Town Drags Feet On Equity Taxing Proposal

It started quite auspiciously, even if disingenuous, as an attack against a good man in the Fairview Fire Department. That attack has morphed into a deflection movement that has accomplished what Mr Feiner had set out to do. He needed to take focus away from his newly proposed Town budget and the gaping holes created by Mr Feiner with the $6.5 million fine, $5.5 million not covered by insurance, the lack of $1.2 million per year by the intentional non-renewal of the WestHelp contract, the loss of an offer for $3.5 million plus unlimited cleanup for the former Frank’s Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road, Dromore Road, Midway Shopping Center, to name a few. Why hasn’t this fire monitor group expanded their scope and begun a study about Town-wide spending, budgets, largess and lawsuit failures? ABG believes Mr Feiner is behind this deflection move to consolidate only two of the three paid fire departments in the Town, utilizing resident Milt Hoffman as his surrogate, to keep any and all focus away from his failings with Town finances.

While fire consolidation has generated quite a buzz, it is also a disingenuous proposal because it only includes two of the three paid departments. Milt Hoffman, a close friend and confidant of Mr Feiner, continues to bemoan the savings that could be had. Yet, the numbers presented by both the Fairview and Hartsdale Fire Chiefs don’t support Mr Hoffman's claims, nor does the now-outdated fire consolidation report Mr Hoffman helped pen and often refers. Who is monitoring the monitors?

However, ABG believes some good has come from this fire district scrutiny.

One problem that was highlighted is the date of the elections for the Board of Fire Commissioners, which is dictated by New York State law, not local or County law. The Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville Board of Fire Commissioners elections are mandated by NY State to be held on the second Tuesday of December. The law also mandates minimum voting hours from 6pm until 9pm. The Fairview Board of Fire Commissioners extended the hours from 5pm until 9pm and are currently investigating ways to expand the hours of voting. One issue is the people working the polls are contracted by the Fire District and all work “regular” jobs. In a discussion with a Board member, ABG learned they are addressing the expansion of voting hours and hope to expand them for this years election. ABG believes this would be a step forward for residents and the District.

Another proposal submitted to the Town Board on May 21, 2014 on behalf of the three fire districts has languished since its submission. The proposal was written on behalf of the three fire districts by Hartsdale Chief Ed Rush. It partially addresses high fire taxes for the districts as well as the tax-exempt properties not paying their fair share for services they take advantage of but are not required to pay for. Simply, the proposal addresses the fact that each fire district pays “rent” for the use of fire hydrants and water in the Town. 

The hydrant/water rental charges in 2013 was $163,530 for Hartsdale, $253,590 for Fairview and $137,460 in Greenville. The proposal references NYS Assembly and Senate bills A4086-A and S5278-A, respectively, allowing municipalities that purchase water from private water companies to allocate the cost of maintaining fire hydrant infrastructure to all customers. Translation? Instead of water costs being paid by only the 52% of taxpayers in these fire districts on only their fire protection tax bills, 100% of the residents who use water in the Town (everybody) and receive a water bill would be paying for water usage and hydrant rentals throughout the Town - including the tax exempts! This will not cause a dramatic lowering of the 52%-ers fire protection taxes, but it does begin the address the non-payment for services rendered by tax-exempts. 

In the Fairview Fire District, 48% of the properties are tax-exempt. That means 52% of the resident taxpayers pay 100% of the taxes, allowing for the tax exempts to get a free ride whenever there is a Fire, Police, or EMS emergency. Our paid-for-by-52%-responders go to the scene and perform their jobs as though these people paid taxes. And, no one has a problem with that. The police department personnel respond to police related events; the fire department responds to their respective fire, ems and other events and EMS personnel respond, often seeking aid from volunteer EMS agencies from the villages. One little-known fact is that the Villages pay for paramedic services to the Town provided by Greenburgh Police. Again, the tax-exempts do not pay for this service, the 52%-ers do!

Mr Hoffman’s group seemed surprised when Chief Rush brought this proposal up at a meeting held at Town Hall with the fire monitors. The audience queried why the Town has not acted on this? Chief Rush mentioned he did not know but had just sent a follow-up email to the Town Board asking for a response. The Problem Solver did not reply. In a separate email forwarded to ABG from a resident, Mr Feiner stated to a resident who inquired about it that he had given the letter to the legal department and to the Water Advisory Board to "investigate". While this sounds logical to the willfully ignorant voter, ABG believes it is another rope-a-dope by Mr Feiner in hopes he can continue the ruse of fire consolidation, garnering more headlines and media time. Sadly, while everyone is clamoring for savings for the beleaguered taxpayer in Greenburgh, someone has finally done something tangible and the Town won’t act. ABG believes it is a step in the right direction and should be implemented immediately!

Fairview Fire Chief Reiss also proposed a $10 student fee be attached to Westchester Community College students’ tuition that would help offset costs for all the fire and EMS calls they respond to at the WCC campus. Here, however it becomes a bit more involved because WCC is part of the state university system and this fee would need to be approved at the state level. Why hasn’t Mr Feiner reached out to his two state buddies and ask them for help? Another idea a residents suggested is to have the Fire District charge tax-exempts properties for fire inspections. Charging for false alarms might add another revenue stream for Fire Districts to raise income. The police department charges for burglary/security false alarms after a certain amount of false alarms have been generated. While ABG likes the fire inspection fee idea, we understand the state prohibits charging for fire false alarms because they are considered "life safety" alarms. However, ABG believes this is worth investigating and if the same component failures are what’s generating an alarm, that fines be levied to force compliance to remedy the defect – with the penalty money going to the fire district.

It would seem that equity of payments for services would be something Mr Feiner would be championing for the taxpayers he continues to abuse. Instead, he shrinks away from helping the people he was elected to serve. Perhaps its time to elect someone else who will represent the residents over the developers. Maybe then we will see A Better Greenburgh.