Town Officials Say Nothing As County IDA Offers Tax Breaks to Business long under Construction

At a Public Hearing held in Town Hall yesterday by the County Industrial Development Agency, not one elected town board member showed up to oppose an outrageous tax giveaway being proposed by the County IDA. The amount reported in today's Times Union is $289,000, (The company would receive property tax abatement of $88,867, a $60,000 savings on sales tax, $21,000 in savings on the mortgage recording tax and $120,000 in sales tax savings.)

In fact the article notes that "town officials" contacted the IDA last summer in support of the tax giveaway. Looming in this "pay for play scheme" is the question of what happened to the Town IDA in this application?  Dead silence. We say "pay for play" because Mr. Desso seems always to get large campaign contributions from every developer with a project in town. He occasionally goes to Planning Board meetings to let the people he appoints know how he wants them to vote. Check out the minutes.So much for an independent Planning Board.

There is no reason to give tax breaks to a business already under construction as this one is on RT 4.(Cole Collision) Yet here we are in more corporate welfare apparently supported by the town board as evidenced by their failure to show up at the Public Hearing to oppose the tax breaks. Then again, Mr. Desso loves tax breaks for the well connected, especially himself, after getting his own property tax bill reduced 16% by quietly going to Brunswick for the application review. Remember, these tax breaks mean you pay for the services this property depends on, police, fire, ambulance, highway etc while they pay far less than their fair share.

You can read the article in the TU here.