Eastchester REVIEW THE
April, 7 2017 | Vol. 5, Number 14 | www.eastchesterreview.com
Latimer: ‘County exec. race would be the toughest’ By COREY STOCKTON Staff Writer
As part of a community service project, Rye Neck High School senior Camryn Sullivan hosted The Prom Collective, offering girls an opportunity to purchase their prom dresses. For story, see page 6. Photo/Andrew Dapolite
Proposed Tuckahoe school budget balanced with $1M from reserves By COREY STOCKTON Staff Writer The Tuckahoe Union Free School District has found a way to squeeze its $32.5 million proposed budget under the stateimposed tax cap, but it would require appropriating nearly $1 million from reserves. On April 3, the district proposed its budget for fiscal year 20172018. The $32.5 million spending plan would be put to public vote on May 16, and, if approved, would go into effect on July 1. This year, the New York state ceiling on increases to the tax levy—known as the tax cap— for school districts is 0.8 per-
cent. The cap requires the school district to collect less than 1 percent more in tax dollars than it did in the 2016-2017 fiscal year. However, the district plans to increase its spending by 1.85 percent, or about $590,000, from the previous year. To compensate for the slight allowable levy increase and the district’s projected spending increases, the proposed budget would appropriate $995,000 from fund balance, which Schools Superintendent Carl Albano estimates will sit at about $5.5 million by the end of the current fiscal year. That would include the state-required fund balance, which must be at least 4 percent
of the district’s annual budget. Much of that increase would go to fund salaries for four new special education teachers. Across the district, the salary allotment for those teachers would increase by about 32 percent from the previous fiscal year, equating to $448,282 in new expenses. But the district would also reduce its spending on BOCES services by about $140,000. Lee Lew, director of finance and facilities for the school district, said the demand for special education teachers in the district has increased over the last several years. Overall, teaching expenses
would cost the district $702,000 more compared to the previous fiscal year. Another larger expense in that category is interscholastic activities, which would increase by $81,000— 17.4 percent—from the current budget. That allotment would fund nine new sports teams at modified, freshman, JV and varsity levels, as well as five new coaching and supervision stipends. Some of that increase will pay for the additional $27,500 in salary costs for Austin Goldberg, the new athletic director who was hired last year. The district appropriated BUDGET continued on page 7
New York state Sen. George Latimer will challenge for the top executive seat in Westchester County in November. “It probably wasn’t the best held secret,” Latimer, a Rye Democrat, said in confirming his plans to run for county executive this week. “It sort of evolved as certain people reached out to me in January and February and asked me to consider it.” Fresh off a 2016 re-election to the state Senate, Latimer will now set his sights on Westchester’s highest elected office, and incumbent Republican Rob Astorino. Having spent the last 30 years in some form of elected office, he will bank on having never lost an election in 17 tries, to date. Latimer, 63, refuted rumors that he was asked to run by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. Cuomo defeated Astorino in a gubernatorial race in 2014, but the two could lock horns again in 2018 with Cuomo up for reelection and Astorino said to be once again eyeing the seat. Latimer said he was approached about running by local officials such as Mamaroneck Town Councilman Tom Murphy and county Legislator Catherine Parker, both Democrats. If he receives the Democratic nomination to move forward in the race for county executive, Latimer would face a tough challenge in Astorino, who has been elected twice, after first running unsuccessfully in 2005, and has held the line on property taxes, keeping them flat for the
last six years. But the senator said the county budget tells a different story, pointing to the county’s increase in borrowing, depleted reserves and frequently overestimated sales tax under Astorino’s watch. He pointed to the Westchester County Airport privatization deal as a microcosm of what he said were short-sighted budgetary practices. The 40-year agreement would likely give the county a large payment up front, with diminishing returns each subsequent year. Latimer would also have to face Astorino’s financial war chest, which was measured at $2.5 million as of the last campaign filing in January. Latimer said he estimated that Astorino would outpace him and have $4 million in the bank by November, but said he has faced that challenge before. In his first race for Senate in 2012, Latimer successfully battled Republican Bob Cohen, of New Rochelle, in a race that set the mark, at the time, in New York state politics for campaign expenditures eclipsing the $4.5 million mark. In that race, Latimer was outspent by Cohen 4-to-1.
INSIDE Marbledale decision delayed Story on page 3.
LATIMER continued on page 8