Foster’s Analysis a Sham, and a Crude Attempt to Re-write History

Mayor Mary Foster’s commentary in this week’s North County News demonstrates that she is not concerned about facts, but is at heart a shrill opportunistic partisan who will say anything to advance her irresponsible views.

When John Testa joined the Common Council in 1998, the City’s assessment was $62,596,347. Over the next five years, through a series of tax certioraris that offset redevelopment, the assessment declined by $177,915. When Testa became Mayor in 2002, the City’s taxable assessment was $62,418,432. Then, as residential developments in Chapel Hill and Riverbend were populated, and commercial redevelopment in the Beach Shopping Center was completed, the City’s taxable assessment rose by $2,814,030. In 2006, the assessment was $65,232,462. Foster refuses to acknowledge this objective accomplishment and writes “the tax legacy and fiscal policies of the past decade … is not rosy.” If increasing the assessment by nearly $3 million isn’t a positive accomplishment, then the small reduction in that increase in 2007 should not be viewed as something negative.

Why does the North County News allow Foster to flat out lie? She writes “tax assessments have decreased in three of the last four years.” Review the objective facts, and you’ll see that the year 2007 was the first time in 4 years the assessment dropped.

Year Assessment
2004 63,803,547
2005 64,308,762
2006 65,232,462
2007 64,932,462 (est)
Source: City of Peekskill

When not lying, Foster fails to accept responsibility for her own actions. She writes “tax increases become necessary in order to carry on city business .. and planning for long-term economic development that may actually remedy the tax problem.” Again she is wrong. Tax increases are not necessary when there are concrete plans in place to increase the assessment. If she and her Democratic colleagues truly wanted Target in Peekskill, as they alleged in their campaign, we would have had both a Target and a Lowe’s built this year, which would have been a huge economic boost for Peekskill. But Foster and the Democrats killed Target and Lowe’s. Foster has some nerve to complain about a decreasing assessment when she killed the deal that would have helped us out of her proposed tax increase.

It’s astonishing that Foster refuses to accept responsibility for her own actions. She is also responsible for derailing agreed-on plans for Downtown and Waterfront redevelopment. Rather than continue the plans for mixed-use residential and commercial space, Foster has forced a “do over”, and declared that her priorities are commercial development (so long as it’s not viable multi-billion dollar businesses like Lowe’s and Target) and low-income housing. This is not rosy for Peekskill’s future.

Finally, Foster shows her shrill partisan opportunism in her misleading chart, with the note “unexpected sales and mortgage tax revenues in 2004 and 2005 enabled the improvement in fund balance by December 31, 2005.” Foster knew this point during her fall campaign, and instead of facing this reality, she extrapolated these unexpected revenues in a straight line, and told voters we’d have never-ending surpluses for the foreseeable future, which she would spend. This was irresponsible of her.

In short, the only sham is Mary Foster herself. Her commentary is a bald attempt to re-write history. But the objective facts won’t go away. Foster inherited a City in the strongest financial position in over a decade. The policies that got us here were sensible. But Foster has de-railed these policies, and now is complaining about the effects of her own actions. The people of Peekskill will not allow her to continue her campaign of lies.