DAN'S PAPERS, November 28, 2008 Page 17 www.danshamptons.com
Big Gap If I Can Keep from Paying My Gap Bill on Time I Might Save the World By Dan Rattiner I went up to the Bridgehampton Commons two weeks ago and wound up buying some clothes at the Gap. It had been a long time since I had been in there, and I thought I’d just buy a pair of pants, but one thing led to another and I bought a whole bunch of clothes. It was great stuff. I felt good about it. The bill was about $440. A pretty young woman with a big smile was at checkout and she lovingly folded all my clothes up neatly and then, as I held out my American Express card, asked me if I would like a Gap Card. I said no, but she persisted. I was missing out on a good thing. In fact, if I got a Gap card,
the price would not be $440 but $380. I thought well, wow. They were going to give me $60 in order to have the privilege of lending me the money. I said sure. What followed was even better. I filled out and signed an application, and she made a short phone call and then in about 15 seconds came back to tell me I had been approved. And my card would be coming in 10 days. “Do you want me to sign something for the clothes?” I asked. She said no. Just take them. You’ll get the card in about 10 days, a bill for your purchases in about 14. Just pay the bill. “I can just walk out without signing for them?” “Yes.”
“And what about canceling the card? I just got it because it gave me the discount. After that, I’d want to cancel.” “You can cancel at any time.” She put everything in a pretty designer bag with pastel squares and the word Gap on it, added a “temporary” card I could use until my real one arrived, and I carried everything with the stuff inside back out to the mall. No alarms went off when I went out the door. Wow. Back home I unfolded the “temporary” card and learned how happy they were I had gotten it and how there were other gifts waiting for me (continued on next page)
EH BUDGET FINAL: WHAT IT’S GONNA COST YOU By T.J. Clemente The budget process for the Town of East Hampton has concluded with a $68,588,000 bottom line and a 23.99% tax increase. (Because the real estate portion of a tax bill is dwarfed by school taxes, the actual increase, if school taxes stay the same, would be about 5%.) In effect, what the Town (through the Board) is doing in this present environment — one in which home values in town have plunged roughly $100,000 each since 2007, where income is down, jobs are being cut or curtailed and only god knows what has happened to personal investments — is raising the cost of living in East Hampton.
In a split decision of three in favor (Supervisor Bill McGintee, Brad Loewen, and Pete Hammerle) and two against (Julia Prince, Pat Mansir) the board voted to roll the dice on ending up with another huge deficit based on a belief that tax revenues due would be collected and other income streams would be adequate to raise almost $69 million. Supervisor McGintee stressed that the town’s 36 departments must be properly funded or they would over spend and the town would end up in the red. Julia Prince, the largest vote getter in the last election, was against raising the taxes so much, but also against raising beach fees. Her belief that the
departments must learn to do more with less landed on deaf ears. During the whole budget process, McGintee often stated that the first $50 million is “frozen in” through union contracts, leases and other commitments. He argued about wrestling with town health care costs, and hopes to save $2-3 million in that area with this budget. But one former town expert said the board did not take into account the effects of a massive economic downturn on the local economy. He said the town should have announced plans to revisit all union contracts under a spirit of co-operation to find a (continued on page 24)