GE is not moving anything more to Erie Blvd. They are looking at the old D&H building and State Campus in Albany. The Trustco building was suppose to be a new County office. Already $600,000 has been lost in taxes. There is plenty of parking across the street where KEM cleaners used to be. Mayor SOS cheered that departure with the idiotic remark that he wanted more parking. For what?
Savage/Death Ray/Mayor SOS have destroyed Downtown. It will take a decade to get it back to where it was before these DEM morons. Dozens of properties permanently off the tax rolls. No new retail-no new jobs-but ain't the facades pretty? No wonder City Hall cannot pay for basic police/plowing/fire. But under "working together " dogma they dare not blame County DEMS.
to find out info on what businesses are paying ANYTHING at all, we should all call this number and ask for a list of who is paying PILIOTS
Q: Where can I get more financial information on the Metroplex and its projects? December 31, 2008 and 2007 Financial Statements Public Authority Reporting Page A: You can get more information by calling us at (51 377-1109, or by fax at (51 382-2575. You can also send us a request by clicking here, and we will mail you information.
First 3.00%: The City of Schenectady is guaranteed $11.025 million in 2009, increasing $25,000 annually through 2012. The towns are guaranteed $7.778 million annually for the agreement term. Each town and village shall receive a proportionate share based on property value. The County retains the remainder.
Next 0.50%: Metroplex (70%), towns and villages (30%). Distribution of the 30% to towns and villages is based on population in accordance with latest decennial federal Census.
Final 0.50%: Retained by County.
The city gets the majority - and is still facing a deficit.
What happens when this agreement ends in 2012? Another deficit?
I say again and again and again and again and again, over and over and over and over.
One of the purposes of metroplex was to increase the tax base and get tax paying properties as part of all this downtown stuff.
And I challenge ANYONE, to produce one shred of proof of Metroplex funded projects where the property is actually paying taxes. While a building might have been improved to the point that the assessed value is increased, that doesn't mean squat when the property is wholly 100% tax exempt till the end of time.
And it's particularly bad because the developers and/or owners of the re-done properties are all very well heeled and can more than afford to pay the property and school taxes on the increased assessments. But when they are politically connected, many sit on various government committees, well, we all know what the political cronyism is of the Savage-Gillen-Stratton team -- the LOL (Lack of Leaderhip) team aka the SOS (Symbols of Socialism) team
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
June 7th – Meeting at the Metroplex Offices – concern with the old IDA contracts that set up PILOTS (payment in lieu of taxes) arrangements. The assessments that we have for the properties in the industrial park on Route 5 were much, much higher than what the IDA was doing. The IDA staffing of that agency is now done by Metroplex so people run these agencies together. The PILOTS that they have are just amazing; in some cases they are give-a-ways. The assessments were so low the terms and conditions of what the PILOT was and how much they are paying and are they locked into 5, 10, 15 or 20 years and so forth.
We went over all of that and the bottom line is that they agree with us that these things are out of line but they also are contracts. We have got to wait until some of these contracts start expiring in ’09, ’10 or ’12. Not only the town is losing money on these PILOTs but so is the County and so are the School Districts because they are set so low.
GE is not moving anything more to Erie Blvd. They are looking at the old D&H building and State Campus in Albany. The Trustco building was suppose to be a new County office. Already $600,000 has been lost in taxes. There is plenty of parking across the street where KEM cleaners used to be. Mayor SOS cheered that departure with the idiotic remark that he wanted more parking. For what? 
Logged
377-1109, or by fax at (51
