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A proposal from Governor Paterson
to cap property tax payments to towns that have Forest Preserve
lands was not withdrawn by the governor in a series of budget
amendments announced Thursday.
State Senator Betty Little said she
was disappointed the 2009-10 Executive Budget has not been amended
to eliminate the proposal, which would affect towns with Forest
Preserve lands in the Adirondacks and Catskills.
“Albany has not gotten the message,
which I find amazing given the
broad coalition of Adirondack interests
opposing this ill-conceived proposal,” said Little. “What is being
proposed is just so patently unfair and would establish such a
terrible precedent that I am really surprised it was not eliminated
from the executive budget.”
More than a hundred government and
civic leaders from the Adirondack and Catskill parks have urged
Governor Paterson to scrap the proposal.
In the Adirondacks, the state pays
property taxes on about 3 million acres of Forest Preserve spread
across more than 100 rural towns in 16 counties. The state tax
payments are intended to compensate for the prohibition against
commercial use of the land.
The Common Ground Alliance of the Adirondacks sent a letter to the
governor saying his tax cap plan would be a disaster to the local
economy.
“This plan will do very little to
balance the state budget, but it will cause great harm to small,
rural communities in the Adirondack and Catskill parks,” said Neil
Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club. “If
the state refuses to pay its fair share of taxes on resources that
benefit the entire state, the few residents of these communities
will face disproportionate increases in their property taxes.”
Senator Little, a Queensbury
Republican, says the state has an obligation to pay its fair share
of taxes, and not doing so would shift the state's financial
responsibility unfairly to local taxpayers.
“Eliminating this unfair tax scheme
should have been an early victory,” Little said. “But its continued
inclusion in the budget is probably indicative of the challenge we
face this year.”
The Paterson administration says
capping Forest Preserve taxes at 2008 levels would save the state
$8.5 million in fiscal year 2009-10. Schools in the Adirondacks and
Catskills would lose $4.6 million in state revenue under Paterson's
plan.
-Chris Knight, 1-16-09 |