There was good news (members of the Ulster County Legislature called for an independent, third party analysis as we did in our BLOG post last week. It’s the only sensible thing to do) as well as courageous and touching testimonies last evening during the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency’s public hearing for the Kingstonian project PILOT.
Here are the highlights. Click on the images to review each individual testimony.
“In contradiction to what Dan Baker said (City of Kingston Assessor), PILOTs do not have a positive impact on school district finances. The school district is subject to tax cap legislation with limits the growth of our tax levy…when the new construction is under a PILOT, the growth factor is zero at the beginning of the agreement and it is not included in the growth factor at the end of the agreement. So the district’s tax levy limit is permanently reduced…the developers published a flyer yesterday that claims that the Kingstonian will yield its school district more than 41 million dollars in new revenue over 50 years and that is categorically wrong. The developers don’t seem to understand school district finances. They don’t seem to understand the impact of a PILOT on school district finances and frankly, the Mayor and the Common Council and perhaps Dan Baker don’t seem to understand the impact of a PILOT on school district finances.”
“I have spoken with several of my fellow legislators and we are all in agreement…we strongly encourage the UCIDA to engage an independent third party firm to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the Kingstonian project and to present the results of these findings to the various taxing authorities. We are currently relying on the people benefitting from the project to provide the projected costs of the project without validation from an independent third party who has the knowledge of these types of complex endeavors….we all have a fiduciary responsibility to the residents of Ulster County and that an independent review should be undertaken immediately by a firm which routinely does these types of reviews for other IDAs.”
“…my own concern, and the concern of an enlarged amount of community members here is the nuance of (those details) in the context of the given moment that we are in in Kingston…for anyone on this call who is housing secure or owns a home, if you’re not directly connected to the families who are really hurting right now, it’s really hard to understand how people are in pain and how this will not benefit all of our community, and how it will indeed hurt many of our community members.”
Hold him accountable, Kingston.
“…a desperately needed parking garage at no cost to the taxpayers. These structures are expensive so the current project is an ingenious solution. A PILOT to support its construction is essential to its success.”
“Our schools can’t wait 25 years for revenue from this project to start trickling in. The developers own materials set out a 50-year timeline that is speculative at best, fantastical at worst. We are in the midst of a crisis now…our schools are facing huge budget cuts. The taxpayers of Ulster County are being asked to subsidize luxury housing for a possible benefit that won’t begin until after most of us are dead.”
Rodenhausen Chale & Polidoro LLP
Logan appeared on behalf of several property owners in Uptown, Kingston.
“I want to request that the IDA keep the public hearing open for…at least an additional 30 days to all for adequate public comment. Several weeks ago my office submitted a FOIL request for all of the IDA’s records relating to the PILOT application. We did not receive a response until approximately 4pm yesterday…my clients are in the process of hiring a third party financial analyst to review the information….to submit this analysis.”
(read by City of Kingston resident Jess Mullen)
“On September 15, 2020, the Kingstonian developers published the “Fiction v. Fact” document on their website which stated that “Developers and City officials are comfortable that the increased parking is adequate for peak demand and any excess employee and hotel parking can be accommodated in the adjacent plaza….Please review City of Kingston zoning code §405-34 (J.) “Parking space ratios.” Reading the code and using some simple arithmetic shows how the Kingstonian requires approximately 345 parking spaces (hotel: 34, apartments: 271, commercial space: 40). The developers also stated in their “Fiction v. Fact” document that “without the garage component, there would be no PILOT request as one would not be needed. The PILOT starts and stops with the costs to build, operate, and maintain the parking garage…If the project is only adding 75 (420 minus 345) public parking spaces — not even the 200 that the city asked for in their 2016 RFQ — the UCIDA should take an extra hard look at whether to grant a PILOT to build 75 parking spaces. Additionally, plans include charging users 3x more for parking ($1.50 per hour) than the city charged just a few years ago.”
“Joseph Bonura is a recipient of two 99-year PILOTS in the City of Poughkeepsie that will deprive that city of billions of dollars. It ought to shock and conscience of any observer that he has dared to come to Kingston and ask for a PILOT.”
I had a conflict and was unable to attend this meeting but, as a fellow citizen and taxpayer I owe thanks to Jim Shaughnessy and others who spoke. An independent analysis is certainly needed. I was impressed with the research and analysis that has already been done.
Rennie Scott Childress is out of his mind! Sounds like he’s friends with the other side here. The facts are presented and that’s what that fool says?? I hope he gets voted out when that time comes!
A “desperately needed parking garage”? In times like these, the word “desperate” should be reserved for health, food, shelter, jobs and human and civil rights. And, come to think of it, complete transparency in this “luxury” development project.
what a scam, they will be lucky to get 10 new unalocated parking spaces. How can a parking garage get a variance for parking. The developers get a million dollars in property for nothing. This project has more holes than a slice of swiss cheese.
So, if the developers get this huge tax break, and, presumably there will be children living in the apartments, then the school district will have less money per child for a long time. This should be a non-starter. Also, if this is really about a parking garage, why doesn’t the City just build it? They too can get financing and grants.