WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2005. November 3, 2005: Thursday afternoon, at City Hall, Dennis Power, candidate for mayor of White Plains delivered these remarks on the State of White Plains:
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to a beautiful day in our downtown White Plains.
I say “our” downtown because that’s what we like to think, when we see all these nice new structures and bustling commotion. These facades. Well, it’s not really our downtown, and in a minute, I’m going to tell you why — and how we’re going to make sure it is in the years going forward
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Our downtown is a bustling city. Yes, it’s been reborn. With the enticing neon of new retailers, the booms of construction, and the skyscrapers all starting to hang over us.
These times are the foundation for our city’s future and we set the stage for what happens when the construction is done: Development can benefit everyone who lives here, or White Plains can become a place where special interests play and you pay. You pay more and more, and others get richer and richer.
Without you as the watchful guardian over White Plains, our city will grow, all right. In a very dangerous direction. Unfortunately, behind the facades of girders, fountains, and neon, your Mayor has already started your city down a difficult financial direction.
The garages and buildings you see around you aren’t yours. But you’re paying for them. Mayor Delfino gave this garage, along with some of this other hot property, to developers. For not much in exchange.
We’re not making money from it. We’re paying for it.
When buildings go up, your taxes should go down. Are they? No way. Under Mayor Delfino, he’s stood by and watched them go up 17% in the last three years.
I’m not here to harp on the past or brag about the present. I’m here to take the right care of our future.
And you’re here today to find out what exactly is at stake next Tuesday. And here’s what it is: A White Plains that, once the noise of construction subsides, is in the hands of outside forces. Or a White Plains with smart planning that benefits you the taxpayer for decades to come.
Which do you think White Plains will prosper under?
All around me right now, you see a lovely new City Center, new structures, and more on the way. I love newness in a city. I love revitalization.
I know something about it too. On the Common Council, I helped to bring the Westchester Mall to White Plains. A gem of our city that many people hail as our greatest achievement in planning and quality development. A center of attention that many people single out as the one accomplishment that used smart planning and high-quality workmanship.
So as I look around at our new downtown, I see how this other growth can be very seductive.
But to only look at new stores and buildings and say “our future is secure” is a dangerous way to think and doesn’t take into account the next ten years of our White Plains.
For our White Plains to grow, residents need to come first for our city to prosper. There is no vitality, there is no “new White Plains” without you being a priority.
Now, my policy has been and always will be: Residents come first. Period.
Let’s get right down to it.
For openers I’m telling you that the vaunted $2Billion of development we’ve been hearing about is more like $700Million to $1Billion by the City’s most recent official budget. Let me tell you that White Plains isn’t being “sold” to the highest bidder. It’s being given away… the Great Give- away.
Why do I say that? Here’s why:
• The City has paid the developer, Cappelli, $23M for a parking garage it doesn’t own, but it is responsible for maintaining it.
• The City “sold” Conroy Drive to Cappelli in exchange for a fountain which Cappelli firm built, placing the cost of the fountain as equal to the value of Conroy Drive.
• The City liberalized zoning requirements, allowing greater building height and area and more attractive upper floor views, and more space––making the land it sold to Cappelli more valuable by millions of dollars ––but got nothing extra in return.
• Through an arrangement with the County IDA, the City allows Cappelli to build kitchens and bathrooms without paying the sales tax on the fixtures and appliances which the typical homeowner pays, but he gets all the added value, which improves his bottom line while the rest of us have to make up the lost revenue in our property taxes.
• PILOTS given to City Center, Fortunoff, The Jefferson, Bank Street Common, and others are admittedly designed as developer “incentives”, often applied to distressed properties. Make no mistake, this means “give-backs”…
• Valet Parking is a nuisance and, ultimately, a non-reimbursed City expense.
• Plastic pipe, much of which was installed before approval, saved Cappelli money. The City got nothing in return.
• The City swapped the South Kensico garage for a less valuable site on Brockway Place which is in a flood-prone area. Stop and Shop and Pepe got the far better deal.
• City Center theater is a continuing budget drain with the City paying for the theater “build-out” and having to contribute more then 50% of the operating budget each year.
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What I’ve been talking about–––the Great Giveaway–––
translates into money. About $50M over 8 years… That works out to about $3K+ per household, or about $400 for each of the last eight years.
A lot of productive things could have been done for White Plains with that money, for instance a new City Hall, a downtown transit system and similar big-ticket items but what did you have to say about it? Not much. Delfino doesn’t want to hear from you. He did all of this under cover, it’s simpler when you can do an end run on the public process.
Now the piper has to be paid. Things will have to be different from here on in, because….. the truth is: their so-called “plan” isn’t working, That’s right. The giveaway–– supposed to more than pay for itself–– has not generated a positive cash-flow thus far and, despite what Delfino wants you to believe, things are not looking up – the latest sales tax returns indicate that this year’s budget is probably over-optimistic by $2M. There’s a reason for Moody’s negative rating. We’ve been spending more than we take in and our “rainy day” reserve funds have basically been tapped out. There’s no future in that.
To make things worse, every indication is that the School District is in even worse shape. Have we heard talk about “remarkable prosperity”? Well, those words better be tempered!
We’ll have to re-think the way we manage the business— that’s right,
the business— of planning— and quickly––or our combined taxes will go up big time. At the rate we have been going our combined taxes could easily double or more in only ten years.
What do I propose to do about it?
• Residents come first. To avoid further property tax increases and to STOP their bleeding, I will immediately put an end to the “give-aways” to the developers. The City no longer needs to give incentives to rich developers to get them to build in White Plains. Instead, it is time they paid for improvements in our City that have benefited them in these past 8 years.
Let them pay for the next public parking structure. Let them fund our affordable housing program at its real cost. Let them pay an increasing property tax––not some discounted PILOT payment. Let them make contributions to the School District’s construction program. Let them contribute to building a new City Hall. We should remember that the City used this same approach under Urban Renewal –– developers paid for the railroad station, the parking garage and clock tower and public open space. It’s time to go back to that policy.
• Further, it is time to review City expenditures in a meaningful way. I will appoint a Budget and Management Committee composed of some of our brightest and best business-oriented citizens, co-chaired by former Mayors Del Vecchio and Schulman, to guide us on how to trim our City budget. Government must re-invent itself when costs are no longer in balance with income. It will be a priority to discontinue the excess spending in the Capital Budget and I will seek financial assistance from all government sources – the federal, the state, the county – to pay for essential Capital Programs in order to take the pressure off the City’s borrowing capacity which, you better believe, has impacted our previously sterling bond rating. We’ve been warned.
• I plan to lobby aggressively in Albany for changes to the current method of assessing and applying property taxes, so that the current trend toward shifting property taxes from commercial taxpayers to the residential property taxpayers is stopped and turned around. Why hasn’t this been a top priority for the current administration? Is it that the current Mayor is receiving major financial support from these very same people for his re-election bid?
•It is time to elect an energetic mayor with ideas who cares about all of White Plains, who doesn’t just visit our neighborhoods at election time. A mayor who knows how to manage planning better. A mayor who will not be defensive. A mayor who will not be vindictive. A mayor who will not cater to favored developers. A mayor heading an open administration, one that all White Plains will be proud of.
Thank you, and remember to VOTE Power and the entire Democratic Team on November 8th. The team that knows that RESIDENTS COME FIRST.
