The sudden rush of concern about tax abatements needs to be addressed and the best way to do that is to take a step away from the particular project of the moment and begin a dialogue on the means used in the quest for economic development.

All of us want jobs and business and all of us realize NY State is a downright hostile atmosphere for doing buisness.

The method for dealing with that in recent years is the idea of "targeted" tax cuts and exemptions for some, since we cannot afford to lower taxes for all.
Governments also started programs to recruit industries and help them with financing and finding a location. Hence industrial revenue bonds and revolving loan funds.

Local governments can be helpful as the City has done with a decision to rehab water and sewer service in the Stateway Plaza neighborhood to allow more development.

Programs like the Empire Zone were useful but gradually rules were changed and stretched to the point entities were doing corporate shirt changes just to get out of paying taxes and the program is now headed for extinction.

Meanwhile the public has been conditioned by political discourse to believe that politicians can "create" jobs so we spend more and more on schemes to induce and subsidize business activity.

Current methods include one-day property transfers just to avoid a mortgage tax and similar deals to avoid sales tax on construction materials.

All of that sounds nice, but just like federal stimulus packages there is a cost.
The taxes being abated are the lifeblood of local governments. The people who bring you police, firemen, roads and snow plows.

In fact, most local towns, villages and the city derive far more of their revenue from their share of sales tax than from the property tax.

In Jefferson County an agreement inked in 2004 gives 29% of the local share of sales tax to the towns and villages while the city receives 24%. The other 47% goes to county government.

Abating those taxes takes away the growth in sales tax revenue that is needed to keep property taxes down. In the current recession we are seeing pressure to either cut staff or raise property taxes in the wake of flagging sales tax dollars.

When sales tax money is diverted to developers and the IDA, its the elected officials in local government who have to make the decisions to cut people or raise taxes. The people doing the abating are not the ones who have to live with the result.

Further there is the question of equity. If a tax code is to be fair it must be equally applied. When routine commercial investment or routine refinancing leads to wholesale exemptions from the taxes most folks pay.....well there is resentment.

There is also the matter of mission creep. We now see public subsidy of just about any type business including restaurants and hotels where the decision to locate and build is market driven.

This is not just the case of a "vocal minority". This subject needs to be discussed before the next high powered law firm comes along with a massive tax dodge that leaves local residents unable to share in the growth and leaves local government stretched in providing services. (For instance, when someone in the 23 new homes on Galloo Island needs police or ambulance service, who will buy the boats.)

I have tried to be non-confrontational in this piece. However, one must understand there are some of us who believe current county policies are not the best policies. Granted, we should have spoke out at public hearings, but we are all pretty busy. So some of us are speaking out now.

When Archie Bunker wanted Edith to pipe down, he would say "stifle yourself."

My advice to Mr. Gray and others in the "minority" is don't stifle yourself.