Independent Study Shows Viability and Stability
Dear Edgemont Neighbors:
We hope you had a great spring break. We have a positive development to report in our ongoing journey to secure a vote for our community on whether Edgemont should become a village.
You may recall that the Center for Government Research (CGR) was engaged by New York State to provide an independent, third-party analysis of the potential fiscal and operational impacts of Edgemont’s incorporation to become the Town of Greenburgh’s seventh village. Becoming a village like Ardsley, Hastings, and others would allow us to elect our own mayor and board of trustees and exercise broad municipal powers necessary to shape the future of our community. This week, CGR issued its findings in a report that you can read here.
CGR’s study provides a roadmap for a low-impact and cooperative Edgemont/Greenburgh relationship. CGR concluded that Edgemont’s incorporation could result in virtually no increase in overall property tax liability for Edgemont residents. CGR came to this conclusion using assumptions that were even more conservative than ours.
CGR also found that if Town and Village officials work together, Greenburgh could continue to provide major services (Police, DPW, Sanitation, and Library) to Edgemont, and unincorporated area residents could experience no tax increase and no service cuts to those Town departments. Further, the Town would experience only minor reductions to other departments (e.g. 7% to Building, 4% to Parks and Recreation) commensurate with their smaller service area.
CGR’s conclusions stand in stark contrast to the dire warnings from the Town and those opposed to Edgemont’s incorporation, who asserted for years–without analytical support–that incorporation would “devastate” Greenburgh and lead to higher costs and less services for Edgemont.
Here are the details: CGR’s “Base Scenario #1,” which consumes the bulk of the 62-page report, reflects the above conclusions and assumes:
“The two sides act in good faith in arriving at compromises that result in service levels and costs similar to those that existed prior to the incorporation of Edgemont,” and
“Edgemont Village and the Town of Greenburgh contract for most key services keeping most appropriations and revenues similar to the status quo.”
This cooperative approach mirrors our vision for the Village of Edgemont, about which we’ve written frequently since the incorporation effort began eight years ago, most recently here. Under this modern, equitable, and efficient arrangement, Edgemont Village would utilize a so-called “skinny” form of government and work with the Town rather than duplicating services. In turn, Edgemont would pay the Town over $15 million for such services using the same charging methodology (property valuation) in place now.
We agree with CGR’s budget estimates. We note that, over time, the Village can expect to enjoy lower legacy Town debt service costs once Edgemont establishes its own zoning and planning functions and retires our share of the Town’s 2014 and 2023 expensive land use settlement bond payments. (The Town’s budget year 2024, the basis for the model, is the only year in which the Town owes payments on both the Fortress Bible and Dromore Road Federal litigation settlement bonds, so debt service costs are projected to decline in future years.)
Here’s some recent background: CGR publicly presented its draft findings at a meeting at Greenburgh Town Hall on March 20, 2024. Instead of embracing CGR’s intergovernmental model for fiscal and operational stability, our elected Greenburgh officials reacted with outrage and dismay.
They attacked CGR as “Edgemont-centric,” ignored key data points, falsely accused Edgemont of shirking liabilities, threatened to retaliate if Edgemont voted to become a village, and demanded that CGR add new extreme assumptions to reflect the Town’s unyielding scorched-earth strategy against incorporation (go to 2 hr 16 min mark of video for Councilman Francis Sheehan’s closing remarks).
CGR’s results for the “failed partnership” scenarios may be found on pages 46-62 of the report. These (wholly avoidable) outcomes would fall harder on remaining unincorporated area Greenburgh residents, with meaningful service reductions and layoffs in most Town departments due to the loss–potentially in perpetuity–of substantial Edgemont revenue. Using the Town’s most apocalyptic assumptions, CGR shows taxes in Edgemont rising slightly but not significantly over Base Scenario #1, but shows dramatic tax increases in remaining unincorporated Greenburgh.
A reasonable person might ask: why would the Town take an unproductive, self-defeating approach to its dealings with Edgemont post-incorporation? Wouldn’t the Town do what’s in the best interests of its own residents by working with Edgemont to provide services and retain revenue? Ultimately, we believe that, given CGR’s conclusions in Base Scenario #1, the Town will move off its self-destructive, reflexive opposition to intergovernmental cooperation with Edgemont, including its retaliatory insistence that it will seek to remove Edgemont from the Greenburgh Consolidated Water District–a power it doesn’t possess according to a State Comptroller opinion.
Like CGR, we did not find a precedent or legal basis for the Town’s position that an Edgemont Village must remain liable for post-incorporation tax certiorari settlements and litigation judgments, unless of course it were part of a negotiated agreement in which the Town were to credit Edgemont with its proportionate share of the millions of dollars in accumulated fund balance that the Town built up with Edgemont tax dollars.
CGR’s conclusions affirm our prior research–that an incorporated Edgemont, with over $31 million of revenues, will have the resources to run a village, with multiple options for services with or without Town cooperation, while maintaining tax rates at or about the level they would have been had Edgemont not incorporated.
As a refresher on the reasons for incorporation, we encourage you to visit our website. Please don’t hesitate to reach out via e-mail if you have questions or would like to sign the incorporation petition.
Best,
The EIC
CGR RESOURCES
Slide deck summary of draft report (March 20th)
Video of presentation (March 20th)
Full and final report (April 1st)
