3.44% Tax Increase Is Under the 2% Tax Cap!

Mr Feiner continually touts our AAA Bond rating and how the Town has stayed within the NYS 2% Tax Cap instituted by Presidential candidate, Governor Cuomo. And yet, the bond rating means little since no bonds have been issued beyond current amounts previously borrowed. Our infrastructure is crumbling throughout the Town, but not to worry, our bond rating is solid. One can almost hear Nero fiddle. 

In his latest rant Mr Feiner has complained that Moody’s downgraded Westchester County’s bond rating from AAA to AA1, after Westchester has maintained a AAA bond rating for years. He bemoaned the point that the same thing happened last year. While a downgrade has some significance, he raids our Town’s Fund Balance to balance the budget and pay operating expenses. This duping of the public with a pseudo 2% tax cap adherence is charlatan politics. His ultimate point, of course, was to trumpet Greenburgh’s AAA Bond rating regardless of how and why it remains in tact.

The 2% Tax Cap is not really a 2% cap, accentuated this year as Mr Feiner proposes increasing Town taxes by 3.4% for Unincorporated Greenburgh. In a parallel and shameful move, he has chosen to increase his, Ms Beville’s and the other elected officials salaries by 10%! Is a 10% salary increase across the “Board”, literally, staying under a 2% Tax Cap or another political example of parsing words and cronyism? We’d ask the Ethics Review Board for their opinion, but their word-craft makes Mr Feiner almost seem illiterate. These 10% raises will undoubtedly be approved, hoisting Mr. Feiner’s salary increase from $127,618 per year to more than $140,174. And, don’t forget the handsome $10k payback for not participating in the Town’s medical program by himself and others. 

We believe asking Town employees to pay into their medical coverage benefits is actually a good thing over the long term. Interestingly, Mr Feiner doesn’t abide by the same rules as other Town employees as he rides the gravy train on his wife’s fully paid, NYS medical benefits, ensuring collection of the $10k opt-out “bonus” he receives from the Town. It seems only yesterday that he used to return part of his salary if he didn’t fulfill a particular years’ promises. Perhaps the cost of living in Greenburgh has risen so much that he can no longer play those parlor games. Factor in the guilty verdicts from Fortress Bible Church, the loss of WestHelp rent, the non-sale of 715 Dobbs Ferry Road property, and his dismal job performance and its no wonder he’s gunshy to promise any return of money.

Town Clerk Judith Beville will also have a hefty salary increase from $73,686 to $80,936. And, the Town board members, who have the best part-time job in the Town, will also get 10% raises, allowing them to make more than some of our full-time employees! Whether they choose to opt-out of the medical insurance remains to be seen, but our other Town employees who are now forced to pay into their health plan, only want what’s fair to them. This administration’s blatant abuse of power, bastardization of the system, justified with lame excuses that they haven’t received a raise in years, is contemptible. Instead of milking the flawed system, they should seek to reform it, benefitting the taxpayers they profess to represent. Taxpayers may never gain control of the Town’s runaway spending and abuse unless they start to pay attention.

Increased expenditures throughout the budget will mostly be due to salary increases for our employees, commissioners and their assistants. One unnecessary example of waste is highlighted by Mr Madden, who bargained for his position to the Town as a “one-man-band” as the Planning Commissioner, and said he didn’t need other people to perform his position. Now, however, he and Mr Feiner are seeking to add a Deputy Planning Commissioner who would be paid a salary of $90,000 per year, which will more likely be closer to $130,000 with benefits, retirement costs and possibly a $10k opt-out medical “benny”. What they should do is create a Planning Executive position for an amount of about $30k to work with Mr Madden. It would allow room for growth, raises, contributions to their medical insurance, assistance for the Planning group, and parity to some of our other Town employees – all while giving Mr Madden the assistance he claims to need. In this economic climate, we’re sure the position will easily be satisfied. We can’t help but wonder if this position was already promised for a particular person (read: crony) and is the proverbial “done-deal”? As Mr Feiner creates new top-tier positions such as this and annually raids our reserve funds to balance his over/under tax-cap budget, this year’s tax increase should more accurately be estimated at 10 to 12%! The reserve fund exists because taxpayers have been over-charged on taxes, thereby creating an excess fund. How about returning some of that to the taxpayers?

The proposed budget shows no income from the “gifting” Mr Feiner struggles with for his latest real estate beneficiary, GameOn 365. He’s been trying to find more and more creative ways for them to get the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road (Frank’s Nursery). He has discussed leases, RFP’s, auctions, sealed bids, open bids, but still hasn’t figured out a way to “get one over” on the G10 or for that matter, House of Sports. Whatever his creativity to give the property to his favored GameOn 365, he keeps hitting wall after wall. The proposed budget doesn’t show any revenues from this property’s sale, or the small amount from the rental of the WestHelp property should the County approve the contrived lease deal with his unproven vendor of choice, MRH Group. You’ll recall the Town was given WestHelp’s rental facility from the County years ago, yet sits languishing because Mr Feiner has chosen to play politics with it for Valhalla votes. This not only costs the Town a minimum of $1.2 million per year, but more importantly keeps 100+ people in need of housing out of a place to live.

Playing games with numbers, playing games with taxpayer money and playing games with taxpayer properties seems to be the burgeoning legacy of the Feiner administration. Gone is the “open government” once championed by a young politician who has morphed into a grizzled and seasoned politician, now adept at how to trump the system for his own benefit. We would love to be surprised by our Town Board as they announce at the budget hearings that they will all refuse the raise and keep their already generous salaries at current levels. We’ll also sit by the window to check to see if any pigs fly by. 

Gone is the honesty of balancing a budget through thrift, constrained or reasonable spending and moderate tax increases. Gone is the hope of a “no tax increase” budget in this Town. Gone is the ability for our seniors to stay in their homes, having supported the Town for 30, 40, 50 or more years. Gone is a Town that welcomes young people who seek to live in a suburban atmosphere as developer’s requests are routinely granted to build larger and larger projects, marginalizing their greatest investments. Gone is a Town where less affluent neighborhoods are helped and even treated with respect. The only thing not gone is our Town’s failed administration and the rut we find ourselves getting deeper into. Until residents start paying attention and thinking differently, we may never see A Better Greenburgh.