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WPCNR CRUISING With Fast Johnny. November 4, 2007: The American dollar may be taking a beating, our jobs may be being outsourced,  the country may be  being taken over, but if there is one field our country is still a leader in, it is fast food. Yours truly discovered the first true breakthrough in fast food in years today – McDonald’s incredible Angus Third Pounder burger.

New Burger In Town! A Fullback Payload!

Stoppin in at Westchester’s best McDonalds in Mamaroneck on Post Road, (where the oldies play),  my companion and I stepped up to the counter, saw the big brown and white sign and ordered the Angus Third Pounder, easily the greatest Mcdonald’s innovation since the legendary Quarter Pounder.

The Angus Third Pounder priced at $6.79 for a Third Pounder Meal at once blows the Burger King Whopper off the counter, and nukes the Wendy’s thin square jobs into oblivion – while priced at half the price of the monster charcoal burgers in Applebees and Cracker Barrel chains.

The Angus is thicker than the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, but being 100% Angus Beef,  delivers a tastier beefier more charcoally payload with a  juiciness the typical McDonald’s burger has never had before. I am not going to spoil your first look at Third Pounder by showing you the picture. It will blow you away, and I would not want to spoil it for you.

The Angus Third Pounder puts real meat in your mouth and comes in an assortment of toppings: bacon and cheese, swiss and mushrooms, deluxe, and Special. I’d stay away from the bacon and cheese because McDonald’s still does the bacon too well but the big meaty thick Angus slab of 100% Black Angus beef is the most satisfying burger McDonald’s has ever created – macho and massive enough to satisfy the biker’s hunger; tangy and charcoal-flavored to “meat” the sophisticated demands of the Westport barbeque guy; and the right size to satisfy the teen appetite.

Even the Bun a Breakthrough! Will Not Crumble on a Full Condiment Load.

The gnarly sesame seed bun has enough crust to hold the hunk of meat without absorbing condiments , and will not flake and come apart in your hands (a typical flaw of all previous big burger buns), and Angus Third Pounder bun  never slips on its big wide and thick payload, either, no matter how much catsup you smear on your Big A. It’s wide high, trim and perfectly placed on the bun bed and the bun holds all the fixins (big bermuda, catsup, bacon, whatevah) right in there with no muss on your hands due to the bun’s tuck around shape holding the meat secure at the sides.

But the meat’s the thing.

My Angus Third Pounder delivered a black seared flavorful burger experience rivaling restaurant taste at a third of the price with a hint of charcoal to it, but with fresher taste than the mundane cardboard taste you get with the whopper, the Wendy’s burgers and even McDonald’s Quarter Pounder and Big Mac.

McDonald’s Angus Third Pounder fits right into one hand comfortably. It frees your second hand for meaningful conversational gestures, without any danger of the Angus Third Pounder construction compromising itself or the mighty burgher within and falling apart in your hand. The structure of the Angus bun is a true breakthrough closing over the edge of the Angus burgher wedge tucking it safely inside. It is the first true McDonald’s bun with taste to compliment it’s satisfying state-of-the –art burger .

Eliminates Mouth Stretch

The Angus Third Pounder  not only approaches the raunchy Charry flavor of the fastpitch and football snack bars with choice tasting meat. It has the exactly, precisely right vertical stretch.  It is satisfying with a height from bottom bun to the sesame top that fits the daintiest of mouths without smearing lipstick. No longer do you have to strain your jaw to fit this big winner into your mouth. 

The Angus Third Pounder is where the beef is! A melt-in-your mouth burger you will savor rather than wolf down, the Angus Third Pounder is fast food you will savor slow, swallow slow and let your taste buds revel in the juices, the macho authority of thorobred steer, done precisely right, not dry, but sizzling leisurely with mellow juices.

You just gotta taste it!

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2007. By John F. Bailey. November 3, 2007. The White Plains Commissioner of Finance is disputing Independent Party Candidate Robert Stackpole’s prediction last Monday that the city faces a $33 Million decline in its Assessment Roll in 2008-2009. In a written statement, and subsequent interview, Gina Cuneo-Harwood debunked the prediction as “totally false” and Mr. Stackpole did not understand the equalization rate effect – saying the Equalization is just “a measurement” and has no effect on the assessment roll. WPCNR has also learned the city has known about the decreased Equalization Rate since August 21, and not informed the Common Council until October, according to Council President Rita Malmud.

Cuneo-Harwood issued this statement to WPCNR:

A Unique Perspective.

This statement is in sharp contrast what has been said for years by city officials, councilpersons, and school district officials that the state setting of the Equalization Rate that applies to assessment of commercial property as being at the root of the problems of White Plains fifteen years of declining assessments. The Mayor, the assessor and councilpersons have lobbied very hard for Assemblyman Adam Bradley to push a bill setting a separate assessment rate for commericial properties. Most recently, last week, when Corporation Counsel Edward Dunphy told the Common Council that the new equalization rate  would affect PILOTed properties coming off the tax rolls to the extent they would pay less than what they were paying in PILOTS, but Mr. Dunphy did not have the numbers.

 Council Not Informed of Rate Decline Until October.

Council President Rita Malmud  told WPCNR this week, she first learned of the equalization in October, not saying the actual date, or whether the work session of October 25 was the first she heard of it when Mr. Dunphy made his comments.

However the city, according to the New York State Office of Real Property Services, which sets the Equalization Rates across the state, has known about the Equalization Rate of 2.69% since August 21. A press officer  for the NYSORPS told WPCNR the Assessor is e-mailed on the day the new Equalization Rates are set, and if there is no e-mail address for the City Assessor, he or she receives the new Equalization Rate within a week by mail. This means the city knew about this decline at least by September 1, unless the information never reached the city.

The city, its Budget & Management Committee and councilpersons  have been very positive about their financial situation the last three months even with the knowledge of their new Equalization Rate, which apparently they did not share with the Common Council unto mid-October.

Puzzling.

WPCNR has asked Ms. Harwood, in a series of follow-up questions, if the Equalization Rate had no affect on the Assessment Roll, why is the city appealing it.

WPCNR also asked whether in view of the new equalization rate, the city was going to refigure its balanced budget financial forecast three years out which they have given to the state to qualify for their Aid and Incentives to Municipalites (AIM) grant of $5.7 Million for each of the next three years.

Stackpole Comments of Last Monday

In an interview with WPCNR this week on his prediction of a $33 Million decline in the City Assessment Roll he made at the Downtown Residents Association meeting last Monday night. He based it on the historic pattern of Equalization Rate Decline related to Total Market Value average projections.

 Stackpole said the current state equalization rate of 2.69% issued August 21 – which the city is appealing – would indicate the city may experience a $33 Million decline in the Assessment Roll which Stackpole noted would have the city have to increase taxes or find other sources of revenue to make up a $7 Million decline in property tax revenues. WPCNR separately estimated that if Stackpole’s observation of the assessment, tax roll and equalization rate trends held true to past city assessment/tax role relationships, the school district would face a $14 Million tax receipt shortfall.

State Uses Total Market Value and Assessed Value to Determine Equalization Rate.

WPCNR asked Ms. Harwood, why the historic pattern of Equalization Rate Decline in tandem with rising Total Market Value which showed the assessment decline each year, was not in effect. She said it was not an indicator of how the assessment roll would decline.

Harwood said the $33 Million decline is totally false and not possible. She declined to offer an estimate of Total Market Value for the city for 2007-2008, saying the assessor was working on those figures. (Though to compute the new equalization rate, the Office of Real Property Services has to be either given current Total Market Value by the city assessor, estimate it to figure the new Equalization rate. The formula for figuring the Equalization Rate, according to the NYSORPS is this:

Total Assessed Value  Divided by Total Market Value Equals= Equalization Rate.

This may be viewed in further detail on the NYSORPS website, www.orps.state.ny.us., by clicking on “Equalization” where this formula is located.

Sales Tax Up 8% in First Quarter.

She did inform WPCNR that city sales tax receipts for the first quarter of 2006- were up 8%, year to year from July through September over last year at $10.9 Million