WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR THE FEINER REPORT. By Paul Feiner, Greenburgh Town Supervisor. November 27, 2019:

SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR–A TAX RATE DECREASE AND A TAX LEVY FREEZE IN 2020 BUDGET  (for both villages and unincorporated Greenburgh)

  Have a great Thanksgiving holiday. To start off the holiday season I thought you’d be interested in some news that might make you thankful– an amended 2020 budget for the town that includes a tax rate decrease and a tax levy freeze in the 2020 budget.

    Prior to the November election I announced that I would propose a budget that included a zero percent tax hike. When I proposed the 2020 budget I proposed a tax rate hike of zero percent. However, the tax levy did go up, creating some confusion.

 If the rate stays the same  and if the levy goes up, some residents could have experienced a slight tax hike. We would not know that definitely until March when the tax bills are prepared. 

Westchester County Executive has proposed a tax rate decrease. Most communities in Westchester are using new sales tax revenues to reduce the size of their tax hike and are not freezing tax levy’s or reducing tax rates.

    I feel that it is important for people to have confidence in the integrity of their elected officials. It seems like there was some confusion by what I meant by a zero percent tax hike. People expected a zero percent tax levy increase as well.

     I have asked the Comptroller to amend the 2020 proposed budget to include a tax rate DECREASE  ( Approximately a 3 PERCENT REDUCTION IN THE A BUDGET AND ABOUT A 2 PERCENT DECREASE IN THE TAX RATE IN UNINCORPORATED B BUDGET). 

The tax levy will remain the same as in the 2019 budget and will enable us to keep the promises made prior to the election.     The tax levy is the aggregate amount for all property taxes by all property owners in a fiscal  year. 

The tax levy is determined by school budgets, voted independently, state aid and other revenues.Assessments change on a regular basis and are not set until March of each year for the town tax bills.
   I am sorry if there was confusion but concept of taxes based on rates and levy is difficult to understand and tends to be confusing. I trust this explanation meets everyone’s needs 

Tax levy: A budget $9,321,201

Tax levy B budget $59,201,693

The Town Board must approve the budget by December 20^th. This proposed modification will not impact any services. We will be in compliance with our fund balance policy.  I have discussed the amended budget with the Town Board and made an announcement of this change at our Town Board meeting on Wednesday. 

 PAUL FEINER

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Westchester County Department of Health Focuses on Prevention Dr. Sherlita Amler fills you in on the Vaping Epidemic

WPCNR WESTCHESTER COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER From the Westchester County DEpartment of Communications. November 21, 2019:

Westchester County Executive George Latimer, the Department of Health and several community partners launched a Vaping Prevention and Awareness Campaign today. The campaign includes a series of three public service announcements (PSAs), released in the days leading up to the Great American Smokeout, today. The videos were created to help inform Westchester County residents about the dangers of vaping

Carolyn D’Agostino tells how to Recognize Vaping Devices

Amy Brown, MD, MBe and Shetal Shah, MD. Expain the risks to children in teens and younger from trying Vaping and its potential for starting a lifelong addiction

Westchester County Executive George Latimer said: “For more than 40 years, the American Cancer Society has hosted the Great American Smokeout on the third Thursday in November. Today, we are facing a new challenge with vaping becoming more prevalent with our youth. This Public Awareness Campaign is designed to help educate our parents on the dangers and health risks associated with vaping, so they can hopefully stop the problem before it starts.”

Health Commissioner Sherlita Amler, MD said: “Quitting vaping can be just as difficult as quitting smoking because nicotine in vapes and tobacco is highly addictive. Watch these videos, get the facts and if you smoke or vape, make a plan to quit.”

Help is available to you in Westchester County:

·         NY Smoke Free – 1-866-697-8487

·         Centers for Disease Control – 1-800-QUIT-NOW

·         American Cancer Society support groups – 1-800-277-2345

·         American Lung Association – find a clinic near you, call 1-800-LUNGUSA

The third Westchester County PSA focuses on The Health Risks of Vaping in Children. It features Amy Brown, MD, MBe and Shetal Shah, MD. Dr. Brown is an attending Pediatric Pulmonologist at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at New York Medical College. Dr. Shah is a neonatologist and researcher and a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology at New York Medical College. 

The second PSA focuses on How to Recognize Vape Devices. It features Carolyn D’Agostino, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuser Counselor and Credentialed Prevention Professional who is a Student Assistance Counselor for Student Assistance Services, a not-for-profit agency whose focus is substance abuse prevention.

The First PSA focuses on How to Talk to Kids about Vaping. It features advice from Sherlita Amler, MD, Commissioner of Health, and Daniel A. Cohen, MD, a pediatrician at WestMed in Purchase.

Dr. Amler is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at New York Medical College School of Medicine; and a Distinguished Lecturer at the College’s School of Public Health, as well as a Senior Fellow at its Center for Disaster Medicine. Dr. Cohen is Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

For more information, call the New York State Vaping Hotline at 1-888-364-3046.

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Comprehensive Report Reveals. County Executive outlines Plan of Action.

UNTOLD Billions in Financing Needed Unclear.

County Plans Approaching Communities in January to Identify Possible Sites.

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. November 19, 2019:

County Executive George Latimer stunned a news conference this afternoon with a 175-page Report , “The Westchester County Housing Needs Assessment,” prepared by Hudson Valley Plan for Progress that stated the county needs 82,451 units to fill a gap in affordable housing– make the county attractive to firms considering relocating to Westchester –bring in a viable workforce that can afford to live in the county.

To put that figure into perspective, over the last 6 years approximately 900 affordable units have been built by the County. A White Plains Affordable Housing Effort the mixed-use public-private partnership has been ongoing for 11 years and only one building of 5 has been completed, primarily due to financing difficulties  and the third has just broken ground.

County Executive Latimer and Commissioner of Planning, Norma Drummond outlined the County Executive’s plan for action which will begin in January with a reaching out to communities in the county.

The County Executive emphasized there have been no quotas for each community established determining which communities need affordable housing and  how much. The effort to isolate possible potentialities for affordable housing, units, buildings and sites will be undertaken in January working cooperatively with individual cities and communities.

The Assessment described a sweeping commitment of funds by the county in the proposed 2020 Budget to facilitate the affordable housing initiative.

In response to a question by WPCNR, Mr. Latimer said it was unclear whether the Housing and Urban Development department was going to be willing to finance such projects, (though the New York State HUD as given the Count $4 Million, or whether New York State would providing funding for the units needed to be built.

Latimer said the New York delegation  in Washington in the Senate and the House of Representatives could be expect to work hard for the by WPCNR estimate billions to put up the bricks and mortar for new units; rehabilitation of substandard housing; anti-foreclosure efforts, and identification of potential sites city by city.

Latimer at the conclusion of the news conference said the primary focus would have to be more Section 8 funding to increase rapidly the availability of existing buildings at affordable rents.

The report is available on the Westchester County website, Latimer said, and he welcome community comments on the report which is chock full of alarming demographics of who rents what, what they pay, who owns their homes, which WPCNR will delve into in this developing story.

According to the County Press Release just published, these statistics are intriguing:

·         There are 345,885 housing units in Westchester; 81% of the housing units in the county were built before 1979;

·         The City of Yonkers has the most housing units with 82,562; the Village of Buchanan has the fewest with only 864;

·         62% of the County’s units are ownership – slightly lower than the 63% national average; while 38% are rental units;

·         There are 2,476 Public Housing Units and 13,092 Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers units;

·         There are 34,221 ETPA (Emergency Tenant Protection Act) units in 1,773 buildings in the county;

·         141,570 households (41.4% of the total number in the county) are living in homes and apartments that are paying more than 50% of their income toward their housing costs;

·         There is a significant shortage of housing for extremely low income renters, people with disabilities, seniors, large families and the homeless; In particular, families and individuals who face intellectual and developmental disabilities, who need specialized housing with services, are not being adequately served;

·         There are 89,839 people living in poverty in Westchester (9.4% of the total population);

·         The greatest growth in population is in the 85 and over cohort (e.g. the Towns of Lewisboro and Pound Ridge with 232% and 202% increases respectively), between 2000 and 2017, demonstrating the need for senior housing;

·         The combined population of the five largest cities represent 46% of the total population in the county;

·         The 30-44 age cohort shows decline, which may mean there aren’t enough affordable housing options for young families;

·         More people commute into Westchester to work than those who live and work in the county; the majority of commuters (58%) drive alone to work;

·         There is no municipality where the market rate rent for a 2-BR unit is affordable to households earning the local hourly renter wage; the greatest monthly gap, at $1,823, is in the Village of Pleasantville; municipalities with gaps over $1,700 are in the City of Peekskill, the Town of Bedford and the Village of Port Chester;

·         There are only three municipalities where the HUD FMR is affordable to households earning the local hourly renter wage – the Town of New Castle, and the villages of Bronxville and Pelham Manor;

·         The Housing Action Council found that 68.6% of households seeking housing under the Housing Settlement were already living in Westchester; there were 9,260 applicants for 395 affordable rental units in development – a ratio of 23 applicants for every unit of rental housing; and

·         The combined population of persons with disabilities in the cities of Peekskill, Yonkers and Mount Vernon account for 42% of the county’s population with a disability.

In this report, the three major components of the data analysis: Housing Cost Burden, Housing Conditions and a Projection of Current Housing Need are provided at the County level and for each municipality.

·         The finding that 50.7% of all owner households earning between 30% and 50% of the County’s Area Median Income (AMI) are severely cost burdened should not be a surprise, but the conclusion that 22.9% of households earning between 80% and 100% of AMI might be (when one considers that a family of 4 at 100% AMI earns approximately $117,100 in Westchester County). It is important to note that these households have housing; but they cannot comfortably afford it.

·         Similarly, the Assessment concludes that 2,556 households in the county live in substandard housing.

·         The Assessment also concludes that 4,523 households are severely overcrowded.

Data compiled under these three components of housing need document the county’s existing housing stock with one or more problems as 75,271 units(22% of all units in the county). This is the greatest portion of the need for affordable housing in Westchester County, but does not reflect the entire need.

Collectively, all these data sources tell us that the need for affordable housing in Westchester County totals 82,451 units; however the greatest portion of these units are not substandard, so addressing the affordability of some portion of these units could be through rental assistance programs like the federal Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) program.

The total number of new affordable housing units needed is 11,703. This represents the total number of Westchester households that are severely overcrowded or Homeless, as well as the non-Westchester Homeseeker registrants.

In response to the data found and the analysis conducted, this Assessment includes 12 Recommendations for the County to consider for implementation to start to address the identified need. Many of these recommendations are included in the Latimer’ proposed 2020 budget. The 12 Recommendations are:

1: Affordable Housing Education Workshop Series: Contract with an organization with a focus on housing policy, education, technical assistance and municipal engagement to establish a series of workshops to facilitate educational sessions regarding affordable housing.

2: Increase the Community Based Organization Capacity: Establish an annual funding allocation to cover the tuition associated with professional certification programs in housing and community development through NeighborWorks America®.

3: Housing Inventory & Tracking System: Conduct a bi-annual update of the existing affordable housing inventory – utilizing the existing housing inventory database.  Establish a permanent tracking and monitoring system of all housing developments over 10 units. Share with economic development entities and Industrial Development Agencies to ensure housing and wages are in alignment.

4: Community Land Trust: Create a countywide community land trust and focus on capturing housing headed into foreclosure as an eviction prevention strategy, but keeping it flexible to address a multitude of development concerns.

5: Municipal Ordinances: Design a formal program to provide technical assistance to municipalities to draft model ordinances for example, Accessory Dwelling Units, specifically targeted for affordable housing.

6: Adaptive Reuse of Under-Utilized Property: Design a property disposition program for the adaptive re-use of land and buildings, including older office park campuses, for the purpose of developing new affordable housing.

7: Housing Compact between County and Municipalities: Gather support from the local businesses, municipalities and community based organizations to work together to meet the needs of affordable housing in the County.

8: Neighborhood Revitalization Opportunities: Utilize the Affordable Housing Needs Assessment data in addition to existing web-based systems to explore the specific needs of individual neighborhoods and establish a data rich system to analyze community conditions.

9: Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Services: Expand existing eviction and foreclosure prevention programs.

10: Employer Assisted Housing Program: Establish an Employer Assisted Housing program by creating public-private partnerships with major employers, hospitals, county staff and large-scale not-for-profit housing providers and healthcare agencies.

11: Pre-development and Preservation Options: Create and provide funding for not-for-profit housing agencies for pre-development costs associated with the construction and preservation of affordable housing.

12: Funding Opportunities: Offers a couple of examples of options to provide a source of funding to undertake the recommendations above and increase the funding stream for the County’s affordable housing programs.

The County’s next steps will shape the conversation on affordable housing for the foreseeable future.

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BOROUGH PRESIDENT DIAZ ISSUES REPORTCALLING FOR NEW YORK STATE LOTTERY REFORM WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From the Office of the Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. November 18, 2019: Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. has issued a new report outlining a set of recommendations aimed at reforming the New York State Lottery to minimize its adverse effects on low-income communities. The report, titled “Re-Orienting the Lottery: A Better Lotto for the Poor,” provides four recommendations that aim to prevent the lottery from further disadvantaging the poor and to instead help these communities see the most benefit from the state’s lottery system. “The lottery has grown exponentially since its establishment and the state regulations overseeing that sector must be adapted to how it exists today. We can’t turn a blind eye to state lotteries targeting low-income and minority communities, and the systems should be changed to help limit the harm that vulnerable people experience because of them,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. The full report can be read at https://on.nyc.gov/330OJF5. Recommendations discussed in the report include : 1. Changing the allocation of lottery funds to further support students living in or near poverty. 2. Banning check cashers from selling lottery games. 3. Requiring the state to collect information about check cashers’ sales of lottery games. 4. Educating the public about the benefits of engaging with the traditional banking system. Nationally, lower income individuals are more likely to play the lottery than higher income individuals, with some statistics finding that 28% of individuals earning under $30,000 per year play the lottery at least weekly as compared with 18 percent of those earning over $75,000. Additionally, low-income individuals spend a disproportionate proportion of their incomes on the lottery. “Low income communities generate much of the lottery’s revenue but they don’t receive benefits proportionate to their patronage of the system,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “That money should be spent to support low-income students with specific programs in schools that are aimed at the alleviation of poverty in both the short and long terms.”