It has been two weeks since I challenged Mayor Bramson to justify
his statement that there is a $2 million surplus in school funding from downtown development. There has still been no response from the Mayor.
At the time I had asked:
When I called into WVOX radio to challenge this assertion you cut me off. Is this your idea of public service? You make unsubstantiated claims and then suppress those among the public who dare question your claims?
Since then I have come to learn that there are eighty (80) children enrolled in the New Rochelle Public School District from Avalon on the Sound (41 students) & Avalon on the Sound East (39 students). The break down by school from both buildings is;
Trinity 32 students
NRHS 18 students
IEYMS 13 students
Barnard 11 students
Ward 2 students
Webster 2 students
Columbus 1 students
Out of District 1 students
TOTAL 80 students*
NOTE: “Out of District” students require services which the New Rochelle School District cannot provide and typically cost from 2 to 5 times more then average.
According to the recent school budget, the District spends about $20,000 per student; the 80 students registered impose a $1.6 million cost on the school district.
Figures obtained from the City’s property portal and computations supplied by the assessor’s office reveal that Avalon 1 would pay $3.8 million in taxes at 100% taxation. Of that $3.8 million the school district would receive about $2.4 million. I cannot calculate Avalon 2 taxes because the city has not yet assigned any taxable values. Keep in mind Avalon 2 is a much taller skyscraper with many more apartments so its taxable value is much greater resulting in significantly increased taxes.
The reality is that for 30-years, both Avalon buildings pay nothing ($0) in school tax to the New Rochelle Public School District. So Mayor Bramson, in light of the preceding information you must now prove a bare minimum — and likely far more — of $6 million in school tax revenue to justify your claim of a $2 million school surplus without adding the insult of the tax abatements given to Avalon 2.
Not to worry, in about 25 years both Avalon buildings will be paying full taxes after exercising their option to purchase the land for $1 from the New Rochelle Industrial Development Agency (IDA)!
Patiently waiting,
Anthony Galletta
* Figures supplied by New Rochelle Board of Education
Sick or ducking the issue?
I listened to WVOX yesterday to hear Bramson’s explanation. I was expecting the old soft shoe to sidestep the issue and to my surprise Bramson called in sick. Was the mayor truly sick ot just ducking the issue. It’s tough when you get caught with your pants down. It is rumored that Bramson was in his office at city hall shortly after the show.
sad but true
Unfortunately we have too many uniformed voters in New Rochelle.
Avalon Children
I have questioned this in the past. The argument has always been that the people live in the Avalon while their Northend houses are being renovated and then move back into their regular houses. Thus the children are already counted somewhere else. It never sounded right …
Is that actually correct?
Anthony,
Are you sure about these figures for kids living in Avalon attending New Rochelle public schools. I seem to recall hearing MUCH lower figures than this from Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak. Not that I would be shocked that he lied, only that he would have lied so brazenly.
Also, as I read this I am hearing from others that the City is now planning a bloodbath over at the FIre Department, cutting up to SIXTEEN positions. This is not only outrageous but has to be the exact opposite of what is needed given all the hi-rise construction in downtown New Rochelle.
I have been told that we already do not have enough firefighters to respond to even an ALARM CALL at Avalon let along enough firefighters to deal with an ACTUAL FIRE. Now they want to CUT the number of firefighter?
Has anyone told the people living in Avalon that because their buildings pay no taxes there are not enough New Rochelle firefighters to rescue them in the event of a fire? And that now the City is going to cut 10% of the firefighters?
Let’s just hope that if there is a major fire at Avalon or Trump that the volunteers in Larchmont aren’t already busy with their own fire.
Figures From the Source
The number of students enrolled comes from a FOIL submitted to the New Rochelle Board of Education. I wanted to focus on the two most egregious tax abatements to Avalon 1 & 2. There are also four students from Trump one being “Out Of District”. It is my understanding that Trump is nowhere near capacity and many units are owned by speculators who don’t reside there so there could be considerably more students enrolled as Trump becomes occupied with actual families.
Don’t forget the Lofts
With Capelli pulling out all the stops in his advertising (free pre-k , membership to a prestigeous beach club , top notch schools etc) the burden only gets worse . Fertel consistently went on and on how these buildings will have no net effect on the school system . That was before he realized you can’t control who moves into the places . What do you say now Barry ?
Anyone who beleived Noam &
Anyone who beleived Noam & Co. that these buildings wouldn’t have school kids is an idiot. Plain & simple.
Just wait until we need to build more schools because of all these new housing units coming on line which someone here correctly pointed out aren’t really occupied as of yet. Who’s going to pay for the needed school facilites when the properties that are filling them up don’t pay any taxes?
Its time to tell Cappelli to build LaCount Square or pull the plug on the project so we can all move on. Vacant stores on that block doesn’t help anyone. I favor pulling the plug as I see no reason that we should be giving into his every wish.
The High School already is
The High School already is one of the largest in NY State bordering near 4000 students. They have expanded the footprint over and over it is starting to look like the Pentagon. The High School is where the North End kids meet the South. They created Houses to make them feel like they are going to their own school. Sooner or later the perverbial Sh** will hit the fan. Imagine the bonds that would need floating to cover this. No problem for the mayor his kids will be at Salomon Schecter or maybe going to school in Washington DC and the tax payers will be footing the bill for his expansion.
With regards to Cappelli he is not going to spend another nickle of his money without more and more concessions. If it was up to Noam we would be paying Cappelli to build the building as if the PILOTs are not enough. This is sick!
NRHS FootPrint
Have you ever seen the HS pre fire? No bigger than now.
Lives May Well Be At Stake
According to NFPA policy , we have the proper amount of firefighters to respond to an alarm at this type of high rise IF basically all FF’s on duty respond at once . In the event of a real catastrophe , we don’t have the resources to respond appropriately . This leaves us with relying on mutual aid from surrounding communities . It’s deceiving because the closest towns , as well trained as they are , just aren’t trained for this type of scenario . We are stradling the line of safety and that is a recipe for disaster . When everything goes well , everyone’s safe and damage to life and property is minimal . It’s the unforseen and unintended complications that turn a routine response into a true disaster . That’s when you hear words like “tragic” and “preventable if only they…”. Something has to give for the budgets sake , I understand that, so how about the Avalon’s of New Rochelle giving something to keep the firefighters necessary to protect their own investment?
New Roc development is over
All major developers have pulled the plug on New Rochelle as they have seen no prominent leadership. True but no one will ever tell you. All that is left is vacant buildings and empty pomises. The city leadership has let us down yet again. The leaders are retireing like rats on a sinking ship. Fd is in shambles the boss is a dinasour with old ideas reaping the benefit of an enhanced pension while leading the dept down a road of no return, not a peep about the closed company, Pd much the same while and the dpw is being set for total descimation once again. Is there still a city manager? $175K per yer plus car & bennies and the only time we knew he existed was when he fired Bernice. Yet the school district has to work ot to spend their $$$$. What a discrace.