Erica Guerin, a real estate attorney, said many people are on the verge of losing their homes, and that one of the factors is high real estate taxes. She said the community needs businesses that will contribute to the community, “not suck the life out of it.”
Speakers cited the cost per pupil in Saugerties schools – $14,000, versus the tax contribution of the project, which would split the payments with the town, yielding even less than the quoted $650.
Speakers pointed out that the cost per pupil in Saugerties schools is $14,000. Assuming the proposed 40 units produce 25 additional students, the cost to the school district would be $350,000. While the project engineer, Richard Praetorius, has estimated an additional 12 students from the project, few of the opponents accepted this number.
Kevin O’Connor, the executive director of Rural Ulster Preservation Company, said the number is misleading, as it is derived by dividing the total cost of educating students by the number of students. An additional student would not add $14,000 unless that student brought the total in his or her grade up enough to require an additional class. Bill Hayes, using a number of students provided by the manager of a similar project, said assuming the 36 additional children were spread over the ages from birth to 17, and the number of school age children were distributed among the grades, the result would be two additional children per grade, probably not enough to trigger the need for an additional class.
O’Connor pointed out that state aid per pupil would net more income for the school than the cost of the additional student, especially as Saugerties school population has been declining and there is space for additional students.
Several members of the audience said that whether the money comes from local property taxes or state taxes, “it is still our money.”
O’Connor also cited statistics showing a lack of housing that working people can afford, citing studies that show a gap of more than 5,000 units in Ulster County and nearly 500 in Saugerties. Affordable housing is defined by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development as costing no more than 30 percent of income. With an average rent of $1,100 for a two-bedroom apartment in Ulster County, “you would need to earn $44,000 to afford an apartment.
whatever the idealistic goal may be, the reality is that NO ONE really benefits from this except the developer! And once it’s built, it won’t go away! we need JOBS JOBS JOBS, not more housing … if people are losing their homes, new apartments that they can’t afford anyway won’t help.
Why exactly is it being called Workforce Housing? And if u figure what a single family house owner on average pays in taxes – how is this tax deal remotely adequate or equitable? Shame!