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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
New airport hangar will generate tax revenue
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    A new hangar is coming to the Schenectady County Airport — and for the first time, the owner will pay taxes on it, Metroplex Development Authority Chairman Ray Gillen said.
    The Schenectady County Legislature will consider the lease agreement at today’s committee meeting.
    Developer Bruce Tanski wants to build a 10,000 square foot hangar — roughly three times the size of a house — on 1 acre at the airport. The hangar is relatively small, Gillen said.
    What makes it unique is that the county, Glenville and the Scotia-Glenville School District will benefit from the development.
    “On the airfield side, this is the first one that will pay taxes,” Gillen said. “I don’t know why they didn’t before — they didn’t negotiate hard enough, maybe.”
    Metroplex tries to increase the local tax base by encouraging development, so Gillen pushed for a payment in lieu of taxes deal at the airport. Tanski agreed to lease the land for his hangar at a cost of $5,000 next year while also paying 20 percent of the full taxes. His taxes will increase until he is paying the full bill in five years, while the lease will increase by 3 percent each year.
    Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage spoke highly of the deal.
    “Previously, the airport has been underused. This is a great start. And this is one of two projects this year which will create tax base at the airport,” she said, adding, “This project will bring additional activity to the Airport Tech Park while generating revenue and new tax base for Schenectady County.”
    The tech park will be anchored by Fortitech, which plans to build a research and development center there. Fortitech plans to spend $4 million on the first of its four buildings on the site.
    A new $20 million military reserve center is nearly done at the park. Schenectady County is building a new access road to service the park.
    Until now, Tanski has focused much of his development work in Saratoga County. His company owns the Fairways at Halfmoon, the Shops at Halfmoon and a number of apartments and single-family house developments.

Anyone do their taxes with turbo tax? Well, there are all kinds of deductions for owning airplanes and boats....so while the folk with planes, boats and whatever else pay taxes via county it gets returned via the vacuum of filing income taxes.....funny.....isn't it-------