Reproduced with permission of The Scarsdale Inquirer.
© 2004 S.I. Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Published on Friday, March 12, 2004
Feiner's Political Problem
By BOB BERNSTEIN
Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner is in trouble politically. The majority of the population in Greenburgh lives in the town's six villages. They pay only 3 percent of the town's taxes overall, but village residents were shocked to learn the day before the November election that their town taxes would go up more than 40 percent - the highest single year increase for anybody in the county.
How did this happen? In 2003, Feiner bought a new town hall for $8 million, which, the villages have to pay for. Because of financial mismanagement, he had to come up with $4 million in cash to pay off a litigation settlement for which the town was underinsured, which they also have to pay for.
Village mayors were outraged. Feiner had not told them such increases were coming. He never told the villages they had to pay 45 percent of the cost of the new town hall. He never mentioned the litigation settlement.
But matters could get worse for Feiner. A lot worse. He just borrowed $4 million to pay the town's one-third share of the cost of acquiring Taxter Ridge, a 200-acre parcel of undeveloped land in the Irvington School District. Irvington is one of Greenburgh's six villages and its mayor was ecstatic about the deal. It protects the land from being developed residentially and represents a huge tax subsidy for the school district. But the best part about it is that taxpayers in Irvington won't have to pay a dime for the town's purchase. That's because Feiner and his cronies on the town board believe they may lawfully charge only unincorporated Greenburgh for the town's share of the purchase of Taxter Ridge.
But Feiner could be wrong, and a number of us in Edgemont are betting that he is. New York law allows a town to charge only a portion of the town when it buys parkland, but only if the portion gets to use the land exclusively. That is not the case here. Taxter Ridge will be open to all town residents. New York law requires that in such circumstances the parkland be paid for townwide.
Some of us who live in unincorporated Greenburgh believe it is wrong for Feiner to charge only unincorporated Greenburgh for parks and recreational facilities that are open for use by all residents. Edgemont is especially sensitive about this because Edgemont funds the largest single share of unincorporated Greenburgh's budget.
Last year, I brought a lawsuit against Feiner to get him to comply with the law. Unfortunately, the suit was dismissed on the ground that residents of unincorporated Greenburgh have no legal standing to challenge actions by local municipal officials, even when they act illegally. The court never reached the question of legality.
That lower court ruling is now on appeal. A decision is likely within the next six months. If the Appellate Division reverses the lower court decision and rules that residents of unincorporated Greenburgh do have standing to raise this issue, and the justices then rule that the town may not legally charge only unincorporated Greenburgh for parks that are open townwide, Greenburgh's villages could be in for a very rude awakening.
For openers, it would mean the the villages would have to pay their fair share for the town's $4 million piece of Taxter Ridge, which would be about 45 percent of the cost. Village taxpayers might not like that, especially since they never had a say in the matter. We tried to warn the town board about this, but they insisted on closing the Taxter deal without waiting for the court to rule. But that's not all.
Greenburgh currently spends more than $7 million a year on parks and recreational facilities that are open townwide, but charged only to taxpayers in unincorporated Greenburgh. That $7 million figure is not chump change. It's the second largest component of the "town outside" budget after police. It's possible that if the lawsuit succeeds in getting Feiner to comply with the law, as much as 45 percent of that annual $7 million cost would now have to be borne by the villages. That 40 percent tax increase last November may be just the tip of the iceberg.
So what has Feiner been up to? He is trying to arrange a quickie sale of the old town hall. He thinks he can raise an immediate $2.7 million in cash and is talking about a projected 30-year income stream from tax collections of an additional $9 million. Sound like a good idea?
If you live in the villages it might be because 45 percent of the $2.7 million raised from the sale would go directly to villages to offset the amount of taxes they'd otherwise owe the town. So what stands in Feiner's way? The town library. By law, the town library serves only unincorporated Greenburgh--and only unincorporated Greenburgh pays for it. The library is in desperate need of renovation. It has not been updated or expanded since it was opened in 1968. And it sits right next to the old town hall.
Although he denies it, Feiner has almost certainly pressured the library board, an independent group of his political appointees, to go along with his plan for a quickie sale. Many residents of unincorporated Greenburgh are outraged by this, because the old town hall site may be needed for the expansion and until the library's architect submits his plans and projected costs, there's no way to know for sure.
Feiner and his cronies, principally Timmy Weinberg, argue that the library must go along with a quick sale or else there won't be enough tax money to finance any library expansion. That quid pro quo might make sense if the library were assured that money from the sale of the old town hall, as well as the projected revenues from future tax payments, were committed to the cost of the library expansion. But that's a promise Feiner refused to make.
Why won't he? Because he needs that money to mollify the villages. Why else would he and Ms. Weinberg ignore what every resident who spoke out at hearings in December and January had said? Why else would they meet behind closed doors with the library board? Why else would they conjure up a letter from the library's architect saying, in effect, that the old town hall site won't be needed? Why else would they hastily arrange a "work session" meeting to get the library board to "clarify" its prior statement that it wanted the entire site--without anyone seeing what the architect actually has in mind?
Why has Feiner turned the library into a political football? Because if he doesn't get his way on this one, his days in political life may be numbered--and perhaps deservedly so.
Bob Bernstein is president of the Greenridge Civic Association in Edgemont and a lawyer.