Tax Increases, Tax Exemptions, Bonds or Bust!

The May 24th town board meeting presented me with more questions. Plus, the tension in the room was palpable.

As far as the “courthouse” this town is plagued with “opportunistic exploitation.” Too many construction companies jump on the GRAVY TRAIN.  Every contract, including the Moreno company, should know they’re not the only rodeo in town.  Competitive bidding helps companies keep their costs in check. Unbridled spending is why Greenburgh has a problem. As mentioned last night.  Why were the town vehicle purchases allowed to be a “free for all”? Why was it discovered after the fact?   

Police Station: propose a reasonable budget to add the necessary modifications to have bathrooms. Bonds have interest and consequences for residents.

Increase parking by removing police cars that sit in the vicinity of resident/visitor parking.  Why are underutilized police vehicles taking up valuable spaces? Renting a separate location would be a good fit. Also, why does the police chief of this town have 2, $100,000 vehicles to travel around with?  One unmarked car could suffice. 

As a residents of this town, we’ve witnessed outrageous salaries and a school district that has a budget of $87,000,000. When neighboring school districts function for $30,000,000 less. This town is unaffordable, the birthrate dropped and we have expenses that are unsustainable. Our children are moving away. MORE assisted living facilities are popping up to gently ease seniors out of their beloved homes into a place that will gladly spend their $6,000-$8,000. a month (taken from their home's sale price).

This is PARASITIC & UNACCEPTABLE! 

WHY?

The yearly tax ASSESSMENTS makes living here a predatory process. To ENGAGE IN THIS process to give all school districts relief from certiorari's is NOT fair.  If their budgets were smaller, it's possible less people would grieve.

• The Hackley connection: Legislators are derelict of their duties . It took a curious resident to FILE a FOIL to figure out this nefarious private school with an EXCESSIVE annual income is parasitically robbing its HOST, the taxpayers.   HACKLEY CLAIMS 85% OF THEIR INCOME IS FROM TUITION.  IT IS not.  They’ve perfected & profitted from their practice of the ABUSE of our tax-exempt laws. This emboldened them to remove more single-family homes from the tax rolls. They give their employees perks at the sacrifice of taxpayers.
• What will ALL OF YOU DO about this practice?
• How many board members read all of the tax-exempt rolls each year?  If I can devote 7 hours a year, you can too.
• If the sewer and water bills are NO longer subsidized by the taxpayers, how did this happen?
• Who will review the wholly exempt tax rolls and implore legislation to stop the hemorrhaging of the taxpayers?   
• HACKLEY SHOULD LOSE THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING TAX EXEMPT; they violated the trust of the very taxpayers that afforded them the opportunity to build their brand.
• WE the people are subsidizing all of the single-family homes removed from the tax rolls by Hackley. Although I took the data and sent an e-mail to the Tarrytown School district and Tarrytown board, this practice of using the court system to further disenfranchise taxpayers MUST stop. 
• Beyond the forensic REVIEW, this board and supervisor have an opportunity to influence the outdated laws on the books. Legislators are oblivious to the plight of the residents of Greenburgh
• (Unincorporated Greenburgh pays more in taxes than Fairview, WHY? 

My request to put a freeze on all unsold wholly exempt properties would help ALL residents. 

THIS IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF: Greenburgh sold 5 properties at a foreclosure auction this past week and recovered $544,624- the delinquency amount. The Town Board will need to approve the sales. Under NY Real Property Law Section 1142 if any of the properties are the resident’s primary residence, the residents are entitled to any surplus resulting from the sale of the property which would need to be held in escrow as surplus.  We anticipate two additional foreclosure sales within the next year.  

FOIL: How many residents didn't or couldn’t pay their property taxes in January of 2026? April 2026?  If the school tax bill was one lump sum like the April town tax bill, more people would pay attention. Tuesday’s Greenburgh Central School District Budget vote outcome 807-yes, 502-no. Thanks to the efforts of Greenburgh Action Alliance, people are beginning to pay attention.

This town board and supervisor cannot keep the school district woes and town woes separate.    

“THIS LETTER FROM THE SANTOS FAMILY IS 1 OF HUNDREDS INCAPABLE OF PAYING THE NEWEST TAX INCREASES: 3.5 % for the town and 3.2 % for the school district.

On April 17th Venita Howard (Receiver of Taxes) and I received a nice note from the Santos family (they gave me permission to use their name). 

 “I am writing to thank you both for your recent letter and for offering us the opportunity to enter into a payment plan agreement for our outstanding taxes. Your outreach and willingness to work with us has made an inconvenient situation much more manageable. I am pleased to share that since we have entered into the payment agreement, we have successfully paid off the outstanding taxes. Because of your assistance, we were able to avoid foreclosure, which means more than we can express.”

Venita Howard, the Receiver of Taxes and I are more than willing to help residents avoid foreclosure. We want to make this as stress-less a process as possible.

PAUL FEINER

Greenburgh Town Supervisor”

Film permits: Its great film companies want to film here. A $10,000. Film permit revenue in the general fund is good for all of us.  WHY are tax exempt properties allowed to profit from filming, storing movie equipment, food trucks, etc?  WE THE PEOPLE subsidize their property taxes? Those earnings should also go into the General fund. This is how we can avoid more property tax increases. This MUST change.  Who will step up? 

What's wrong in Greenburgh? The parasitic taxes have exhausted the monetary capabilities of the host – the taxpayers. Residents that live in condos and co-ops that pay (65%) of the school taxes are still asleep. Although new condo owners pay 100%, it's too little, too late. The Legislators are not legislating. 

Most contracts are NEVER under budget, nor are they on time.  I recommend ALL contracts for Outside agencies to study the 4 corners project be null and void.

I implore this town board to sue the company that dragged out the 100 East Hartsdale Plumbing debacle. This project is costly regardless of the “savings” mentioned last night. I implore the entire town board to put pressure on Legislators to reel in the tax-exempt properties and the laws that govern them.  

There are many issues facing the taxpayers of this town; you possess the power, motivation, inclination and intelligence to get this issue resolved. This is not the end of the issues I didn't have time to bring up in my allotted 5 minutes.  To be continued… 

“If you give a man a fish, he will only eat for a day.  If you teach him how to fish, he will eat for a lifetime.”   

 

– Greenburgh Action Alliance

Is GCSD Serving ALL Children

Brief History Greenburgh Union Free School District #13

It’s important to note Greenburgh Union Free School District #13 was dissolved by a specific state law that transferred its territory into the Irvington UFSD and dealt with employees, debt and records.

NYS Dissolution Law

There's a separate New York local government dissolution law, but it doesn't apply to school districts. New York’s government reorganization and citizen empowerment act lets residents petition and vote to dissolve villages towns etcetera by referendum. Shall we dissolve? It was a state level statute, although local input obviously mattered. 

Before the population growth of the 1950’s, the enrollment in Greenburgh’s many school districts were individually small. Edgemont-Greenville (aka #5) and Hartsdale (aka #7) were too small to support High Schools. Instead, they planned with neighboring school districts to “tuition in” their high school age students. Greenburgh (aka #8) periodically retained its high school classes. The senior class of 1939 had 31 students. It was clear maintaining a high school was financially impractical and the district returned to the practice of sending High School students to White Plains.

Hartsdale Not Approved

From the April 1967 Hastings News: NYS Education Commissioner Allen writes that he will not approve Hartsdale plans to build a high school because of its small enrollment, fewer than 400 high school students and instead encourages mergers. Irvington school district rejected applications from Hartsdale families who seek to send their children to that high school. Hartsdale Board of Education offers to accept some low-income housing units in Hartsdale and is accused of “tokenism.”

Woodlands Designated 

In May of 1967, the Hartsdale Board of Education designated Woodlands as the high school for the 1967-68 school years, but also gives parents the right to send 10 through 12th graders to any Westchester County high school with Hartsdale paying out of district tuition up to the amount that would have been paid to Woodlands. Hartsdale appeals to New York Board of Regents to reject SED Commissioner Allen’s decision and instead to substitute 5/6/7 merger for 7/8.
Warburg Estate: Can of Worms 
May of 1967 was pivotal. The decision to give parents the right to send their children to any Westchester County High School was an excellent decision. But next up was the donation of the Warburg Estate property, which opened the can of worms that we currently have today. Aging buildings scattered across four campuses. Less than 1,600 students are enrolled in the school district. The current cost of running the Greenburgh Central School district is $85,000,000 a year. This district does not serve the Hartsdale population of children. We are at a crossroads that residents have avoided for years. 

100 Graduates A Year

Currently 100 students graduate each year from Greenburgh Central School District. Most Hartsdale children do not graduate from this school district. Why? At an approximate cost of $85,0000 per student to run an underperforming school district that doesn’t serve Hartsdale residents should spark curiosity. But it doesn’t. Parents in Hartsdale realize K-1 in GCSD is fine to buy them time to shop around for a private school or to sell their homes to find a better school district. Many quietly find private schools, keep their mouths closed and continue to pay taxes for a failing district. Unfortunately, that increases yearly without qualification or validation. 

The racial breakdown from the New York State Education Department on Greenburgh Central School District Enrollment is: 48% Hispanic, 38% Black, 10% white, 6% Asian and 1% or two or more races.
Two Freedom of Information Law Requests were filed with the Greenburgh School District revealing the following:
From 2010-2024 95 children transferred out of Lee F. Jackson Elementary (K-1 ).
From 2010-2025 192 children transferred out of 6th Grade from the Richard J. Bailey Elementary school.

A F.O.I.L. filed with Town of Greenburgh Clerks office revealed:
From 2020-2023- Greenburgh School District Late School Tax Penalties amounted to
School penalty          Greenburgh Town/ County penalty
2020 $1,274,634.66    $445,809.03
2021 $1,411,120.06     $739,131.88
2022 $1,123,529.65    $395,869.07
2023 $ 1,422,129.50    $374,273.31

The financial burden of over $7,000,000. in penalties distributed.l Does this seem like taxpayers could afford to pay the school taxes that increase each year, as enrollment number continues to decline? Taxpayers would find their money well spent if vouchers were issued, aging schools buildings sold, and school choice for ALL parents. It’s the only way we’ll get A Better Greenburgh!

— Greenburgh Action Alliance