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WPCNR TAX NEWS. March 6, 2009: The AARP is offering free tax return preparation by AARP volunteers at the White Plains Senior Center, 65 Mitchell Place, White Plains, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursday 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. All taxpayers, with low to moderate income are eligible to receive free help in preparing federal and state tax returns. Electronically filed returns are prepared to speed tax refuns at the Center. For info, contact George Curtis AARP Tax Coordinator.
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WPCNR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY. By the WPCNR ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER. March 6, 2009: The professional liquidators taking care of the business of wiping Fortunoff in White Plains and the “Forties” at points West and East off the face of the earth, stepped up the advertising from last week’s lone Advertising Operative (man with sign in front of store) to this mobile billboard circulating about the streets of White Plains yesterday.
A sad sight. Soon Fortunoff’s will be just a pleasant retail memory only old-time shopoholics remember. Photo by the WPCNR Roving Photographer
Who remembers now Wallachs, Floorscheim Shoes, Knapps Shoes, Borders, B. Altman & Company, Robert Hall, Saks Fifth Avenue, JC Penney, Woolworths 5 and 10, and in more recent memories: Korvettes (pronounced Core Vetties), Caldor’s, Crazy Eddie (His Prices Are Insane), A & S, Pipe & Bowl? When every store you strolled by was interesting to go into? Well, most every store.
Like old baseball fans,when serious shoppers like my mother get together, these are the experiences they swap, remember, and trade, talking about the great bargains they had, the certain feel of their favorite store, the great buys they got, the in-store cafes and snack bars. Where is that stimulus by way Washington? Have we stimulated the banks, the brokers, the investment banks, the insurance companies, the mortgage companies and taken care of our rich buddies enough already? Buddy can you just lower the principal of my loan just a tad? All I want is a few grand — not 40 Billion.
Will we wait until the last store has left the malls?
Who has White Plains lost this year? Fortunoff, Borders, The Corner Nook (which could still have been in business by the way if not for the Common Council), Circuit City, Filene’s Basement, Todai, the Japanese seafood place, not too mention the stores closed from construction projects not started, 10 shops along Mamaroneck Avenue and some shops in the Galleria, which continues to draw traffic, a bright spot. However, The Westchester is not drawing very well at all, except for The Apple Store which draws customers lots of them every hour of the day. The Westchester Pavilion has good draws at MacDonald’s and Sports Authority, but without Borders, they hurt.
Malls have to think about knocking out their outrageous parking fees down to zero. The City has to declare a Sales Tax Free day or a cut in the sales tax for one day a week, as my colleague Jim Benerofe suggests. We still have the best shopping in Westchester, the safest city, a fine restaurant line up if a tad expensive, but the Iron Tomato, City Limits, Dorry’s Diner, Brooklyn’s Famous Pizza and Subs, the pizza stops, fill in the gaps for us deadbeat reporters, but the Malls need help.
Shop White Plains Card Coming
The BID (Business Improvement District) is about to launch a “Shop White Plains” Card for its BID Members, but it has to do a lot more than just offer discounts, and it needs to be out there soon. Or at least free-parking or a get-out-of-a-parking ticket free pass with purchase. Parades are not the only answer.
Get some of those Street Ambassadors to explain the new parking machines that the White Plains Department of Parking Commissar of Coin has installed. Mr. Moroni is the most efficient of the city Commissioners, perhaps a little too efficient, since the reputation of the Parking Enforcement Officers has spread worldwide.
No offense, Mr. Commissar, you are just doing your revenue raising mission, and that is a good thing within reason.) However, everytime I go out to park in White Plains, I end up having a person come up to me asking me “how do I use this machine?” like they used to ask how to play a jukebox in the 50s. I am not making this up. The machines are not “well-signed.” That has to be fixed.
Young and old alike stop me for explanations of the machines. It happens to me too often to not mean that understanding the “Moroniolas” is not a problem. Despite the fast-moving “Black and White Scat Cars” of the Parking Enforcement Elite Strike Force
(I am just having fun with a purpose, Parking Enforcement Officers. White Plainsians, who pay parking fines, appreciate your professionalism and quick-strike capability and respect it, and you have made us agonizingly sensitive to each tick of the clock, measuring out our lives in 15 minute, 25 cent segments, which perhaps kills off that last minuter impulse purcahse. It is fortunate White Plains Parking Violations does not have the death penalty, because we’d be targeted nationally.)
But it is significant that parking fine collections were down $800,000 the first 7 months of the year. People are either getting the message all too well that parking is a nightmare in White Plains, or it’s the economy. Could it be a little of both?
Where is the Under Assistant West Coast Sharp Promotion Man or Woman?
We need serious promotion of this city, here. Coordinate sales in stores better with the gazillion parades. On the Juneteenth Parade every minority from miles around should be in this city this year. Make it an Obama Day!
Or, not too late to do this: How about $5, $1, whatever off every purchase if wearing green on St. Pat’s Day? Come on BID, bail your merchants out, make a start. The Shop White Plains Card is a good idea…but let’s make it really valuable.
Have a talent show downtown.
Keep the Wheels in WP
You also have to do something to make people buy cars in White Plains — not in Mamaroneck, Yonkers, or on Central Ave. Offer some sort of big sales tax reduction: Buy a car in White Plains, we pay a quarter of your sales tax, or something like that. Once the car dealers start pulling out of WP you are really hurting and they won’t be back. You have to help them survive
Help Media Help
Where are the radio station remote broadcasts of the past that used to draw traffic? Of course, you don’t have radio stations today that are part of the community or consider themselves a part of it -they are promotionally brain dead. I cannot remember when I last tuned in WFAS, WVOX or WHUD. No news, just sports, and the school closings. Bring back Bob E. Lloyd! Murray Bennett. There is no good reason to listen to FAS anymore. But, if they started serving the community, maybe we would. Radio station remotes would bring that back.
I cannot remember when I saw the WFAS truck in White Plains. And how about News 12 giving a White Plains News Cast or segment in their regular programming? I know one guy who could do it — Peter Katz, but no matter who does it News 12 should do it. If worse comes to worse the BID could buy a simple promotion segment on News 12 and promo the city progress and News 12 could run it. A News 12-a-thon in White Plains during one of the parades. or even on a non-parade weekend — say July 4 — what a good thing.
Department of Promotion, Please
You have to make White Plains attractive to shoppers again. Is anyone thinking out there in the downtown? Has anyone noticed how empty our premier malls are?
Though we are the place to drink and date in Westchester County, and the safest place to eat and drink, thanks to the White Plains Department of Public Safety (moving vio tickets with a smile, DUIs tenderly, understandingly handled, disorderly conducts smoothly conducted away), and despite issuing liquor licenses at the fastest pace in the free world, White Plains needs to tell our shopping story better as a community before all the stores leave.
Remember once a big box store leaves, and you have to give them incentive to come in again and that usually costs us a lot more than it does to keep them here but running professional promotions — more of them — not that I am saying the city has not tried to promote itself well in the past — but the time to promote more is when things are going bad. Not pull back.
I am sorry if I offended anyone, this was just supposed to be a dab of melancholy, but I hate what that picture says at the top of this column and we have to bring our goods to the people, provide good value and incentive to buy. Even if people are watching their dollars, what dollars they spend should be here. Especially if they live here.
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WPCNR THE WALLET REPORT. New York State Department of Labor. (EDITED) March 6, 2009: The state labor department today reports 1,900
Johnnie Nelson, Labor Analyst for the Department of Labor in White Plains speculated to WPCNR that the rise in unemployed residents to the large number of commuting residents to New York City and the surge in layoffs in the financial sector. He described White Plains unemployed as tax-paying residents who list White Plains as their home, but not necessarily where they were employed.
The Westchester County Unemployment Rate is running ahead of the
The last time
This number of unemployed has been climbing, up a full percentage point in a month. This is the fourth consecutive month unemployment in the county has risen. Unemployment has gone from 25,000 county residents in October to 33,600 in four months. The total amount of unemployed persons in the county has almost doubled in 13 months from 18,200 in December of 2007 to 33,600 as of mid-January.
Elsewhere…
For the 12-month period ending January 2009, private sector employment in the
Labor market analyst observation:
The region’s labor market deteriorated in 2008 as it lost 13,000 private sector jobs for the 12-month period ending January 2009. Of particular concern is the region’s construction industry, which has long enjoyed modest job gains despite growing national job losses. Between January 2008 and January 2009, the job count in this sector was down 2,500 or 4.9 percent. With more layoff announcements looming on the horizon, the region’s economy will continue to feel the effects of the deepening
The Labor Department defines an “unemployed person” included in these statistics as follows:
Labor force, employment and unemployment data are based on the same concepts and definitions as those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample survey of households that is conducted for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Definitions of these concepts follow:
Civilian Labor Force is the sum of civilian employment and civilian unemployment. These individuals are civilians (not members of the Armed Services) who are age 16 years or older, and are not in institutions such as prisons, mental hospitals, or nursing homes.
Civilian Employment includes all individuals who worked at least one hour for a wage or salary, or were self-employed, or were working at least 15 unpaid hours in a family business or on a family farm, during the week including the 12th of the month. Those who were on vacation, other kinds of leave, or involved in a labor dispute, were also counted as employed.
Civilian Unemployment includes those individuals who were not working but were able, available, and actively looking for work during the week including the 12th of the month. Individuals who were waiting to be recalled from a layoff, and individuals waiting to report to a new job within 30 days were also considered to be unemployed.
Unemployment Rate is the number of unemployed as a percentage of the labor force.
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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From the NYISO, (EDITED) March 5, 2009: In response to Assemblyman Richard Brodsky’s charge based on the American Public Power Association report of McCullogh Research that NYISO overseeing of the wholesale electric markets costs New York consumers $2.2 Billion annually in excess payments, at a hearing today in Albany, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) reported today in testimony to the New York State Assembly that 2008 wholesale electricity prices, adjusted for fuel costs, were 18% lower than prices in 2000 when the markets began operating in New York, a $2.23 Billion reduction in wholesale electricity costs on a current annual basis, raising the question of whose numbers are correct.
“While the cost of fuel has driven the cost of electricity higher in recent years, the numbers here in New York show that, after adjusting for the cost of fuel, the markets have produced wholesale energy prices approximately ten percent lower than they were in the year 2000. In fact, if it had not been for the increases in the cost of fuel, (italics ADDED, WPCNR) competitive markets would have yielded wholesale prices for electricity, including both generating capacity and energy, 18 percent lower than in the year 2000, or over $2 billion on a current annual basis,” said Stephen G. Whitley, NYISO President & CEO.
In his testimony, Whitley noted the significant impact of fossil fuel prices on electricity costs, “The greatest variable cost in generating electricity in fossil fuel plants is the cost of fuel. Needless to say, the costs of oil and natural gas are governed by world energy prices, beyond the control of the New York ISO or the State of New York. Despite this, the wholesale energy markets in New York have been effective to control other costs. In the second half of 2008, wholesale electricity prices in New York declined significantly as natural gas prices dropped. Natural gas prices decreased by 43 percent from June to December, and the statewide average cost of wholesale power dropped by 51 percent in that same period.”
Con Edison bills up, not down.
(Editor’s Note: WPCNR feels obliged to point out though, Mr. Whitley’s testimony considered, the reported “wholesale power drop” did not correspond to Consolidated Edison’s dramatic price increases to White Plains consumers on a real time usage basis in October, December and January. Consolidated Edison attributed this to Con Edison power purchasers purchasing electricity futures with hedge contracts which were being made up due to a lag between when power was contracted for and when it was used by the White Plains consumer.
As reported on White Plains Week, Con Edison Supply Costs to White Plains electric users went up 345% between December and January from 2.86 cents per kwh in November to 9.85 cents per kilowatt hour in January, according to Consolidated Edison bills.
The overall electric bill went up 59% from December through January, from 11.06 cents in November to 17.81 cents in January. WPCNR and White Plains await the March bill as we write.
Con Edison explanation for this at the time as reported on White Plains Week was the way Con Edison purchases power through long-term contracts and hedge contracts for purchasing electric power at a pre-determined price. )
Mr. Whitney continued.
“However, the recent drop in fossil fuel prices, and the decrease in demand linked to a troubled economy, must not lull us into complacency about planning for New York’s energy future, ” Whitley cautioned. ” Without sustained investment in diverse, non-polluting energy resources and the transmission infrastructure needed to transport these clean and renewable power supplies to high demand areas, New York’s electricity consumers will continue to see power price swings tied to volatile fossil fuel prices.”
He noted that New York’s wholesale electricity markets have produced an array of benefits, including:
•
Renewable “green power” resources are flourishing in New Yorko
There are now more than 1,000 MW of wind generation in operation and over 8,000 MW of renewable resource projects proposed for grid connection.•
Investment has added new generation and transmission serving New Yorko
Since 2000, over $5.5 billion has been invested to build more than 6,000 MW of new generation, with more than 80% sited where demand is greatest (New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley). New transmission facilities, with investments of nearly $1 billion, have increased the capacity connecting New York and neighboring markets by nearly 1,000 MW.•
Demand-side programs have developed and expanded in New York marketso
There are more than 2,000 MW in NYISO demand response programs, which provide incentives for electricity customers to reduce their power use during times of peak demand. The size of the programs, equivalent to four large power plants, has grown more than 10-fold since the inception of New York electricity markets.“Fair and competitive markets are fundamental to some of the important goals we seek to achieve, such as the investment in renewable resources, increasing our fuel diversity and independence, which leads to a cleaner environment, and the addition of jobs to our struggling economy,” Whitley said.
“The current pricing method provides greater efficiency and the ability to monitor bidding effectively, thus providing transparency and protection to consumers. It creates a marketplace that enables smaller generators, such as wind and other renewable power providers, to compete more fairly and effectively with larger traditional power producers. Now is the time for us to move forward to build more enabling infrastructure – transmission and Smart Grid enhancements – to allow greater penetration of renewables, enhance energy efficiency, increase fuel diversity, lower emissions, and lower costs to consumers,” he stated.
The full text of the testimony is available on the NYISO website (www.nyiso.com).
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The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) –
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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From Consolidated Edison. March 5, 2009 UPDATED 6:31 E.S.T.: The Media Communications Department of Consolidated Edison asked by WPCNR what their reaction was to New York Assemblyman Brodsky hearing today held to explore how the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) sets electric rates that cost New Yorkers more than any other markets which have regulated electricity, released the following statement:
The study (conducted by the American focuses on power supply costs, which usually comprise more than half the customer’s bill. Con
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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications. March 5, 2009 EDITED:
See the message at: http://www.westchestergov.com/news_spanovideoecon.htm
In the message on the county’s Web site and on YouTube, Spano states that the county government is “well prepared to meet the challenges ahead.”
“We go over the county budget line by line every year and make adjustments based on changing economic times… That’s one of the reasons why we are the only county in the state with triple A bond ratings from all three rating agencies. And why we have been able to keep county taxes down to an average of 2.6 percent over the past five years,” he said in part. “… While we cannot predict what lies ahead, we do not expect to have to take drastic actions that would result in the loss of jobs or jeopardize vital county services:”
WPCNR notes that the county is in such financial shape it hired two replacements for the departed aid to the Westchester County Board of Legislators, at the cost of $50,000 and $80,000 each.
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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, 92nd District. March 4, 2009: Over the last year, readers of WPCNR know it has been the only medium in the metropolitan area to report the amazing runup and slow spiraling down of Con Edison electric rates that dramatically outpaced the rate of inflation (blamed partly on the “run-up” of oil prices and natural gas prices) and took a long time to come down after inflation cooled in the fall of 2008.
Most recently a report on the WPCNR television show, White Plains Week revealed for the first time that Westchester electricity consumers do not pay the actual cost of generating the electricity as they consume it, they pay a pre-negotiated price hedging against “anticipated” costs at the time of consumption. A Con Edison spokesperson confirmed to WPCNR last month that consumers pay more for electricity than producing it actually cost and sometimes they pay less. The customer does not pay the real-time cost of producing the electricity they use. WPCNR also reported that Con Edison hedging sets prices months in advance of when customers use it.
WPCNR also pointed out last fall how the New York Independent Systems Operator charges a median price for electricity bought off the NYISO market, setting one price for all, which may be much higher than the lowest supplier’s cost of producting electricity.
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Greenburgh has noticed, too. He is aware of this odd purchasing arrangement and is holding a hearing Thursday on a bill he and others are sponsoring to ban the “Market-Clearing Price” mechanism and save New York consumers $2.2 billion a year.
Brodsky in a news replease, cited a report by McCullough Research entitled “New York Independent System Operators Market Clearing Price Auction is Too Expensive for New York” which reveals $2.2 billion in excessive electric bills for New Yorkers, caused by a system that sets artificially high prices for electricity through its “Market-Clearing Price” auctions. These auctions, according to the report are designed by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), a private, not-for-profit entity that operates the market for electricity in New York State, require all buyers of electricity to pay the highest price available in the market on any given day, rather than the lowest price.
In the news release announcing the hearing, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities, said that New Yorkers now pay the fourth-highest electric bills in the nation.
In comparison to New York, states that have regulated electricity markets offer the lowest cost of electricity at 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, while other deregulated electricity markets provide electricity at 13 cents per kilowatt-hour as of November 2008.
The McCullough Research report quantifies the excess payments made by New York electric utility customers at $2.2 billion annually (the report is attached). The reasons for the excess payments include:
“The question to ask is why New Yorkers should pay 2.2 billion more than they would under a different system,” said Robert McCullough. “The current system at the New York ISO is neither transparent nor efficient. A system that relies on long term contracts with generators has the potential to provide lower prices and reduce the high and volatile prices from the ISO’s markets. We should facilitate this transition immediately. In the interim, the New York ISO should adopt rules that reveal bids, bidders, and the algorithm that turns bids into prices. In addition, restricting bids to verifiable marginal costs would provide immediate benefits to consumers.”
“New York’s government should not permit $2.2 billion to be taken out of the pockets of electric customers for no good reason. The market-clearing price auction sets prices at the highest level. It is absurd and destructive. The system of deregulation that the Pataki administration and the Public Service Commission forced down our throats over ten years ago has been a complete failure,” said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. “We believe we can lower energy bills ten percent through our legislation (A.1563), by eliminating the market-clearing price.”
In February, a report http://www.appanet.org/files/PDFs/EMRICompetitiveMarket.pdf by the American Public Power Association (APPA) also found that wholesale electricity markets, such as those run by the NYISO, has not produced the low prices that were promised under electricity industry deregulation. The APPA criticizes the secret manner in which the NYISO operates and the inefficient, arcane rules that drive prices higher.
The Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, and the Assembly Committee on Energy will convene a joint hearing on Thursday, March 5, at 10:30 a.m. in Hearing Room C in the Legislative Office Building to discuss pending legislation to ban the “Market-Clearing Price” mechanism and save New York consumers $2.2 billion a year.
“I look forward to working with Assemblyman Kevin Cahill who has been an active voice of reforming the energy system in New York State,” said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky.
Witnesses include the NYISO, the Public Service Commission, Robert McCullough, Con Ed, and the Working Families Party among others. The full panels of witnesses testifying are listed below:
· New York Independent System Operator, Public Service Commission
· Robert McCullough, Professor Tim Mount, American Public Power Association, Public Utility Law Project, NYPIRG, Working Families Party
· Con Edison, Central Hudson, NYSEG, RGE, National Grid, PASNY
· Consumer Protection Board
· Manufacturers Association, Council of Industry, Endicott Interconnect
· Independent Power Producers of New York, Alliance for Clean Energy
Legislation to end the market clearing price (A.1563) is sponsored by Assemblymembers Brodsky, Lifton, Bradley, Colton, Destito, Gunther, Jaffee, Koon, Millman, Reilly, P. Rivera, Zebrowski, Gottfried, Fields, O’Donnell, Spano, Peralta, Kellner, Greene, Brennan, Russell, Espaillat, Heastie, Rosenthal, Benjamin, and Jeffries.
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WPCNR THE HOUSING NEWS. From Cappelli Enterprises March 5, 2009 (Edited)– Cappelli Sales & Marketing has announced its very own stimulus program for Westchester County today where agents can earn over $100,000 in bonuses this year selling Cappelli apartments and condominiums.
When an agent sells a new home at any participating Cappelli property they earn the standard three percent commission. However, when they sell a second Cappelli home they receive a $5,000 bonus in addition to their three percent commission. The bonuses increase incrementally by $2,500 for each new home sold. For example, the bonus for a third sale is $7,500, $10,000 bonus for a fourth, $12,500 for a fifth and so on. An agent who sells ten homes this year from Cappelli properties would receive a total of $135,000 in bonuses in addition to the 3 percent commissions.
“Our message to the brokerage community is quite simple — You keep selling and we’ll keep paying,” said Marge Schneider, Executive Vice President of Cappelli Sales & Marketing. “This may sound like a challenge in today’s market but it can be done. Last year we had one broker who brought us eight deals,” she said.
The Cappelli properties covered under this new incentive program include: The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester in
Ms. Schneider noted that the sales offices at the various Cappelli properties are reporting an increase in traffic in recent weeks. “We are seeing more and more buyers coming back into the market. We intend to build on that excitement by energizing brokers with this new bonus incentive program.”
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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. By John F. Bailey. March 3, 2009: The city is on target to make its sales tax despite a soft holiday season, Commissioner of Finance Gina Cuneo-Harwood told WPCNR Monday. According to January sales tax receipts, with 7 months gone in the fiscal year, the city is sitting on $28.8 Million Sales Tax collected and needs about $16.6 Million the next four months to meet their sales tax target of $45.4 Million.
If retail sales remain the same as 2007 the next five months as they did last year the city will make it easily, generating $15.8 Million in sales through May, when the budget has to be approved and stands, even with a decline of 12% in June sales, will still generate $21 Million in sales coming in at $49 Million in sales tax for the year
However if the 12% decline in sales that appeared in the holiday quarter prevails the city will generate only $620 Million in retail sales that will produce only $14 Million in sales tax giving the city only $43 Million by the end of May. You could say that the strong June of last year even if it declined 12% due to the economy would still give the city $4.5 Million to close the year so the city looks good for abou $47.5 Million sales tax even if sales continue to be off 10 to 12 % the next four months.
This January, the sales tax is 2-1/4 %. It appears that retail sales for January are flat – even though the city still generated the same $200,000,000 in spending they saw last January. The net sales tax is slightly ahead of what 2-1/4% should bring in, which is good news.
Commissioner of Finance, Gina Cuneo-Harwood said, though, that last quarter was up in the first month (October, 08), so she is not as confident that the city will make its projection, since Fortunoff and
To date the city has collected $28 Million. However to do that the city needs to bring in $16.1 Million, (without Fortunoff and
How does it look? From February through April last year taxing at 2%, the city generated $10.4 Million in Sales Tax. In May and June the city collected 8.2 Million.
Retail sales in February of last year were an estimated $180,000,000; in March, $180,000,000; April, $175,000,000; May, $170,000,000; and in June, the city did $220 Million in retail sales to generate an all-time record sales tax for a month of $4,794,423. However, with inflation basically at zero now, and major price-cutting in effect, those levels may be off from 2007 levels.
Should the city generate the $950 Million retail sales from February through June it generated in 2007 (before the current recession), it will earn $21 Million in sales tax easily making its sales tax target, even surpassing it, hitting $49 Million even in a down economy.
With the additional ¼%, and if retail sales do not slump off last year’s levels, the city may make their $45 Million. February and March will say a lot.
If the city continues its 12% decline in retail sales it experienced in the last quarter, that does not necessarily jeopardize this year’s sales tax target, but bodes ill for next year’s budget. It raises the question of whether the city should budget for more sales tax than the $45.4 Million expected this fiscal year.
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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. By John F. Bailey. March 2, 2009 UPDATED March 3, 2009 6 P.M. E.S.T.: The City Assessor presented the final 2009 Tax Assessment Roll Monday, and it reports city assessments declined $1.6 Million more than the $288.4 Million previously reported January 2 to $286.8 Million. It means an automatic 3% tax increase for the school district budget. If your home is worth $700,000, assessed value of $15,100, your School Tax goes to about $8,000.
If the city budget does not go up past this year’s budget of $161.7 Million, your City Tax hits $2,770, up $50 and your county tax hits $2,400. Total tax bill estimated, $13,370 and perhaps rising another $1,000 if — if the city raises its budget. As the school district and city continue to build their budgets with income projections softening, the taxpayer can well be apprehensive.
The City of White Plains 2009 Final Assessment Roll Reaches Out and Touches Your Wallet.
The total decline in assessments year to year was $291,802,226 to $286,811,998, $8,200 shy of a $5 Million decline, down 1.7%. The City Assessed Value is $285.2 Million.
CERTIORARI HEMORRHAGE CREATES TAX SQUEEZE TO COME? If the tax refund trends of the mid-90s return to White Plains in the next two years, the school district and the city could face a major cetiorari hemorrhage. Note how, even with “modest” school budget increases in ’92.,’93.’94,’95, ’98 and ’99, when a certiorari “drain” hits the tax increase almost doubles to make up for it. To fund the current Preliminary School Budget, the school district is committed to an automatic 3% tax increase, because the recent round of assessment grievances have further dropped the tax roll $1.6 Million, making it off $5 Million, not $3.3 Million as previously projected, meaning a 3% tax increase, not a 2% tax increase
The $1.6 Million decline since January 2, is directly the result of 251 successful assessment challenges at the Board of Assessment Review of 855 filed with the City Assessor in January. If other school district revenues decline significantly as expected, the school tax rate increase could move up to 5.3%
The decline means the
The Preliminary Budget could conceivably call for an additional 2.3% tax increase to 5.3%. This scenario might happen if the $2.5 Million in state school aid (currently at $15.3M ) is taken away as the school district anticipates, and if the MTA tax on school districts that would hit up the district for $325,000 is enacted. Of course if school district revenues of $38 Million (including Payments in Lieu of Taxes) decline, the tax rate will go up accordingly, possibly beyond 5.3%
Don’t Forget the STAR BANDITS “Take”
Mr. and Mrs. And Ms. White Plains might also be expected by Governor David Paterson and the State Legislature to kick back an additional 18% of the BASIC and ENCHANCED STAR that will add just a tad of a surcharge to your taxes. On the $700,000 home the BASIC STAR cut costs the under-65 taxpayer an additional $224 (using the $519/$1,000 tax rate we have calculated). The over-65 taxpayer enjoying ENHANCED STAR definitely will have his or her tax bill enhanced even more negatively, contributing an additional $507. The senior ENHANCED CUT is significantly more impacting than the BASIC Cut.
A Disturbing Trend Continues
This was the sixth decline in the City Assessed Value in the last seven years of the Delfino Administration, going back to 2003-2004, despite the city “Renaissance.” Prior to 03-04, the assessment roll had increased three out of five years, with the roll advancing in 2000-01, 2001-2002, and 2002-2003.
That has been the unfortunate history of equalization rate fallout. Two years after a drop, the certiorari filings mount creating havoc on the tax roll and pain in school tax payers’ budgets.
Previously when the Equalization Rate declined 25%, 60 point drop from 6.35% in 2001-02 to 4.71% in 2002-2003, this resulted in a $9 Million Dollar decline in Assessed Valuation for the School District in 2004-2005, the most devastating drop since 1999-2000.