http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2eh6f5Go0&feature=player_embedded

If you want to blame someone for the annual assessment free-fall, point your finger at whoever sets New Rochelle's equalization rate who I would assume to be the city's assessor. (I also know what happens when you ass-u-me!)

In order to correct the free-fall, the equalization rate needs to be adjusted so that assessments are under-valued & therefore no one has a right to appeal their assessment. It’s just a percentage rate and could easily be adjusted (& it's adjusted every year, just not enough) to prevent future reductions in the "Grand List" or total of all of the city's property assessments.

That's right our state senator is calling it quits at the end of her term.  Here's a link to the story, http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/106003/suzi-oppenheimer-wont-return-to-senate-in-2013/

Let's all galvanize our support around Bob Cohen this time.  He only lost by a few votes in 2010 and I'm sure he's got the stuff to go all the way.  Check out his website when you get a chance.  www.BobCohen2012.com

 I got to wondering about this yesterday and this is what NRs 2012 budget means to me. 

My home is assessed at $17,000 so the city portion of my property taxes will be $3,154.01 (multiply the assessment by the new tax rate off $185.53 and then divide by 1,000 because the tax rate is per $1,000 of assessment) then add on the garbage tax of $223.00 to bring my total tax bill to $3,357.01.  Now in comparison, I paid $3,042.68 last January.  To calculate the percentage increase over last year, take the difference ($314.33) and divide it by the amount of tax paid last year or 10.3307%.  

This example is for properties assessed at $17,000 so if your property is assessed lower; your tax % increase will be higher because the garbage tax is fixed.  Likewise, if your assessment is higher than $17,000 the percentage increase will be lower, also because the garbage tax is fixed. 

Let’s all give a big thanks Noam & Chuck for the gifts they’re taking from under everyone’s tree this year. 

Here's some good news in case you missed it, the Journal News is reporting that all election districts have completed counting their votes and the Republicans seem to have broken the Democrats 12-5 super-majority grip on the Westchester County Board of Legislature. Tallies still need to include absentee & affidavit ballots but this is good, no excellent, news.

With their super-majority, the Democrats had over-ridden something like 247 Astorino spending bill vetoes. Those days appear to be over now & the composition of the new board will likely be 10 Democrats & 7 Republicans.

Sheila Marcotte who represents parts of New Rochelle appears to be one of the lucky ones after trailing by 275 on election night, she's now up by 47 over John Fitzpatrick. Congratulations to Sheila!

I buried this in reply earlier, but thought someone might enjoy a challenge today so here's a little math question for everyone.

With Spertus behind by 142 votes out of the 1372 votes tallied (68% of the total), how many votes are left to count?

btw, I'm putting this at the 7th grade level as I'm not sure my 6th grader could figure it out.

And let's see your work for extra credit.

Here's a link to the results:

http://www.westchestergov.com/boe99/link21.aspx

Hope that came out as a link, but you may have to cut & paste.

Good Luck To Us All!

9:50 A nice tip to Spertus since I last checked, she's up 53-47. Mayo's down 54-46 but gaining. Totals change fast. Make sure to hit your refresh button, often.

OK, I know everyone's hopped up on the shootings downtown today, but let's not overlook Mayor Bramson's most recent proposals for David's Island. According to the Journal News, Bramson is again pushing Windmills and Solar Panels on this very valuable piece of property, enough to power 2000 homes they say. Who comes up with these crazy ideas? Maybe Bramson thinks this is enough power that we can now safely take Indian Point offline? I really don't know why anyone would think these are good ideas.

All I can think is we just wasted another $20k, $30k, $40k, $50k or whatever the report cost. When will the madness end? I guess when someone at city hall gets smart enough to start storing our road salt in a covered area so that it doesn't wash away in the ran as it does now, to the tune of thousands of dollars every year. New Rochelle's too used to wasting money why stop now?

Perhaps the city needs to allocate a couple more thousands for another study or 2 & we'll get the right answer, but as it stands now we shouldn't let Bramson anywhere near the decision making for this. Another disaster waiting to happen.

Click here:

NOTE: the video will be archived for later viewing.

With the election cycle almost upon us, 1 question to ask every politician, especially Mayor Bramson & those running for city council is the following:

Are you proposing or planning to propose a budget that stays within recently enacted tax cap or are you planning a budget that will require an override the tax cap?

A simple question that should decide the election.