Controlling The Outcome By Limiting Information

The latest “information session” touted by the Greenburgh School District Board and their Superintendent, Dr Chase at the Highview School, found taxpayers wanting real, tangible and unencumbered answers to not only their questions, but for the limited information that was being proffered. This meeting was a mirror of the previous ones with a lot of the same players saying the same things. The problem is that the first few meetings fed them many of the objections and now armed with “ready-to-go” answers, they are able to quickly and deftly shut down anyone asking a question that might even allude to an objection. Most were concerned with the untenable tax increases that this $114.6 million bond, coupled with Mr Feiner’s $49 million bond, the regular school tax bill, the County tax increase, NYS funding reductions and, well, you get it. People will be foreclosed out of their homes so Dr Chase might have a legacy.

New York State law ties property taxes to the real market value of a home—roughly three per­cent-plus per $1,000, which would put yearly taxes on a million-dollar home somewhere north of $30,000. Few area residents ever complained that the last for­mal as­sess­ment having taken place was in the mid-1950s, artificially keep­ing val­u­a­tions low until a home was sold. As a rule, that's the only time a re-evaluation would take place. Then in 2016, the Town of Green­burgh ex­e­cuted a full re­assess­ment that hit vil­lages like Irv­ing­ton, Hast­ings and Dobbs Ferry like a sledgehammer. 

Many home­own­ers saw their tax bills more than dou­ble! Thou­sands “grieved” their as­sess­ments, chal­leng­ing the new val­ues and plead­ing for re­lief. Only a frac­tion were suc­cess­ful, but Mr Feiner concocted a plan to lessen the blow and his current unpopularity. The town adopted a three-year grad­u­ated-pay­ment sys­tem for those whose taxes had gone up by more than 25%. This put the burden on the remaining residents to make up for the savings given to those taxpayers.

As of this year, that stepped-relief plan has ended, and now every­one will be pay­ing full assessed value. Many long-time res­i­dents have been dri­ven to sell. Many in down­town neigh­bor­hoods that tra­di­tion­ally housed work­ing-class fam­i­lies, sold not be­cause they wanted to, but be­cause they could­n’t af­ford to stay. As long as there were young fam­i­lies will­ing to pay top dol­lar, how­ever, they were able to es­cape as the Ponzi scheme continues. But these were the villages, which seem to have more wealth than most parts of Unincorporated Greenburgh, with their own mayors and village boards, not Mr Feiner as their “mayor”.

With the initial proposal for the Greenburgh School Districts bond proposal referendum coming in at almost $166 million dollars, it was quickly pared down to be seemingly more palatable once it was realized the constituency could not afford it. “Reduced” to $114 million dollars, the School Board believed they could sell this to taxpayers. Enter the dynamic, well-spoken school superintendent, Dr Chase. She deftly handled many of the questions asked and using a plan directly from Mr Feiner’s playbook, easily deflected criticisms from the crowd. In fact, the first and second of these sessions fed her the objections and provided her and the school board ample time to craft answers for the next sessions. But it remained nothing but smoke and mirrors - just like the maintenance of our school buildings.

Saddled with the revaluation increases that many homeowners experienced, they are now dismayed by the new federal tax law that lim­its de­duc­tions of state and lo­cal taxes (SALT) to the first $10,000, a fig­ure easily topped out by four out of five Westch­ester home­own­ers. Westch­ester home purchases, already with the high­est prop­erty taxes in the na­tion, have plunged 18 per­cent, cit­ing the limit on SALT de­duc­tions as a prox­i­mate cause, according to Bloomberg News.

Recently, Mr Feiner was quoted as being upset with the Governor's plans to cut state aid to Towns and Villages. "I think it’s wrong for the state to tell local governments to comply with the tax cap — to reduce property taxes — yet the state at the same time is cutting back their financial support, making it harder for local governments to comply," he said, adding the town would lose $409,765. Unincorporated taxpayers will be forced by Mr Feiner to make up that difference as he never cuts anything we can't afford. That is more bad news, along with the fact that Unincorporated Greenburgh Central School residents might soon be saddled with a whopping tax increase of a minimum of $800+ per year for single family homes should this referendum pass.

Add to that the yearly increases in Town, County, Fire, Sewer, SCHOOL and other districts’ taxes and many residents may be forced out of their homes. Let's not forget that 48% of Unincorporated Greenburgh's Fairview Fire District is tax exempt - so this will further hurt the people paying double of what they should have to carry the exempted properties. Finally, Mr Feiner has said he will be proposing a $49 million bond of his own to replace the Greenburgh Police headquarters and courts. That's over $163 MILLION in new bond-generated additional taxes for the next 15, 20 or 30 years!

We believe, as do many others, that Dr Chase and the Greenburgh School Board have not proposed this plan in earnest. Rather, they utilized the student population’s parents to get their first round of by-ins. Then they were about to take it to the streets, but it was too imposing and the necessary participation of the Woodlands High School was scrapped to lower the cost, once again kicking the can down the road. The Brighter United 2019 Capital Project News brochure was mailed out and handed out. There's even a display in the Greenburgh Town Library. What isn't on display or included in the brochures with all of this is any real information, figures, specifics and what those on fixed incomes, single parents, low-income parents, etc., will wind up needing to do should this referendum pass. 

Sadly, as Mr Feiner has said and proven before, this bond will probably pass because many don't know the issues or study the proposals. They fall for the standard line, "It's for the children." Don't believe it. There is a good portion of Greenburgh residents who won’t see that this is a bad deal as they believe their kids will benefit from this project. Given the eight or so years that this project is proposed to take, most who have kids in these schools now will not benefit from this project. The school district, if it were a good one, could add to the attractiveness of moving to the Town. However, until that happens, we urge taxpayers to vote NO for this referendum. Diminished returns, dwindling enrollment, poor school board management and superior private school competition make this proposal unacceptable. We urge the school board, district and superintendent to scrap this plan. In the absence of that we urge taxpayers to vote NO. Then, we implore them to work intimately with the community to craft a solution that doesn’t bankrupt homeowner and business taxpayers. It’s the only way to get A Better Greenburgh.