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WPNCR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. March 9. 2009: The Board of Education meets this evening and will unveil the latest version of the touchy 2009-2010 School Budget. Will they cut or will they not?

As analyzed on White Plains Week last Friday night and its internet telecast, at www.whiteplainsweek.com, (see the telecast at 7 tonight on Public Access 76 (Cablevision) or  FIOS Channel 45) WPCNR notes that with the drop of the city assessment roll of  about $5 Million dollars, the school budget going into this evening’s meeting ($185.9 Million) needs to raise taxes $16 per $1,000 to $519/$1,000 of assessed value to make up for the lost $4.3 Million in revenues due to the drop in the assessment roll to $186.8 Million. Tonight, it is expected the district will go over its expected revenues, which may or may not result in a larger tax increase.

Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors is expected to announce layoffs. The meeting is open to the public at 5 Homeside Lane, Education House at 7:30 P.M. Also on the agenda is approvals of substitute teachers and extra-curricular activity appointments.

The head of the White Plains Teachers Association, Kerry Broderick,  told WPCNR last week, the district is planning to fire 24 certified teachers, 20 Teaching Assistants, plus secretaries, custodians and security guards adding up to a total of 58 layoffs in order to make further cuts in the budget. The teachers union is currently in state-supervised mediation talks with the district over their impasse in salary and benefits negotiations,

Broderick said the mood of negotiations is not good. She charged that no administrators were being cut. The Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors told WPCNR, he did not know where those numbers came from and that there would “across-the-board” layoffs, including administrators. Broderick said the school board was taking the attitude that “the board thinks we (the teachers) owe them so much.” She charged that “negotiating with the School Board is like negotiating with JELL-O. Every time I think we have something, they change their mind. It (a new contract) is in their hands, I don’t know what they’re going to do.”

Connors said he would detail the cuts in personnel this evening.

From a city standpoint, the Common Council is expressing no interest or concern about the budget publicly. With the drop in the city assessment roll to $285.2 Million, if the city keeps the budget the same as it is this year, $161.7 Million the district needs $1 Million to “catch up” with the assessment drop. The city tax rate will go from $147 per $1,000 of assessed value to $151/$1,000 – if the city keeps the budget where it is.

If they roll over the budget to $168. Million, the tax rate will go up to $173 per $1,000 of assessed valuate. Your city tax for a $700,000 home will go from $2,700 to $3,200, up $500. If the city does a modest budget increase to $165 Million – they will need only a $159 per $1,000 of value and the city tax on the $700,000 will go up only $238 to $2,938.

Since the city has not even projected revenues yet  which the city says is expected to be down about $9 Million plus – that would have to be figured into any tax increase in addition, unless of course the city decides to cut the budget substantially.

To date, the city has said they have cut the budget, and there has been talk of the city entailing contingency budgets for next year. To date despite weekly requests by WPCNR for detailed lists of the cuts, the city has not confirmed any, and has not given a list of the cuts.

WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From Westchester County Association. March 9. 2009: Governor David A. Paterson  announced that the pension reform proposal included in his 2009-10 Executive Budget will save taxpayers a cumulative total of $48.5 billion over the next 30 years. The following announcement was made by the Governor’s office yesterday.  “I recognize the important contribution public employees make to life in New York.  But in this time of fiscal crisis, we need to implement reforms across all areas of State spending,” said Governor Paterson.  “The changes I have proposed will continue to deliver a secure retirement for pensioners, but at a more affordable cost to taxpayers.  We must use our current fiscal crisis as an opportunity to make smart choices today that will pay big dividends in the future, particularly for overburdened local property taxpayers.”
Governor Paterson’s Executive Budget would create a new tier of pension benefits (TierV) for most newly hired public employees.  Many of the proposed changes for Tier V would remove pension enhancements added in recent years to Tier IV.  These new rules include restoring the minimum retirement age from 55 to 62; requiring employees to continue contributing a percentage of their salaries towards pension costs for their entire careers rather than ending contributions after ten years; increasing the 2 percent multiplier threshold from 20 to 25 years; restoring the minimum years of service required to draw a pension from five to ten years; and others.
 
Local governments and the State would immediately realize savings from these proposals because their required contributions to their respective pension funds for new employee hires subject to Tier V would be lower than that for current employees.
 
Clearly we are gratified by the Alliance’s work led by Dick French President of RNN and we deeply appreciate the support of our membership.
 
A copy of the full impact of the pension reform is available at http://www.budget.state.ny.us/pubs/press/2009/finalPensionReport.pdf