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.

If you do away with the Middle Class STAR Rebate — the White Plains upper brackets actually lose money, because in 2008 if you make $120,000 or less, the state will send you back $1,035.71. Make over $120,000 and less than $175,000 and you’ll be paid $778.82; from $175,000 Up to $200,000 you’ll be paid $517.88. A Circuit Breaker would eliminate this relief, while depending on the community where you live and its property taxes, you may or may not get more tax relief under a  circuit breaker.

In White Plains, only if you are retired on a fixed income below $250,000 do you make out better under a Circuit Breaker, and you have to deduct the Middle Class STAR Rebate you will not be getting. Whereas most persons get STAR Rebate regardless of property tax — the Circuit Breaker bases it entirely on property taxes and saves the state a lot of money — at least in White Plains, while costing Mr. and Mrs. And Ms. White Plains more.

If you own a median home in White Plains (a $680,000 to $700,000 house) you lose the Exemption and get virtually no relief under the circuit breaker.

Circuit Breaker Tax means Very Little to the average White Plains taxpayer. 

How would this effect the typical White Plains homeowner? Since White Plains property taxes are so low proportionately to the rest of the area, not much.

If you own a $700,000 home, (the median house value in White Plains), you pay $12,600 in property taxes. If you earn in adjusted gross income of more than $175,000 but less than $250,000, the amount of property tax you pay before you get Circuit Breaker relief kicks in, according to Assemblyperson Galef’s bill works out thusly:

A median home pays $12,600 in property taxes, the person earning $175,000 to $250,000 gets no relief on the median home because your threshold before the state pays you back anything is $16,000 for you $250,000-earners out there, and $14,000 for you earning $175,001.

If the STAR Rebate is killed and replaced with the Circuit Breaker, and you make a little less than $250,000 you are out $517.88 thanks to Circuit Breaker tax relief.

Million Dollar Home. You get nothing due to WP “low” taxes

If you own a $1 Million home in White Plains, your property tax is give or take, gets you a little back, because you’re paying about $14,000 in city, school and county property taxes; you still do not beat the $14,000 threshold of property tax. Again you lose the $517.88 in the STAR REBATE with this “Circuit Breaker” tax relief. (All assessments of homes are different, it should be kept in mind,  and the assessment dollar amounts used here are average property taxes at those home values, given out by the White Plains Assessor.)

$1.5 Million — Relief.

If you own a $1.5 Million home in White Plains — and earn less than $250,000, you get relief, because you’re paying $23,000 a year in city, country, and property taxes. So the person, say living in retirement (where they are not making $250,000 a year) in a White Plains home assessed at the $1.5 Million level would get 70% back from the state on $9,000 of property taxes or $6,300 — but not quite, the Circuit Breaker caps your refund at $5,000 — and you have to deduct the $517.88 in the STAR Exemption — your actual relief is not $5,000, but $4,482.  But, in reality, how many persons earn less than $250,000 a year and own $1.5 Million homes?

If by any chance you own a $2 Million home in White Plains and have income below $250,000 you are still capped at $5,000, and lose $517.88.

Lower Taxed Homes= Less Relief

In the lower taxed homes in White Plains there is little relief under Circuit Breaker, unless you‘re on fixed income, but I will get to that in a moment. It, too, works out less than the Middle Class STAR Rebate, let’s see how it works out in White Plains.

A $500,000 home pays about $9,000 in property taxes. If you make $175,999, 7% of that is your maximum property tax, you have to run up $12,250 in property taxes in White Plains before you get relief.  So you get nothing under Circuit Breaker.

On the lower run of this tier at $120,000 a year you have to runup $8,500 in property taxes before the state pays you back at the 70% rate, you’d get a $350 refund — less than the typical Middle Class STAR Rebate.

But these are White Plains rates, mind you. For this $350 refund, you lose a $776.82 Middle Class Star Rebate — you lose money under the Circuit Breaker plan as presently constituted if you live in White Plains.

I cannot emphasize enough the need for legislators across the county, (and across the state) to analyze this effect.

Lowest Valued Homes= No Relief Under Certain Conditions

A $400,000 home (about the lowest price you can get a home for in WP), pays about $5,000 in property taxes, so if you’re making $120,000 with a maximum property tax cap of 7% (you have to pay $8,400 in property taxes before you can get Circuit Breaker relief, so you get no relief under the Circuit Breaker plan.

If the Middle Class STAR Rebate is killed, you are getting no relief, if you make $120,000 on the 7% minimum property tax, and you’re losing $776.82. Is that tax relief? Only in very high property tax communities does the mathematics work. Does anyone know where those are?

Low Income Levels Short-changed.

If you are making $119,999 or less the state Circuit Breaker bill as presently constituted grants you a 6% property tax run up before the Circuit Breaker 70% rebate kicks in on the excess over 6% of your income. At this level you get some relief on a $400,000 or $500,000 home, the lower your income is below $119,999 the more the relief you get.

If you make $119,999 and own a $400,000 home there is no relief ($7200 required before property tax relief, and taxes are $5,000).

 If you own a $500,000 home you get $1,200 back from the state ( 70% of $1,800 the difference between $7200 and $9000, your White Plains property taxes.

However, this year you will get a $1,035.71 Middle Class STAR Rebate. If Circuit Breaker kicks in next year, your real property tax relief is $165! The state is saving money in White Plains with this Circuit Breaker.

Say you make $100,000, you get less relief, believe it or not. You must pay your first $6,000 in property taxes, so on a $400,000 home ($5,000 in taxes), there is no relief available.

On the $500,000 White Plains home, property taxing at $9,000, you get 70% of $3,000 back or $2,100. If the state takes away the Middle Class STAR Exemption, deduct $1.035.71 from that and your real Circuit Breaker Relief is about $1,064.

Median Income Owner pays more Property Tax.

The kicker is that if you are making a median income of $80,000 you get even less “relief” on the $400,000 home or the $500,000 home under Circuit Breaker.

You have to be paying $4,800 in property taxes to get any relief. The average taxes on the $400,000 home are  $5,000, so you get 70% of $200 that works out to $140 of property tax relief, and if the state has its way with this bill and kills the STAR Rebate, you pay $896 more in taxes. ($1,035.71 minus $140).

You lose money if the Middle Class STAR rebate is killed that currently pays you $1,035.71.

 On the $5,000 home, $9,000 is the average tax. Here the median income person gets a break.

 Deducting the $4,800 deductible, they have $4,200 in tax relief eligible to be multiplied by 70%, resulting in a property tax relief of $2,940. This is nice, but if you take away the Middle Class STAR Rebate of $1,035.71, the real relief is cut to $1,904.

The Retiree Benefits Most.

As you go up the  income ladder, the person who is retired living in an older home, does get relief if their income is low.

For example if you’re making say $110,000, you get relief after $7,000 is paid in property taxes. On the median home, you get a nice refund. ($12,600 — the property tax on a $700,000 White Plains home — minus $7,000 gives you $5,600 over your minimum property tax. You get 70% of that back –$3,920 very nice!)

But, if the STAR Rebate goes — this gets cut to $2,884. Still nice — if the school district doesn’t eat that up with a hefty 2009-2010 tax increase!

If you’re making $80,000 a year and living in a median home paid for — you get more of a tax back. Your minimum property tax is 4,800, then the state will give you back 70% of the remaining $7800 in property tax or $5,000. But don’t forget the loss of the STAR Rebate cuts the relief to $3,964.

For the White Plains family earning over $175,000 in homes at the median or above, there appears to be no advantage to the Circuit Breaker. The persons living on retirement incomes in older homes where property taxes have gone up appear to be the chief beneficiaries in White Plains.

The relief of the Circuit Breaker is more directed across the state. A 4% property tax cap, the financial model for White Plains of which has not been worked out yet.

When one works out the math, you can see why no “official” grids showing examples of the Circuit Breaker in effect have been issued to the media.

Legislators should do the math for their districts across the state on this one to see how it affects their constiuents.

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. August 18, 2008: Ron Velez of White Plains was approved Monday night by the Board of Education as the new Director of Management Information Systems for the White Plains City School District. Velez comes to the White Plains district, having been the Manager of Information Systems for the East Ramapo School District in Rockland County (Spring Valley).

Velez has been, according to Dr. Lenora Boehlert, Assistant Suprintendent for Human Resources, has been in his present position for eight years, and in information systems for 10 years before that. He has sixteen years of experience.

She said Mr. Velez is familiar with the Infinite Campus data management program recently purchased for the White Plains district at a cost of $300,000, because the East Ramapo District was in the process of adopting the same program. She said the East Ramapo district has not implemented it fully yet and is in the process of doing that. Dr. Boehlert reports that Mr. Velez has been engaged in implementing the Infinite Campus program in the East Ramapo district.

The new Infinite Campus system has been touted as the district answer to providing longitudinal information tracking that BOCES, its previous provided had been unable to provide. The BOCES system was contracted for previously because the current White Plains data management team of Lucy Roman and Larry Killian and been unsuccessful in implementing  longitudinal studies due to the limitations of White Plains data systems implemented in the late 1990s. Infinite Campus is expected to take three years before the staff and departments and faculty can fully make use of its capabilities.

Mr. Velez is expected to begin his new assignment with White Plains September 8, at a salary of $150,000 a year.

The East Ramapo School District proposed a school budget of $193.4 Million for 2008-2009, which was defeated by the voters. The district, in response, adopted an austerity budget that was actually more than the proposed budget due to the legislative actions in increasing school aid last spring, while the state secretly decreased the STAR exemption to pay for the increased aid. The District has 8,244 students as of the end of 2007, and is 59% Black, 22% Hispanic, and 11% white in demographic make-up.

Looking North from the southend of Silver Lake — scum and slime threequarters down the length of the lake  looking North– as of August 5.

The same spot above, shot from opposite White Plains shore, today, August 17. The murk of the cool night algae kill remains

Looking South to White Plains from the Harrison side, August 5.  The discoloration on the surface is slime and film.

Swans distastefully moving past the slime, August 5

Silver Lake August 5

Another campfire site along the trail lakeside on White Plains half of the lake, discovered August 5.

Silver Lake, August 17 looking to Harrison side.

 “BIALEEESCHTOCK AND BLOOOOOOME!” “The Producer-Pros” Robert Amaral (right) as Max Bialystock and Joel Newsome as his accountant sidekick,  Leo Bloom (left) are a team with their own style, chemistry, schtick and timing. Karyn McNay (the blonde always gets the ink on Broadway) as Ulla steals the show.

Observers of the Broadway stage version of The Producers, told your reporter WBT’s staging Thursday evening was as entertaining as the Broadway version with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, although Robert Amaral (Max) and Joel Newsome (Leo Bloom) were not Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. My consultants still thought it was terrific. As Mel Brooks might put it, “You’ll laugh til you plotz”

From the moment the two Usherette cuties, Karen Hyland and Tracy Wholf (in the slick below, in red)  snap you to visual attention in an inviting pas de deux in their spiffy uniform epaulets on Shubert Alley you’re whisked into bygone Broadway.  You listen in on what the critics and opening night audience are saying about Max Bialystock’s latest production,  Funny Boy! 

You’re hooked into the Damon Runyon world of the unscrupulous Broadway hustler. This nifty little number with the two cuties sets the tone as the bustle of a Broadway opening night excitement is stirred up like a glass swizzle stick swishes up a gin gimlet.

Mr. Amaral a comic mix of Jackie Gleason, Jack Lemmon, Jerry Orbach and Zero Mostel wild-eyed lunacy wins your sympathy, as every con-man does, from the first opening and closing night, when Max laments his fate singing The King of Broadway,  with various street ne’er do wells after critics kill his Funny Boy with a chorus of opening nighters singing comments like “we’re in shock, who produced this schlock?” Lyrics to die for throughout!

When Leo Bloom, played by the obsequious Gene Wilder look-alike, Newsome, comes to do Mr. Bialystock’s books, a  double shot of  champagne cocktail with a foamy stein of beer chaser of mirth, mayhem and hysteria raises the roof of the good old WBT.

Amaral and Newsome carry off a fast-talking, gag-every-five-seconds book, mesh with perfect comic timing, emote, overact, and go over the top for a full 2 hours and 45 minutes with 30 minute intermission included. The daffy duo drives this madcap, bratwurst and sausage stuffed, tasteless chaotic hoot of a play with the deadpans, the personalities of the masters Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder who created the roles.

They’re not Zero and Gene or Nathan and Matthew, but they are their own Max and Leo and the chemistry is there. Trust me, you’re gonna love it.

Amaral and Newsome should,  they’re Producer pros. They’ve played the parts on the road across the country. WBT has spared no effort to mount their own Producers as it should be mounted.

The blonde bombshell from the middle west, the iconette Karyn McNay, (also a veteran of The Producers road show) as the Swedish receptionist Ulla, (played by the fluffy Lee Meredith in the original movie), delightfully stops the show. She’s the top — every moment she flaunts, flows, undulates, and struts across the stage — giving us a combination of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Madonna as Ulla (lots of Swedish Last names) the hopeful who drops by Max’s office.

Just as Max and Leo do, Ms. McNay stops the train of thought and gets another train started — but does not stop the whip-crackling dialogue! Her Swedish accent is a little thick, but I am not going to quibble! She is worth going off to Rio with– but that would be telling too much. Here she works her wiles on Leo, Mr. Newsome after redirecting Max’s office.

Her precocious, naughty When you Got it Flaunt it when she delivers an audition for Max and Leo, reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe’s My Heart Belongs to Daddy — is a show-topper — in which she encourages all to “show their assets” among other things that gets the house laughing uncontrolably.

The audience  was in a fine mood, thanks to Leo’s deciding to move into the producing business with Max. You know the story, don’t you, pally? Leo, doing Max’s books suggests you could make more money with a flop. Max sees this as his salvation and pleads with Bloom to join him in “We Can do It!”

Joel Newsome’s  (Leo’s) dingy offices down on Chambers Street are cleverly created on the stage with a set of cubicles,  (great concept by scene designer Peter Barbieri, Jr.)where Bloom is dominated by a CPA who bridles at “the revolting stench of self esteem” in his accountants. Bloom decides he’s not going to take it any more and sings I Want to be a Producer” in a fine soft shoe. Ahh, the seduction of the great white way! I want to be a producer too.

Great set-up but the first act — an hour and a half of it — that flies by — introduces you to Max’s source of finances…the Little Old Ladies — typified by Hold-me Touch-Me, a “little old lady” whose hilarious lust breaks up the audience in a comic tryst with Max.  I have to tell you Amy Griffin as Hold-me Touch-Me grapples with Max hilariously here as he pleads with her for “the checky.”

The Producers, Max and Leo set off to find the worst play — Springtime for Hitler, A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva in the Burtesgarden. They go to meet the playwright tending his pigeons  played by Eric Anderson. What a character!  He makes them take the oath of allegiance to der Fuerher but you will see where this is going.

Then it’s off to find the world’s worst director, Roger De Bris where the duo meet a different world. They meet his companion and servant, the utterly divine Carmen Ghia played by John West, whose exits and entrances milk the audience for laughs until they are gasping.  He is too funny in his send-ups. It is illegal for Mr. West to be this funny. Mr. West is the gay man’s gay man. When Roger is finally introduced in drag, he first objects to doing the musical about Hitler, singing Keep It Gay, an admonishment to producers everywhere in selecting a play. Every scene in this play is stand-alone funny in and of itself.

Act One raps up with Max and the Little Old Ladies performing a song and dance routine with walkers ad Max sets about raising the cash with his “backers“ — you have to see how those walkers set a new standard in choreography props — and they all sing Along Came Bialy together. That’s Mr. West as Carmen Ghia on far right, front with Craig Fols as the director, Roger De Bris, with Max and Leo, of course.

After Act One’s assault on sensibilities and all that is politically correct, you need that 30-minute intermission. The energy of this cast is astounding and was rewarded with “bravos” going to intermission. But then it’s Broadway baby.

Act Two takes us to rehearsals and auditions — hilarious in and of themselves — and the playwright the obsessed Nazi adorer, Franz Liebkind wins the part of Hitler. As he arrives for opening night, he breaks his leg and Roger the director assumes the part.

Springtime for Hitler opens in the most outrageously outrageous, funny as Hell scene WBT has ever staged. Chorus girls with beer steins for headgear, draped in sausages and steins, German Eagles for headresses with brown shirted Nazi troopers singing Springtime for Hitler and Germany. Dazzling lighting by Andrew Gmoser makes the scene one you will always remember. It’s offensive. It’s schlock. It’s shock. Beyond tasteless. But hysterical. I defy you not to laugh. It goes on forever with bursting voluptuousness of bratwurst and the foamy head of a beer. I especially like the chorus girls in the little Panzer Tanks. Kudos to the costume guy, Matthew Hemesath.

You are then introduced to Craig Fols (Roger De Bris)  as Der Fuehrer who sings “Heil Myself” with Karyn McKay’s Ms.Ulla strutting herself once more. Fols is “over the roof” hysterical in this bit.

So the play is a hit. The critics love it. But the playwright feels mocked. He goes berserk and attempts to shoot Leo and Max, missing of course which ends Max up in a courtroom when the cops discover two sets of books.

How the muscial meanders its hilarious way to send us into the summer night grinning and satisfied, you cannot beat it. Be warned though — the jokes are dirty. The “F-word” is said. It is a sexy show. It is a show that has won the most Tonys in history. And by the way has grossed $214 Million on the road since 2002.

Highlights — Bob Amaral’s incredible soliloquy Betrayed where he recaps the entire play grousing about how things have turned out. Mr. Newsome’s  Til Him extolling male bonding.

The WBT real life “Producers” Bill Stutler and Bob Funking have assembled a huge cast, a bouncy, comically gifted orchestra and used video screens, multi-level stages and imaginative to their maximum creativity, and allowed veteran Producers-maven David Edwards to direct The Producers Producers. 

Edwards  the director, played Bialystock and Bloom in the First National Tour. He brings a sure, deft hand for timing, choregraphy and nuance that paces the madcap show that sprawls and ripples like a too tight dress on a buxom blonde — it’s overflowing, cleavage the works —  too much to take in all at once, yet  comprehensive, dramatic, and spectacularly schmaltzy and schnappsy to this box office sure-thing.

Hats off to the orchestra behind the scenes   under the baton of Leo Carusone — maniacal, frantic, Chaplinesque music…underplaying the singers splendidly.   Sound was slick throughout. Best set: the evocative perspective view out of Max’s office with the theatre marquees.

So you go see it twice, baby. And, did I mention you get dinner included in the price of your ticket? What a steal!

If you have not seen The Producers on Broadway, or have seen it, or not  seen the movie call for tickets now. But go see it again, and you won’t care about today’s economy.

You’ll also wish someone would produce a full-length musical Springtime for Hitler.

We also need a musical now about “The Developers.” I have plenty of material, Mr. Bialystock! Read this book!

My consultants, the Broadway experts say it is the best show WBT has ever done. Call the box office before it’s too late, 914-592-2222 or the WBT website box office, www.broadwaytheatre.com.

Seen on Press Night:

The dynamic former morning information and entertainment team on WFAS Radio encountered each other. The newsman who brought Westchester up to date, Peter Katz, (now appearing weekly on White Plains Week, left, and the morning man, Bob E. Lloyd who for decades read those school closings, and got Westchester off and working Monday through Friday. Mr. Lloyd came in especially for Press Night. It was good to see him again. It was good to see Mr. Katz, too, Westchester’s most distinguished and accurate news analyst.