Local representatives say taxpayers to suffer if revenues drop from state-owned land.

by Casey Seiler

More than a dozen representatives from town and county governments throughout the Adirondacks and Catskills gathered in Albany on Friday to speak out against Gov. David Paterson’s proposal to freeze the tax rate the state pays to communities where state-owned land makes up a major part of the tax base.

The consequences of the move, the officials said, could be disastrous for rural communities and school districts already facing cuts due to the state budget deficit, which is projected to swell to $15 billion or more by March 2010.

The meeting, organized by the New York State Association of Counties, included local leaders who predicted dire consequences for rural communities squeezed between cuts to schools and other services and resistance from landowners already paying some of the highest property taxes in the nation.

William Farber, chairman of the Board of Supervisors from Hamilton County and president of the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages, called the governor’s move “wholly inappropriate — it’s just bad public policy.”

Farber cited the example of the town of Arietta, west of Saratoga Springs within the Adirondack Park, where roughly 90 percent of the acreage is owned by the state, which picks up about 75 percent of the property tax bill.

If New York froze its payments at 2008 levels as called for by Paterson’s proposal, any increase would have to be borne entirely by the people who currently cover the remaining 25 percent of the revenues.

“That’s an extraordinary property tax burden to put on … taxpayers in this environment,” Farber said. “I think it flies in the face of the state conversation with respect to property taxes.”

Paterson has advocated a property tax cap, and endorsed the findings of a task force that looked into ways to arrest the steady uptick in property tax rates around the state.

NYSAC Executive Director Stephen Acquario said that the amount of state land that would be affected by the freeze in northern counties such as Hamilton, Herkimer, Essex, Franklin and St. Lawrence comprises more than 200,000 acres.

Acquario and others said the state should look at imposing a moratorium on new land purchases until New York could adequately meet its obligation to the communities that share space with “forever-wild” state parks and other protected areas.

Acquario said the state should also examine tapping more than $60 million in discretionary funds in the state’s Environmental Protection Fund to offset the increased costs to affected communities. “The state ought to use its bank account to pay for its obligations,” he said.

State budget officials have said that Paterson’s proposal is consistent with similar freezing of local aid grants during the current budget crisis. County officials, however, say that Paterson is confusing its tax obligation with its much more fluid ability to make aid grants.