Former Cicero Supervisor Roy Mallette thinks his taxes are too high.

He's complained. He's grieved his taxes. He's sued the town.

Wednesday, Mallette paid most of his $11,389.88 bill for county and town taxes in coins and small bills.

Some city homeowners who live in economically distressed zones are eligible for tax breaks and might not know it.

But Ellicott Council Member Brian C. Davis' family has cashed in on the incentives. The lawmaker is living tax-free in a home his wife built on former city-owned land that's located in a state Empire Zone.

Davis insists there's nothing improper about the fact that the family's home at 409 Hickory St. is exempt from paying nearly $2,800 in annual city and county property taxes. The full exemption continues for seven years, followed by partial tax breaks through the 11th year.

Nor does Davis think there was anything wrong with his 2004 vote to extend the life of an incentive zone that was created in the mid-1990s. He said he had no interest in the property when the vote was taken.

But six months later, in January 2005, Davis' fiancee bought a city-owned parcel in the zone for the $3,300. Davis was absent from the meeting when the Council approved the sale.

The closing of the nuclear plants at Indian Point could cause electricity prices in Westchester County to rise more than 150 percent by 2017, severely depressing job growth and property values, a coalition of business groups and its consultant said yesterday.

The average residential electricity bill in the region would increase from about $1,000 a year to $2,500 while job growth would drop by 11,000, Energy Strategies Inc. said in a report prepared for the Westchester Business Alliance.

Jobs in health care, real estate, government, education and retail would be among those hit the hardest if the region's electrical costs--which are already among the highest in the United States--rose by the projected amounts, the report said.