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 COMMUTATION COMMENTATOR. From Westchester County Department of Communication. February 27, 2008: Effective Sunday, March 2, the basic Bee-Line coin fare will rise from $1.75 to $2.  A day earlier — Saturday, March 1 — the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will begin charging new prices for MetroCards which are also accepted on Bee-Line buses. The cost of a single ride MetroCard will remain at $2, however, with the change in the county coin fare from $1.75 to $2, New York City and Westchester bus fares will be identical as of March 2.

          “All transfers between local bus routes will become free under the new fare schedule,” said Spano.  “Coin-fare passengers on the Bee-Line who currently pay an extra 25 cents for a transfer will see that charge disappear.”  Transfer tickets will be good for boarding other Bee-Line local routes and for transfers to New York City local buses.  

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            The price for a single-ride MetroCard will remain at $2.  However, multiple-ride MetroCards still provide rider discounts.  Pay-Per-Ride MetroCards worth $8 will sell for $7 bringing the effective cost of a bus ride down to $1.75.  MetroCards provide free transfers to local buses and between buses and New York City subways.  Unlimited Ride MetroCards will reduce the single ride cost even more for people who ride frequently. 
            
             “We have been seeing more and more riders using MetroCards as opposed to cash,” said County Transportation Commissioner Lawrence C. Salley.  “With the uniform pricing between cash fares and MetroCard single fares, we anticipate even more MetroCard riders on our buses.” 
           

The increase in the coin fare on Westchester buses is designed to offset fuel and labor costs that have increased significantly in the last year, and to help pay for additional service on routes that have experienced ridership increases.  
           

“The new coin fare is expected to raise about half a million dollars a year,” Salley said. “This will help meet some of the increase in operating costs which has been approximately $5 million annually over the last few years.”

             Qualified seniors and passengers with qualifying disabilities will be able to ride at half-fare on the county’s and the New York City transit system, under both the coin and MetroCard reduced fare systems.  Reduced fare riders will pay $1 in coins and their transfers will also be free.  To transfer to subways, riders will need to use MetroCard.

            MetroCards are sold at many neighborhood stores in Westchester, Metro-North train stations and New York City subway stations.

            To find out more, call the Bee-Line Hotline at (914) 813-7777 or visit www.westchestergov.com/beelinebus.

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From the State Comptroller Press Office. February 27, 2008: State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today proposed measures to make Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) more accountable and financial reporting more accurate after a report released today found that IDAs continue to report project, job creation and other data that is inconsistent, incomplete and not independently verified.

DiNapoli outlined his recommendations in a report that examines the financial and employment trends of the 116 IDAs in New York State. His measures include:


State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today proposed measures to make Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) more accountable and financial reporting more accurate after a report released today found that IDAs continue to report project, job creation and other data that is inconsistent, incomplete and not independently verified.

DiNapoli outlined his recommendations in a report that examines the financial and employment trends of the 116 IDAs in New York State. His measures include:

• Tightening IDA annual reporting requirements. Under current law, an IDA’s authority to offer state tax exemptions is suspended if it fails to report complete or substantially complete annual financial information. Starting with the 2007 reporting year, the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) will be increasing its oversight of IDA reporting and generally accept only those audited annual financial statements that are in compliance. For example, an IDA which omits job information could have their ability to provide financial assistance suspended.
  
• Expanding his office’s oversight of IDAs and Local Government Development Corporations (LDCs) to include access to tax and wage data during audits.
  
• Calling for an increase in Executive programmatic oversight of IDAs through existing statutory oversight powers of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and Authority Budget Office (ABO) in the areas of job and wage verification.

• IDA Project Growth: IDA supported projects grew by 16 percent between 2003 and 2006, 41 percent of this growth occurred in service-related projects. Manufacturing-related projects declined by 4 percent during this period. By 2006, IDAs were supporting $41 billion in projects, led by the New York City IDA with $14.7 billion in projects.
  
• Activity Concentrated in Few IDAs: In 2006, six IDAs accounted for 40 percent of all projects. Those IDAs include New York City (539 projects), Monroe County (348 projects), Erie County (305 projects), Amherst (127 projects), Suffolk County (115 projects) and Nassau County (101 projects). The average IDA supported $246 million in projects, excluding New York City. Thirty-nine IDAs reported fewer than 10 projects in 2006, with six IDAs reporting only one project.
  
• Cost Per Job Created: IDAs claimed that cumulative employment grew by more than 228,000 jobs in the projects they supported by 2006. However, OSC found that IDAs did little to verify the accuracy of the information reported by individual employers. The annual cost per job created ranged from $0 to $121,818, with an average cost of $4,195.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. February 26, 2008: Over 300 persons including county officials, environmentalists, educators and concerned citizens gathered at Manhattanville College in Purchase today to hear County Executive Andrew Spano, and Reese Berman, Chair of the County Executive’s Task Force on Global Warming introduce a Westchester Action Plan that calls for the County to reduce its “carbon footprint” by 20% by 2015 and 80% by 2050.

The County Executive at the podium, emphasized “We can and must do this. We cannot fail.” His plan introduces steps the County, Municipal, Business, Education and Housing sectors can take to reduce their carbon emissions to begin to address the global warming crisis.  The plan and its suggestions may be viewed at www.westchestergov.com/globalwarming.

The County Executive said that institutions, businesses and communities and individual residents can find specific actions  on this site, that they can take to limit collectively the county output of greenhouse gases. Executive Spano reported the county’s next step involves municipalities and towns conducting an analysis of practices in effect now in their areas to assess the extebt if their community  Carbon Dioxide impact and consider/take steps to lower it by 2% a year.

County Executive Spano told WPCNR that existing county departments would monitor municipality and town efforts to analyze their community “carbon footprints.”  Executive Spano emphasized he was not anticipating creation of any new departments or personnel added to the County to administer this task, that present county departments would undertake the monitoring and whatever comes next.  

It was not clear from today’s conference the timelines communities, businesses and institutions would be given to cutback on their carbon emissions and how the county would address the situation if communities failed to reach targets, if they fell behind or did not comply.  The timelines were said  to be included in the plan on the website (the front page of which is below, http://www.westchestergov.com/globalwarming.

Reese Berman, chair of the Task Force said additional information for households, businesses and schools will be added to the on line website and more actions by the county will be forthcoming.  She said the county is setting a goal of 2% or more reduction a year in carbon emissions to cut them by 20% by 2015.  

Berman showed a slide indicating the 2005 County Collective C02 Emmissions. Residential Energy accounted for 30%; Transportation 38%, Non-residential energy, 29%, Waste, 3%. Spano noted that the county recycles about 80% of its garbage accounting for the 3% waste.

This she said would put the county on target for 80% reduction in the emissions by 2050. She spent most of her talk  explaining how the carbon-emission cutback steps are presented on the website for each sector: Municipalities, County Government, Education, Business, and Housing, and how they could be utilized by the sectors to  begin the carbon emmissions reduction.

The conference broke up into individual sessions on what the five sectors of Westchester would be expected to do to reach that goal.

Housing Panel unfolds in The French Parlor at the Manhattanville Castle in Purchase.

In the Housing segment WPCNR attended from 10:45 to 11:30 AM, the task appeared daunting. WPCNR observed that the individual homeowner has a long way to go. Dani Glaser of Croton-On-Hudson, the lead panelist emphasized that “Awareness is the first step to change.”

Susan Cember of Action for Tomorrow’s Environment,  observed that  “We should not underestimate the power of one,” and pointed out that the residential sector through their energy use is the largest contributor to county Carbon emmissions (37%).  She said the individual resident first has to determine their annual output of  the number of tons of carbon emissions their household puts out into the environment each year by going to the Nature Conservancy site, www.nature.org and clicking on the “Carbon Calculator.”

The Carbon Calculator Link is at lower left corner of the Nature Conservancy homepage which links you to the Calculator below:

Ms. Cember said her family’s  personal carbon footprint was 51 tons of CO2 per year. She said the average American family of four put out 110 tons of carbon dioxide per year, and that within the county the target was for each resident unit to limit their output to 22 tons of C02 per year. The goal of course would be to reduce to zero. The Calculator shown above  asks the consumer the amount of consumption of various energy sources each family uses.

Mary Ann Gallagher of Briarcliff Manor CAC, noted the enormity of the task facing the home consumer in cutting carbon dioxide output. She said that each homeowner would have to plant 30 trees a year to offset one year’s worth of carbon dioxide emissions. (For those of you who remember eighth grade Biology, trees take in carbon dioxide during the process of photosynthesis, and turn it into oxygen. )

Gallagher suggested how carbon dioxide emissions could be limited by cutting lawns to 3-inch heights, leaving grass clippings on the lawn, creating a compost pile where organic garbage could break down into fertilizer to mulch plants. She suggesting sprinkling and watering only during evening hours and working with your landscaping caretaker, or if you do your own yardwork, cutting back on fertilizers and using more environmentally friendly methods to nurture your plants. Organizations and businesses that can help you with this are provided on the website explaining the plan, if not now, they soon will be, the panelists assured the audience.

Judy Martin of  Green Home Consulting.

On what the individual homeowner or apartment dweller or apartment owner or residential dweller can do, Judy Martin suggested the major effort would involve saving energy. She said the most effective measure homeowners can do immediately is install high efficiency insulation in their homes. Next, would be lighting (switching to LED or CFL bulbs) and hotwater use measures, and to target heating and air conditioning use. Air sealing and duct sealing was recommended. Recycling was encouraged. If a major home renovation was to be considered then it would make sense to examine solar energy, a new hot water heater, a new furnace and other measures.

The Global Warming Task Force was made up of 34 persons and they were assisted by over 70 volunteers with expertise in various areas. County Executive Spano, in his talk , referred to criticism the county had received for spending $100,000 to prepare the report with a business that had contributed to Mr.  Spano’s political campaign,  saying that “We did not pay them enough for the job they did. It’s not the money. The someone who has to ask that question: They don’t get it. It’s not about the money. If the effects of global warming occur, our expenses are miniscule.”

Ms. Berman said, “What we do in Westchester will have wide influence,” meaning Westchester would set an example for other counties to follow in reducing emissions.

It was unclear from the official part of the program WPCNR attended how progress would be monitored, whether the county would eventually put teeth into the program as they have with their mandatory recycling program, and how communities, businesses and residents would be monitored.

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WPCNR RINKSIDE. February 22, 2008: Team Image Synchronized Skating Team of the Yonkers Figure Skating Club, last team to skate in the 12-team Intermediate Competition at the USFS Synchronized Skating Championships in Providence, Rhode Island today, skated a 58 to secure 4th Place and the Pewter Medal in the tough Intermediate Division. It was Coach Sylvia Muccio’s first national medal in synchronized skating, and capped a splendid season for the teens from Yonkers and Murrays Rink. The 4th Place 58.20 points posted in the 4 minute skate  featured control, splendid pronounced edges, grace and power as they skated to tango themes and their finish was just 5 points away from the first team, the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Blades, Team Del Sol of San Diego and the Chicago Jazz.  It was a glorious and historic afternoon for the Team Image girls!

Medal Land! Team Image performing at the Synchronized Skating National Championships in Providence, Rhode Island today.

The Scores Go Up! Team Image Medals!

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From the State Comptroller’s Press Office. February 20, 2008: The 50-year-old formula New York State uses to provide aid to local governments needs a complete overhaul to ensure localities are getting their fair share, according a revenue sharing report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The report found that 279 small “urban” villages would receive millions in additional state aid if the revenue sharing formula took into account characteristics these villages share with small cities, such as population, rather than historical municipal labels.


The 50-year-old formula New York State uses to provide aid to local governments needs a complete overhaul to ensure localities are getting their fair share, according a revenue sharing report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The report found that 279 small “urban” villages would receive millions in additional state aid if the revenue sharing formula took into account characteristics these villages share with small cities, such as population, rather than historical municipal labels.

“The terms ‘city,’ ‘town,’ and ‘village’ have more to do with history than present day governmental functions,” DiNapoli said. “The current formula for state aid ignores the reality that many villages and towns have surpassed cities in size and provide similar services. In the interest of fairness, the state’s decades-old revenue sharing formula needs to change. But increased assistance for villages and towns shouldn’t come at the expense of cities.”

NYCOM Executive Director Peter Baynes said, “This report highlights what NYCOM has been saying for years  that cities and villages are contending with many of the same fiscal challenges and therefore they all, regardless of class, deserve a predictable, equitable and adequate level of state assistance. Furthermore, our 2008 Legislative Program calls for a revenue sharing formula that not only reflects rising costs, but also considers the need demonstrated by each municipality, as well as the types and levels of services provided. We appreciate State Comptroller DiNapoli’s efforts to help bring these issues to light and, in turn, strengthen our case for increased state aid to local governments.”  

The state’s revenue sharing program was once a stable revenue source for local governments, providing them with a predictable, flexible source of unrestricted state aid. But after the state’s fiscal crisis in the early 1990’s, local aid was dramatically cut and then future increases were primarily directed to cities. By 2005, more than half of all revenue sharing funds went to cities.

There are 553 villages and 61 cities (excluding New York City) in the state. There are 279 villages that are similar in structure, demography and financial condition to 52 cities. These smaller “urban” villages provide many of the same services as cities such as police, fire, libraries, water, sewer and garbage collection. In 2006, revenue sharing constituted 9.3 percent of total revenues for downstate cities and 5.4 percent for upstate cities. Revenue sharing for these villages on the other hand made up only one percent of their total revenue.  

The report provides two scenarios of what state revenue sharing for these villages would look like if they had received more equitable aid distributions. Under one scenario, if aid had been distributed based on similar municipal characteristics rather than municipal labels they would have received $109 million in state funding in the 2007-08 fiscal year, compared to the $16.9 million they actually received. Under another model, these villages would have received $27.6 million as compared to $16.9 million had they benefited from similar increases in aid as cities over the past decade. While the report primarily focused on villages, a similar situation would apply to many urban towns.

To view the report, visit: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/research/researchbrief.pdf

For a copy of the 2006 report examining New York’s outdated classifications of local governments, visit: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/research/munistructures.pdf