Got a question about Westchester County's 2011 budget?

Answers are just a phone call away.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino will host a live telephone town hall meeting Wednesday night from 7-8 pm.

Residents seeking to listen in, or pose a question to the County Executive can call toll free at (888)886-6603 and enter event ID 16011.

Astorino says he's been receiving a large number of calls and emails about the proposed spending plan and thought the conference call would be the best way to explain to residents the facts behind the budget and to answer questions.

A new company is coming to Westchester.

The Westchester County Office of Economic Development and Industrial Development Agency (IDA) announced today that  Sabra Dipping Company is planning to relocate its headquarters to White Plains.

Dozens of community groups across Westchester are gearing up to help serve the needy and hungry this Thanksgiving Day.

Westchester County today received a Medicaid reimbursment check for its ongoing efforts to identify waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program.

The check, which totals $61,401 was presented to County Executive Rob Astorino by New York State Medicaid Inspector General James Sheehan for Medicaid overpayments detected and recovered as a result of a state and local collaboration.

One day after Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino released his proposed budget for 2011, at least two groups are coming forward protesting proposed cuts to their facilities.

The  spending plan does away with $1.9 million in subsidies to three neighborhood health centers funded by the County, Mount Vernon Neighborhood Health Center, Hudson River HealthCare and Open Door Family Medical Center in Ossining.

Saying "At some point you gotta pay the bill," Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino today took the wraps off his 2011 spending plan. It's a $1.786 billion dollar budget, a decrease of $33 million from the 2010 spending plan. It calls for a 1% tax levy decrease as well as the elmination of 705 County jobs, most of them through early retirement.

 Had Astorino made no cuts, spending in the budget would have increased by a projected $116 million. Every $5.6 million in net spending amounts to about a 1 percent increase in the county property tax levy.

The budget also calls for shrinking the County's workforce by 12% by elminating 705 positions.  406 of them are through voluntary buyouts. 14 vacancies are not going to be filled and 226 County employees will be laid off. 

The budget proposal raises just over $555 million through the county government’s property tax levy. Said Astorino, "One of the most expensive portions of the budget is the cost of county employees, particularly the soaring costs of their health care and pension benefits. For 2010, the average annual cost of a county worker is $110,000, including all benefits. Next year, this number will be $117,000. Fringe benefits in 2011 will amount to 55 percent of salary."

The percentage, he says "is unsustainable."

Westchester County officials announced today that the federal monitor overseeing the County's compliance with a landmark Housing Desegregation Settlement  has approved what he's  calling the "linchpin" of the plan.

Monitor James Johnson, in a report to the Federal court, gave the go ahead to a model ordinance for local governments to adopt as a way to encourage new fair and affordable housing.