WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. September 8, 2009, UPDATED 3:03 P.M. with detailed analysis of the Con Edison Certiorari in Italics: White Plains enacted its first ever Hotel Sales Tax of 3% Monday evening by a 7-0 vote with no public comment on the legislation. The hotel tax will go into affect October 1. The tax will be collected by the individual hotels in the city which include the Ritz Carlton, the White Plains Renaissance, the Crowne Plaza, The Esplanade, and the Hyatt Summerfield Suites, and returns will be due quarterly at the end of December, March, June, September. The tax has been touted as having the potential to raise $350,000 a year.
In other action,
The Common Council approved a 5 year site plan approval for White Plains Hospital Medical Center planned expansion. It is the longest window of site plan approval ever granted by the city, and was done as a convenience to the hospital which is in the process of fund-raising for the major expansion of the facility, which pointed out in requesting the elongated period allowed to get the project under way, that it did not expect to raise the funds to build for at least that amount of time. This was approved in a time frame of about six months.
The Council extended for another month the hearing on the North Street Community senior condominium and assisted living project.
The council tabled a resolution generated by the Mayor’s Office to transfer $2 Million to
Salary and benefit accounts. Councilman Boykin objected because of the vague nature of the request. Mayor Delfino said this was the best estimate of the monies needed for the expected binding arbitration settlement of the fire and police union contracts. Boykin said he wanted a more specific definition of what the end of the year deficit was and who would be getting paid the funds.
Rita Malmud said, in response to Mayor Delfino’s testy response to Boykin that these transfers are done every year and are nothing new, said that this was not the case, this year, with the council rejecting a 3.75% raise for the first year of the fire fighters’ contract last December, and the city being “forced into a voluntary binding arbitration.” Dennis Power suggested tabling the matter and it was done by a vote of 5-2, with Mr.Roach and the Mayor voting “No.”
The binding arbitration has not begun yet because the council has tabled until September 24 the discussion of selection of a city labor legal counsel. At that date the transfer of funds will also be discussed. The Mayor said he refused to identify how much of the $2 Million was for union and non-union managerial personnel.
Assessment Erosion Continues
The Council approved the lowering of the assessment rolls to the tune of $782,477, resulting in a total of $359,730.40. The School District will pay approximately a $1,440,000 certiorari tax refund, based on the ratio that for every $1 the city collects in taxes, the school district collects 4.
The bulk of the total assessment reduction was made up by a $556,587 assessment reduction granted Con Edison properties on Water Street. Con Edison receives a $208,995.70 tax refund for the years 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10.
The assessment reduction represents the total assessment decline of 35 different Con Ed-owned lots around the city with various Con Edison installations and equipment on the premises, according to Lloyd Tasch, the City Assessor. The 35 properties were reduced from $908,000 of Assessed Value to $351,413. Tasch said an expert was hired by the city to assess the properties and fight Con Edison’s claims involving depreciation, replacement value and other categories. Tasch said the city did the best it could but still wound up with “a real hit” that will be deducted from the city Assessement Roll in 2010-11.
CVS Albany LLC at 434-452 Mamaroneck Avenue and 434-440 received a $39,881.11 certiorari tax refund and a $93,800 reduction in assessed value. Tasch said this decline in assessment were partly as a result of decreased sales
