By Frank Spotorno
Frank Spotorno
PUBLIC COMMENT — YONKERS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MAY 19, 2026 — TAX CAP OVERRIDE
Good evening, President Collins-Bellamy and members of the Council. My name is Frank Spotorno. I’m a 64-year old resident of Yonkers, a taxpayer, and a proud member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.
I see you called a special meeting to override the tax levy limit. That means you want the ability to raise my property taxes beyond the 2% cap. Before you vote, I want us to ask a better question: Instead of overriding the cap on my taxes, why don’t we override the loopholes for developers first?
Right now, the Yonkers IDA hands out millions in tax breaks. Then those developers hire non-union, out-of-state contractors. Our tax dollars fund scab jobs. Our UBC members sit on the bench. And too often, I-9 and E-Verify get ignored while undocumented workers take jobs our kids should have.
If we need revenue, let’s generate it the Square Deal way:
1. Close the IDA giveaways. Require every tax-break project to use registered apprenticeship, pay area standard wages, and use E-Verify. No more subsidies for poverty jobs. That keeps tax dollars here and puts Yonkers residents to work.
2. Collect from the MTA. Yonkers taxpayers subsidize Metro-North, but the MTA pays no property tax on stations or rail yards. Albany should pass a law making the MTA pay PILOTs to host cities. That’s millions back to Yonkers without touching a homeowner.
3. Enforce what’s on the books. New York Labor Law Article 8, Section 224-a, and Section 816-b already give you the power to demand prevailing wage and apprenticeship on subsidized jobs. Use the tools.
Every dollar recovered in wage theft is a dollar you don’t have to tax. The MTA CEO gets a penthouse deal. The board gets a kickback deal. The commuter gets the rogue deal. The UBC carpenter gets the bench. And the homeowner gets the bill. That’s not Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal. That’s a raw deal.
Don’t raise my taxes until you raise the standards. Pass a responsible bidder law tonight. Get revenue from the developers, from the MTA, and from enforcement — not just from our homes. If you want a Square Deal for Yonkers, it starts with a square deal for labor and the taxpayer. Thank you