase.

The background on this little-known, and heretofore untouted bill was reported first by the New York Post at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/tax_hike_back_stab_77q0UCmV7IOeKudeFRwdNP#ixzz0icHvoNJ4

The bill now passed by the New York State Senate goes to the Assembly under the Legislation Number A10130. The key section reads:

S 7. Paragraph a of subdivision 4 of section  2023  of  the  education
   38  law,  as  added  by  section  24 of part A of chapter 436 of the laws of
   39  1997, is amended to read as follows:
   40    a. The contingency budget shall not result in a percentage increase in
   41  total spending over the  district’s  total  spending  under  the  school
   42  district  budget  for  the prior school year that exceeds the lesser of:
   43  (i) THE AVERAGE OF THE PREVIOUS FIVE YEARS OF the result  obtained  when
   44  one  hundred  twenty percent is multiplied by the percentage increase in
   45  the consumer price index, with the result rounded to two decimal places;
   46  or (ii) four percent.

Should this law be passed by the Assembly, it would enable the White Plains School District for example, to increase the school budget over and above the year-to-year decrease currently planned.

The bill should it be passed would expire in May 2011, indicating it is a one-year measure that circumvents the contingency budget legislation in effect for years.