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Tax breaks on table for playland relocation
  
Chris Churchill
Published 8:06 pm, Monday, November 10, 2014


  Albany

The plan to bring Hoffman's Playland to Albany takes another step forward Wednesday with a public hearing scheduled on a package of grants and tax breaks that would help pay for the move.

Notice that I used the words "tax" and "breaks."

When we last heard about the relocation, Huck Finn's Warehouse and More was set to receive only grants — $250,000 from National Grid; $250,000 from Empire State Development, the state's economic development arm; and $150,000 from the Albany County Industrial Development Agency.

But the furniture store has since asked for more IDA help: exemptions from county and state sales taxes on materials purchased as part of the $1.8 million project.

IDA head Gary Domalewicz didn't have firm numbers Monday, but estimated the tax breaks would save Huck Finn's at least $80,000. He described the exemptions as routine for IDA projects — "We offer them to everybody," he said — and added that the agency's board is scheduled to vote on the grants and tax breaks at its Nov. 19 meeting.

"If the board doesn't think it will be a good economic tool for North Albany, they won't vote for it," Domalewicz said.

Let's be honest: The vote is not in doubt. There is NO WAY the board is suddenly going to rise up and reject the financial package arranged mostly by County Executive Dan McCoy.

The IDA board is expected to act only as a rubber stamp. That became clear when a bevy of officials — including McCoy and Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan — held a news conference last month and announced the relocation of the amusement park as if it were a done deal.

So this is going to happen.

As I've said before, the playland's move is a victory for Albany and a potential boon for the barren neighborhood around Huck Finn's. The relocated park is even expected to open by next summer, providing a new and much needed employment opportunity for nearby teens.

That's a very good thing.

OK, so here's where we come to the part of today's column that's a bit ... awkward Actually, it's a lot awkward.

See, Times Union investigative reporter Lauren Stanforth has been doing a lot of digging lately into both IDAs and campaign contributions. That led her to a discovery that involves both.

Stanforth learned that Huck Finn's owner Jeff Sperber gave $2,000 to McCoy during a fundraiser held in May, a few months before the county executive apparently began arranging the financial help that's making the playland's relocation possible.

McCoy and Sperber both insist the timing of the contribution, made at a golf fundraiser, is entirely coincidental.

Sperber, who hadn't donated to McCoy previously, said he saw the golf outing at Wolfert's Roost Country Club as a networking opportunity. McCoy, meanwhile, said he was focused on moving Huck Finn's elsewhere at the time.

"His coming to my golf tournament had nothing to do with Hoffman's," McCoy said. "If I felt it was a conflict, I would have sent that check back."

Do I think that Sperber's $2,000 donation caused McCoy to reward him with $650,000 in grants? Let me put it this way: If I did, I would immediately donate $4,000 to McCoy's campaign — and I don't have my checkbook out.

Simply put, there's no quid pro quo here.

Remember that McCoy had wanted to be the guy who saved Hoffman's Playland since the park's owners announced it would close after the 2013 season. The trick was finding somebody, anybody, willing to take the park. There wasn't competition to host it, because doing so is a very risky proposition.

I mean, everybody knows the Capital Region loves Hoffman's Playland where it has long existed. But nobody knows if it will succeed elsewhere.

The real problem here is with the way we finance campaigns. Our system makes everything seem shady — and with good reason, because the relationship between campaign contributions and government spending often raises legitimate suspicions.

Pay-for-play is a real thing, even if there's no reason to suspect Pay-for-Playland.

Still, McCoy could have avoided even the appearance of conflict by returning Sperber's donation once he realized that moving Hoffman's to North Albany would require his office to arrange significant financial assistance. He should still do so now, actually, ahead of the Nov. 19 vote by the IDA board.

The golf tourney raised $74,000 for McCoy. He wouldn't miss the $2,000.

Staff writer Lauren Stanforth contributed. Chris Churchill can be reached at 454-5442 or cchurchill@timesunion.com.
Contact Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com



IDA hearing

The Albany County Industrial Development Agency's public hearing on financial assistance for the relocation of Hoffman's Playland is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday in the county's building at 112 State St. in Albany.