This article appeared in todays Journal News. Highlights the need for the town to continue to tighten up on spending. Reduced sales tax revenue, mortgage tax revenue are hurting all governments. In addition - we have had a number of snow or ice clearing days during weekends in recent weeks (including today). Our highway crews get double time for work on Sundays and holidays... We are not going to cut snow removal services---this is an essential service. As soon as the police advise public works of slippery road conditions we send out the crews to start sanding/clearing the roads.
Westchester cities see revenue slump
By Keith Eddings
The Journal News • January 18, 2009
WHITE PLAINS - Local sales tax collections dropped as much as 4 percent in Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle in September, October and November - the run-up to the holiday shopping season that is as critical to city halls as it is to Main Streets - while collections in White Plains were flat, despite a recent quarter-cent increase in that city's sales tax, state figures show.
Adding to the local budget woes, mortgage recording tax collections also dropped as home prices plunged along with the number of sales, which also depressed real estate transfer fees for the localities that collect them.
Deepening the local budget woes, building fees also dropped as projects were shelved.
But the declining sales tax collections are hurting the most and reaching the furthest, affecting every school district and municipality in Westchester County. None of the districts, towns or villages levy their own sales taxes, as do the big four cities, but the county provides them with a cut of the 3 percent sales tax it collects in their jurisdictions.
The county's fourth-quarter sales-tax revenues were down $9.8 million to $108.4 million, a decline that will ripple through school districts and local governments as they begin getting their piece of the disbursement from the county on Feb. 2. The sales tax checks from the county will total $23.3 million for the quarter, down $2.1 million, or 8 percent, from the year before, said Donna Greene, a spokeswoman for County Executive Andrew Spano.
The sales tax revenues make up only a modest portion of most school district budgets, but the revenue is far more critical for local governments. The revenue provides about a third of White Plains' $161 million annual budget - making it the city most dependent on sales taxes in the state - so it has the most to lose.
The city in July increased the local portion of the sales tax a quarter-point, to 2.25 percent, which allowed sales-tax collections in September, October and November to hold steady at $11.9 million. Without the increase, collections would have dropped about $1.3 million, city Finance Commissioner Gina Harwood said.
Mayor Joseph Delfino began battening down the hatches last month, directing department heads to cut their spending this year as much as 7 percent, which could save $11.3 million. About 40 part-time workers have lost their jobs, the Youth Bureau is closing an hour early, thermostats in city buildings have been turned down 2 degrees, the library cut staffing and book purchases, and the Common Council is expected to delay or cancel the purchase of $1 million worth of new vehicles.
"It may sound trite or seem of little significance, but I ask all employees to be more aware in general of energy savings by shutting off lights and appliances in rooms that are not being used," Delfino wrote in a memo to department heads, illustrating how deep he is digging.
In Yonkers, sales taxes slumped $600,000 in the three-month period, to $14.7 million, which, along with even steeper drops in mortgage and real estate transfer taxes, caused Mayor Phil Amicone to dump 150 workers from the city payroll. Most were brought back after unions made concessions, such as working days without pay and giving up raises.
Mayoral aide David Simpson said Amicone is hopeful about 2009 but is bracing for the worst.
"It had been a fluid situation, but it's coming in at an increasingly disconcerting trend," Simpson said of city revenues. "That's the problem with the way the economy is moving right now. It's hard to put a number up on the wall, throw a dart and hit it."
Sales taxes provide $61 million of Yonkers' $892 million budget, which also funds city schools.
In New Rochelle, preliminary numbers from the state show sales taxes dropped 15.3 percent during the three-month period, to $5.3 million, although Mayor Noam Bramson said the drop is not so dire because a major taxpayer, whom he would not identify, has not yet reported its collections for the period. The City Council adopted its budget for the new year in December, when it had a close-up view of the looming recession that cities which adopted budgets earlier did not.
Sales tax projections were trimmed $100,000 in the new budget, but Bramson said that may not have been enough. Among other things, a hiring freeze has been put in place and the purchase of $500,000 worth of new vehicles has been canceled.
Mount Vernon, the poorest of the big cities, may be weathering the storm best. Sales tax collections held steady at $4.3 million over the three-month period.
61 comments:
Obviously you shouldn't cut basic municipal services like snow removal; no one will argue about that. But what about canceling programs at the community center; I'm sure they're all nice but most are nowhere near being essential.
Programs, staff have been cut at the community center. Fees are being raised.
where is the valhalla westhelp
money?
has the nutrition program been right-sized or are we still subsidizing other towns?
time to admit taxter was a huge waste and sell it?
is the rotary being charged for its use of webb park to display its mural?
have we stopped the root canals for police dogs?
where is the money from the greenburgh housing authority?
Sure wish we had a Home Depot in the town instead of on both our north and south bounderies...another great feiner move!
EXACTLY RIGHT!!!! Feiner listened to the naysayers and kept Home Depot away because it would "increase" our traffic. Well, guess what Paul, we have the traffic from TWO Home Depots right on our borders and we get no sales tax. I bet the two Home Depot's generate anywheere from 2-4 MILLION dollars a week in business. That would have been a great sales tax haul for the Town, not to mention the property tax.
Paul, do you regret following the ORDERS of Danny Gold by purchasing Feiner's Folley AKA Taxter Ridge? 50 homes in the million dollar range AND a golf course would have generated much needed tax revenue for the Town. Instead, Feiner OBEYED Danny Gold and we purchased the property, which cost us $2.7 MILLION PLUS THE $300,000 a year in taxes that the empty lot was generating.
Nice going Paul. But then again, you certainly got the East Irvington vote in the last election, didn't you????????
Programs, staff have been cut at the community center. Fees are being raised.
BS! This is EXACTLY what I predicted you would say. Show us the positions cut and please don't omit the new positions added ie Robinson and programs added ie Xposure.
Fees raised =0 as you are still willing to give any program away for free.
Show us the hard numbers.
camp fees went up at TDYCC. Various positions eliminated. Big cuts in overtime expenses.
Dear Mr. Feiner:
And what you aren't saying is that there is no quick fix or free lunch. It is likely that over the next two years there will be no increases in these tax collections, perhaps even further declines. And coming to a poorhouse near you, the NYS Retirement system will be bringing more bad news to local governments -- they were big purchasers of the "bad paper" sold as packaged debt; that which became the precipitating event of the financial shake-out. So, you "borrowed" heavily from the Fund Balance this year despite its raison d'etre to proclaim that using it for operating expenses was strictly verboten AND knowing that it would be a long time coming before these near bottom of the barrel fund levels would start to increase -- indeed you'll be dipping into it again soon. And the money earmarked for Highways and the Court expansion but spent instead at the TDYCC and Lois Bronz Center will have to start from zero before these "frills" see the light of day.
And to decide this, you assured residents that you and your associates had spent months traveling the streets of Greenburgh to learn what ails residents. Surprised were you to find that they didn't want even higher taxes after last year's 22% hike? The financially prudent course would be to cut wasteful spending but that wasn't your plan in an election year.
Instead you went after only essentials so that in the aftermath you could say that harsh times means cuts and no one wants their faves reduced but you have to start somewhere. Hoist the white flag over the economic battlefield after hiding the spoils of war in the fairground bunkers.
And while all of this is unfolding, lurking, like the ticking bomb it is, remaining is the decision on the Fortress Bible Church. A costly mistake to placate the concerns of an abutting homeowner who just happened to be the then head of the Ethics Board and faced with ethics complaints brought against you.
But Mr. Feiner, you were warned about mortgage and sales taxes almost two years ago. You were warned that there are almost 800 outstanding Cert cases against the Town and you have no reason to believe that the settlement trend is going to reverse itself and become instead a favorable one.
Knowing this didn't stop you and your Town Board from continuing the "Council on the Arts", the Hartsdale sculpture Curator, the Police SWAT, EMT, Tech Support, Navy.
It didn't stop you from spending $167,000 as the Town's portion of the Xposure program (that the money hadn't been spent is NOT the basis -- everywhere else surpluses get "budget transferred" back to home base.
It didn't stop you from buying more and more costly software for the Assessor's department -- which has yet to hint of a payoff other than bragging rights of being first.
It didn't stop you from giving away WESTHELP money and you still want to continue.
It didn't stop you from buying trailers to ease the space burden at the Court; it didn't stop you from commiting to this knowing that there was space in Town Hall (not just that surrendered by the Library) for this purpose; it didn't stop you from spending $350,000 on this project so that you could keep the annual $25,000 of credit union rent parading this insult to taxpayers who visit Town Hall.
It didn't stop you from continuing the $30,000 annual drain so that your political allies could have an office in Town Hall -- "energy coordinators" who became the Town's laughing stock the moment a major developer, Avalon, testified at the Town Board meeting that there is no payday in renewable energy: solar, geothermal or green roof. Their "unrenewed" 440 units speaks volumes compared with any energy saved from the efforts of the energy coordinators. Nor do they get credit for their touted "energy star" which meets an obligation under town law passed before we had energy czars.
And it didn't stop you from voting to continue the net $30,000 loss to provide PRIVATE tennis instruction so that your poliical ally's wife could keep her job. And it didn't stop you from continuing to throw money into a nutrition program that provides meals to non-Greenburgh residents instead of their hometown governments.
It didn't stop you from adding grant money to increasing the Library project budget despite any confirmation from the grant agencies that you had no choice other than to do so (sure Brodsky and the library said you had to but no one would give the Town confirmation of this in writing, from any authority -- or cite the appropriate law -- despite the public's insistence). It didn't stop the Town Board from voting to add $175,000 worth of ramp to the library project which it turns out (as warned) not to be required' instead unnecessary and an needless expense from ongoing maintenance and liability claim risk.
Sales tax losses didn't stop you from bumping a low rated employee from serving as the acting TDYCC director at the line's full salary while at the same time the usually financially irresponsible Library Trustees bumped the Assistant Library Director (someone already familiar with the job) to acting Director, giving her an additional $10,000 recognizing the additional responsibilites yet she served in this capacity for about $20,000 LESS than the level of the departing Director. Of course, the Town Board has no control over the Library Director's salary but the Town Board does has control over the TDYCC.
It didn't stop the Town Board from spending $200,000 with another looming $200,000 for part two on a Comprehensive Plan while realizing that there would be no money to act on any of its recommendations.
And it didn't stop the Town Board from rushing a Zoning change ahead of this new Comprehensive Plan's advice.
Tax losses didn't stop the Town Board from buying smaller garbage trucks to provide back door garbage pick-up and then cancelling back door garbage pick-up. This didn't stop the Town Board from hiring the guys (who convinced the Board that these trucks were needed) back with a lucrative consultant contract.
What you aren't bothering to remind residents is that you pushed for the purchase of Taxter Ridge "park" that no one can use and that of the three government owners, on unincorporated Greenburgh is burdened by the ongoing maintenance cost of the park that won't be visited.
What you aren't bothering to remind residents is that you pushed for expensive consultant contracts to "study" the Tappan Zee bridge replacement despite knowing that at that point in time, even the State didn't know what they were going to do -- which is the same status today. Or that even knowing would deter the State from implementing such a plan. Why? Because your Tarrytown friends urged you to do so.
Readers, no doubt, will be able to add to this list created quickly off the top of my head. But there is something immediately that CAN be done. The Town Board has championed the idea that the approved Town Budget can be amended -- in addition to the ever-voted horde of mysterious budget transfers.
You can reverse direction and committed monies can become uncommitted. You don't have to spend them just because the money was there, i.e Xposure. You can stop incurring any new consultant charges and not spend what hasn't been already spent. You can hold off on hiring a Chief of Police -- you have three candidates before you in senior positions in the Department. None of them can take over at a minute's notice in an emergency? What if the Chief were to die? The Department can't function without a Chief for six months or so? Kapica says he would like to leave even earlier. Take him up on it.
You can "gamble" and see what actually happens in real time were the Town not to replace vehicles per a proscribed schedule. Would you spend in one year, the cost of new vehicle in assumed repairs. Put if off and take the chance. Maybe if a vehicle goes down, you might get by for a year without it. You can sell the cybermobile (Town owned asset) NOW as the library, even without using it, says they don't have enough money in their budget. Why has it been left to rot for a year parked outside Town Hall and drawing down an electric service lifeline which you claim you want to save?
You love to use the term "take action steps" but then never do. Since you have now undeniably learned the problems facing governments courtesy of The Journal News, what are you going to do about it?
Creating blogs and sitting in the supermarket or hearing more advice from "lots of residents who call" are not action steps.
Get with it or get out.
Ditto what Hal says!!
Paul, you lie like a rug.
Expect criticism to only get worse. Paul, as more and more people lose thier jobs. My spouse was told to accept a 45% decrease in salary and health insurance cut or say good bye.
So, that means we can not afford health insurance as paying for it will be half of all house-hold income, yet we are just over the limit to qualify for reduced rates.
I must say it makes it pretty difficult to sit here with no health insurance, no money, and see the increadable waste of money being thrown to those in Fairview for crap.
We are considering leaving Greenburgh if just for this reason alone. Talk about a hugh slap in the face!
All your doing Paul. The finger squarly pointed at YOU!
You listened to civic associations as to commercial businesses in Greenburgh.
Well keep listening and we will get deeper in a hole.
Home depot should have been in Greenburgh but you listened and it slipped through your hands to our neighbor.
You were told no commercial building to be put on Central ave.
Well look at the avenue toaday . Empty stores on both sides of the street fro White Plains to the yonkers border.
Just wait till yonkers completes the large project already in progress.
Just take note of how much business Stew Leonard has taken away from our neighborhood stores.
Check out the two malls in White Plains yes the cars come right thru Greenburgh in both direction just stopping for traffic lights.
This is all your fault because you could never and will ever stand up to the civic associations.
We had the opportunity to establish a good financial fund with sales tax but you decided differently.
I have lived in Greenburgh for 4 years. What commercial building on Central Avenue was not approved? When Why?
Get on the case of Valhalla School District, Greenburgh Housing Authority, and anyone else who owes the Town money.
Dilmighani wanted to build a strip mall on Central Ave. Leaders of the ECC scared him away.
For starters, the Dilmaghani (owner) carpet store wanted to construct a new, larger store (over three small stores fronting the avenue) on the land now occupied by the existing carpet store and incorporating their adjacent parcel which was home to the long vanished health club (under lease until a year ago).
They ran into opposition based upon the topography, abutting the school at the rear of the property and the difficulties in entering coming from the north.
Ok Hal, when did this happen? Are we talking ancient history?
The Dilmalghani matter took place more than nine years ago.
I am almost certain the Dilmalghani plans were before the planning board within the past 5 years.
It was in 2002
OK, can we deal with present issues or at least recent history?
Recent issues -- the community did not object to a restaurant expansion on Central Avenue.
The community did object to an oversized rsidential building in Fulton Park.
seems the town board has yet to learn a simple word
NO
Madelon O'Shea of the Council of Civic Associations has been trying to close down the Scarsdale A & P for years.
O'Shea has asked the town on occasion to enforce nuisance laws when the A&P was storing garbage outdoors, resulting in local rat infestation. She's also complained about noise from trucks unloading on the weekends and at night. The A&P borders a number of homes, including hers. It's outrageous to suggest that she's been trying for years to close the place down.
Danny Gold ordered Feiner to purchase Taxter Ridge which cost the Town millions of dollars to buy and million lost in tax revenues.
Thanks Danny!!!!
Of course Danny got a nice big yard next door and Feiner got the East Irvington votes.
Gold was not the only villain in Taxter Ridge, and the East Irvington votes (which aren't that many to begin with) were not the point. Gold was aided by a number of environmental activists from the Villages of Tarrytown, Irvington and Hastings(whose combined votes in the Dem primary do matter) and reps from the Irvington School District which, having just spent millions on a capital project to expand school capacity, benefited the most from not having Taxter Ridge developed residentially.
There's nothing we can do about Taxter Ridge now, is there? It would have been a nice area for development. We should at least get hiking trails and picnic grounds and parking and such in there so that it isn't a total waste.
I know that Edgemont can't handle residential expansion without huge expenses to expand school capacity and staffing, but I'd think that Edgemont would support as much commercial development as possible on Central Park Avenue to get additional tax revenue.
We should find a way to tax the tree huggers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anon 11:20 is doing the usual. attacking the villages which had nothing to do with the purchase of Taxter Ridge. Some people get their kicks by making war on the villages.
Taxter Ridge was an undercover purchase.
Many tax exemptions were given to that church which I wonder if it is still in existance or if anyone lives on that property.
The favor was done for Gold and gold alone.
It's time that this suprervisor tell the truth as to why it was purchased.
If the state and county need money getting rid of this parcel for development is the only solution as a bail out.
We Greenburgh residents don't need it and to keep it to satisfy a friendship is crazy.
Feiner let's see what kind of a person you are .Take the first step to unload this dump.
As stated before, Danny Gold WILL NOT ALLOW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When did Danny Gold become God ?
Should NYC sell Central Park?
Should the United States sell the Grand Canyon?
Should Greenburgh sell the Greenburgh Nature Center and put condo's there? Or another supermarket?
Parks serve a purpose for our generation and for future generations.
Obviously a Danny Gold fan. The problem with Taxter Ridge is that it is not even a park. There are no trails, no parking, no bathrooms there. Danny Gold got Feiner to create a complete non-entity. A park that is not a park. I bet gool old Danny would be the first to complain of "traffic: if a real park was created there. That is why it wil never be done as long as Feiner is Supervisor. Feiner and Gold need each other. Gold gets the votes for Feiner and Feiner preserves Taxter Ridge as is for Gold.
When Feiner bot Taxter Ridge, he said he would be another Central Park. Well the last time I saw Central Park, there were ball fields, boating, a skating rink, lots of stuff IN ADDITION TO NATURE.
8:55
Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon? The land stays natural.
Zion National Park? Same.
Bryce? Also kept in its natural state.
Have you hiked the Canadian Rockies? Beautiful because it is natural.
Yea, but you can't even park and hike at Taxter. Such an unfortunate waste.
10:06, the Grand Canyon is a National Park. Tell me one other entirely nature area that any municipality has contributed 1/3 toward. The reason -- these large purchases need federal or stae to buy it. Except in greenburgh.
Croton-on-Hudson: 13 acres in Westchester County to the village of Croton-on-Hudson and the Beaverkill Conservancy
With this acquisition, the village of Croton is the first Hudson Valley community to ensure public access to its entire waterfront
PATTERSON - At the north end of Farm to Market Road in Patterson and below the hills cradling Ice Pond is a swath of forest and wetlands that beckons waterfowl from miles around.
"We had about a thousand wood ducks in there this fall. It was really exciting," said Jim Utter, chairman of Friends of the Great Swamp and an associate professor of environmental science at Purchase College, SUNY.
FrOGS and the Putnam County Land Trust worked together to buy the 24 acres last year, preserving the rest stop for migrating ducks and protecting the breeding ground for local ones. The trust closed on the land, once owned by a New York City doctor and his family, on Christmas Eve.
"It was a good year," said land trust President Judy Terlizzi, who also cited a 9-acre purchase in Putnam Valley and the opening of the trust's Southeast headquarters on Cobb Road as other 2008 accomplishments. "We're still working on new acquisitions."
To the south, the Westchester Land Trust also thought last year was a successful one. The Westchester group protected 511 acres in 2008 - from North Salem to Mamaroneck - through easements, donations and partnerships with governments and other organizations. The Westchester trust, said its acting executive director, also pushed to make its eight public preserves more accessible and visible - including Hunter Brook Preserve in Yorktown and the Westchester Wilderness Walk in Pound Ridge - by highlighting them on its Web site and hiring a preserve steward.
"We think it was all a success, and connecting people to the land has become a more important and more explicit part of our mission," said Tom Andersen, who is also the trust's communications director.
Back in Putnam, Terlizzi said the trust hopes to close soon on 5 acres off Couch Road. That land would connect a 291-acre state-owned parcel with the trust's Sterling Farm Preserve. Both the 37-acre Sterling Farm and the 5 acres come from land owned by Edie Keasbey and her family in Patterson for almost 100 years. Keasbey and her late husband, Tom, donated the 37 acres in 1996.
The smaller parcel, like the surrounding land, drains into the Great Swamp, one of the state's largest freshwater wetlands.
Nice, but you can actually go and enjoy most of those places. You can't even park at Taxter Ridge.
We need money here in reenburgh town wide.
Give nothing to Vahalla they are lying thru their teeth.
You all said that the state comptroller did not know what he was saying in his report because he told the truth that when you voted to give Valhalla the money together with Fairview FD it was totaly illegal.
The money should be given to all areas if not don't even bother to renew the contract.
Someone will pick up that complex and make money.
Does the county or state know the flim flam that the Valhalla school district played out.
The money was meant to be spent town wide.
The Fairview fire deptalso received money illegaly they too should be made to return the two hundred thousand that they received.
Did Fairview give the supervisor a
good accounting of how the money was spent and also how much.
This too was pushed under the rug by Feiner.
go by the Fairview FD and look at the truck the chief just got
Rumor on the street - a Deputy Fire Chief from Fairview recently retired with an annual pension of about $147,000.
Yep, they sure need that $100,000 annually from the Town of Greenburgh.
WHAT GREENBURGH NEEDS IS A MALL LARGER THAN THE GALLERIA.SO IT CAN BRING IN TAX MONEY.WE ARE LARGER THAN MOST CITIES.THATS HOW WE CAN COMPETE.PAUL YOU SHOULD LISTEN IF YOU WANT GREENBURGH TO SURVIVE.FOR EXAMPLE LOOK AT PORTCHESTER AND WHAT THEY HAVE DONE WITH BRINGING ALL THAT COMMERCIAL BUSINESS.CREATES JOBS AND MONEY FOR THE TOWN.
PAUL,THE MALL IDEA SOUNDS GREAT.BUILD AND THEY WILL COME!!!!
GET RID OF OAK AND MAPLE HOUSING IS A START.PUT UP A LARGE MALL IN THAT AREA OR MAYBE HIGH END CONDOS.
"....bumping a low rated employee from serving as the acting TDYCC director at the line's full salary"
Or letting her continue to do nothing within her job description now.Sonya no doubt told Carter to back off with giving her no work to do.
Bad for Taxpapers and Town Staff.
There is a big misunderstanding about the disbursement of sales tax proceeds within Westchester County. First, there are four communities, namely Yonkers, White Plains, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, that have their own sales tax component. Since the commercial entities within these areas must report their sates tax collections separately, the County can readily separate out which sales taxes go to them respectively.
All other muncipalities within the County share the remaining sales tax pool on the basis of population using the 2000 official census data. Therefore comments about the location of the Home Depot just north of the Town border on Saw Mill River Road (9A), would not have generated any additional sales tax revenues for the Town. It no doubt would have increased the assessed value on whatever property it might have beeen located on, but that is a separate matter.
Mr. Kolesar,
Your statement on the Mt. Pleasant Home Depot is true but what you are not addressing is the sales tax revenues from the Yonkers Home Depot, which was the one that HD wanted to build in Greenburgh. By going to a municipality that has its own sales tax component, we lost out on our percentage that would have otherwise gone into the County pot and be disbursed to us.
Also, the property tax on a Home Depot would probably have been well over a million dollars a year.
Nothing can hide Paul's anti-business policies in an effort to buy himself votes. Paul catered to the naysayers and now we are paying for it.
dont forget the water plant on grasslands rd
Dear "Kolesar Changes the argument"
I am not trying to change anything, but just clear what appears to me to be misinformation.
Why can't you identify yourself? I did !!! Is Paul Feiner going to come after you for "debating" an issue with me, if that is what this has turned to be?
The percentage that the Town (unincorporated) gets of the residual is about 7.5% (I have the exact numbers from the County in the office if you want to contact me there on Monday - I'm listed and so is my office email). So given your point, if HD had located within the unincorporated portion of the Town, the Town would have received about 7.5% of the incremental sales tax revenues that this establishment would (has) generated.
As I mentioned with respect to the other HD establishment, there would no doubt have been some increase in assessed values and thus a "lower" tax bill for everyone else
I am not taking a position one way or the other, but just putting some facts out there for a public that appears not to be aware of all of the facts.
Sorry that you can't or won't engage in an open discussion of an issue by identifying yourself.
Mr. Kolesar,
What would be your estimate of the sales tax revenue that would have been generated for Greenburgh if the Yonkers Home Depot had been situated in Greenburgh, as they had desired, based upon annual sales of 50 Million dollars?
paul doesnt act alon
his sidekick juettner was right by his side in all these disasterous decisions
I am doing this from memory, although I have the details in the office and could check then.
Given your assumption of $50 million, that would generate total local sales tax revenues of $1,687,500 ($50 million times 3.375%)(the state portion is 4%). This is where my recollection comes in, but I believe that Westchester County takes about 2/3 of that amount and the remainder is what is divided up among the municipalities. That would be between $560,000 and $570,000. The unincorporated Greenburgh share is as I indicated above is about 7.5% of that remainder, so that would generate about $40,000 +/- per year.
I'll take another look sometime on Monday.
I found the email from the County that explains the calculation in detail.
……………..
Mike,
Actually it’s the 41,828 divided by 533,733 which is the County population after subtracting the cities that have their own sales tax on top of the 7.375% county rate (Yonkers, White Plains, New Rochelle and Mount Vernon). Attached is a schedule of how we get to the numbers that the municipalities and school districts receive. So for this quarter, the state told us that we received $28,633,342 for the 1% and $14,193,654 for the ½%. Using that the local gov share is 50% of 28,633,342 or 14,316,671 and 20% of 14,193,654 or 2,838,731 for a total of $17,155,402 for the local governments. 41,828 divided by 533,733 is 7.84%, so therefore 7.84% of 17,155,402 is $1,344,448. Clear as mud?
Sergio Sensi, CPA
Deputy Finance Commissioner
County of Westchester
148 Martine Avenue, Room 720
White Plains, NY 10601
(914) 995-2840
Michael Kolesar continues ……..
Back to the hypothetical of an entity with $50 million in annual sales. The 1% would generate $500,000 of which 50% goes into the municipality pool or $250,000 and the additional ½% would generate $250,000, of which only $50,000 would go into the pool for a total of $300,000. As the above indicates, the proportion that goes to unincorporated Greenburgh is 7.84% ( I had indicated that I thought it was 7.5% ), so the incremental revenue would be $23,520 in the above example.
the amounts should be deducted from the salary of feiner and juettner - they caused the loss
The loss in property tax is in the millions.
then feiner and juettner should resign or be replaced for their fiscal mismanagement
I can't believe the sales tax # is that low!! What about property tax?
Post a Comment