ECC Objects to Greenburgh Tax Hike

To Supervisor Paul Feiner and the Town Board of Greenburgh; I’m writing this open letter on behalf of the Edgemont Community Council. We wish to express our disappointment at the town board’s recent passing of the 2011 budget. The new budget calls for a 7% increase in overall spending, funded by drawing down on the fund balance, borrowing, and tax increases — 4.5% for unincorporated, which includes an almost incredible 87% increase for the town entire.

Our new governor, Andrew Cuomo, has made it clear that he plans to implement an austerity budget in Albany and is proposing a 2% cap on property taxes. Early indications are that the legislature will support him.

But in the Town of Greenburgh, austerity is a foreign concept:

• The Edgemont Community Council made numerous suggestions for cuts in the budget; almost all were ignored.
• There was no set-aside to pay for damages in the Fortress Bible lawsuit, creating a potential, gigantic hole in the 2011 budget. There was also no set-aside for the cost of revaluation or the millions of dollars needed to remediate the pools at Veteran Park .
• Instead, you voted to draw down fund balance to reduce a substantial double-digit tax hike to 4.5% and thereby cynically postponed making the truly hard decisions about town spending until after this year’s town board election.
• Borrowing will fund payments required by tax certioraris — meaning future taxpayers will have to pay off current operating expenses, a very poor way to manage the budget.
• And the impending 2% cap was ignored.

Both the Edgemont School District and Greenville Fire District have managed to keep tax increases very close to the 2% level in recent years; both districts should be able to manage if the tax cap is passed. Even Westchester County , with strong bipartisan support, not only met the 2% cap, it actually managed to cut property taxes for 2011.

But even though every other taxing district in the state of New York seems to have answered the clarion call this year to reduce spending and keep property tax hikes below 2%, the Town of Greenburgh has not.

Although the town budget has already been passed, the Edgemont Community Council therefore urges the town board to reconsider its spending to meet the 2% tax cap for 2011. Given the state of the economy, it’s the prudent thing to do even if the cap never becomes law. And under no circumstances should the town meet a 2% tax cap by borrowing money to meet operating expenses. That idea was even rejected last month at the county level. That kind of irresponsible financial gimmickry fools nobody.

We note with great dismay that, at a time of financial extremis and when other municipal authorities nationwide are undertaking to rein in spending, when stripped of this year’s one-shot gimmicks, the Town's budget (and tax-burden) continues to grow at an effective rate of over 15%.

This is an extravagance that residents cannot afford. Town officials should be focused instead on reducing spending to manageable and sustainable levels — not on justifying higher taxes while also drawing down on reserve fund balances and pursuing unprecedented borrowing to fund tax certioraris and other known, current expenses.

The need for the Town of Greenburgh to start holding the line on spending has become all the more important given Governor Cuomo's goal of imposing a 2% cap on property tax increases. The Governor's goal is laudable and, whether or not enacted into law, the Town should undertake to live within its means — and the means of its residents.

Geoff Loftus
Member of the Board of Directors
Edgemont Community Council