For Whom The Bell Tolls

"No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent  .... And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee...."     
John Donne, Meditation 17. Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624)

Over the past two years I have become increasingly concerned about the fiscal state of Rockland County and the Town of Clarkstown in particular.  As I wrote in the previous articles The Clock Ticks Towards Bankruptcy and The Town That Cried the politicians are finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile their 'net' incomes from the taxpayers with their 'gross' spending habits. On Tuesday, February 19, 2013 the County legislators voted 14-1 to try to persuade the State to allow them to borrow $96.4 million to address not their debt but their deficit.  The legislators will propose every and any unsuccessful way of reducing property taxes except cutting their expenditures.  The question each voter must ask is: when will these politicians take the noose of increasing taxation from around our necks by controlling their reckless spending?

In an article published by the Journal News on April 21, 2013 we read:

The financial problems facing Rockland need to be addressed sooner rather than later or the county could see its rating fall to “non-investment grade,” Moody’s spokesman David Jacobson said.  As it stands, Rockland’s rating is Baa3 with a negative outlook. Rockland’s credit rating could see another drop. The next level is junk status. The comptroller essentially concluded the county’s revenue estimates were overly optimistic and it hadn’t budgeted enough funds to cover personnel services and other costs. It was estimated the county’s deficit could exceed $110 million as a result of its practices. It stands now at $96.4 million.  “The challenges in Rockland demonstrate the need for local governments to take corrective actions before a full financial crisis develops,” state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.

Looking through my bills I wondered if there is any hope on the political horizon for some relief in rising property taxes and so on April 18, 2013 I attended the general membership meeting of the Clarkstown Taxpayers to hear a presentation by Tim Hoefer of the Manhattan Institute / Empire Center for New York State Policy on what a 'think tank' believes might be done.

I came away discouraged; like Washington, Albany is mired in ineptitude and even worse rampant political patronage and political corruption which recently spread across the landscape of Rockland County and into Clarkstown.

Hoefer addressed the problems caused to taxpayers by the Triborough Amendment to the Taylor Law which is an obscure State law that guarantees pay hikes for government employees and automatically raises our taxes.  This 30-year old amendment requires public employers to maintain all contractual perks for unionized public employees, including automatic 'step' increases in pay, after the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement regardless of changing local priorities and fiscal conditions..  The consequence of the law is that unions have no incentive to negotiate any change to their contract that is not better than the present or expired contract since the status quo has to continue if there is no new contract.  Hence if a past contract guaranteed say 4% raises per year a union could refused to sign a new contract and those same 4% raises would have to continue to be paid ad infinitum or from the taxpayers' point of view, ad nauseam.

Hoefer pointed out that things have now become so far removed from reality one can only be astounded.  He handed out an Empire Center's report entitled 'What They Make' in which the 2011-12 County and Municipal payrolls throughout New York State were analyzed and compared.

The report shows that local government is a labor-intensive business and employee compensation is the single biggest element of municipal budgets.  Information in the report was drawn from the SeeThroughNY website which has a searchable database of 165,554 municipal employees. The database consists of all full-time and part-time workers enrolled in the pension systems. Salary totals, included in the averages presented in the report, include overtime and pay used for unused sick and vacation time. The figures do NOT include pension contributions, health insurance, and other fringe benefits with can amount to an additional 30 to 40% of salary costs.

The summary of payroll information was broken into two categories - 'Police and Fire' and 'General Employees' reflecting the two retirement systems into which municipal employees fall.

Here is the astounding reality .....

The 20 highest-paid county and municipal workers in the State were topped by Peter Brower, a police chief in the Town of Ramapo who collected more than $320,000. Of the twenty highest paid workers in New York State seven of them were in the category 'Police and Fire' and were employed by the Town of Clarkstown. 

Here is the complete 'top 20' list .....  

Rank  Name                    Employer                              Total
1        P. Brower           Ramapo (Police & Fire)             $321,719
2        A. Ovchinnikoff   Clarkstown (Police & Fire)        $270,824
3        G. Renick            Nassau County (Police & Fire)  $269,616
4        M. Lambert         Nassau County (Police & Fire)  $267,179
5        D. Weisberg       Clarkstown (Police & Fire)        $265,113
6        R. Mahon            Clarkstown (Police & Fire)        $264,513
7        R. Doerler           Nassau County (Police & Fire)  $262,080
8        A. Scheiner         Nassau County (Police & Fire)  $261,616
9        C. Delo               Clarkstown (Police & Fire)        $259,245
10      D. Duggan          Old Westbury (Police & Fire)    $258,347
11      R. Donaldson      Clarkstown (Police & Fire)       $258,166
12      M. Sullivan          Clarkstown (Police & Fire)        $254,208
13      P. Modica            Spring Valley (Police & Fire)     $253,175
14      J. Panarello         Nassau County (Police & Fire)  $251,041
15      C. Fahd               Massena (General Employee)  $250,430
16      D. Woolley          Clarkstown (Police & Fire)       $248,524
17      T. Loughlin          Nassau County (Police & Fire) $246,944
18      D. Campbell        Lewis County (Gen Employee) $245,000
19      G. Crawford        Lewis County (Gen Employee) $245,000
20      D. Ellison            Lewis County (Gen Employee)  $245,000

Looking now at the category of 'General Employees' Rockland County is the fourth highest in the State ......

Rank  Employer     # Employees         Salary
1        Westchester      4,925                $75,920
2        Nassau              6,910                $70,052
3        Putnam               613                 $66,247
4        Rockland            2,643                $65,184
5        Suffolk              8,828                $62,956

and in the category of 'Police and Fire' Clarkstown ranks first of all of the Towns in NY State ......

Rank  Employer     # Employees         Salary  
1      Clarkstown          163                 $179,689  
2      Ramapo              109                 $156,394  
3      Haverstraw          66                  $135,339  
4      Orangetown         86                  $134,378  
5      Riverhead            85                  $131,410

Should you be surprised therefore that the County Legislature voted to override the 2% State property tax cap and raise taxes by 18% to carry on with its profligate spending?  

It now wants to borrow to pay for its deficit and you the taxpayer are expected to pay the bill in the future with increased property taxes supported by declining home values. Adding insult to injury, there are reportedly 120 patronage jobs in the County. 

Should you be surprised therefore that the Town of Clarkstown voted to override its 2% tax cap, raise taxes by 6.1%, and deplete its reserve funds to carry on with similar profligate spending? Clarkstown now wants to continuing adding further debt to the already approximately $100 million that it has borrowed so far. 

Recently Officer Sherwood, the son of a former police chief, William Sherwood, left the department having earned more than $81,000 in overtime in 2012.  He was paid a salary of $125,166 in 2012, but his total income for the year, according to SeeThroughNY.net/payrolls/towns/, was $206,237, including overtime. Police said he mistakenly filed for about $400 in overtime he did not work.

What is strange here is that Officer Sherwood’s overtime was not in any way out of line with that of his colleagues.  There are 51 police officers, including Sherwood, whose incomes in 2012 were over $200,000 many because of overtime. These 51 officers constitute nearly one third of the Clarkstown police force. Incredibly, 42 Police officers, that is 25% of the Clarkstown police department took home more in 2012 than Raymond Kelly, the Police Commissioner of New York City who earns $205,180.

When asked for an independent forensic audit of Sherwood's overtime by the citizens of Clarkstown and the editors of the Journal News, the Town Board declared that the police were fully capable of auditing themselves.

Patronage jobs were handed out to now-indicted and recently fired Head of the Bronx GOP, Jay Savino, for $87,000 per year and to County Legislator, Frank Sparaco, who performs 'constituent services' (answering the phone during snow storms) for $75,000 part-time.  

When asked for an independent audit of the Town Attorney's office as to the process by which Savino was retained, the Supervisor of Clarkstown declared that he was "taking the gloves off" against "those taxpayers". 

You may not hear it yet but be assured that a bell is tolling in the distance.  

For whom does it toll?  Taxpayers, it tolls for thee!
Michael N. Hull is a retired senior citizen who writes opinion pieces on theology, philosophy and local political issues. He is a Director of Clarkstown Residents Opposing Patronage (CROP) with Tom Nimick and Ralph Sabatini. CROP filed a Notice of Claim that it would file a lawsuit against the Town of Clarkstown if the Town Board would not agree to an audit of the Town Attorney's office.