PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Barbato Calls for PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) Reform.
(Yonkers, NY – Feb. 1, 2006)… Yonkers City Councilmember Dee Barbato (R-6th Dist.) is calling for an overhaul on how PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) agreements are negotiated and instituted by the city administration, the Yonkers IDA, and any and all parties involved in such arrangements.
Noting that PILOT agreements were a necessary tool to spur development and redevelopment – most especially in recent years to jump-start a sagging waterfront – Barbato says, "Such agreements of late appear to have done more to boost the profit margin of a developer and less to boost the tax base of the City of Yonkers."
"We might have had to somewhat give it away then, but now it seems we are selling our city short – giving away the proverbial store – and the issue of what some view as corporate welfare and free rides needs to be brought under control, said Barbato.
"Ten years of development has yet to bring us the return we need now. At best, we should be realizing full property taxes. At the very least, at a time when our school system is facing a major shortfall, such agreements need to be justified and reasonable in scope and duration. Our schools need the revenue, and our homeowners can’t keep carrying the load alone…they get no tax breaks," continued Barbato.
Barbato is proposing a seven-prong plan that will bring accountability and oversight to the process, which she says "is presently done under the radar screen of public scrutiny and signed into agreement without the public having a say or knowing what deals are being made until after the fact."
The controls and monitoring efforts Barbato is proposing are:
That the sum and substance of all future PILOT arrangements including, but not limited to all terms and conditions, are to be approved by a SEPARATE resolution of the Yonkers City Council;
That the City Council be provided with full justification for the need of the PILOT and its economic benefit, including the rationale for such an agreement and the benchmarks to ensure that we are realizing said benefit.
That all terms and agreements presented to the City Council include any and all other tax relief , incentives, or benefits being sought by the beneficiary from any other level of government;
That the maximum term of any future PILOT arrangement shall be no more than 10 years with any extension being voted on by the City Council;
That all future PILOT arrangements shall include a provision to upwardly adjust the PILOT payments at least every 2 years at a rate that is equal to an amount that is no less than the cumulative amount of the rate of inflation during the proceeding period;
That all future PILOT arrangements must contain a provision which negates the ability of the developer (or other beneficiary of the PILOT, or successor in title or deed) from filing a tax certiorari during the entire life of the PILOT arrangement, and;
In addition, the PILOT arrangement must also contain a provision by which the developer (or other beneficiary of the PILOT, or successor in title or deed) agrees that the ‘look-back’ period of any future tax certiorari cannot go back into that time period during which the PILOT arrangement was in effect.
Barbato will present the PILOT reform package at the next meeting of the City Council’s Rules Committee on February 7.
