A Message from Assemblywoman Galef: Town Meetings, Forums and Survey Results

Dear Constituents,

I am very grateful to you for renewing your confidence in me so that I can continue to serve you in the legislature. We certainly have our work cut out for us. After a tumultuous autumn, we are facing very dire economic realities. All levels of government, including schools, have to be very creative to make sure services are provided in the most cost effective way possible while looking for ways to reduce spending.

My town meetings will once again take place in January and February. Please mark these dates on your calendar and come out to discuss what is important to you and your neighbors as well as hear about some of my legislative priorities for this session. These include property tax reform, streamlining school district requirements to save costs, sharing of municipal services, environmental initiatives and government reform.

I have invited Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi back to my district to discuss the final recommendations from the Commission on Property Tax Relief, which he chairs. This promises to be a thought-provoking conversation with recommendations on concrete steps the state needs to take to reform our archaic property tax system and keep people from leaving New York. Please join me to hear from Mr. Suozzi and to give your reaction to the report and your thoughts about which steps to prioritize.

As a follow-up to the shared services survey responses you provided, the results of which are included below, I have invited municipal officials to a roundtable discussion where we can focus on how some of these suggestions can be implemented. Alfred DelBello, former Westchester County Executive who sat on the state’s Local Government Efficiency Commission, has agreed to co-moderate the conversation. Please come with ideas and questions for your government leaders.

There is another survey on the back of this newsletter asking for your opinion on a range of topics to be discussed in the legislature this year. Please let me know how you feel by sending them back to my district office. If you include your e-mail address, I will be able to keep you updated as to what is happening in Albany throughout the session.

Thank you again for your continued support.

Sincerely,
signature
Sandy Galef
Member of the Assembly

Forums
with
Assemblywoman Sandy Galef

Suozzi Returns to Discuss Final Report of the
NYS Commission on Property Tax Relief

Thursday, January 22nd, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Croton Municipal Building
1 Van Wyck Street, Croton on Hudson
(914) 271-4781

I have asked Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi who chairs this Commission to come back to my district. The Commission was formed last March and charged with studying and recommending ways to overhaul the property tax system in New York. He will discuss their final report and recommendations for action we can take to reverse the escalating property taxes in New York. Please join me for what promises to be a lively discussion on this critical issue.

Local Government Roundtable to
Discuss Shared Services Survey Results

Thursday, February 12th, 3 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Cortlandt Town Hall
1 Heady Street, Cortlandt Manor
(914) 734-1000

As a result of the survey results I received from you on how communities can cut costs by sharing and consolidating services, I have invited local municipal and county officials to a roundtable discussion. I have asked Alfred DelBello, Chairman of the Westchester County Association, who sat on the NYS Commission on Local Government Competitiveness & Efficiency, to co-moderate this conversation so we can really work together to facilitate spending reductions in Westchester and Putnam counties. Please join me to offer your input and suggestions and hear what your local government has to say.

Property Tax Relief Survey Results

Last June, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi visited Putnam Valley High School to discuss the initial recommendations from the Commission on Property Tax Relief. Many of you attended the meeting. Even more of you responded to the questionnaire that followed in my fall newsletter. Here are the results of that survey. Come join me with a follow-up discussion on these results and the final report from the Commission on January 22nd. See the cover of this newsletter for details.

Are you in favor of a property tax cap?
88% Yes, 12% No

If you favor a cap, do you think 4% or 120% of the Consumer Price Index (the lesser of the two) is reasonable?
62% Yes, 38% No

The report calls for any school district that wants to exceed the cap to get approval by at least 55 percent of the voters and by 60 percent if the school district received a 5% or greater boost in state aid. Do you think this is reasonable?
70% Yes, 30% No

Do you think a tax cap should be passed as its own legislation?
76% Yes, 24% No

If not, would you support a cap in conjunction with a guarantee that school costs and state mandates for schools would be covered by state aid?
68% Yes, 32% No

If you believe state aid is necessary to keep schools strong, would you be willing to have your income tax raised to support the aid?
32% Yes, 68% No

Would you support circuit breaker relief in the form of a personal income tax credit against real property taxes paid in excess of a percentage of income?
64% Yes, 36% No

If “yes” would you support replacing the current Middle Income STAR Rebate check with the new Circuit Breaker and use the state money that currently funds this STAR program to pay for the Circuit Breaker?
44% Yes, 56% No

Shared Services Survey Results

“What are you willing to change to reduce costs?”

After the forum I hosted on sharing services last March, my newsletter asked you questions about what services you would be willing to share with other municipalities. I sent letters to school district and municipal officials as well as my colleagues in Albany letting them know you were overwhelmingly in favor of sharing, as you can see in the results below. I encouraged local elected officials to seek state grant money to help facilitate more sharing, and offered examples of other localities that had been successful in their endeavors. Please see the cover of this newsletter for a follow-up roundtable conversation I am hosting on February 12th to jump-start action.

If you had a choice, would you like to:

Keep the government structure the same?
11% Yes, 89% No

Eliminate county government?
62% Yes, 38% No

Eliminate local town/village government?
45% Yes, 55% No

Consolidate services between levels of government?
97% Yes, 3% No

Set up regional instead of village/town courts?
81% Yes, 19% No

Do you think BOCES should be allowed to serve municipalities as well as schools?
78% Yes, 22% No

Would you be willing to share any of the following facilities or services within or between municipalities and school districts? (listed in order of most to least desirable)

Printing Services
77% Yes, 23% No

Parks and Recreation
76% Yes, 23% No

Tax Receiver
74% Yes, 26% No

Highway Department
73% Yes, 27% No

Legal Services
70% Yes, 30% No

Auditing Activities
69% Yes, 31% No

Fueling Stations
66% Yes, 34% No

Sanitation
65% Yes, 35% No

Police Force
65% Yes, 35% No

Assessor
65% Yes, 35% No

Maintenance
(fields, grounds, vehicles)
64% Yes, 36% No

Investment Pooling
64% Yes, 36% No

Business Functions
63% Yes, 37% No

Construction Management
63% Yes, 37% No

School Transportation
63% Yes, 37% No

Water Filtration
62% Yes, 38% No

Snow Plowing
57% Yes, 43% No

HELP FOR HARD TIMES

Dial 211
The United Way’s help line coordinates service delivery for anyone in need of health and/or human services support of any kind. A person will answer the phone and help guide you through the available state, county and local services available in your area. They can direct you to help with mortgages, heat and utilities, food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid services, child support services and more. Just call 2-1-1.

Home Heating – HEAP
(Home Energy Assistance Program)
HEAP is a federally funded program that issues heating benefits to families earning as much as $57,000 a year to supplement a household’s annual energy cost. HEAP also offers an emergency benefit for households in a heat or heat-related energy emergency, and offers a furnace repair and/or replacement benefit for households with inoperable heating equipment.

Sandy attended the Putnam Valley Library Awards ceremony where the Youth Corps of the Putnam Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps was honored for dedication to serving the community.

If you have an energy-related emergency such as a power or gas termination notice or shutoff, or if you have less than one-quarter of a tank of heating fuel, contact your local department of social services (DSS) and find out how to apply for emergency assistance. Questions regarding the HEAP program should be directed to these offices or the NYS HEAP Hotline at 1-800-342-3009. You can also call these numbers for help with Food Stamps.

Health Insurance Questions
Health Insurance Information Counseling and Assistance Program, Albany
HIICAP Hotline 1-800-701-0501
www.hiicap.state.ny.us

Medicare Rights Center
Mon-Thurs 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
1 -800-333-4114

Mortgage & Foreclosure
The Westchester Residential Opportunity, Inc. offers Housing Counseling and Eviction Prevention. Call them toll free at: 1-877-WRO-4YOU (1-877-976-4968) or locally at (914) 668-4424. In Putnam, call Putnam County Housing Corp. at 1-845-225-8493 x 207 or x 212.

For homeowners at risk of losing their home and information about the “Keep the Dream” mortgage refinancing program, call the State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) at 1-800-382-HOME (4663).

Constituent Questionnaire
(Room for two respondents)

Click here for a printable version of this survey.

1. As some other states have done, should New York adopt early voting for general elections in November instead of having only one day to vote?

Yes

2. Should people be allowed to vote by absentee ballot even if they may not be out of the area on election day?

Yes

3. Should a non-partisan commission be established in New York to redraw state legislative districts after the next census is completed?

Yes

4. Should New York join other states in calling for a presidential election by popular vote rather than by vote of the electoral college?

Yes

5. Should we require political robo-callers to allow the telephone recipient to be removed from their list so they can avoid receiving future calls?

Yes

6. Should we establish two to three days in a calendar year when all voting in communities would take place, including elections for political office or local building projects?

Yes

7. Should we make it easier for citizens wishing to dissolve government-created districts, fire districts, or special districts to do so?

Yes

8. Should we empower the NY State Education Commissioner to order the consolidation of school districts when the Commissioner deems it prudent to do so?

Yes

9. Should we require that all governments and school districts make tentative collective bargaining agreements available to the public at least two weeks prior to the agreement being ratified by either side?

Yes

10. Should drivers under 18 years of age be banned from using any handheld or hands free electronic devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, iPods or GPS devices, while driving?

Yes

As you know, we will have to make major cuts in the 2009-2010 State budget. If you have any ideas for areas we should consider for cost reductions, please share them with me below, as well as any other issues that are important to you which the state should address. Please include your e-mail address to stay informed.