"Bombers-$8,407. This was {sic}vacant boxing gym."

     What illiterate proofs this crap? Bombers pays a whole $8,407 in taxes for prime State Street property near Proctor's. WTF! What they fail to mention was that the boxing gym was not only open but paid full City/school/County taxes. It was not on the Death Ray friend and family plan. No wonder the City can't pay for basic fire services. Something is also brewing at Villa Italia. At the last City Council they successfully subordinated a taxpayer loan. When Wayne Harper questioned McCarthy about it he got the usual rude treatment.

     Downtown is a total disaster because of Metrograft fiscal incompetence and Death Ray who has no planning credentials. No jobs, private businesses fleeing, tax receipts way down because of too many giveaways, gin mills and restaurants that never open or close within 2 years. no public input nor comment. Death Ray must be fired for wasting millions in taxpayer funds. What about the Trustco fiasco why wasn't that on this list?

Eliminate Metroplex and start putting money into the rest of the cities infrastructure like roads, sewer, burned out house removal, crime prevention, and lowering the residents taxes for starters.

Quoted from Shadow

Eliminate Metroplex and start putting money into the rest of the cities infrastructure like roads, sewer, burned out house removal, crime prevention, and lowering the residents taxes for starters.

That makes too much sense and might result with money to fight crime. The DEM morons prefer to keep  this taxpayer ripoff going. Look for another hike in the Metrograft debt limit. $75 MILLION isn't enough? No amount is enough. Everything has been flushed and few bother to repay. Coming next new curbs for Broadway!

Quoted from Shadow

Eliminate Metroplex and start putting money into the rest of the cities infrastructure like roads, sewer, burned out house removal, crime prevention, and lowering the residents taxes for starters.

You are correct. Creating jobs is not the role of government. That is for private businesses to do. It is, however, the role of government to provide a safe environment, with low taxes and sound infrastructure.

The liberal socialists/metroplex have created a sh!t storm! Once they are all booted out of office and a new administration comes in, it will be difficult to turn this mess around. The liberal socialists will NOT change the lucrative tax exemption they awarded them. As soon as an administration tries to reverse this tax travesty, the businesses will be GONE!

Of course this 'press release' does not indicate the amount of money the Plex shelled out to these businesses, the no-intrest loans amounts or the actual amount of sales tax generated from each business.

Easy to say a business like Marcella's pays around $25K for the pilot, but what should the taxes be for a new $2 million dollar building? Also, why didn't Gillen indicate that these properties are tax exempt for over a decade. In the long run, the City is losing millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars ....but then again, if I started drinking in the morning, maybe I'd see the hazy logic of this 'news'.

If your so against Metroplex I hope you are against Hugh and Bob Farley for having created it???

Quoted Text

Marcellas at 564 Broadway in downtown Schenectady.  New 16,750 square foot facility paying $24,508. Pilot increasing. Project also creates sales tax revenue

Marcellas is paying $1.46 per square foot in taxes.  Does anybody know what non-pilot businesses are paying?  As I looked at these numbers, it looks as if these pilots are hovering around the $1.50 per square foot range.  I can only  compare that to what I pay for my residential per square foot which is over $3.00.  

Quoted from greenlantern

If your{sic} so against Metroplex I hope you are against Hugh and Bob Farley for having created it???

Of course-is that a defense? Everyone knows that Bob Farley created this monster 10 years ago.  What started as a shot in the arm evolved to a noose around taxpayers necks. Plenty of blame to go around. What have the DEMS done insure accountability, transparency or make sure taxpayer money is not totally wasted again? NOTHING.

     Maybe ANG can propose some reforms? If he ever speaks at a County meeting again. To his great credit he was the only vote against increasing the debit limit last time. The NYS Comptroller needs to come back and follow up his first audit which found fiscal incompetence.

Metroplex has a pilot and the Titanic had a captain, how did that work out.

Quoted from benny salami

Of course-is that a defense? Everyone knows that Bob Farley created this monster 10 years ago.  What started as a shot in the arm evolved to a noose around taxpayers necks. Plenty of blame to go around. What have the DEMS done insure accountability, transparency or make sure taxpayer money is not totally wasted again? NOTHING.

Absolutely, there is blame all over! If you start something, you better darn well follow it through. The Plex has become a taxpayers nightmare and someone should have ended there wasteful spending YEARS ago. It's about time someone steps up, ends all the PILOT agreements and has these businesses pay property and school taxes -NOW!

Although I believe the plex should be desolved NOW. I also don't think that Farley envisioned the plex to have gone this far. But who knows how it would have turned out since the dems have controlled it for the majority of it's years!

Someone should ask Neil Golub if he thinks the plex is following it's original intent. I believe he has been a part of the plex since it's inception.

Instead of offering dissolution the DEMS pretend "All Is Well" and blame the Farleys for the current shambles. Then pass the duchie on the left hand side. Is there one DEM business in this County that has not been smeared? Did Farley put Malloozi on the Metrograft bored?

     You can't polish a turd. Abolish the pathetic County Legislature return to a County Board of Supervisors and implode Metrograft. Split the raised sales tax on a pro-rata basis so the sheeple in the City can pay for their police and fire. And get off our backs.

Quoted Text

Ray Gillen’s Intellectual Dishonesty
February 26, 2011

Making use of his traditional intellectual dishonesty on February 20, 2011 in an article published by the Daily Gazette, Ray Gillen attempted to refute the factual data I had posted regarding downtown tax exempt properties.  Rather than addressing point by point, the tax burdens for specific properties I had outlined, he used a combination of “bait and switch”, “smoke and mirrors” and “dog and pony shows” in a failed attempt to divert the attention of the citizens of Schenectady.

On February 7, 2011 on my personal blog (www.patzollinger.us) I published a limited list of downtown properties that according to official records are tax exempt. Nine days later Metroplex issued a press release with a lot of mumbo jumbo containing mostly unsupported figures and twisted facts. Of the thirty properties appearing on my list, only eleven were addressed. The press release is a clear misrepresentation.

In a further attempt to divert the attention of Schenectady taxpayers, Metroplex made reference to business entities far removed from Schenectady’s main business district by including such establishments as Railex at the Rotterdam Corporate Park and Unilux at the Niskayuna Tech Park.

So I say to Mr. Gillen and Metroplex, let us examine the facts.

While each of the items listed by me will be individually addressed, this post is limited to MVP Healthcare.

With respect to the MVP building at 625 State Street, the press release states: “MVP at 625 State Street in downtown Schenectady. 175,000 square foot office building paying $256,569 with Pilot increasing to $700,000.” In his extended interview with the Daily Gazette Mr. Gillen obviously overlooked the details of one of the biggest tax drains in the City; the MVP complex.
    Facts:  
Description: Seven stories
Square Footage:  181,230
Full Assessed Value: $16,750,000.00
What MVP Should Be Paying in City Taxes:  $219,257.50
Taxable Assessed Value:  $6,700,000.00
What MVP IS Paying in City Taxes: $87,703.00
Taxpayers Liability: $10,050,000.00
Amount of Tax MVP is Not Paying: $131,554.50
Flat Rate Water: $300.00 Per Year

What was not mentioned in Metroplex’s press release or the Daily Gazette article was the MVP Parking Garage at 615 State Street.................>>>>.................>>>>...............http://patzollinger.us/2011/02/26/ray-gillen’s-intellectual-dishonesty/

Every property owner in the city should be made aware of this !!!  Pat thank you for the time and effort you are putting in to let us know what is happening downtown.

Someone mentioned in another thread that metroplex should be audited. They should be and it should be an independant auditor from another state with NO ties to politics here.

Quoted from rpforpres

Every property owner in the city should be made aware of this !!!  Pat thank you for the time and effort you are putting in to let us know what is happening downtown.

Someone mentioned in another thread that metroplex should be audited. They should be and it should be an independant auditor from another state with NO ties to politics here.

let's get someone from Chicago........