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 COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. By County Legislator Benjamin Boykin. December 10, 2014:

The Westchester County Budget for 2015 was passed on December 9, 2014 by a vote of 10-7.  I voted against this “structurally imbalanced” budget because it contains too much borrowing and one-shot revenues to pay for current operating expenses. The approved budget includes.

• $15 million of pension fund borrowing
• $5 million borrowing for tax certs (certioraris), which was reduced from $8 million in the County Executive’s originally proposed budget
• $40 million borrowing in bond anticipation notes (which has never been done before)
• $90 million in tax anticipation notes to cover cash shortfalls (cash crunch)
• $6.1 million of E911 fund balance to pay for operating expenses in the general fund (one-shot revenue)

All of this borrowing will hamstring future county administrations and legislators from any flexibility in operating budgets because of the onerous interest costs associated with the excessive borrowing.  I see that this will cause real problems for our safety net spending in the short-term, and it will end up costing all of our taxpayers more money when the County needs to spend more on bonding for badly needed infrastructure improvements.

Over the last five years, approximately $100 million has been borrowed to pay for ongoing operating expenses, which were detailed in the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee (CBAC) report to the Board of Legislators’ Budget & Appropriations Committee.

The good news in this bad “borrowing from tomorrow” budget is that additional funds for social services that support the neediest in our County were included by the Board of Legislators.  Working with my Democratic colleagues and members of the Republican Caucus, additional funds were added for child care and other social services.

Among other things, the funding we added to the 2015 Budget will provide the opportunity for individuals to have quality child care while being able to hold a job.  By being employed, families will avoid having to rely on public assistance and enable them to be productive residents in our communities.  My Democratic colleagues and I have made sure that our additional spending was fully funded.

Funds have been added to the operating and capital budgets to invest in and protect our infrastructure.  We have to make sure that our roads, bridges, buildings and equipment are structurally sound and useable.  It is time that we create jobs for Westchester residents by implementing the nearly $1 billion in backlogged capital projects approved by the Board of Legislators.

I believe that protecting all our residents, including those who rely on safety net programs, should be our first priority.  As always, I am fighting to keep our taxes low, reduce costs, and improve efficiencies to enhance our quality of life.

This budget is a threat to the long-term well-being of our residents and our county’s fiscal health.  The borrowing will undoubtedly place a future burden on taxpayers.  We are paying millions of dollars in interest on borrowed operational spending.  This will end up costing all of us a lot more in the years ahead.

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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. December 10, 2014:

This letter from Steven Gould, a Ridgeway resident, was received by WPCNR today and delivers an analysis of what traffic is now in the French American School of New York proposed development area and projects its real impact, in their opinion, if FASNY’s campus is built.

In my opinion, here is what will result from their Traffic Management  Plan intended to mitigate traffic should FASNY build their campus:

• 50% mandatory busing participation by all their students equates to 45 buses, each carrying 10 students to school, 450 student ridership
• 21 buses for the Lower School in the AM peak – queuing space required on campus is 651 feet
• 24 buses for the Upper School in the AM peak – queuing space required on campus is 744 feet
• 500 students remaining for transport by private car – 50 self-drive + 450 driven to school in the AM peak
• 1.3 students average per car equates to 396 vehicle trips in the AM peak
• Teachers and Staff arrival in the AM peak – 138
• Total vehicle trips already exceeds the 530 cap allowance in the AM peak hour in this model

Let’s look at what the physical impact of this FASNY traffic in the AM peak hour means to the neighborhood roadways carrying FASNY students teachers and staff to the campus each day:

• Average car length is 16 feet.  With two car lengths as a safe driving buffer on the road you are at  nearly 5 miles of cars traveling to the campus each morning.
• Average bus length is 38 feet.  With two bus lengths as a safe driving buffer on the road, you are at nearly 1 mile of buses traveling to the campus each morning.

With 6 miles of vehicular traffic driving to FASNY’s new North Street entrance along with all the current traffic of White Plains students traveling to WPHS, Ridgeway School, Memorial Methodist Nursery, YWCA, Ridgeway Alliance Nursery, the intersections at Ridgeway and North, Rosedale and North, Bryant and North, Mamaroneck Avenue and Ridgeway cannot handle the volume. 

The newly proposed 140 foot left hand turning lane from North Street into The FASNY campus cannot handle this volume of cars and buses.  Tweaking the timing of traffic signals will not solve this problem.

If you allow FASNY their Special Permit to build, and years from now when the school opens, it is revealed to all that the 530 cap was  indeed and in fact aspirational, what will your answer be then…more buses! 

If you cannot see that allowing this development to move forward will eviscerate The Gedney Farms neighborhood which is currently protected by our zoning code and The Comprehensive Plan, then please consider that the traffic it will generate cannot be mitigated. 

Your (the White Plains City Study) own traffic study confirms this.  Please let’s find another way to achieve open space in White Plains that will not ruin the character of our neighborhood and all the other neighborhoods in the south end of our city which equates to more than one third of the area of White Plains.   

Steven Gould

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Board of Legislators. December 9, 2014:

Democratic Caucus members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL) strongly condemned the “structural imbalances” in the 2015 County Budget today, citing the massive borrowing, use of one-shot financing fixes and raiding the fund balance to effectuate a zero percent increase in the County tax levy, and, as a result, voted against the budget. Nonetheless, the budget was passed by a vote of 10-7.

The caucus members voting against the budget were BOL Majority Leader Catherine Borgia (D-Ossining), Majority Whip Lyndon Williams (D-Mount Vernon), Ben Boykin (D-White Plains), Pete Harckham (D-North Salem), Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers), Catherine Parker (D-Rye) and Alfreda Williams (D-Greenburgh).

“This budget actually increases taxes in the future, but with interest by pushing the added costs down the road with bonding for too many operational expenses,” said Borgia. “Fiscal gimmickry may serve the short-term, but it imperils the County’s excellent bond rating, which was downgraded last year because of too much borrowing in the budget and dipping into the fund balance.”

The Citizens Budget Advisory Committee’s (CBAC) presentation to the BOL’s Budget Committee noted that in the 2015 Budget operating expenses are not fully funded by operating revenue; over $6 million in the restricted fund balance was being used for operating expenses as well; and cumulative borrowing to pay for ongoing operating expenses will be over $100 million, with interest costs of over $20 million. Also, tax and bond anticipation notes were being utilized to tide the County over in a cash crunch, with added interest costs.

An Administration official noted during a meeting of the BOL Budget & Appropriations Committee in November that Moody’s Investor Service had called the County’s Proposed 2015 Budget “structurally imbalanced” because of $15 million of pension amortization included in the spending plan.

“Independent professionals gave this budget a hard look, and in their judgment the excessive borrowing for operating expenses will result in potentially large tax increases in the future,” said Lyndon Williams. “There needs to be substantial work done in the first quarter of 2015 to realize revenues from Playland and prevent further borrowing.”

“All of this borrowing will hamstring future county administrations and legislators from any flexibility in operating budgets because of onerous interest costs,” said Benjamin Boykin, chair of the BOL Appointments Committee. “I see that this will cause real problems for our safety net spending in the short-term, and it will end up costing all of our taxpayers more money when the County needs to spend more on bonding for badly needed infrastructure improvements. Plain and simple: a budget with this kind of borrowing is a huge threat to the long-term well-being of our residents and our county’s fiscal health.”

“The 2015 County budget is a bad budget, in a bad financial year for our region’s governments,” said Legislator MaryJane Shimsky (D-Hastings-on-Hudson), chair of the BOL Infrastructure Committee. “However, the Board of Legislators’ revisions to the budget have made the County more responsive to our residents’ needs, and more fiscally responsible to our taxpayers.  For example, moving minor road repairs back to our operating budget will save taxpayers millions of dollars over the next five years.”

The BOL Democratic caucus members had hoped to remove a $4.3 million deletion of revenue expected from the finalization of a deal for a private partner to run Playland, the County’s iconic amusement park and recreation area, but it was voted down today.

The Democratic caucus proposed an alternative budget with deletions that were greater than the pension amortization, and they were able to negotiate bonding for tax certioraris down from $8 million to $5 million.

“As I’ve mentioned before, this financing of a zero percent budget will be accomplished thanks to our children’s credit card,” said Harckham, chair of the BOL Labor, Parks, Planning & Housing Committee. “Borrowing for operating expenses is not a substitute for smart planning that keeps the future in mind. Now, a very real financial burden awaits residents and business owners in future budgets.”

“Because it relies on borrowing to balance the numbers, the budget should have been dead on arrival,” said Jenkins, chair of the BOL Federal & State Affairs Committee. “We’ll be bonding for expenses before we know what they actually are, or if savings along the way may negate the need for the borrowing.”

For Democratic caucus members, the one bright note in the approved 2015 budget was the number of additions they were able to negotiate into the spending plan. These BOL Dem additions focused on long-standing safety net and cultural enrichment programs that benefit countless residents, especially the elderly, working families and disadvantaged youth, that are run by the Child Care Council of Westchester, Jewish Council of Yonkers, WestCOP, Legal Aid Services of the Hudson Valley and ArtsWestchester, among others.

“Maintaining support for the County’s safety net programs was at the forefront of our caucus’s budget decisions,” said Alfreda Williams, chair of the BOL Community Services Committee. “I’m pleased that the Administration and my colleagues on the Board were able to join us in this regard.”

“It was said today that the 2015 budget didn’t have to be perfect—but that it couldn’t raise taxes, and borrowing was better than layoffs,” said Parker, chair of the BOL Environment & Energy Committee. “While I’m grateful that important social programs will receive funding next year, there was an opportunity that was missed here to put together a realistic plan that doesn’t dump costs on to future budget years.”

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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. December 9, 2014:

Marie and Ron Rhoads, residents of Gedney Farms sent their second letter in a series to the Mayor and Common Council detailing issues that the neighborhood feels should weigh against approval of the French American School of New York:

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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. December 8, 2014:

The Rhodes, the “Truth Police,” are sending the Mayor and Common Council a series of mailings in a Last Stand to convince the city they have standing to deny a Special Permit to the French American School. Here is the first in a series: