Tuesday, April 07, 2009
2010 BUDGET REVIEW BEGINS AT WORK SESSIONS IN MAY
The Town Board will start planning for the 2010 budget in May. We are asking each dept head to come up with proposed cuts and revenue enhancements. The Board will allocate time at each work session beginning in May preparing for the 2010 budget (which must be submitted by the end of October).
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12 comments:
By "revenue enhancements" do you mean not giving back sewer hook in fees as required by law??????
According to the 3/24 work session it seems that $70,000 of taxpayer money found its way to being a "revenue enhancement."
How much more are you shooting for this time around????
How long will it take for the previous post to be deleted.
Revenue(Tax) enhancement = more and higher taxes.
Tax - (from Dictionary.com) -
tax /tæks/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [taks]
–noun 1. a sum of money demanded by a government for its support or for specific facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property, sales, etc.
2. a burdensome charge, obligation, duty, or demand.
Way to go Town Board. Incomes are falling, people are concerned about their futures, their homes, their families, and all you can think about are "revenue enhancements".
Paul,
Why do you express "concern" for the taxpayers yet allow your assessor to improperly assess over 800 homes on various sewer districts? Didn't you listen to the sewer guy at the work session? The assessor failed to do what you stated would be done in your June 2008 letter to the State Comptroller. Because of this, hundreds of taxpayers are paying more than they should be. Also, because the assessor has three different tax rates for the same thing, you are violating numerous State laws. You need to look at www.sewerdistricttruth.com to read just how many laws you are breaking.
The sewer guy is a very smart man. The state comptroller is also very smart. There may be a conflict between what our smart sewer guy and smart state comptroller say. The town should review the sewer guys comments but should also be careful before taking action.
State Comptroller DiNapoli is working to find and fight fraud at every level of State and local government. The public’s help is needed in this fight. New Yorkers can report allegations of fraud, corruption or abuse of taxpayer money by calling a toll-free hotline at 1-888-OSC-4555 (1-888-672-4555).
The hotline is staffed Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. by experienced investigators from the Investigations Unit of the Legal Services Division of the Office of the State Comptroller. New Yorkers may also file an online complaint, print a complaint form or send an e-mail to investigations@osc.state.ny.us.
Once a complaint is received, the Investigations Unit may:
Conduct a preliminary investigation;
Open a full investigation;
Refer the complaint to the proper agency or authority; or
Close the case.
Individuals who make an allegation may remain anonymous. Individuals should view the Comptroller’s privacy policy before submitting a complaint.
10:04
What conflict? The sewer guy found $70,000 in funds that should have been returned to the taxpayers. Greenburgh's own law stipulates it! The assessor should have properly assessed homes on sewer districts as expressed in the State Comptroller's report to the Town. Also Feiner acknowledged this in his reply to the State. The Town Assessor has not complied leaving three different tax rates on the same district. This causes the Town to be in violation of New York State laws which forbid this practice.
Calling in the federal government may be the next step because of all the grants that been been applied for.
Were these grants used properly ?
We the taxpayers have to pay back our share so is the US government also getting a screwing for mismanagement of funds.I should say so..
We were sent our tax bill which is to be paid by the end of April but I did not see a change in the sewer tax .
How could the town send out a bill that does not refleck a lowere sewer tax.
I am thinking of suing the pants off of this town but I think about my neighbors that would have to pay even higher taxes because I would win.
This town board with it's department heads has become retarded.
Will we get our money back with intrest ?
This was copied directly from www.sewerdistricttruth.com
At the March 24, 2009 Work Session, the Town Attorney Tim Lewis attempted to dismiss all previous documents from the Town of Greenburgh on the subject of Federally Assisted Sewers as being ILLEGAL because he claims that they were written by people who were not authorized to do so. This is an unbelievable new twist to this continuing saga. Town documents gathered and presented in May 2006 include numerous letters written by two different Town Engineers to the Town Board and signed off by the Commissioner of Public Works. Evidence presented to the Town Board also included letters written by the Town Clerk and sent out to over 800 households living on Federally Assisted Sewer Districts. These letters were cc:d to the Town Engineer and the Town Attorney. With so many people being involved in the creation of these documents, how is it possible for the Town to claim that it was illegal for the numerous authors to write them?
The only reason for the Town to take the position of declaring all previous documents illegal is because the Town Attorney knows that the Town has not complied with the State Comptroller's Report. This failure to comply has triggered violations of New York State Law, namely:
Town Law Article 3A Title 5 Section 54 Special Districts
Town Law 202 Expenses of Improvement - How Raised
Town Law 236 Completion of Improvements
Town Law 244 - A - Apportionment of Completed Local Assessment Upon Subdivision or Sale of Land Affected
It is our opinion that the Town has also broken the law by Filing a False Certificate, namely the Schedule of Assessments and Tax Rates that thousands of Greenburgh residents received with their taxes. To get out from underneath the legal entanglement that the Town's refusal to do the right thing by the taxpayers has brought about, Mr. Lewis must claim that past documents are illegal and the State Comptroller made a decision based on its review of these illegal documents.
This legal strategy is doomed to failure since the Town is bound by the mountain of documents that lays out the manner in which Federally Assisted Sewer Districts are to be handled. More importantly, Mr. Lewis's strategy would lead to the Town having the ability to disavow ANY AND ALL previous documents on any subject because the Town Attorney will simply state that they too were written by someone without the legal authority to do so. We would never be able to trust ANYTHING that we receive in writing from the Town again! Some Town Officials don't seem to care about that point, their focus is on getting out of the trouble that they are presently in.
www.sewerdistricttruth.com congratulates Councilwoman Sonja Brown for being the ONLY Town Board Member who displayed the courage and honesty to call for the State Attorney General Public Integrity Unit to investigate the massive amount of evidence presented to the Town Board at its March 24, 2009 Work Session. Evidence that could lead to charges of; misappropriation of funds, fraud, conspiracy and filing a false certificate to be filed.
We encourage all Greenburgh citizens to view the March 24, 2009 Work Session and see for yourselves what went on.
Paul,
How do you get around the fact that YOU, THE BOARD & YOUR DEPARTMENT HEADS KNEW that sewer hook in fees were supposed to be credited back to the citizens from that sewer district. This e-mail from Al Regula proves THAT YOU KNEW! Is Tim Lewis going to say that this e-mail was illegal as well???
E-Mail From Albert Regula, Commissioner of Public Works
From: AL Regula
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 5:23 PM
To: Judith A. Beville
Cc: Town Board; Michael Kolesar; Edye McCarthy; John Lucido;
Timothy Lewis; Kenneth Cioce; Bart J. Talamini
Subject: RE: Question for Department Heads
The connection fee set in the resolution extending the sewer district to
include the Scarsdale Pump Station was set based on Section 160-4
(Reduction in Fees) of the Town Code which allows a reduction of a
connection Fee for an applicant that bears the expense of extending the
Town's sewer main as part of their project. The fee in this case was
reduced to $1500.00 in recognition of the fact that the Town received
from the applicant 540 linear feet of 8" sewer main and 4 manholes, the
value of which exceeds $150,000.00. The $1500.00 fee is to be credited to FA #4 and will result in a reduction in the amount to be collected
from the other members of the district in future tax levys.
Albert S. Regula
Commissioner of Public Works
Town of Greenburgh
177 Hillside Ave.
Greenburgh, NY 10607
The e-mail referenced above is undoubtably cause for great concern for Town officials. The Town Attorney will have a difficult time attempting to declare that Mr. Regula unlawfully wrote it. It went to the entire Town Board. Why didn't Francis say it was illegal? It went to Tim Lewis. The e-mail is dated April 9, 2008, why hasn't Mr. Lewis declared it illegal?
The reason: It isn't illegal. Mr. Regula placed the Town in great legal jeopardy with this e-mail. The Town can't say it didn't know about sewer hook in fees. Mr. Regula lays out the procedure and is backed completely by Greenburgh's laws.
How do you answer this one Mr. Feiner?
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