December 22, 2011

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

RE: Tax-Cap

Honorable Governor Cuomo,

I contact you as 56-year old New Rochellian who had to move from my city of birth due to high taxes. I am now faced with the task of maintaining our New Rochelle family home in hopes of keeping my 80-year-old mother-in-law, who suffers from dementia, in familiar surroundings until her time comes.

Today I parked in the Library South lot while I shopped  and lunched on Main Street. As I exited my vehicle I noticed a bag and message over the parking machine at the Lawton Street entrance which was out of order.

So you can imagine my surprise and disgust when I returned and found a parking violation on my windshield. Ticket #3140017650 issued for "METER TIME EXPIRED PUBLIC LOT… LIBRARY SOUTH". I was incensed as the machine was out of order and this lot has a history of dysfunctional machines. For over one year these machines  have been continuously vandalized.

QUESTION:WHY DOES MAYOR BRAMSON WANT ONLY DEMOCRATS ON CITY COUNCIL?

ANSWER: SO HE CAN CIRCUMVENT GOVERNOR CUOMO'S NEW TAX CAP AND RAISE YOUR PROPERTY TAXES BEYOND THE 2% CAP!

The Bramson Campaign is actively campaigning to stack the City Council with only Democrats.

Many voters have been contacted by the Bramson Campaign to blindly vote along Party lines this year without thought.

What the Bramson Campaign is NOT TELLING YOU is that Bramson needs you to elect a supermajority of Democrats to City Council so that they can override Governor Cuomo’s Property Tax Cap, which is protecting you, the property owner, from onerous property tax increases.

On June 30, 2011, Governor Cuomo signed into law legislation that caps your property taxes at a 2% increase. This tax cap can be overridden by a super-majority vote of council.  If the Mayor is successful, he and his disciples will override the property tax-cap in New Rochelle and raise your taxes to support his political agenda.

The New Rochelle City Council will discuss requesting a voluntary Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) from non-profit institutions at the next council meeting. These include; Sound Shore Medical Center, Iona (Preparatory, Grammar & College), College of New Rochelle and the Ursuline, Salesian & Thornton Donovan schools. While a voluntary public service fee for non-profits has been recommended for over a decade the 800-pound Gorilla in the room remains unscathed…. AVALON. Last year, 115 students were registered from Avalon 1 (255 Huguenot)  & Avalon East (40Memorial Highway). These students cost New Rochelle Taxpayers $2.3 million to educate last year. This year, the Avalons have once again exceeded the 58 students calculated in the Final Environmental Impact Study (FEIS) by 86% enrolling 108 students costing taxpayers $2.16 million. When combined with what the Avalons would pay in school taxes at 100% taxation ($7,728,762.14) the burden to New Rochelle taxpayers is almost $10 million.

In Part III, I will examine the burden placed on New Rochelle through Calls For Service” (CFS) from 255 Huguenot Street (Avalon 1) and 40 Memorial Highway (Avalon East [2]). CFS is responses made to residents seeking public and or emergency services from the New Rochelle Police Department (NRPD), the New Rochelle Fire Department (NRFD) and Trans Care Ambulance service.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the information to establish an accurate dollar amount to the CFS, which would involve costs of pay scale, housing, vehicle, fuel, maintenance, personnel, management, equipment, training, longevity, holiday, overtime, uniform allowance, tuition reimbursement and other associated costs. City officials also were unable to determine costs per call as my FOIL requested. I believe the sheer number of calls is staggering enough to estimate an ultra-conservative taxpayer burden in the millions.

There were 974 total combined Calls For Service in 2010 for the Avalon Buildings. There were 809 for the New Rochelle Police Department. There were 165 for the New Rochelle Fire Department. The chart provides a more detailed breakdown.

While Mayor Bramson continues his full court press to ram through the GreeNR initiative: homeowners beware! Overall most people agree we need to be more respectful of our environment. Most would concur that indeed we need to reverse the environmental intolerance of the past. But as in most cases the devil’s in the details. Short-term goals in any Green initiative are easily attainable, common sense recommendations that can be easily achieved at minimal cost to homeowners. The mid to long-range achievements are laudable provided the means do not outweigh the benefits or become overly restrictive in the normal realm of home ownership. Under the GreeNR initiative, which was tailored after Mayor Bloomberg’s NYC plan including congestive auto pricing, special loans would be available for home greening projects. These Green Liens have many different names but all are recognized as PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) loans. As their name implies these loans are overly restrictive since they deal with property assessment by acquiring a priority lien over existing mortgages according to

Last week, in Part 1, I challenged Mayor Bramson’s claim that there is a $7.5 million net benefit from New Rochelle development. I provide evidence that Avalon 1 & 2 would pay $10,042,821 in City, School & Library taxes if not for their 30-year tax abatement. Today, in Part 2, I will reveal the actual number of children in the New Rochelle School System registered from 255 Huguenot Street (Avalon 1) and 40 Memorial Highway (Avalon 2). A FOIL response from the New Rochelle School District, which was CC’d to Mr. Richard E. Organisciak; Superintendent of Schools, exposed the actual number of school children. I bring these verified figures to your attention because Mayor Bramson asserted an incorrect number of students 18 months ago when he proclaimed a $2 million surplus from New Rochelle development then went into the witness protection program never responding to my challenge.

With the corroboration out of the way I present the hard, cold number of school children from Avalon 1 & Avalon 2 (see chart above).