Yonkers, NY -- Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone (am-ih-KOH'-nee) (pictured left) asserts that the New York state Senate impasse will bankrupt Yonkers within 10 days time if the deadlock continues. The mayor is concerned that he will have no other option than to pay the Yonkers Police Department and Yonkers Fire Department with IOU's. The concept for payment with IOU's originated in the mind of California Governor Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger (pictured right). The IOU concept may be the only cform of payment available to Governor Schwartzenegger and similarly, the only option for Mayor Amicone.
Yonkers City Budget must be annually certified by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a requirement that harks back to days when Yonkers found itself under the aegis of a Financial Control Board.
Comptroller DiNapoli is said by both Mayor Amicone and Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick to have been respectively asked to certified the Yonkers City Budget in advance of the New York state Senate reaching an understanding and accommodation to the power sharing agreement that they will have to eventually reach in order for state government to function. the comptroller will not presumptuously certify the budget, waiting instead for the New York State Senate to pass two bills that would unlock Yonkers ability to collect property taxes, an exercise Yonkers cannot accomplish prior to the certification of Yonkers FY2009-20102 Budget.
Mayor Amicone's contemplation of paying the YPD and YFD with IOU's caused such consternation that the Yonkers Police Benevolent Association (PBA) called a meeting in July, something that has never been done in all the years the PBA has been in operation, to accommodate the membership.
Yonkers PBA President Eddie Armor PBA (pictured bottom right) has not issued a press release regarding what was discussed at yesterday's meeting. The meeting was a union meeting to which media was not invited.
