At the time, I was an editor working out of Gannett’s Sound Shore bureau in New Rochelle. We got a telephone call from a local funeral home. The undertaker had an obituary for a 79-year-old woman and they wanted it printed in the next day’s paper. They said the woman died “after a short illness.”

Uh, it wasn’t exactly so.

It turned out she was bludgeoned to death by her landlord, who wanted her out of her apartment. I seem to recall that the obit ran as if she had peacefully died in her sleep.

Somebody lied, either the cops or the funeral home…or both.  I never did get to the bottom of it, but I do know that the police chief at the time was hard to deal with.

Rye Brook was a new municipality, too, carved out of Rye Town in 1982, so maybe there was an element of inexperience at work. In any event, and for whatever reason, they wanted the woman’s death out of the public eye.

Not so with the case of Ben Novack, Jr., the son of the founder of Miami’s famed Foutainbleau Hotel, who was found dead in his hotel room over the weeked. The Hilton was turned into a crime scene. A couple next door to Novack’s room was told to leave. And a press conference was held.

What a difference in sophistication from 21 years ago.

I ne

Every year, before the April 15 tax deadline every American would have to report to a federal weigh-in station where inspectors would record the weight and body/mass index of every adult citizen. A tax of, say, $10, would then be levied on every pound in excess of the official “acceptable” weight.

I admit it was an insensitive and even cruel idea. But it was born out of frustration. Everyone agrees that the obesity problem is serving to bankrupt the health care system, but it seems that few solutions take into account personal responsibility.

Instead, we hear of things like state “soda taxes” and calorie-count menus that unfairly affect everyone—consumers and businesses alike. My idea was merely meant to apply an incentive to those who have the great need for a push…and a penalty tax would undoubtedly change bad behavior, i.e. eating too much fattening food. Money talks.

But I realize that an obesity tax would probably create more problems than it would solve. Individual medical issues alone render the idea stupid, either as serious policy or satire.

Nevertheless, I think I’m on to something when it comes to tying financial incentives to the goal of a thinner, healthier America.

So here’s another proposal. Let’s totally revamp physical education in the schools. I say gym classes be fully restored to three-day-a-week programs that are geared to total fitness.

Gym teachers will be forced to spend more time on the physical development of ALL students rather than concentrating their efforts only on the superior varsity athletes.

I suspect that over the last several years, gym teachers have strayed from the mission of providing a tough, but healthy curriculum of physical education. It seems that in too many high schools, there has arisen a phenomenon of the cult hero coach whose main goal is to build super teams that win division titles and make headlines.

This is all well and good, but it loses sight of one important thing,. Their job is not to become imitation Big Ten coaches and cult heroes; their job is to  educate.

I propose that gym classes be turned into brief, boot camp sessions—with running and calisthenics. Fitness tests would be administered on a yearly basis and grades would be assigned.

Those tests would be just as important in assessing the performance of a school as reading and math tests.

And here’s where the monetary incentive idea comes in. Everybody complains how school superintendents are overpaid and laden with perks. Right? Well, under my war on obesity,  a significant portion of superintendents’ pay would be tied to how well they succeed at getting their students in shape.

The measurement of that success would be the fitness test scores.

Hardly anyone in county government anywhere was in favor of the payroll tax which affects businesses, nonprofits, schools, and local governments. Even Westchester County Executive Andy Spano was against it. The state Legislature approved the tax in May to help close the MTA’s $2.3 billion budget gap.

Fares also went up in a compromise deal. Last month, Metro-North fares rose 10 percent.

But the payroll tax—34 cents for every $100 in payroll is a killer because it means that property taxes will go up as a result.

Just how bad is the payroll tax? Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef minced no words the other day when he said: “This is the worst piece of legislation I have ever seen out of Albany.”

Thank you, Dick.

Frank is a funny guy. An outspoken critic of governmental waste, he’s also a rare voice of sanity during his regular calls to the station.

Frank said he’s moving to Byram, which is just over the border from Port Chester.  Calling WVOX newsman Bob Marrone this morning, he joked about Tuesday’s torrential hail storm.

“It was so loud,” he said, “that it set off  the gunshot sound detection system.”

But his main message was that he was fed up with county taxes, and that was the main reason he was moving. The fact that Connecticut is minus one layer of government is no problem to Frank.

“Guess what?” he said. “I turned on the tap and water came out.”

Frank said he still has some real estate in Mount Vernon, so he won’t go away completely. I hope he can hear us from Byram, and I hope he keeps calling.

Hyland, a lifelong White Plains resident, received the Republican endorsement  to challenge the Democratic incumbent and board chairman, Bill “Boss” Ryan.  Tune in to High Noon at 1460 AM or log onto www.vox.com. Calls will be taken, as usual, at 914-636-0110.

This poster from the past was sent to us by Terri Hall, a former reporter for the old Mount Vernon Daily Argus and Yonkers Herald Statesman. She covered the Jackson 5 concert back, which took place at Memorial Stadium in Mount Vernon back about 24 years ago.

Check out the ticket price—$6.50!

Terri wasn’t sure if it was 1975 or ‘76. Any memories of this? Post them here.

Rank-in-file party members are furious with Burns for what is perceived as a betrayal to conservative principles. They smell a secret deal that was cut between Andy Spano’s political allies and Nick Spano, the former state Senator and Republican who is now a state lobbyist. According to this scenario, Burns carried out the wishes of Nick Spano to whom she owes her current employment as a patronage hack in Yonkers City Hall.

The two Spanos are not related.

In a recent letter to Conservative Party members, Burns purports to set the record straight, but really says nothing beyond painting herself as bravely opposing unnamed foes.

But it’s obvious that the scapegoat for this perfidy is Julio Cavallo, the shady but powerful head of the Independence Party.

The Burns-Spano story, which they’re sticking to, is that Cavallo was using bullying tactics to force the Conservative Party to endorse people he favored, i.e. Rob Astorino for county exec and Tony Castro for DA. The spin is that they refused to cave into Cavallo.

In other words, they’re trying to say that they actually acted in a courageous manner, conveniently forgetting, of course, that they screwed Astorino, a true conservative, out of the endorsement he deserves over the left-of-center Andy Spano.

Amazing…just amazing.

Here’s the letter in full:

Dear Fellow Conservative:

There has been quite stir surrounding this year’s Conservative Party nominations and our designated slate of candidates. As Chairwoman of our party, I am compelled to set the record straight.

The Westchester Conservative Party is certainly not stranger to contentious elections and hard fought campaigns. Despite decreasing enrollments, we’ve always maintained our rightful position as a strong voting block with principled values.

Unfortunately, in recent weeks there have been many people from the political underground attempting to influence our party and damage its integrity through threats and intimidation.

Simply put, I absolutely will not cave to political coercion. The Conservative Party will not tolerates these tactics, and I now that Westchester’s registered conservatives will not stand for them either.

Now, I need your support to ensure that our party ins ot raided by outsiders. Below please find the countywide candidates that we have endorsed at our recent convention. We are confident that these candidates will represent our party well and, once elected, will best serve the people.

County Executive Andy Spano

District Attorney Janet DiFiore

County Clerk Robert Morabito

Please be mindful of our candidates and those out there purportedly representing the Conservative Party. Make sure to look for the designated candidtes listed above and our “commitee to fill vacancies” designating Gail Burns, Nick Caputo and Gene Branca.

As always, thank you for your support of our party,

Sincerely Yours.

Gail M. Burns

Chairwoman

Mel Hall, a journeyman outfielder with occasional  long-ball capability was one of the better players on that 1991  team.

He hit a home run in that 1991 game, which the Yankees won 13-5 against the Baltimore Orioles. Matt Nokes, a catcher and one of the slowest bipeds on earth, also hit a homer.  Steve Sax, the second baseman, went four for five.

Sax, incidentally, was a pretty good player, but he is remembered for having developed a mental block of some sort that made it impossible for him to throw the ball accurately to first base. This malady was surpassed in weirdness by a latter-day Yankee second-sacker, Chuck Knoblauch, whose tortured throws in the dirt became painful to watch.

Hall was considered an unwholesome character, even then. He used to rag on a young and sensitive Bernie Williams in those days. Somwhere we still have a 1991 Yankees yearbook, which included a photo of Hall with his creepy looking girl friend.

Hall disappeared from the Major League scene more than a decade ago, but he returned to public view the other day when he was sentenced in Fort Worth, Texas to 45 years in prison after being convicted for raping a 12-year-old girl.

Guess they won’t be doing a Yankeeography on Mel. They won’t have to because somebody already beat them to it with a special tribute.

My guest will be Jeffrey Binder, a political consultant, who will help us understand how two Democratic state senators turned an already dysfunctional governmental body into a confederacy of clowns.  More important, we’ll talk about how the current 31-31 Senate deadlock affects you, the ordinary citizen.

Tune in today at noon to 1460 AM. And join the conversation by calling 914-636-0110.

G&S, the developers from Bethpage, L.I., succeeded with the assistance of New York state’s eminent domain law which was lopsidedly designed to screw private property owners. Considerable help also was provided by a cadre of enabling village officials who were in their hip pocket.

If you travel to Port Chester today, you will see the fruits of their labors—giant, monolithic, windowless structures. They include a Costco and a multiplex movie theater that hug the Byram River waterfront. Beneath the level of the parking lot and barely visible to passerbys, they built a promenade along the river, which appears to be in disrepair and under utilized.

One of the property owners whose rights were violated in the eminent domain fiasco was a man by the name of Bill Brody. His commercial building on South Main Street was seized to make way for a parking garage and a Stop & Shop supermarket.

Under New York law,  challenges to eminent domain had to be filed within 30 days of a governmental decision to condemn a property. The problem was that the only official means of notification was a legal ad placed in classified sections of newspapers.

If you missed seeing the ad in time, you lost any chance of saving your property.

By the time Brody learned that his property was condemned, it was too late. Nevertheless, he fought back. Enlisting the legal assistance of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Justice, he took his case to court and won.

Last year, a judge of the Southern District of New York, ruled that his right to due process had been violated. In a way, it was a Pyrrhic victory. Brody’s building had already been torn down.

But the federal court decision did have positive results. It was precedent setting, giving fuel to other property owners fighting unfair eminent domain cases across the country. It also spurred the New York State Legislature  to rewrite the eminent domain procedural law, requiring proper notification to property owners.

There’s also an extraordinary final chapter to the Brody-Port Chester story. The village had to eat crow. As part of a settlement agreement, the village paid Brody $475,000 and publicly apologize. The apology came at a village board meeting Monday night…and set in stone at a settlement signing ceremony held today at Village Hall.

That’s not all. The village also agreed to rename the corner where Brody’s building stood—William Brody Plaza.

Having covered this story in the early years, I never thought I’d see anything like this happen.

However, the apology to Brody isn’t enough. The village should extend it to the scores of merchants, landlords and apartment dwellers who were bullied, terrorized and swindled during that terrible period.

Brody had the means and forbearance to fight back. Others didn’t. They had to cut their losses and leave.

The memorial lists 88 service men from New York state who received the highest medal for valor, going back to the First World War. But Koelsch, a Navy helicopter pilot, was not among the names because he was neither born in New York nor did he enter the military in the New York—both of which are memorial requirements.

However, Peter Fiumefreddo, who heads up the memorial committee told me that an exception will be made for Koelsch, who spent much of his childhood living in Briarcliff Manor and was a considered a local man int 1955 when the old Ossining Citizen Register newspaper ran a story announcing the news that he has posthumously received the medal. Fiumefreddo said the decision to include Koelsch came after last Thursday’s column in which I described the efforts by two Korean War veterans to get his name on local memorials.

Incidentally, there were a number of locals who earned the Medal of Honor before World War, including this man n (right) Robert Temple Emmet, a West Point graduate who fought the Apaches at the 1877 battle of Las Animas Canyon in Arizona. At the time, Emmet was an officer attached to the all-black regiment, 9th Cavalry also known as “Buffalo Soldiers.”

The battle was something of a disaster for the cavalry, but Emmet was cited for bravery for covering a retreat. He was born in New York City, lived in Pelham and is buried at Beechwood Cemetery in New Rochelle.

He’ll tell us why New York is heading down the path to financial ruin.

Tune in today at 12 noon or log onto wvox.com. Calls will be taken at 914-636-0110.

On Monday night, the county Board of Legislators approved by 14-0 the appointment of former County Clerk Len Spano to the county’s ethics board. (Two legislators—George Oros, R-Cortlandt and Tom Abinanti, D-Greenburgh, were not present for the vote.)

This is interesting because Len Spano is the grand old patriarch of the Republican Spano family—a huge clan of politicos and patronage beneficiaries. However, it’s a stretch to call them Republicans anymore since the two highest profile members of the family, former State Sen. Nick Spano, now a lobbyist, and his brother, Yonkers Assemblyman Mike Spano have aligned themselves with the dominant Democratic Party for purposes of self preservation.

In recent columns, I’ve pointed to a conspiracy theory on how Andy Spano, a liberal Democrat, who is no relation to the “other Spanos,” got the Conservative Party nomination. The word is that it started with his powerful former deputy Larry Schwartz who twisted Nick Spano’s arm, who in turn twisted the arm of Gail Burns, the Conservative Party chairwoman, who owes her job to Nick.

The quid pro quo works this way:

Schwartz ensures that his old boss, Andy, wins a fourth term. In exchange, he gets suburban support for his new boss, Gov. David Paterson, who is unpopular and has a very steep hill to climb in order to win election in November. Or, assuming Paterson is doomed, Schwartz has a job waiting for him back in Westchester.

For leaning on Burns, Spano gets lobbying business from the state and/or county not to mention future Democratic support for his kid brother, a newly minted Democrat, who has aspirations for Yonkers mayor and possibly county executive.

Who know what other favors may or may not be in the works.

But Andy Spano’s appointment of the retired Len Spano to the ethics board certainly looks suspicious. Should the father of Tricky Nicky Spano sit on such a panel?

And how will Len respond to any ethics complaint filed against Andy?

This is troublesome.

Andy Spano is no blood relation to the other Spanos, but he sure is related in spirit. That’s becoming more and more obvious.

If this should come to pass, it will have very little to do with pure Conservative ideology and everything to do with a cynically rigged system that runs purely on connections and favors. It would be proof positive that elections aren’t really decided on election day in November, but in the hot days of spring and summer when nobody’s paying attention to the deal makers who convene in the proverbial smoke-filled rooms.

Simple Fact No. 1: Andy Spano is not a Conservative. By any definition, he would be characterized as a classic New York liberal.

Simple Fact No 2: Rob Astorino, the Republican candidate in the race, is philosophically a Conservative in every respect, though it would be an unfair stretch to say that he is, well, a Rush Limbaugh-style Conservative. And what happened?

Simple Fact No. 3: Well whaddya know? Only four years ago, the Conservatives nominated Astorino when he unsucessfully ran against Spano the first time.

So how is it that Spano is now the worthy Conservative candidate and Astorino is chopped liver?

A possible answer lies in the conspiracy theory that Larry Schwartz, who works for Gov. David Paterson and was Spano’s deputy county executive, engineered a deal with county Conservative Party Chairwoman Gail Burns—using former State Sen. Nick Spano (no relation to Andy) as the go-between.

Burns worked for Nick Spano when he was in the state Senate and has maintained close ties with him.

In exchange, the theory goes, Nick Spano would get powerful Democratic Party support down the road for his kid brother, Assemblyman Mike Spano, who has strong designs on the Yonkers mayoralty and possibly the county exec post as well. Does this sound far-fetched?

Well, it’s certainly more believable than Andy Spano getting hit by lightning and becoming a follower of the cable-TV teachings of Sean Hannity.

Sue Swanson, the chairwoman of the Mount Pleasant Conservative Party and a supporter of Astorino, smelled a rat when Andy Spano was interviewed by the party leaders. She said she attempted to ask him how he felt about gun control—and Burns wouldn’t let him answer the question.

Swanson also discovered that a sizeable number of her election district votes were snapped up by Burns, presumably as a tactic to stack the deck for Spano.

“She told me not to make trouble,” Swanson said of Burns. “I said, ‘I’m put on this earth to cause trouble.’ ”

Burns denies any of this happened, including the rigged endorsement. We’ll see what happens tonight when the party holds its closed-door convention at the Polish Community Center in Yonkers.

But Burns has already state a rationale for picking Spano over Astorino. It goes like this—See, there’s a dichotomy in Conservative thinking. There’s the state-level Conservative philosophy, personified by state chairman Mike Long, who is right of center on fiscal issues AND social issues such as abortion and gay marriage…and then there’s the Westchester Conservative.

The Westchester Conservative is tough on fiscal issues but a softy on everything else. Spano is that type of Conservative, and therefore deserves the Westchester Conservative Party nomination.

Do you buy this baloney?

The obvious fallacy is that no one in mainstream politics ever cops to being in favor of big government with high taxes and free-wheeling spendiing. Everybody claims to be a Conservative on that score, even when it’s not true.

The bottom line is that Andy Spano is in no way a born-again Conservative, not even a fiscal one.

Well, now Spano says he’s ready to talk and will come on the air tomorrow at the usual 12 noon time, 1460 AM and wvox.com.

Spano, you may recall, is running for Westchester County Executive. His main opponent is his father, Andy Spano, the incumbent. The junior Spano says he wants to shrink county government and feels that his dad has taxed middle class residents to the point where they can’t afford to live here anymore.

So, I’m hoping he’s show up. Calls will be taken at 914-636-0110.

Back in the ‘70s, Joe was a Republican supervisor in the town of Mamaroneck where I grew up. He was the kind of public servant, a lost breed, who turned down the perk of free municipal car.

Joe turned 101 yesterday. He wasn’t calling about that, however. He asked me to help him out with a newspaper delivery problem. I told him I’d do practically anything to keep a loyal reader.

Which Joe certainly is. But he said, “Lay off Andy Spano.” Hmm. Speaking of free car…

The junior Spano, who says he is a candidate for county executive, was given a chance to speak at the Westchester Democratic Committee convention. Though his nomination was seconded, he declared that he was the true “agent of change.”

Spano wants to do away with county government.

Tune in today at 12 noon at 1460 AM or log onto wvox.com. Calls will be taken at 636-0110.

Last weekend, more than 30 volunteers from Yonkers Boy Scout Troop 5, Yonkers Firefighters and the Yonkers Department of Public Works picked up litter on the trail between Walnut and Summit Streets.

The effort was spear-headed by Assemblyman Mike Spano.

Good work all the way around.

It seems that Al Donahue, the eccentric, part-time mayor of the tiny Hudson River village, didn’t cotton to the citizen outrage that resulted from his brazen attempt to hire his own daughter as a village secretary at a clip of close to $75,000 a year.

A lot of people spoke out a public meeting when Donahue broke a 2-2 vote Board of Trustees vote to appoint Cindy Lynch, who wasn’t in line for the job, according to state Civil Service rules.

Now Al is getting back at his opponents, in a strange way. He has sent out Freedom of Information requests to employers of government workers and school employees who stood up at the meeting and protested Lynch’s hiring. She has since declined the job.

Here’s just one letter sent to the Public Information Officer at the town of Cortlandt:

“Please provide documentation/information regarding salary paid, fringe benefits paid directly to or on behalf of and any reimbursement of expenses for Frances E. Surak…for the years 2002 through 2008.”

Several letters of this type have been sent out.

The purchase and golf course construction ran the county close to $10 million.

Flash forward to today. In a May 6 letter to County Executive Andy Spano, with copies sent to the Board of Legislators, New Castle Town Supervisor Barbara Gerrard requested that the county reimburse the Ossining School District for the next loss in taxes on the Hudson Hills property, about $136,000 a year. At the time of the sale, Gerrard was not serving as town supervisor.

I wrote about Gerrard’s request in today’s  column.

Gerrard’s reason for the request stemmed from the county’s recent decision to buy a crummy office building at 450 Saw Mill River Road in Ardsley. The deal included a payoff of $1 million to the Ardsley school district because, like Hudson Hills, the property was taken off the tax rolls as a result of the sale. This clearly set a bad precedent.

County Legislator John Nonna, D-Pleasntville predicted other municipalities would make a similar demand. He was right.

Out of fairness, Gerrard demanded a decade’s worth of lost taxes, or about $1.36 million.

Strangely, Gerrard wouldn’t return my phone calls. But word that I was checking around clearly got back to the merry Board of Legislators because lo and behold, a letter in response to Gerrard was drafted yesterday by County Legislator Tom Abinanti (left), D-Greenburgh, whose district includes Ardsley.

He doesn’t exactly tell New Castle to shove it, but it is clearly a CYA scold.

Here’s Abinanti’s letter in full:

recent purchase of a building  in the Ardsley School District to house voting machines and the county’s 1999 purchase of the IBM property in the

Hon. Barbara S. Gerrard
Supervisor, Town of New Castle
200 South Greeley Avenue
Chappaqua, New York  10514
Dear Supervisor Gerrard:
I am responding to your May 6, 2009  letter to County Executive Andrew Spano concerning the county’s recent purchase of a building  in the Ardsley School District to house voting machines and the county’s 1999 purchase of the IBM property in the  Town of New Castle and the Ossining School District to create a golf course.
The Ardsley intermunicipal agreement is consistent with the county’s longstanding policy of cooperating with communities affected by its actions.  In fact, the development of the county’s New Castle golf course was done in conjunction with your community.
In 1999, your community was clear that it preferred to preserve the property as a golf course rather than permit additional residential development. As a legislator, I agreed to support the county’s purchase of the IBM property at the urging of your then County Legislator Richard Wishnie, the Town of New Castle, the Ossining School District and noted environmentalists who strongly supported the proposed purchase.
The town and school district readily supported the 170-acre property purchase after negotiating an agreement with the county which carved out forty-four acres for development to provide tax revenue, transferred 20 acres to the Town of New Castle for its own use, and honored an earlier IBM commitment to provide an easement for a future town water storage facility.

Finally, this golf course is a significant asset to your community providing residents with a nearby premier recreational facility and a home golf course for your high school’s golf team.

In short, your community got exactly what it wanted ten years ago.
In contrast, neither I nor the Ardsley community ever supported the purchase of the Ardsley property in question.  The monies which the County is providing for certain projects in the school district were designed for several purposes:  mitigate some of the permanent tax loss to the community caused by a project which the community did not want; meet the concerns of several legislators who were reluctant to instantly impose so heavy a tax burden on a small school district by removal of the property from the tax rolls; and enhance certain recreation facilities and open them to the general public.
In both instances, the county was consistent in negotiating with representatives from municipal and school representatives to assist the affected communities.
Thank you for your thoughts on the subject.
Very truly yours,
?
Thomas J. Abinanti, District 12

I mentioned the poll in today’s column. In a statement, Richard Berman, the college’s president said: “The psychological impact of the economic decline continues to influence the mind-set and behavior even in the so-called affluent suburbs.

“We see little improvement in perceptions of the economy and people continue to modify their spending behavior in response to personal economic circumstances or their general concerns about the future.”

Berman will talk about the poll in a little more depth on Thursday’s “High Noon” radio show on WVOX, 1460 AM and wvox.com.

This will be the topic of discussion on my “High Noon” radio program today at 12 noon on WVOX, 1460 AM—or wvox.com. My guest on the phone will be Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining who voted against the plan.

The payroll tax is just part of the plan. Fares will go up, too. Surcharges will be applied to car registrations and licenses as well.

There’s some sort of provision to reimburse school districts for the payroll tax, but as of now it seems no one is sure how this will work. The whole idea looks like a giant mess.

What we do know is that hackles certainly have been raised. Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, released a statement this morning that practically calls for a citizen revolt. Ball said the following—
“My message to my constituents: ‘Grab your pitch forks people,’ every taxpayer and business owner, including not-for-profits and the self-employed, and anyone who uses the MTA to commute to and from work should be outraged by this proposal.”

The Westchester County Association is also holding a press conference at 11 a.m., just minutes from now, to announce its opposition to the payroll tax. The business group will be joined by leaders from the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association and from the various counties, including Westchester and Putnam.

Yesterday, Westchester County Executive Andy Spano, who opposes the payroll tax, said it will cost county government $1.6 million and the Westchester Medical Center about $1 million.

My spies tell me that the village’s part-time mayor, Al Donahue, rammed through a resolution last night to hire his own daughter as an “intermediate typist” at a salary of $71,343. This appears to be a circumvention of the state Civil Service Law which requires that the job should be open to a list of qualified candidates who have taken the Civil Service test.

No one else was considered for the post. No interviews were conducted. And the job may not be necessary since it had been vacant for eight months.

What’s most extraordinary is that Donahue didn’t recuse himself from voting on the resolution to hire his daughter, Cynthia Lynch of Montrose. And get this—he was the deciding vote! When the Board of Trustees deadlocked 2-to-2, Donahue broke the tie with a yes vote.

That’s chutzpah. Wait for a lawsuit on this one.

Back in early March, Westchester County Executive Andy Spano told me he was against the controversial state proposal to help close the MTA’s $1.2 billion budget gap by imposing a payroll tax on businesses, nonprofits, school districts and local governments. This is a costly tax that may help out the MTA, but it will certainly cause an economic effect in terms of property tax increases and layoffs.

In response to my off-handed question on March 9, Spano said, “The payroll tax, I think is ridiculous at this particular point.” I put the quote in my column the next day.

To Spano’s credit, he’s on the right side of this issue.

Interestingly, he’s made himself available for a 2 p.m. Q&A today so that he can reiterate his opposition to the payroll tax. The reason this is interesting is because I mentioned the payroll tax in today’s column in a negative context. In the same column, I also pounded Spano’s State of the County Address in which he said that there is no need to “rethink” government. We just need to “rethink our values.”

I used the damaging payroll tax as an example of how, contrary to Spano’s contention, we do indeed need to rethink government.

However, I was probably remiss in not mentioning Spano’s original opposition to the payroll tax, which is about to be voted on the state Legislature. In any event, I don’t know how much influence he can muster to convince anyone in Albany that the tax is a bad idea. And it does seem his official stance is coming a bit late in the game.

Spano’s press conference today appears to be a last-minute effort to cover his tracks on this.

Here’s the press release dejour.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                May 5, 2009

WESTCHESTER COUNTY EXECUTIVE CALLS FOR LEGISLATURE TO STOP PAYROLL TAX
Spano says that tax will cost county residents millions and hurt businesses, non-profits and hospitals

County Executive Andy Spano called for the state Legislature and the Governor to stop a payroll tax that he said would cost Westchester residents millions of dollars and hurt taxpayers, businesses, hospitals and non-profits who are already struggling to survive.
Spano will hold a press availability at 2 p.m. today on the 9th floor of the County Office Building at 148 Martine Ave., in White Plains to discuss his opposition.
Spano, who has vocally opposed the tax for months, released a copy of a memo he sent to members of the Westchester delegation yesterday which reiterates his opposition to the tax.
Spano said the tax would cost Westchester County government alone $1.6 million and the Westchester Medical Center about $1 million.  He noted that Westchester County last year paid $121 million to the MTA out of county tax dollars, sales tax, and mortgage fees and budgeted $119 million for 2009.
He added, that the proposal does not “share the pain.”
“How come Connecticut gets away with not having to contribute when thousands of their riders use MTA transportation? Why is there no toll on the East River bridges? Why do we constantly bail out agencies that are inefficiently run? Yes, there should be relief on MTA fares, but once again, it should not be on the backs of our taxpayers, residents, non-profits and businesses.’’

The sign was hung on the Michaelian Office Building in White Plains in full view of the crowd that gathered outside at last weekend’s “tea party”  rally in protest of high taxes.

The rally was organized by Sam Zherka, the publisher of The Westchester Guardian who wants to abolish county government.

You might expect that the sign was paid for by Spano’s campaign and not an expense charged to the taxpayers, but don’t kid yourself.

He was a mystery. Nobody really knew where he came from or why he continuously tramped a 364-mile loop that covered western Connecticut and northern Westchester County. People who lived in the small towns along the Leather Man’s path, said they could practically set their clocks by him.

Even in the hottest months of summer, he wore an odd suit of clothes made of leather. He rarely spoke, but he gladly took handouts of food.

A collection of contemporary newspaper stories about the legendary eccentric were put together by Dan. W Deluca in a new book called “The Old Leather Man.”

DeLuca will be the featured guest on my “High Noon” radio program tommorow (Thursday) at 12 noon. Tune in to 1460 AM or log on to wvox.com.

The country’s economy is collapsing under a crushing load of debt, but that hasn’t stopped the credit-card industry from trying to trap more consumers in the revolving door of financial servitude.

For some time, ever since the dissolution of the subprime mortgage market, Lehman Brothers, etc., my daily load of junk mail has been completely free of credit card enticements. I figured that the rise of unemployment and the new-found religion of saving had killed the spirit of instant gratification that was aided and abetted by easy access to plastic.

But no. I was wrong. Just the other day, I received an application for a Visa Black Card, which is Visa’s competitive answer to the American Express Black Card. This is the pitch: Only one percent of U.S. residents can get one of these cards for annual fee of $495. The implicit message is that any holder of the Black Card is in the minority circle of winners.

The other 99 percent? Losers, all of them.

And the Black Card isn’t even plastic like the cards the losers are forced to carry around.  Indeed the advertisement declares that the Black Card “is not another piece of plastic. Made with carbon, it is the ultimate buying tool.”

The annual percentage rate is 13.24 percent. The word “variable” is added in small print. That means that at any time, they’ll jack the rate up to the usual loan-shark levels.

You many already know that David Spano has announced his intention to mount a primary run against his three-time incumbent dad, County Executive Andy Spano. His platform? Abolish county government.

“By running for county executive. I intend to be the last county executive,” Spano, 50, told a crowd of anti-county government enthusiasts at a rally in White Plains last Saturday. This has become an embarassment for the elder Spano—and it doesn’t look it’s going to go away.

I couldn’t find an appropriate file photo of the prodigal son, but I did find one of Scott Evil, the angry offspring of Dr. Evil. There he is at left. Hmm…  you know something? With a radical haircut and a chnage in wardrobe, ol’ Andy kind of resembles the man who once held planet earth ransom for ….ONE MILLION DOLLARS! BWAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

If things work out, Richter will be joined by Buddy Waller, a “High Noon” regular who does not like doing the show alone. Go figure.

Stay tuned.

For the few dogged (damn, another bad pun) loyalists who listen to my “High Noon” radio show on WVOX, I apologize now for failing to notify you in advance that there was to be no show yesterday. The reason was that I attended a writers’ day program at the Mark Twain Middle School in Yonkers. As always, the kids were bright, attentive and asked very good questions. Sample: Do you ever regret some of the columns you’ve written? I won’t repeat the long reply I gave to the class, but I’ll give you my short answer. Yes.

Despite the hiatus, I will resume the “High Noon” show at the regular day and time next week. That’s Thursday, April 23 at 12 noon. 1460 AM or wvox.com. We’ll be talking to Dennis Robertson, a former councilman from Yonkers who is seeking the Democratic nomination for council president.