THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

Board of Ed Gets Out Worry Beads on the Budget — Money Meetings Ahead

Posted on February 17, 2009 by John Bailey

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. February 17, 2009 UPDATED 4:51 P.M.: While White Plains schools are closed this week for winter vacation, the School Board will be worrying about the budget. They will be wondering how many “ObamaBucks”Governor David Paterson’s New York State Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Cabinet will be floating down the Hudson River to White Plains, and of course, whether or not the legislature will ease the Governor’s stealth property tax increase via his suggested cut of 18% off STAR Basic and Enhanced Exemptions.

Meanwhile the Board of Education is sticking by its request of outgoing Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors to slice more off the $190.3 M School Expense Budget submitted two weeks ago.

Here is the schedule of upcoming meetings:

The Governor’s “manna distributors” in his Reinvestment Cabinet will have $1.7 Billion to distribute statewide to school districts spread over 2009-2010 and 2010-11, according to the Governor’s news release last week. The funding will be provided directly to school districts through the State Education Department, subject to specific federal formulas. The state also has $7 Million to distribute for education of homeless children; and $61 Million for education technology to share.

Meanwhile, the legislature according to Assemblyman Adam Bradley is attempting to restore cuts to the STAR Basic and Enhanced Exemptions “floor” which exacted a hidden property tax increase last year, forcing White Plains residents to pay for about 75% of their increased state education aid the school district received last year and claimed enabled them to cut taxes. Actually the increased state education aid given White Plains last year resulted in a school property tax increase.

The 18% cut in the STAR Basic and Enhanced Exemption floors which Governor Paterson’s office has suggested for the 2009-2010 budget would mean about $109 Million less in reimbursements to school districts, which would be paid instead by state property tax payers, according the Geoffrey Gloak of the Office of Real Property Services.

Here are the big meetings coming up, released by the School District today:

The next meeting of the Board Finance/Audit Committee will take place to discuss the Superintendent’s proposal prior to the meeting on the budget prior to the crictical Monday night, February 23 proposal:

Monday, February 23rd, Board Finance/Audit Committee 5:30 P.M. at Education House — Open

February 23: Special Meeting, Education House, 7:30 P.M. The Superintendent of Schools is expected to unveil the Preliminary Budget — cut from the $190.3 Million figure now in play.

February 25: Special Meeting, High School B-1 Room, 7:30 P.M.

Community Budget Forum: The public will be presented with the budget that the Board settles on based on the February 23 meeting.

March 9: Regular Meeting, Education House, 7:30 P.M.

(Note change of location from listing in calendar)

Somebody’s Polling Me. I Wonder Who?

Posted on February 16, 2009 by John Bailey

WPCNR BACKROOM BULLETIN. By John F. Bailey. February 16, 2009: The calls are going out. Pointed, probing telephone polls with questions of White Plains voters asking residents how they feel about four key White Plains personalities, positive or negative are being conducted this past weekend.

The personalities are Adam Bradley, the assemblyman who is officially undecided about running for Mayor of White Plains; Bill Ryan, the Chair of the County Board of Legislators, viewed as perhaps hurt politically by his touting raises for himself and county legislators, and for tolerating Gary Kriss, the dismissed former spokesperson for the County Board of Legislators and assistant to Mr. Ryan, and Andrew Spano the Westchester County Executive, and one non-Democrat, the three term Mayor of White Plains Joseph Delfino.

Conspicuous by their absence from the poll are Benjamin Boykin, Thomas Roach and Rita Malmud and Glen Hockley, Common Councilpersons with extensive experience on the council.

County Executive Andy Spano February 2009 — Performance Being Polled

Chair of the Board of Legislators, White Plains’ Bill Ryan — Performance Ratings Sought.

Assemblyman Adam Bradley of White Plains — Approval Ratings Asked.

The Target? Or a Challenger for Andy Spano: Mayor Joseph Delfino of White Plains — Rating of the Mayor’s Performance Being Asked for. Asked Monday if the Mayor had ruled out a run for County Executive, Mayor Delfino in a statement to WPCNR said , “He had not ruled it out.”

According to persons who have received these calls, the questions asked them asked “my feelings toward” each of the political personalities “positive or negative” in terms of a percentage.

In addition, the poll, our correspondents said asked their opinion of the White Plains Common Council “as a whole” “positive or negative” in terms of a percentage.

And finally, the poll asked the pollee their “attitude toward development,” whether development had been based on “good planning” and whether or not they felt developers had “gotten too many” breaks.

The poll appears to be testing the waters perhaps by the undecided Mr. Ryan and the undecided Mr. Bradley, about the vulnerability of Mr. Delfino among Democratic voters, though it is unclear whether voters of both parties are being polled. Nevertheless the calls are going out.

The poll also asked pollees to rate the Common Council performance.

The popular Tom Roach — voter ratings of him not sought in poll.

The Council President, Benjamin Boykin, ten years on the Council — His popularity not sought by poll.

Rita Malmud, twenty years of Council experience — Voter Rating Not Polled.

Benjamin Boykin, and Tom Roach, two possible Democratic Mayoral candidates from the Common Council ranks may be being tested here by this Common Council question.

Roach, with eight years on the council, Boykin with ten years on the council, and Rita Malmud, a councilperson with twenty years of experience behind the Common Council ballustrades not even being asked for ratings among voters is curious. If this is a Mayor poll testing the waters for Ryan and Bradley, if I were Mr. Boykin, Mr. Roach, and Mrs. Malmud I’d be miffed.

Glen Hockley Seven Years Experience on Council — Not Analyzed by Poll

More interesting is why the Democrats, if this is a Democrat-sponsored poll, would not get a bead on the Hockley strength. They may be lulled into a false sense of security by their recent primary drubbing of Mr. Hockley in the District Leader challenge primary last September.

If Hockley should wrangle nomination for say County Legislator running against Mr. Ryan, or running for Mayor on the Working Families Ticket, or for his Council Seat as a Working Families Party or Republican candidate, he could draw votes from the Democrat Mayoral nominee. The Democrats should remember when Nick Beilenson lost to Mayor Alfred Del Vecchio when Michael Keating split the Democratic vote.

Development only issue polled.

There are three questions of the development issue — seeming to get at whether running anti-development is a major issue of substance in the city. What is surprising is there is no question on city finances or city property taxes.

One question asks the pollees What is your attitude about developoment in the city. That is followed up by a question as to whether the city development had “good planning” and how the pollee feels about how the city was developed.

At this point it is unclear who is funding this extensive poll whether it is the County Democratic Party, or the Democratic City Committee, the County Republican Committee, or perhaps Mr. Boykin, or even the loan wolf of the Common Council, Glen Hockley, whose desire to become the Mayor is well known, though Mr. Hockley is not mentioned in the survey.

The Mayor’s Office said Monday that Mayor Delfino and none of his supporting organizations were conducting this poll.

Paul Schwarz of the White Plains City Democratic Committee said his Committee was not paying for the poll.

Governor Details $24 Billion in Stimulus for NY

Posted on February 16, 2009 by John Bailey

WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From The Governor’s Press Office. February 16, 2009 Governor David A. Paterson announced Saturday that a preliminary analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act shows New York can expect to receive at least $24.6 billion over the next two years. This critical legislation will provide significant funding for State fiscal relief, as well as for education aid, infrastructure projects, direct benefits to low income and unemployed New Yorkers, and other critical priorities.

“With New York State at the epicenter of a nationwide financial crisis, I have been working for months with governors around the country advocating for federal aid to help states weather the current economic storm,” said Governor Paterson. “I am grateful to Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Congressman Rangel and the entire New York Congressional Delegation for taking swift action on President Obama’s economic recovery agenda.

“However, this funding does not absolve us of our responsibility at the state level to bring spending in line with what our government can afford over the long term,” Governor Paterson continued. “We still have to address a $13 billion deficit next year and a multi-year deficit of over $48 billion. Most of these recovery funds will be spent within two years, in some instances, sooner. Therefore, this federal stimulus legislation does not in any way diminish the need to reevaluate our operations and produce a smarter, less costly, more efficient government.”

Governor Paterson this week created the New York State Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Cabinet to manage the development of State and local infrastructure projects financed through these federal funds. The cabinet will be composed of State agency heads and senior members of the Governor’s staff, and will work closely with local governments to ensure federal dollars reach critical projects and put people to work as quickly as possible.

Senior Advisor for Infrastructure and Transportation Timothy J. Gilchrist, who leads the Cabinet, said: “These funds will allow critical infrastructure projects to progress at a time when state and local governments cannot move these projects forward alone. Now we must work with local officials to outline an aggressive agenda to ensure that the State utilizes these funds quickly and efficiently, for job-creating projects with lasting value across the State.”

National Overview

Overall, the national cost of the provisions included in the legislation is expected to total $789 billion. This includes approximately $463 billion in spending and $326 billion in tax cuts. Of the $463 billion in spending, $374 billion is for programs that directly impact our State. New York is expect to receive $24.6 billion of that funding.

State and Local Fiscal Relief

Several portions of the federal stimulus legislation will provide direct fiscal relief to State and local governments, many of which are addressing significant budget deficits. Some of these major provisions include the following:

Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP)

The stimulus bill provides a total of $87 billion in fiscal relief through increased Medicaid reimbursements (FMAP). New York’s share of that funding (which includes funding for the State, counties, and the City of New York) is nearly $11 billion over a 27-month period – $1.9 billion in 2008-09, $5.0 billion in 2009-10, and $4.2 billion in 2010-11.

Based on preliminary analysis, it is expected that approximately 70 percent of this relief will accrue to the State and the remainder will be provided to local governments.

Education

The legislation includes a State fiscal stabilization fund that totals $53.6 billion over two years, which primarily consists of funding for education.

There are three main components of this fund.

Education Restorations. New York is expected to receive $2.5 billion out of a total of $39.5 billion that will be provided to restore proposed reductions in funding for education. The federal legislation requires that this money be used for that purpose. It is expected that half of the $2.5 billion will be committed in 2009-10 and the remainder in 2010-11.
Flexible Relief. New York is expected to receive $556 million out of a national total of $8.8 billion provided for other fiscal relief to state governments over the next two years. Like FMAP, this funding would be flexible and can be dedicated to support any government service.

Incentive Grants. An additional $5 billion in education grants will be available for states meeting key performance measures as determined by the United States Department of Education. While the amount New York would receive is subject to the grant awarding process, we expect that New York will be in a strong competitive position to receive substantial funding.

Other Education Funding

New York is expected to receive $940 million out of a total of $13 billion in Title I funding for high needs students and $760 million out of a total of $12.2 billion in IDEA funding for special education over the next two years. Both of these funds would be split roughly evenly between the next two fiscal years. This funding will be provided directly to school districts through the State Education Department subject to specific federal formulas over which the State has no discretion.

Other major education funding for New York includes increasing the maximum award for Pell Grants by $500 (National Share: $15.6 billion, State Share: $180 million), and providing substantial increased support for education technology (National Share: $650 million, State Share: $61 million) and the education of homeless children (National Share: $70 million, State Share: $7 million).

Infrastructure and Energy

The stimulus legislation delivers substantial support for infrastructure projects. At the national level, this includes $48 billion in funding for transportation capital projects ($8.4 billion for mass transit, $27.5 billion for highways and bridges, $9.3 billion for rail, $1.3 billion for airport improvement projects; $1.5 billion for discretionary surface transportation projects). Of this total, New York is expected to receive at least $1.25 billion for the mass transit and $1.1 billion for highways and bridges. The Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Cabinet will be working with State agencies and local governments to aggressively seek funding from other sources of transportation funding.

The legislation also includes $16.8 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and technologies, including research and development. New York will receive $126 million through the State Energy Program and $31 million in alternative energy block grants. It provides $4.5 billion for energy research and development projects nationwide, including $2.0 billion for energy storage technologies, which could provide funding for the Governor’s proposed battery storage consortium.

New York State is also projected to receive $435 million from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund; $85 million from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund; and $404 million to help weatherize the homes of low-income individual.

Other Major Spending Provisions

The federal legislation will also provide funding for a number of other critical initiatives over the next two years. New York is expected to receive $1.3 billion in enhanced food stamp benefits; $1.3 billion to fund 33-week expansion of unemployment benefits (to a total of 59 weeks), as well as provide additional weekly benefits through December 31, 2009 instead of March 31, 2009; and $100 million for child care services for low-income individuals.

In addition the federal legislation provides funding for several programs that will be administered at the federal level. The Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Cabinet is analyzing the legislation to identify programs that the State and local governments can take apply for funding.

Photograph of the Day

Posted on February 16, 2009 by John Bailey

WPCNR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY By the WPCNR Roving Photographer. February 16, 2009: Today’s shot highlights frostbite sailors off the entrance of Mamaroneck Harbor Sunday afternoon.