US rethinks ‘Christmas tree tax’ that’s not a tax

(AFP) – 1 hour ago 

WASHINGTON — The US Department of Agriculture is taking a second look at a “Christmas tree tax” that’s really not a tax at all, in the face of an uproar triggered by a conservative think tank.

The Heritage Foundation set tongues wagging when it said a levy of 15 cents (11 euro cents) for every fresh Christmas tree harvested in the United States or imported, amounted to a new tax by Barack Obama’s administration.

“The economy is barely growing and nine percent of the American people have no jobs,” blogged David Addington, one of its vice presidents. “Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best President Obama can do?”

In fact, the picayune assessment is meant to bankroll a Christmas Tree Promotion Board to help American tree growers and importers to better compete against artificial Christmas trees imported mainly from China.

“I can tell you unequivocally that the Obama administration is not taxing Christmas trees,” a White House spokesman, Matt Lehrich, told AFP in an email on Wednesday.

“What’s being talked about here is an industry group deciding to impose fees on itself to fund a promotional campaign, similar to how the dairy producers have created the “Got Milk?” campaign,” he said.

“That said, the US Department of Agriculture is going to delay implementation and revisit this action.”

Under federal law, the department approves and oversees programs set up by various agricultural sectors — such as dairy, beef and pork farmers — to encourage consumers to buy their produce.

Unimpressed by the brouhaha was the National Christmas Tree Association, based in Chesterfield, Missouri, whose spokesman Rick Dungey called the notion of a Christmas tree tax “a completely false representation.”

“To the people describing it that way: shame on you,” he told AFP by telephone.

In a statement, the association — which represents nearly 5,000 tree farmers and retailers — said the assessment was not expected to impact on the price consumers pay for their Christmas trees.

A full-size, deluxe fresh Fraser fir typically costs 75 dollars, according to the Windblown Tree Plantation of Honey Creek, Wisconsin, which sells its trees online.

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Local lawmakers are responding to complaints from area residents regarding the widespread power outages incurred from Tropical Storm Irene, calling into question the readiness of utility companies to deal with another large-scale disaster.

Sunday marks one week since Irene blasted its way through the Eastern seaboard and into New York, causing fallen trees, several feet of flooding and extensive power outages throughout areas in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties. One week later, some residents in those areas are still without electricity.

A representative from New York State Electric & Gas reports that just over 300 homes are without power in their Brewster division and 2,900 customers throughout New York State still remain without power.  

According to Con Edison, of its approximated 187,800 customers in New York City and Westchester County who lost power due to the storm, about 32,400 don’t have electricity restored.  

“We’ve had other storms, but I’ve never seen such slow response times,” said Councilman James Martorano (D-Yorktown).

Martorano and his fellow councilman Nicholas Bianco (R-Patterson) put out a press release Monday calling for an investigation into the readiness of our utility companies and the state of New York’s aging electrical grid.

The crux of the investigation appears to focus on NYSEG, which many believe was slow on the draw when acquiring out-of-state crews to aide in the restoration efforts.

State Sen. Greg Ball (R-Paterson) voiced his discontent, citing a shortage of dry ice for those affected and a lack of accurate and up-to-the-moment communication from the utility company.

NYSEG spokesman Clayton Ellis told Patch that the company has tried its best to keep the public informed.

“NYSEG has provided three to four news releases a day to the media and public officials in the affected areas. We have responded to dozens of media inquiries. We have held daily calls with public officials in the affected areas. We have also kept our website updated with the latest information and that information is also available [at] our call center, where representatives have been answering calls 24 hours a day,” Ellis said in a statement to Patch.

Implementing solutions has proved harder in practice than in theory. The storm affected 129,000 customers in the State of New York—59,000 of which in Westchester, Putnam and Duchess counties. The damage also affected power distribution as it knocked out 19 substations, all of which have been repaired and put back into service. 

NYSEG has also repaired more than 300 broken poles in various parts of the state and restrung more than 3,000 wires that were knocked down during the storm as of 8 a.m. Sunday morning.

“In Brewster alone we had to immediately address nearly 1,200 downed wires incidents to ensure public safety and 150 poles were broken and needed to be replaced, an extremely labor intensive and time consuming job” said Ellis.

Utility companies, including NYSEG had access to the pool of crews that becomes available before the onset of a storm. However, because Irene inflicted damage from the Carolinas through New England, supplemental contractors and line-and-tree crews from other utilities were difficult to secure, according to Ellis. 

Crews who came from as far away as the Midwest were diverted to the Brewster and Oneonta Divisions, where damage was most severe. But lawmakers don’t question the repair work being done by line crews and those on the front lines of the repair efforts. They say the problem comes at the management level.

Mary Beth Murphy, town supervisor of Somers, calls into question the strength of the grid itself saying that it was in a fragile state to begin with. But what appeared to anger Murphy most was the information NYSEG relayed to her.

“We were given information that we shared with our constituents that was false,” Murphy said, recalling the 3 p.m. conference calls reporting repairs throughout the day.

“It should have been at 10 a.m,” Martorano said. “They should have had someone to tell us what was going on. At least Con Ed gave us a liaison that gave us updates much more frequently. But that was after a little bit of poking from us.”

 The utility told Patch that an outage update was provided every 15 minutes on their online outage map.

“It’s no use to have the updates online because if you have no power you can’t run the computer,” said Carmel Town Supervisor Kenny Schmitt.

Ellis did not respond to questions about the criticism from local lawmakers into their response and preparedness.

Ball, however, made clear that Senate hearings would begin in about a month and would include representatives from NYSEG and Con Ed, as well as federal disaster officials and affected families.

“The storm could have been worse,” Ball said. “But the question here is not one of blame. It is about how we can be better prepared to face another storm or manmade event in which destruction like this could cause families to be without power not for days or weeks—but months.”

 

Updated, Monday 5 p.m.

An MTA spokesperson confirmed that the man who stepped in front of a northbound train was from Newtown, CT. Authorities do not plan to release the man’s name because the incident is being investigated as a suicide.

The train he stepped in front of was a northbound express from Grand Central due at 9:16 a.m. in Southeast, said Marjorie Anders, MTA spokesperson. The man apparently parked his car on I-684 and then walked to the railroad tracks from there.

The MTA turned the power off on the third rail and sent an extra train to evacuate passengers from the train and handle the service. Passengers were delayed approximately two hours.

First story: A 49-year-old man was struck and killed at approximately just before 9 a.m. Sunday by a northbound Metro-North train near the Goldens Bridge station, said MTA spokesman Sal Arena.

Officials are not yet releasing the man’s name, and the MTA police are on the scene investigating the cause of the accident. The man was on foot when he was struck; not in a vehicle. According to news reports, the MTA is investigating the death as a suicide but has not yet classified the incident as a suicide.

“It’s unclear the circumstances as to what this gentleman was doing on the tracks,” Arena told Patch this morning.

The Lewisboro Ledger cites an “unnamed official” who was at the scene saying the man was from Connecticut, and he parked his car near a power station in between exits 6 and 6A in I-684.

Arena said that approximately 40 people were on the train at the time, and the power was shut down briefly. Trains on the Upper Harlem line were back in service by mid-day.

Phone calls to MTA officials this afternoon were not returned for comment.

Patch will have more information as it becomes available.