WHITE PLAINS SALES TAXES DOWN 1.7% FLAT YEAR TO YEAR AFTER 4 MONTHS. COUNTY TOO FALLS BEHIND BUDGETED SALES TAX EXPECTED. INFLATION LIFT NOT ENOUGH YET. $24 MILLION DEFICIT

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WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. From the New York State Department of Taxation & Finance. Observation and Analysis by John F. Bailey. December 4, 2023:

The City of White Plains has collected $18,581,270  in sales tax receipts the first four months of its fiscal year, compared to %18,921,084 in the first 4 months of the city 2022 fiscal year.

The city is  actually  down 1.7%. The city has to hope for a bigtime November-December to catch up. At this rate the city is looking at a $46 Million sales tax handle which would create hole in the city budget due to the practice of taking $5.2 million in restricted sales tax use to pay raises in salaries. that will need to be dealt with as the city takes up the 2023-24 budget. The city may already be looking ahead, considering  doubling of parking rates in high volume city parking lots and a rise in fines in city owned garages.

Last November December, White Plains collected $9,918,562 in sales tax. If they meet that figure the city is sitting on $28.9 Million in sales tax for the first 6 months of the city 22022-23 fiscal year. If the city sees the continued trend in sales tax collections not matching inflation or if the rate of staying flat continues, it is going to be tough to make the additional $5.2 million budgeted in 23-24 for the restricted sales payment.

Here’s what has to happen: If the city in the next 6 months of the fiscal year does not top the  it collected January 22 to June the city will make exactly $46.1 in fiscal 23-24. Worse if it continues to lag at a 1.7% decline the city will make less and have to get the restricted sales tax contribution by either raising property tax. They will not get the $50 million in sales taxes they just barely made last year

 

 

 

The lagging sales tax receipts in the city has to be concerning because it may reflect a lack of patronage in the city restaurants, a lack of traffic in the city ‘s two remaining shopping malls, The Westchester and the City Center that lost its movie theatres last spring.

Failure of to receive any boost from the inflation rate year to year cumulatively reported as 3.5% by the government, including food and fuel, has to be of concern.

Meanwhile Westchester County, is again facing the effect of another overoptimistic sales tax receipts forecast. Last year the county met the sales tax gap by using fund balance to pay for the gap, and used covid aid to replace the transfer of fund balance.

The County: Behind Sales Receipts, $24 Million

The County projected $913 Million in sales tax for 2023, guessing the full 1% sales tax increase would bring a windfall plus inflation. The County so faR according to the state Department of Taxation and Finance has collected $ 728,953,551 in sales taxes and if they collect the same amount in November-December they did last year without a huge increase the county will receive $889.2 Million with $913 Million budgeted for sales tax – approximately a $24 Million gap.

If there were a 5% increase in the November-December County sales tax holiday handle over last year, the handle would rise $8 Million raising sales tax receipts for the year to 897 Million. Not enough.T If the Nov December  handle rises 10%, that gives the county $16 million more dollars and essentially erases the $24 Million deficit the county is now running.

The County is crossing its fingers.

 

 

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OUTBREAK OUTLOOK NORTHEAST DEC 4: RSV RISING QUICKLY NY COVID HOSPITALIZATIONS UP 20%, CONNECTICUT UP 37% IN COVID HOSPITALIZATIONS

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Welcome to the Northeast edition of Outbreak Outlook! It is only available to paid subscribers. If you wish to become a paid subscriber and access region-specific information, please click the Subscribe Now button below. Thanks for reading! -Caitlin

BY DR. CAITlIN RIVERS, December 4, 2023

(Reprinted with permission)

Respiratory diseases

Influenza-like illness

The Northeast is seeing an uptick in influenza-like illness (ILI) activity, though rates remain lower than other areas of the country. Across the Northeast region, ILI is at 3.4%, up from 3.2% last week. For reference, peak activity last season was 8.6% in this area.

Northeast Region: ILI Activity
Percent of doctors visits for ILI symptoms

 

Massachusetts and Maine stood out with the largest single week jumps, rising 0.4 and 0.4 percentage points to 2.5% and 1.6% respectively. New York also posted a noteworthy uptick from 4.8% to 4.9%. More modest ILI increases were seen in Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont all have low and stable levels of activity.

Northeast Region
ILI: Percent of doctors visits for ILI symptoms.

 

The arrow plots are back! As a reminder, the root of the arrow shows activity last week, the head of the arrow shows this week, and the label (e.g., 9%) is the percent change between those two weeks.


Covid-19

Covid-19 hospitalization rates in the Northeast increased quite a bit in the last week. Emergency department visits and test positivity are increasing across the region as well, which has me on alert for a winter wave.

Northeast Region: New COVID-19 Hospitalizations
Rate per 100,000 population

 

At the state level, Connecticut saw a concerning jump, rising from 6.1 to 8.4 new admissions per 100,000. The number of new hospitalizations in Connecticut is now above this summer’s peak. Vermont also posted a sizable increase in hospitalizations, as did Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.

Increases in New Jersey and New Hampshire were more modest.

Northeast Region
Change in key indicators. Covid-19: Weekly new hospitalizations per 100,000.

 


RSV

RSV activity in the Northeast is increasingly quickly. Across the region, PCR test positivity rose from 11.7% to 13.9%.

Northeast Region: RSV Activity
Test Positivity, Percentage

 

States seeing the largest increases in activity include Connecticut, Vermont, and Rhode Island. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York and Maine also posted sizable upticks in RSV test positive rates. New Jersey and New Hampshire rose slightly.

Overall the region is seeing an intensifying RSV trend at an important time just ahead of the holidays. Older adults and parents of infants should be cautious as holiday gathers and travel pick up in the weeks to come.

Northeast Region: RSV Activity
Test Positivity, Percentage

 

This week I am testing out maps. The darker the color, the higher the test positivity. The green color is missing data — I think next week I’ll try to make those gray. Let me know what you think!


Other Respiratory + Stomach Bugs

I’m keeping an eye on several other respiratory and stomach bugs, but overall things are looking relatively quiet at the moment in the Northeast.

  • Seasonal coronavirus activity remains low in the Northeast.
  • Human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza and adenovirus activity remains low.
  • Norovirus activity is rising quickly. Test positivity is reaching 10%, up from less than 5% just a few weeks ago. Norovirus usually peaks around 15% in early spring, so I wouldn’t be surprised if activity keeps rising through the winter months.
Northeast Region: Norovirus Activity
Test Positivity, Percentage

Food recalls

The following foods are being recalled because they are contaminated. Please check your cupboards and throw out any of these items:

New this week:

  • The cut cantaloupe recall I have been reporting on for several weeks has expanded considerably. I recommend skipping the pre-cut cantaloupe altogether for a while — including both fresh fruit and fruit cups (more info)
  • Peaches, nectarines, and plums sold in bags branded as HMC Farms and Signature farms (more info)

Previously reported:

  • Multiple brands of pet food – dog, cat, and catfish food (more info here and here) (Note: this poses a risk to pets and to the people that care for them, since Salmonella can be acquired via handling of the contaminated pet food and/or contact with infected animals. Several human cases, including in infants, have been tied to the pet food.)
  • Tyson chicken nuggets (more info)
  • Multiple brands of Apple Cinnamon Fruit Puree (more info)

If you have food allergies, you may wish to review these FDA safety alerts and USDA alerts for foods with undeclared allergens.

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STOP BADMOUTHING BIDEN?: SOME GOODMOUTHING FACTS, PLEASE! “FOURTH ESTATE IS THE MAKER OF REALITY’

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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER December 2, 2023:

 

(RE: Ms. Paul NY TIMES “STOP BADMOUTHING BIDEN” COLUMN):

 You write: “‘Stop badmouthing Biden,’ some Democrats will say, as if acknowledging reality were akin to arming the enemy.”

The Fourth Estate is the maker of reality. When you and your colleagues in the So-Called Liberal Media join Fox in bashing Biden, his poor ratings becomes your fault. Thus when you demand that Biden step down (when it’s clear he won’t), it is not only feckless, it’s shameless.

You write: “But even if Biden has done a pretty good job as president, most Americans don’t see that.”

He’s not done a “pretty good” job, he’s done a spectacular job, and if Americans don’t see that, it is the fault of the same clueless, craven SCLM that helped elect Trump in the first place. To adopt your metaphor, you are the time bomb ticking under the table. Every time you write about Biden’s age while ignoring Trump’s – or the fact that Trump is far less healthy – mentally or physically – than Biden. My God, do you not have eyes? Or sense?

The Times’s “all-inflation-all-the time” coverage shamelessly buried the causes of inflation, including kinked supply lines and overdemand, when COVID money that would have been spent on vacations and eating out instead was spent on goods because Republicans resistance to the vaccine roll-out prevented re-opening of the economy, and of course CORPORATE GREED, while running human interest stories on how badly people (not SCLM reporters, of course) were faring.  If you had done your job, Americans would have had a much different impression of Biden.

Read your colleague David Brooks on Biden as a transformational president. He could be the anti-Reagan, rolling back 40 years of class warfare in which the bottom 90% transferred some 50 trillion dollars to the top 1%.

Biden played Republicans in the same way Reagan played Democrats (viz. letting Kevin McCarthy take credit for the debt ceiling deal after Biden got everything he wanted; or setting up Republicans at the SOTU to promise they wouldn’t touch Social Security or Medicare). What Democrat today can do that going forward? Biden learned from watching Republicans

Here’s a list of what Biden accomplished in his first two years:

• Cutting child poverty by 35% in 2021 by expanding the Child Tax Credit

• IRA is the greatest investment in green energy American history

• The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is the largest long-term investment in infrastructure and the economy in American history.

• The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is the first gun safety legislation in nearly three decades.

• The PACT Act is the biggest expansion of veterans’ benefits in over three decades and provides medical care for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals.

• The CHIPS Act invests in microchip production to make America more competitive with China and reduce our reliance on foreign sources for a vital component used by the defense industry. T

That’s not “a pretty good job.” That’s doing more with less than any Democrat in this or the last century. Some more metrics are below.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK. DO YOUR JOB. AND STOP ARMING THE ENEMY.

Michael

Michael K. Cantwell

Editor, The Delray Democrat

Delray Beach, FL

(Reprinted with permission of the author)

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WHITE PLAINS WEEK MONDAY AT 7 JOHN BAILEY ‘S DEC 1 REPORT–ON WPTV FIOS CH 45 COUNTYWIDE, WP OPTIMUM CH 76 AND RIGHT NOW ON www.wpcommunitymedia.org

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CITY PROPOSES NEW PARKING RATES FOR HIGH VOLUME DOWNTOWN LOTS $3 FOR 2 HOURS ENFORCED TO MIDNIGHT

MAYOR ROACH ON THE ROAD TO DUBAI — WILL ADDRESS WHITE PLAINS GREEN POLICIES

CON ED LIFTS BAN ON NEW NATURAL GAS CONNECTIONS FOR 2 YEARS ON OPENING OF DUBAI CLIMATE CONFERENCE — WHY? — THE FOSSIL FUEL MADNESS CON-TIN-UES!

MEANWHILE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD EARTH POLICIES ON CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATED

NEW JERSEY GOV. MURPHY CALLS CONGESTION PRICING RUSHED AND OPAGUE LAW SUIT PENDING

CONGESTION RATES AND EXEMPTIONS RELEASED

JOHN BAILEY AND THE NEWS

YOU NEED TO KNOW

EVERY WEEK ON WHITE PLAINS WEEK

SINCE 2001

 

 

 

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City Proposes Extending Night Street 6-9 Parking Enforcement to Midnight. Raising High Demand Lots to $1.50, Hiking Garage Overtime Fine to $20.  Council Not So Sure

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey.  November 29, 2023:

City Commissioner of Parking and Traffic, Kevin Livingston presented a new proposed scale of parking rates for the City of White Plains at Monday evening Common Council Work Session, which can be viewed on the City of White Plains website at

http://whiteplainsny.swagit.com/common-council–2

Under the new rates, non-permit parking would increase 25 cents to $1.25 bringing them in line with the parking structure rates.

High volume downtown parking lots would be raised to $1.50 an hour. Those lots rising to $1.50 are: Waller-Maple, Quarrropus Lot, Mitchell Place,  Court Street Lot.

The parking overtime fine in the city garages would rise from $10 to $20..

Council members Nadine Hunt-Robinson, Jennifer Puja and Victoria Presser were concerned about the increase in parking fee collection to midnight. Councilman Richard Payne raised the issue that doublE-Parking was a serious problem aggravating traffic and should be addressed. Victoria Presser asked why the increases were needed and why now. Commissioner Livingston said the technology was aging up and in order to replace (in a timely manner) the city needed the funds now.

At no time during the presentation was the current trend of parking fees and fines revenue stated as an issue prompting raising of fees.

In other matters,

The Common Council approved moving the December 4 regularly scheduled Common Council meeting to December 11 in order that Mayor Roach could attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors Delegation to the UN Climate Change meeting, beginning tomorrow November 30 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The Armory Senior Citizens Center residence detailed a zoning change to build 50 new residences and street retail with details to follow in coming months.

The 60 Broadway, former “Esplanade” appeared requesting a site plan extension. The Mayor, Ms. Hunt-Robinson, Ms. Puja, and Ms. Presser all spoke at length of the long delayed plans for the building chiding the Lennar, the developer for the long delay in completing the building. It is unclear at this time whether the extension will be granted. You can watch this lively exchange and indignation of the Common Council at the delay in its entirety on the city website.

 

The matter is most likely to be on the agenda on December 11, the next Common Council Meeting, which was voted to be moved from December 4  in order for Mayor Roach to attend the United Nations meeting on Climate Change in New York.

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HIGH INCOME WHITE PERSONS MORE VACCINATED THAN POOR. VACCINE AVAILABILITY EVEN IF YOU WANT TO GET VACCINATED HAMPERED BY GOVERNMENT DROPPING EMERGENCY STATUS: YOUR LOCAL EPIDEMIOLOGIST OBSERVES.

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IN THE AIR: CAITLIN RIVERS ON RESPIRATORY VIRUS SEASON

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BUILDERS INSTITUTE: CON ED WILL LIFT 4 YEAR NATURAL GAS MORATORIUM

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 Con Edison Announces the End of Westchester’s Gas Moratorium

Con Edison announced  that as of December 1, 2023, the temporary natural gas moratorium, which commenced on March 15, 2019 in most of its Westchester County service territory to address a supply-demand imbalance and support reliability of service to customers in the affected area, will end. In a letter to the Public Service Commission, Con Ed explained that said that the combination of increased supply from the Tennessee East 300 Project and lower forecasted demand resolves the Westchester supply-demand gap which prompted the moratorium on new gas hookups.

In the coming weeks, Con Edison will notify local agencies, elected officials, and those customers who had previously signed up on the gas service interest list which was maintained during the period the moratorium was in effect, even if they signed up on that list months ago. If you signed up on that list any time since 2019, you should expect further communication directly from Con Ed.

The BRI anticipates that Con Ed will both remove moratorium-specific web pages from www.coned.com as well as post information on how to request new gas hookups or conversions from oil to gas beginning December 1.

However, please note that this announcement does NOT change anything with regard to the requirements under the All Electrification Act, whereby there will be statewide ban on fossil-fuel use in new construction. The measure will start in 2026 for structures of seven stories or less. The ban for larger buildings starts in 2029.

To that end, one week after the lifting of the moratorium, the company will hold technical meetings with plumbers and general contractors and will also contact customers , and they will receive information about fossil-free alternatives. All customers who request new service are required to sign an attestation confirming their awareness of New York State clean energy policy goals and the availability of non-fossil fuel alternative heating options.

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WHITE PLAINS WEEK TONIGHT THE NOV 24 REPORT WPTV FIOS CH 45 COUNTYWIDE. WP OPTIMUM CH. 76 AND www.wpcommunitymedia.org ANYTIME

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JOHN BAILEY AND THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW

THE THANKSGIVING NOVEMBER 24  REPORT

EVERY WEEK ON WHITE PLAINS WEEK SINCE 2001 A.D.

THE SOLUTION TO COMING CONGESTION TAX IN NEW YORK CITY AT 60TH STREET SAVE TIME AND MONEY AND AGGRAVATION

REMEMBERING THE LEGACY OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY. HE WAS MURDERED

60 YEARS AGO ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963

JETELINA AND RIVERS YOUR LOCAL EPIDEMIOLOGISTS REPORT ON HOW TO HANDLE THE HOLIDAYS GOING IN COVID INFECTIONS PROJECT TO 3,000 NEW CASES IN COUNTY–9,000 LESS THAN LAST DECEMBER

THREAT OF VOTER REPRESENTATION LAWSUIT IN MT. PLEASANT AND A DEFINITE THREAT TO WHITE PLAINS “AT LARGE” VOTING SYSTEM

UNEMPLOYMENT UP IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY 3RD STRAIGHT MONTH

HALF OF PATIENTS BEING ADMITTED TO BEDS AT WHITE PLAINS HOSPITAL CONTINUE TO ALSO HAVE COVID AFTER ADMISSION 

 

 

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