Overburdened New Paltz taxpayers understand that they’ll be lucky to get 50 cents on the dollar in property taxes from these out-of-town developers, but surely they’re entitled to more than the crumbs being offered.
The exec can afford a $16,500 hit to his campaign. Board of elections records show more than $170,000 in his coffers, including the Wilmorite donations. Now it’s time for him to put out for the people who elected him.
Welcome back, C.C.
In answer to the question “Has anybody here seen C.C.?,” state Sen. Cecilia (CC) Tkaczyk will appear before the Marbletown Democratic Committee with congressional candidate Sean Eldridge on February 20 at 7 p.m. at the Marbletown Community Center on Route 209 in the hamlet. Though they’re calling it a community forum, it’s more likely to be the choir preaching to the converted. For a good ol’ Republican Tea Party-bashing, call 339-7858 for information.
The columnist Reynolds.
Of the pair, Eldridge seems the more doctrinaire, which for Democrats is a good thing; Tkaczyk is more the moderate, given the diversity of the district she carried by only 18 votes in 2012. The sprawling 46th ranges south from Duanesburg, a hard drive to cow country somewhere northwest of Albany, to the Marbletown-Rochester border in Ulster. No wonder we don’t see as much of C.C. as some might want.
Cahill tax with eggs?
The county executive will address the Ulster Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast next Wednesday at the Garden Plaza Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn) in Kingston. A redux of his recent state-of-the-county address is on the menu. Perhaps the question-and-answer period following the speech could yield something more interesting.
Like a show of hands asking how many among some 200 diners favor the 7 percent “Cahill sales tax” (in effect from last December 1 to January 31) to the 8 percent “Hein sales tax,” re-imposed Feb. 1?
While businessfolk are constantly whining about high taxes in New York, it’s doubtful if any will leap to their feet to challenge the exec. Why? Protocol. “Our guest speakers are our guests,” chamber presidents from Len Cane to Ward Todd have repeatedly told me.
Too had, because the fundamental subject of who taxes whom and how was at the heart of last year’s nasty Cahill-Hein sales-tax war. And there’s little question that lower taxes are pro-business. Ask our Tax-Free New York governor.
PILOTs are nothing more than government granted, taxpayer funded, slush funds to be returned in part to those individuals that allow the projects to save millions in taxes. Why should developers pay off county and local politicians with their own money when those bribes and palms to be greased can be paid for with taxpayer money? What you see in the political campaign donations is nothing compared to the cold hard cash that changes hands under the table. These PILOTs and all the ‘shenanigans’ that go with them are a prime reason when you ask the County Exec what he is doing to lower your taxes all he can say is ‘everything I can’ while flashing you a cheesy grin and no one’s taxes ever go down. If truth be told and every dollar of taxes were collected and these developers actually had to make their projects profitable the old fashioned way the average citizen’s tax bills would be significantly lower. These revelations are no consolation to the thousands of homeowner’s and business persons who are struggling to find the money to pay their personal obligations.