Scarsdale Mayor Discusses Village Budget, Infrastructure Needs and a New Steakhouse in Scarsdale Village

The following remarks from Scarsdale Mayor Jane Veron were delivered at the opening of the Scarsdale Village Board meeting on March 8. See below for information about the opening of Rare Steakhouse in the space formerly occupied by Zachys, new pickleball courts and your taxes.

Good evening, Scarsdale: Before we discuss local matters, I want to express our heartfelt desire for a swift and peaceful resolution of the conflict abroad. We are deeply saddened to see the devastation and destruction in Ukraine and vehemently condemn the aggression and violence. We are horrified by the unprovoked attacks against humanity and deplore this assault on freedom.

While difficult to transition to the quotidian business of our fiscal affairs, it is necessary that we turn our attention to the budget. Over these past many months, I have been updating the community on our reengineered budget process. In an incredible feat, our staff have performed wholesale assessments of their departments and infrastructure as part of our collective commitment to provide more transparency to residents with respect to Village government needs. The conclusion of this exercise is that we have been deferring necessary expenditures, and that this approach is not sustainable.

I want to share the data that sets the stage. Let’s look at tax rate increases over the past dozen years. For the four years beginning in 2010/11, the average annual tax rate increase was 4.38%. In the four years beginning in 2014/15, the average annual tax rate increase was 3.12%, and in the past four years beginning in 2018/19, the average annual tax rate increase was 2.31%. Over time, we have eroded our revenues. With tax rate increases in the 2% range, and the ratification of COVID austerity budgets, we have starved the system, not keeping pace with the investments needed in order to deliver the services residents have come to ask for and expect.

At the beginning of this Board’s term, we committed to initiating a plan to address the pool complex, a key community asset that, due to its length of service and the wear and tear on its underlying systems, hovers on inoperability. We kicked off the Village Center Mobility and Placemaking/Complete Streets study to develop a comprehensive solution to ongoing traffic and safety concerns. We called for upgrades in technology to strengthen our cybersecurity, a necessity of the times. We passed code, such as the gas-powered leaf blower ban, to ensure strong quality of life and now need to enforce compliance. We listened to the community encouraging us to keep up with the times, requesting a full-time naturalist at the Weinberg Nature Center and new courts for pickleball, the fastest growing sport in the country. We have an aging infrastructure, including a century-old water system, and rising mandates. We have underinvested in equipment, corroborated by staff’s inventory of the DPW and Public Safety fleet, noting so many vehicles that have outlived their useful life and require frequent and costly repair. All of these needs and stressors inform the Board’s understanding of our current situation.

We know it is very expensive to live in Scarsdale, and we understand our fiduciary duty. None of us wants to raise taxes, none of us wants higher taxes, but we also cannot abdicate our responsibility for prudent governance and service delivery. We continue to probe and ask questions and have put staff through their paces in order to best gauge the multiple levers available to deliver a responsible budget. We have examined our fund balance policy, digging into both assigned and unassigned balances. We have identified high medium and low investment requests and whether they qualify for borrowing. With big capital projects on the horizon, we plan to avail ourselves of the favorable rate environment and responsibly consider the issuance of debt that matches the useful life of our assets.

Board and staff have reviewed and analyzed reams of data and deliberated late into the night. Budget sessions have consumed our calendars. We have worked to ensure we aren’t leaving any stone unturned as we try to achieve the right level of funding that delivers the services and functions residents require – that balances verifiable fiscal needs against what we are asking residents to support. Throughout this arduous months-long process, we have demonstrated our commitment to facing reality and providing an honest assessment of our needs. We remain dedicated to delivering a fiscally constrained budget while ensuring we properly invest in our future.

And as soon as the first budget cycle is behind us, we will begin analytics for the next. Our goal is a view into the future where we have a strategic plan that drives our three- to five-year financial plan so that we make thoughtful, informed, and sensible decisions for the long-term health of Scarsdale and to best serve our residents.

Before I conclude, I have a few exciting real time updates, focusing on our Economic Development and Land Use Pillar. Our Village Center continues to thrive with new establishments on the horizon. As we bid farewell to Zachys’ we will be welcoming into that space Rare Steakhouse, the newest edition to NYC’s Ben and Jack’s Steakhouse family. The buildout is underway, and we are hoping for a fall opening. A new brewery will occupy Taim Cellar’s space with a bar and tables and refrigerated cases and single beers for takeout. The long-awaited cheese shop Dobbs and Bishop is expected to open this spring. In addition to their cheeses, they will offer light lunch. Rudy’s is expanding into Pookie & Sebastian’s space to provide more guitar brands with hopes to host live events. And we are thrilled to report that the Dine the ‘Dale tent will be returning mid-March. You have told us how much you missed the tent, and we are super excited for its return. Be on the lookout for new furniture and more programming. Thank you SBA and the task force for making this happen.

In a moment we will showcase our extraordinary community volunteers, but before I conclude, I would also like to acknowledge International Women’s Day. Today, March 8th, we celebrate the accomplishments of women worldwide and the hope for a gender equal world. We will do our part in Scarsdale to forge gender equality, creating a world that is diverse, equitable and inclusive.