|
Yonkers State Of The City Address
Posted by Westchester.com
Saturday, 03 May 2008
Yonkers, NY - Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone delivered his fifth State of
the City Address on Thursday before a session of the City Council, in
which he outlined the serious budgetary challenges facing the city in a
time of economic decline and provided a clear roadmap of how to rise and
meet those challenges over the next year.
Amicone also highlighted a number of positive indicators of Yonkers'
continued prospects for future success including dramatic improvements
to the city's public school system, citywide drops in crime,
enhancements to public safety, new protections for the environment and
new quality of life initiatives.
An outline of Mayor Amicone's State of the City Address along with
excerpts from the speech follows. The full text is on the City of
Yonkers website at www.YonkersNY.gov
.
RISING TO MEET YONKERS' BUDGET
CHALLENGES
"We gather at a time when the outlook for the state and regional economy
is more uncertain than it has been in many years. The impact of the
turbulence that has reverberated through the financial markets on Wall
Street is being felt in budgets from
Washington to Albany and now,
even to Yonkers. Although our local economy is still growing with good
prospects for continued success, it would be unrealistic to believe that
the broader economy has not affected our efforts here at home. Family
budgets are tightening, and so are budgets for business and
governments."
Mayor Amicone said the most pressing concern facing the city is the
looming budget deficit projected for the coming fiscal year, caused
primarily by chronic state education funding shortfalls.
Amicone outlined three principles that will guide Yonkers through its
budgetary difficulties:
1. The City of Yonkers will continue to be honest with its residents and
taxpayers about the current
financial situation of the city budget.
* Yonkers' budget deficits have shrunk from $135 million in
2004 (Amicone's first year in office) to $85 million dollars this year
* To close this year's budget gap, Amicone:
o Implemented budget cuts and held the line on
discretionary spending
o Put a hold on new programs and initiatives
o Enacted a hiring freeze
o Tapped fund balance reserves
o Proposed a property tax increase
* Next year's budget deficit can only be closed locally
through massive layoff and huge cuts to public services and education
"The implications of the recent trouble in the financial sector when
coupled with the persistent inequities inherent in the state education
funding formula for Yonkers, have placed our city, our school
district-all that we've accomplished and all that we hope to-in serious
jeopardy. So the state of our city, much like many others, is very much
at a crossroads. The
decisions we make in response to the challenges ahead will determine
whether Yonkers continues its transformation into the great city I
believe it is our destiny to become, or slips backward into the past."
2. The City of Yonkers will offer an honest assessment of the current
state education funding formula in order to lay out in public how that
flawed mechanism has shortchanged our school district and our taxpayers
for decades.
* Since 2004, Yonkers has increased its local education
funding by 61% versus only a net increase of 19% in state education
funding over that same time
* Yonkers taxpayers pay more per pupil to their education
system than any other large city in the state
* This year Yonkers will receive $7,000 less in state funding
per student than Buffalo,
$3,300 less than Rochester and $3,400 less than Syracuse
"What is it that makes a child in Yonkers worth more than $3,000 less
than a child in Syracuse or Rochester? My fellow residents, this is
Yonkers' most fundamental financial problem. There is more that
New York State can and must
do for Yonkers. Today I renew our call to the governor and the state
legislature to fix the state education funding formula for good. To this
end, we will work together in partnership with our leaders in
state government because a
successful Yonkers is in the best interests of all of us."
3. In order to become more financially independent and break the cycle
of budget deficits, Yonkers must grow its tax base locally. Therefore,
Yonkers must commit to moving economic
development projects forward
quickly.
* New economic development will infuse millions of dollars
into the city and public school budgets
* The SFC downtown and
waterfront development will generate $35 million in combined state
and local revenue
* Ridge Hill Village will generate a combined $62 million in
state and local revenue at full build out with $25 million to the City
of Yonkers
* A total of $5 billion worth of private investment is in the
works throughout Yonkers
"Economic development is not an option that must be weighed; it is a
necessity for our enduring success. We must embrace that notion if we
are to survive as a city. So we are committed to aggressively moving
forward with our plan to rebuild Yonkers through good, solid economic
development because we recognize that the great city we have envisioned
for so long is finally within our reach. If we put our faith and trust
in the entrepreneur to invigorate our economy, then we will be gathering
in this chamber in only a few short years to talk about the
extraordinary success story Yonkers has become."
CALL FOR COUNTYWIDE PROPERTY REASSESSMENT
Mayor Amicone is calling on Westchester County to conduct a full
countywide property revaluation.
* Westchester is the only county in New York in which towns
and cities assess property at different rates
* Because of the inequity, this year Yonkers taxpayers were
hit with a 24% county property tax increase
* Reassessment must be done on a countywide basis to place
every community on a level playing field
"It's time that we do something about this problem on a countywide level
and, as Westchester's largest city, we in Yonkers must take the lead. I
will soon submit a resolution to the City Council calling on Westchester
County to fix this problem by conducting a countywide revaluation.
Countywide revaluation is the fair thing to do, it's the right thing to
do, and it's time we got it done."
DROPPING CRIME RATES & PUBLIC SAFETY ENHANCEMENTS
Mayor Amicone highlighted citywide drops in crime and committed to
several public safety enhancements.
* 13% reduction in crime rates across the city in 2007
* Continued purge of illegal guns leading to a 37% drop in
shootings
* Generational lows in burglary, auto theft and larceny
* Tough crack down on gang and drug violence
* Yonkers will open a state-of-the-art Emergency Operations
Center in 2008
"Here in Yonkers, our people should feel especially safe thanks to the
extraordinary work being done by the men and women of the Yonkers Police
Department. In 2007, Yonkers Police made one of the safest big cities in
America even safer."
EDUCATION ACHIEVEMENTS
Mayor Amicone detailed extraordinary gains in scholastic performance and
accountability in the Yonkers Public School System.
* Increase in graduation rates by nearly 20%
* Double digit boosts in reading and math scores
* Slashing bureaucratic waste
* Increasing accountability through new financial oversight
procedures
* Record local funding levels for education
* New Riverside High School for Environmental Engineering and
Design
* New College Board Academy high school in partnership with
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
"Together we've pursued major education reforms that truly put children
first. This commitment has been the engine driving everything we've
achieved in the past four years."
IMPROVING THE ENVIRONEMENT
Working with the City Council and the Green Policy Task Force, Amicone
furthered Yonkers' commitment to the environment.
* Expansion of the Urban Green Space Initiative with the
addition of more than 15 acres of new parkland in northwest Yonkers
* Protecting open space from development and preserving them
for public access to the Hudson River waterfront
* Yonkers organic waste and recycling programs have been
recognized for their successes
* Yonkers is pursuing environmentally sustainable
developments that will incorporate green building technology, encourage
mass transportation, use less energy and produce fewer environmental
contaminants than traditional developments
* Reduce the long term energy consumption used by city
facilities
* Moving toward an e-based government that will use less
paper and generate less waste
|
