Westchester County at the Tipping Point
August 16, 2013
August 2013.
Westchester County is known as the bucolic gateway to the Hudson River Valley. Located just north of New York City, Westchester has a plethora of attractions, including castles, mansions, historical sites, and the iconic Playland Amusement Park in Rye.
Westchester boasts thousands of acres of parks and nature preserves; world-class museums and performing arts venues; exclusive shopping, wineries and orchards; public gardens; excellent dining; and year-round, family-friendly fairs and festivals.
That’s what current Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and his cronies would like the world to know and believe.
The real Westchester County consists of 45 independent communities on a land area of 450 square miles. Just under 1 Million people live in Westchester, and they are racially, economically and culturally segregated.
From the City of Peekskill (population 24,000) where 51% of the population is white, 14.5% live in poverty, and the median family income is $65,585; to the City of Rye (population 16,000) where 90% of residents are white, just 2.3% live in poverty, and the median family income is $210,824; the contrasts are dramatic.
Meanwhile, it is very clear: Current County Executive Rob “I cut your taxes” Astorino has no shame.
Much like Don Quixote jousting at windmills, Mr. Astorino loves to do battle with various federal agencies. As he stamps his feet and screams, “I want my Maypo”, he tries to divert attention away from the huge financial penalties Westchester County Taxpayers face because of his incompetence, inability to lead and inexperience managing an organization of any size.
The most recent revelation?
The County had been given a deadline of April 2012 to provide Ultra Violet treatment to the water in Westchester Water District 1 which serves White Plains, Scarsdale, Mount Vernon and Yonkers.
Career professionals in the County had developed solutions; Astorino allowed the progress afforded by the solutions to grind to a halt.
Now, we find out that the County has been in violation of the mandate to deliver clean drinking water for 16 months, with probable fines of $37,500 a day. 16 months x 30 days x $37,500 is $18 Million. That’s a lot of money!
Cryptosporidium is the pathogen that is often behind the syndrome sometimes known as “Montezuma’s Revenge.”
It is highly resistant to chlorine disinfection, which is the primary form of disinfection used at most water treatment plants.
As long ago as 1999, the US EPA published definitive research showing that UV treatment is the only reliable and effective treatment system against all pathogens, including Cryptosporidium.
It is somewhat surprising that CE Astorino would mess with folks in Scarsdale.
His predictable pattern of abuse and benign neglect tends toward Mount Vernon, Yonkers, Port Chester, Peekskill and New Rochelle. Those folks just don’t seem to make time to come out to vote, and they mostly don’t make campaign contributions.
Maybe his campaign advisors told him, “Don’t worry, boss. People in Scarsdale don’t drink tap water. They drink bottled water. They will never find out that we are sending them potentially dangerous water.”
Hopefully, some of our neighbors in Scarsdale who do vote will get a bit vociferous about the gamble Astorino and his cronies seem to be willing to take with the physical (and financial) health of fellow Westchester residents.
The Environmental Protection Agency filed a lawsuit against Westchester County this month after county officials refused to enter into a consent decree to resolve the violations.
The potential legal fees and fines are astronomical.
What is even worse?
The lack of UV treatment puts thousands of Westchester residents (the majority of whom are registered Democrats!) at extreme risk of serious illness or even death from drinking improperly treated tap water.
Pretty clever political strategy, I think.
If you can’t convince the other party you have a solid plan and strategy, then disable or kill them so they can’t vote.
Brilliant move, Mr. Astorino!
Public Sector Pension Problems
August 14, 2013
The Town of Clarkstown — located in Rockland County in New York’s lower Hudson Valley — today is a suburban town comprising 47 square miles with a population of 84,000.
Clarkstown is predominantly white and middle class. According to the 2010 Census, just 4.5% of the people who live in Clarkstown are at or below the poverty level. The median household income is $102,000 and the median home value is $500,000. About 80% of the homes in Clarkstown are owner-occupied, and the majority were built after 1950 as Rockland County transitioned from a predominantly agrarian economy to a bedroom community for the New York metro region.
In 2010, CNNMoney.com named Clarkstown the 41st best “small city” to live in America, which was the highest such ranking in New York State.
One would think that in a stable suburban town like Clarkstown, public safety would be of paramount importance to residents, yet the job of policing would be less stressful than in nearby high-density, inner-city areas where danger lurks around every corner.
New York City — one of the most complicated places in America in terms of ensuring public safety — has a police force of 34,000 supervised by the New York City police commissioner who earns annual salary of $215,000.
For some reason, Clarkstown has a history of providing the highest compensation to police officials in the lower Hudson region. In Clarkstown, an entry-level police officer makes a base salary of $62,000.
In nearby and contiguous towns, entry-level police officers earn between $40,000 and 43,500 per a year in base pay.
In 2010, it was reported that then-Clarkstown Police Chief Peter Noonan was the highest paid municipal employee in New York State — earning just over $301,000.
At the time, he was supervising a force of 173 police officers, of which 147 made more than $100,000 in base salaries, not including overtime and other earnings.
Noonan retired in 2011 after spending 33 years in the Clarkstown police department, the last seven as Chief.
When he retired, his annual pension was calculated to be $193,892 based on the formula New York State uses to calculate pension benefits.
A recent recalculation by the NYS Comptroller’s Office has added nearly $13,000 to Noonan’s retirement benefit, bringing it to $206,398, the highest pension for a retired cop in New York State.
Noonan now has the eighth highest pension among municipal retirees in New York State and is one of 10 pensioners with an annual benefit exceeding $200,000.
You think Detroit has problems?
Battle Royale: Westchester County Executive 2013
August 8, 2013
Rob Astorino – young and inexperienced – was elected to become County Executive in Westchester County NY in November 2009. He ran on a Tea Party platform — at the time (and still today), property owners in the 40+ towns, villages and cities in Westchester County were paying about the highest property taxes in the U.S. Astorino won the election on his promise to cut Westchester County property taxes.
Good news: he succeeded. He delivered what he promised. My County property taxes have decreased by almost $200 since Rob Astorino was elected!
On the other hand, my total property taxes – including City, School and County – increased by +$3,500 since Mr. Astorino was elected — an increase of over 18%.
Over the past 3 years, I have watched Westchester County cut support for safety net services and send the responsibility for providing those services downstream to the local towns, villages and cities.
That makes me very sad, because while the need for services doesn’t go away, and we can and do save $1 in taxes at the County level, only to find that our local municipal and school taxes go up by $3.
We need a County Executive who is able to see and understand the big picture, not a County Executive who has no experience other than as a silver tongued broadcast journalist. This is the 21st century, and we are in a very competitive economic environment.
We just can’t afford the distractions which come from our County leadership sparring with State or Federal government over issues like a consent decree for fair housing, or a mandate for clean water.
Noam Bramson gets it. He is a moderate, middle-of-the road leader who is able to see the big picture and make decisions based on the best interests of the majority of citizens today – and in the future — of our Westchester communities.
Let’s help Mr. Astorino return to his real strength – broadcast journalism – where he has the best chance of making a mark on the American landscape which doesn’t damage the lives of so many good people…..
Another Tea Party Thought
August 5, 2013
The very best base for Tea Party Patriots are those folks who never learned critical thinking skills. The reason Common Core Standards strikes absolute fear in the hearts of the architects of Tea Party is that it is centered on Critical Thinking Skills!
Mind you, we are 10 to 15 years distant from returning to a society where the majority will be capable of logical thinking and logical reasoning, but the Tea Party Patriots are wasting no time to appeal to their base, and to recruit as many vapid automatons as they can sink their teeth into.
Stay thirsty and vigilant, my friends!
Tea Party Thoughts
August 4, 2013
I’ve recently been called out as a bigoted liberal who is a ‘hater’.
I think the reason for that is that I take exception to some current Tea Party shenanigans. I try not to be a ‘hater’ but I am willing to call out when I see or hear commentary which seems to be non-productive.
Here are some Walrus thoughts:
A widely accepted view of Liberalism incorporates the political philosophy founded on ideas of liberty and equality. It is generally acknowledged that Liberals support ideas such as: free and fair elections; civil rights for all people; freedom of the press; freedom of religion; free trade; and rights of people to own and protect their private property.
The 17th century philosopher John Locke is often credited with founding Liberalism as a distinct philosophical tradition. Locke argued that each man has a natural right to life, liberty and property and according to the social contract, governments must not violate these rights.
The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights reflect that the very foundation of our country is based on Liberal principles.
The original ‘Tea Party’ – The Boston Tea Party (circa 1770) — was all about anger and resentment of British mandates on the Colonies – often summarized as an objection to “Taxation without Representation”.
Today’s Tea Party seems to claim a connection to the Boston Tea Party, though I don’t grasp their logic, or see any connection at all.
We have a governmental structure in the U.S. which allows and encourages everyone eligible to vote to get engaged in the political process and to vote. In 21st century America, there is no “Taxation without Representation”.
The basic tenets of the modern Tea Party – as I understand them – are to reduce government spending thus cutting taxes on U.S. citizens.
I’m all for that.
The only way I know of to reduce government spending is to re-engineer government.
The majority of my tax burden comes from a combination of taxes on: (1) Income (Federal and State); (2) Sales (State, County & City); and (3) Property (County, City and School District).
There are plenty of other taxes I pay which are buried in: my telephone bill(s); my utility bills(s); the gasoline I purchase; hotels I stay in; and airplanes I fly on.
Slashing spending without a plan to re-engineer government is a recipe for disaster.
Other than calls to “cut taxes, make government smaller and reduce spending” I haven’t heard or seen any sort of plan. Lots of noise, no plan? It wouldn’t fly where I work.
Fact is, the current Tea Party movement is quite similar to the Contract with America which was championed by Newt Gingrich in the 1990’s. It was all about shrinking the size of government, promoting lower taxes, and eviscerating safety net programs for disadvantaged people.
No plan, just a lot of noise.
Prior to that, we had The Moral Majority, which started in the mid 1970’s when Jerry Falwell created a national platform to raise awareness of social issues important to him and his followers.
The Moral Majority was launched and heavily supported by a coalition of conservative southern Christian right leaders, congregations and political action committees which campaigned on issues its personnel believed were important to maintaining its Christian conception of moral law, a conception they believed represented the opinions of the majority of Americans.
At its peak, the membership of the Moral Majority was in the 4 million range, with over 2 million donors. It was one of the largest conservative lobbing groups in the U.S. at its zenith. Their first key victory was the defeat of Jimmy Carter by Ronald Reagan in 1980, and they continued to have power and influence until the late ‘80’s.
Again, a lot of noise, but no plan to reduce the overall size of government.
Before that, many of our fellow Americans who identified with this ideology were members of the Ku Klux Klan, and some still are, apparently….
The Wal-Mart Paradox
July 10, 2013
With annual revenues in the $450 billion range and a global workforce of more than 2 million, Wal-Mart can’t avoid being in the cross-hairs of labor advocates because it may be the world’s largest employer. And, there are consistent allegations of worker mistreatment.
Wal-Mart started with good intentions, it seems.
Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Ark. in 1962. The strategy was very simple: low prices and good quality. By 1967, the Walton family owned 24 stores, ringing up $12.7 million in sales.
As it grew, it seems the company may have lost touch with the mission.
Today, it seems that Wal-Mart has become a predator.
It seems that when Wal-Mart comes into a community, it builds a vast, low-rise supercenter — often on land that hadn’t been developed before Wal-Mart showed up.
The chain now has 698 million square feet of store space in the U.S., up from 530 million in 2005. Its U.S. stores and parking lots cover roughly 60,000 acres.
Beyond the negative environmental impact, Wal-Mart destroys local economies through its predatory pricing practices. It generally destroys and decimates local, family-owned businesses; it hires people right at the margin: low wages; variable work hours; marginal benefits.
Wal-Mart invariably is the beneficiary of huge direct public subsidies and benefits, which include: free land; infrastructure assistance; below market financing; outright grants from state and local governments around the country; and property tax abatements, often called PILOTS.
On top of that, taxpayers indirectly subsidize the company by paying the healthcare costs of Wal-Mart employees who don’t receive coverage on the job and instead turn to public programs such as Medicaid.
Today, the extreme wealth of Sam Walton’s family is shocking.
While most Americans have done our best to work hard, be honest, fair and ethical, there seem to be a few pirates who have a different agenda.
The Walton family is dripping in wealth — from ill-got gains? – and, if so, that really concerns me.
Cheney and Rumsfield: United Again!
May 16, 2013
Headline: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former Vice President Dick Cheney call Benghazi a cover-up
‘If you’re going to put people at risk, you have to try to protect them,’ says Rumsfeld.
‘They lied,’ says Cheney.
This is solid stuff.
Cheney and Rumsfeld are world-class experts in lies, cover-ups and deception, so they must not be trifled with.
Although the investigations into the false claims around WMD (which led to to the war in Iraq and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, and have cost some $3.7 Trillion and well in excess of 200,000 lives) have not yet started, it certainly makes sense to paralyze the U.S. government with multiple, continued and fruitless Benghazi investigations.
Thanks, Dick, for being you!
$30 Million per Day
May 9, 2013
My friend Jack Flood lives the good life in Vermont. Sometimes, he does get fired up about things, and he’s been known to revert to some pretty salty language when things seem to be getting way out of control.
I say all of that because it was Jack who inspired me to look into this stuff about the “Benghazi Cover-up” that we are now reading and hearing about.
Sorry, Jack, we have to start with some really boring stuff.
The fiscal year for the 2013 U.S. Government began on October 1, 2012 and will end on September 30, 2013.
Total spending approved in this budget is $3.8 Trillion, so the costs to U.S. Taxpayers of just over $5 Billion to support our 535 elected officials who serve in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate is just a drop in the bucket.
This $5 Billion number is way beyond the basic costs of salaries and benefits for our elected officials. It incorporates all of the costs of support staff, office expenses and so forth – what accountants call “fully loaded costs”.
When you look at the approximately 175 days Congress is in session, that $5 Billion annual number breaks down to about $30 Million per day, still just a drop in the bucket of our full $3.8 Trillion Federal budget.
That said: It is this $5 Billion annual investment of taxpayer dollars that we rely on to put in place the checks, balances and controls which we count on to ensure our overall Federal spending is wise, efficient and effective.
Those who are elected to the House of Representatives in the U.S. must be at least 25 years old; Elected Senators must be at least 30 years of age. These folks are adults, by any definition.
Jack asked: Over the past 2 years, what has our Congress accomplished that has any value to U.S. taxpayers?
I agreed to do some research and report back to him.
Frankly, I’m nervous. I’ve watched from the sidelines over the past several years while these elected adult citizens of the U.S. seem to pursue their own petty personal political games.
Jack is particularly interested in a current situation: A Congressional investigation into the tragic attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 which resulted in the deaths of 4 American citizens.
Jack told me that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was called to testify on January 23, 2013 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the deadly assault in Benghazi.
At that apparently friendly, fact-finding hearing on January 23, a newly elected Senator from Wisconsin — Senator Ron Johnson – may have stepped a bit beyond the boundaries of decorum, resulting in an answer from Clinton that has been taken out of context: “What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.”
I’m not sure about that answer. After all, wasn’t her husband almost impeached a few years back?
I plan to contact Kenneth Starr and dig a bit deeper before I agree to consider supporting Jack Flood in his quest to reduce wasteful spending by our elected officials in Washington.
Slippery Slope & The Koch Brothers
May 8, 2013
We are on the slippery slope, but it may not be too late to stop the avalanche from happening.
If the avalanche does take place, our democratic society which has frequently been called “The Land of Opportunity” will revert to an oligarchy where a few uber-wealthy families completely control the economic destinies of the proletariat.
Imagine: Medieval Europe, reinvented in the 21st century!
Note: The Koch brothers (Charles and David) who are reportedly worth over $50 billion:
In 2011, Forbes called Koch Industries the second largest privately held company in the United States with annual revenues of about $98 billion. Charles and David Koch each own 42% of the company.
The Koch brothers spent some $400 Million in the 2012 elections attempting to elect right-wing candidates to the White House, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and various state governorships. There is no reason to think that similar efforts won’t continue into the future.
The Koch brothers have established or enabled dozens of right-wing organizations dedicated to: providing huge tax breaks to the rich and multi-national corporations; destroying trade unions and trampling workers’ rights; privatizing Social Security and Medicare; and eviscerating programs which backstop the lives of our middle class working families, as well as our neighbors who are retired and/or disabled.
The Koch brothers made their fortune in the fossil fuel industry, and are strongly supporting a massive disinformation campaign to discredit the science around ‘climate change’ and/or ‘global warming’. http://greenpeaceblogs.org/2012/04/02/koch-brothers-exposed-fueling-climate-denial-and-privatizing-democracy/
Most recently, the Koch brothers have announced their planned acquisition of the Tribune Newspaper chain — the nation’s second largest newspaper publisher. The Tribune Company chain includes such newspapers as the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Hartford Courant, the Orlando Sentinel, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Baltimore Sun, the Daily Press and The Morning Call — among other papers.
This is an outrageous and egregious slap in the face to our Declaration of Independence which formed the very foundation upon which the Constitution of the United States was based. At the time, the notion that “… all men are created equal” was a brand new paradigm in the history of mankind upon which to create a legitimate and enduring government.
The current shenanigans in Washington between the House, the Senate and the White House may be an early warning that even the best thought out ideas around governance have a limited life span, and that the pure thoughts of our Founding Fathers were bound to be adulterated and tainted by multiple generations of people who ran for – and were elected — to office with selfish and ulterior motives.
A Real Tragedy of the Bush-Cheney Regime
April 18, 2013
Some of us who survived the Vietnam tragedy (either by serving and returning or by another means) viewed U.S. involvement in the various Middle East wars as tragedy of epic proportions.
During the most recent Reign of Terror (Bush-Cheney) — just 9 months into his Presidency, Bushy – using the slogan “War on Terror” — got us into a religious war in the Middle East through a combination of lies, subterfuge and self-dealing financial benefit contracts.
About 6,700 Americans have died in those two wars, as have about 1,400 allied personnel, Canadians prominent among them.
That is a dreadfully huge number. The roster of the slain would have stretched even longer, but for the amazing advances in military armor and military medicine over the past generation.
More than 50,000 Americans have been wounded in battle since 9/11 — 16,000 of them so seriously that they would certainly have died had they suffered an equivalent wound in any prior conflict.
So, in addition to the huge loss of life and human potential among our young adults who were called to serve in this senseless and stupid war(s), we have the diversion of taxpayer dollars into an abyss; the incredible human and financial costs of caring for wounded warriors who battled in vain; and the continued high terror threats to the U.S. due to religious zealots who – for the next 7 generations, or so – will equate the entire U.S. to the terrible decisions and evil intentions of the Bush-Cheney Reign of Terror Regime.
When Bill Clinton had a momentary loss of judgment and allowed an over-zealous female intern to get under his desk, Congress pounced and after spending countless millions and wasting scarce federal resources, came very close to impeachment.
The Bush-Cheney Reign of Terror Regime created a false and fully egregious story which led to the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) on October 7, 2001, followed by a further fairy tale which opened up Operation Iraqi Freedom, beginning with the invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003.
In the dozen years since, the U.S. — and the world — has seen zero benefit, plenty of costs.
I’ve heard no call for impeachment, no accusations of impropriety.
When will we draw the line and hold these domestic terrorists – Bush & Cheney – accountable for their evil deeds?
walrus51 