2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)
WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Chair of the Westchester County Board of Legislators Benjamin Boykin. November 10, 2020:
On Tuesday morning, the Westchester County Board of Legislators received County Executive George Latimer’s proposed operating budget for 2021.The Board will begin its review of the proposal on Thursday, November 12, at 10 a.m. when our Budget and Appropriations Committee convenes to start its annual, deep dive into the budget, County department by County department.
As always, our review and oversight process will include not only these meetings but also opportunities for public input as well as analyses from our auditors.We invite you to use the Budget Dashboard section of our website at https://www.westchesterlegislators.com/fy2021-budget-dashboard to follow along as we undertake our review.
COUNTY EXECUTIVE LATIMER ON THE BALANCING ACT (Westchester County Video) Click white > arrow in lower left of above screen to play this clip,will begin in 3 seconds after clicking arrow)
WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. November 10, 2020:
Westchester County Executive George Latimer today proposed a $2.091 Billon 2021 County Budget that was balanced with no carryover of the dire deficit piled up in 2020.
This was made possible in part by federal covid-19 Aid that was not entirely used and carried over to 2021, preserving the present level of the County’s reserve fund, after it was spent for balance what is believed to a major portion of the deficit caused by Covid and County economic lockdown.
The estimated $80 Million deficit in sales taxes created by the devastating impact on sales tax revenues of the coronavirus combined withn the county’s optimism of the effect of the 1% sales tax increase revenues budgeted for ($147 Million) in 2020 was made up by several positive steps the county took to precut 2020 expenditures the last 5 months.
The “Voluntary Separation Incentive” proposed by the county executive resulted in 226 persons leaving county service August 1. Cuts of positions of approximately 55 persons (presumably taking the retirement program offered by the county in August in reaction to the plummet in county revenues) created part of the savings.
Increased mortgage taxes balanced some of the revenue due to the unprecedented boom in high priced real estate all summer long, but that was not quantified in today’s presentation. But is up strongly due to the increase in real estate prices for upscale homes.
The key to balancing the 2020 deficit was the Covid Aid the County received for Covid expenses. The county spent part of it for covid related expenses, hunger relief, the Business First progra health department expenses.
Fortunately for the county, all the Covid money was spent. The remainder went to the County Reserve Fund, which enabled the county to replenish the Reserve Fund at the 2020 level, Mr. Latimer indicating that part of the existing 2020 Reserve fund was used to finish 2020 balanced.
The budget assumes there will be a 20% cut in state aid. The budget in the official press release says “As a result this (2021) Budget must rely on drawing all of our projected increase.”
( Editor’s note: the projected increase in the reserves was created, by leftover covid surplus, sent to the 2020 reserves.)
Mr. Latimer said: “the county was able to secure direct
Federal assistance under both the Families First and CARES Acts. This allowed
the county to fund the additional costs that have arisen due to the pandemic as
well as maintain essential county services.”
Going forward, Mr. Latimer said the county was budgeting $696 Million in sales tax revenues in 2021, (about $80 Million less , he said)than the approximately $147 Million budgeted for 2020).
The estimated sales tax revenue in 2021 actually is in line with what the sales tax revenues should finish 2020 at according to WPCNR estimates at the last state sales tax report in October.
Latimer said the county expects to make $662 Million in 2020 through December, which he points out in the county budget news release as being $80 million below the $742 Million projected in 2020 that did not materialize.
The budget increases economic development money, housing assistance, and food insecurity programs by $5 Million each. There are no layoffs, no furloughs, no service cuts and no borrowing for pension funds.
The Capital Budget in the 2021 budget that appropriates $231.8 million in new appropriations for capital projects, the news release on the budget states. It includes $112 million to improve the environment including a food scrap recovery facility, 100 Hybrid replacement buses and electric vehicle charging stations.
On his weekly morning appearance on Dennis Nardone’s WVOX 1460 Radio (recently determined the Number One listened-to morning show in Westchester) program this morning, Westchester County Executive George Latimer on the air at 7:10 AM announced his 2021 County Budget will cut property taxes by $1 Million (affecting each community resident differently depending on tax values), and also cut county spending by $15 Million.
Latimer said the county would adjust the budget, IF during the year more covid-related and economic setbacks developed AND the economic recovery and revenues should soften.
The County Executive reveals the details at 10 AM today in a news conference.
WPCNR CORONAVIRUS REPORT.From Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. November 9, 2020:
Today, drug maker Pfizer announced early data from Coronavirus vaccine trials that the vaccine it is developing is more than 90 percent effective. This is great news.
But until a vaccine becomes a daily reality we must continue to be cautious. Until then, our job stays the same: Stop the spread. Each and every one of us.
This task is as crucial now as it is difficult. Unfortunately, we expect COVID cases to continue to rise this fall and winter.
We are in a new, extremely difficult phase of this pandemic, and we must continue to safeguard our health and the health of our community by following the simple steps we know to be effective. It’s been months. We all have COVID fatigue but we cannot give in.
As our national numbers climb, New Yorkers must respond with more commitment to wearing masks, distancing and doing all we can to stop this powerful virus.
Chart of the Day:
In our micro-cluster strategy, we implement different restrictions for each zone and have a clear criteria to determine when an area enters or exits a zone. Here’s what else you need to know tonight:
1. We have made modifications to existing micro-clusters and added new ones. The Red Zone in Brooklyn changes to an Orange Precautionary Zone and there are new Yellow Zones in Erie County, Monroe County and Onondaga County, in areas of those counties that met the threshold for establishing these new zones. More information and the maps of current cluster zones can be found here.
2. The positivity rate in the micro-cluster focus areas was 4.32 percent yesterday. The statewide positivity rate excluding these areas was 2.69 percent. Of the 111,416 tests reported yesterday, 3,144, or 2.82 percent, were positive. Total hospitalizations were at 1,444. Sadly, we lost 26 New Yorkers to the virus.
3. It took just ten days for total COVID cases in the US to go from nine million to ten million. Unfortunately, the virus is surging across the country, almost without exception. The accelerating rate of new cases is especially worrying. I know we are all tired, but once again, we must treat this crisis with the seriousness it calls for.
4. A Long Island country club lost its liquor license after hosting an illegal, super-spreader wedding. As we have seen time and time again, large gatherings can unfortunately turn into super-spreader events.
The State Liquor Authority has suspended the liquor license for the North Fork Country Club following a wedding which violated pandemic-related guidance. A total of 113 guests attended—more than double the number allowed—leading to 34 COVID-19 infections, and scores of people in quarantine. New York will not tolerate illegal and dangerous mass gatherings.
Tonight’s “Deep Breath Moment”: In Savannah, Georgia, six-year-old Bethany is helping the homeless in her neighborhood. In 2019, at age five, she started “Bethany’s Happy Bags for the Homeless,” which distributes bags with items that homeless people might need, such as protein bars, first aid, toiletries and more.
Bethany’s work has continued throughout the pandemic and it turns out that compassion runs in the family. Bethany’s aunt, Patricia, from Poughkeepsie, New York, volunteers for her local Medical Reserve Corps and serves as an EMT. If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe to New York State’s Coronavirus Updates here.
