No backing down on Olive

By Jesse J. Smith , Freeman staff Daily Freeman Tuesday, March 3, 2005

KINGSTON - Taxpayers outraged over a state law that raises taxes in Olive while lowering the burden in other Onteora school district communities picketed the Kingston Holiday Inn Monday as the targets of their wrath - state Sens. John Bonacic and William Larkin and Assemblyman Kevin Cahill -addressed an Ulster County Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting inside.
Bearing signs calling the politicians "liars," "lowlife criminals" and "corrupt scoundrels," about 50 demonstrators noisily made public their argument that Olive was being unfairly squeezed by the state's large parcel law.
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The law, adopted in 2003, allows school districts and counties to tax "large parcels," in Olive's case, the New York City-owned Ashokan Reservoir property, separately from the towns where they are located, and to apply a special equalization rate intended to ensure all towns in the district or county are being taxed equitably.
Since the Onteora school district and Ulster County invoked the law last year regarding the reservoir, Olive property owners have seen school taxes jump 55 percent and county taxes go up 91 percent. Protest organizer Charles Blumstein and other Olive residents call the large parcel bill "taxation without representation" and said state and county officials flouted the law and the Constitution in drafting and implementing the plan.
"There have been crimes, there has been corruption and there have been false statements," Blumstein said of the state lawmakers and some of their local counterparts.
Expressing their fury at the elected officials, the demonstrators hurled catcalls of "loser" and "crook" at the politicians as they drove past the picket line set up on Washington Avenue.
Inside the Holiday Inn, Bonacic and Cahill gave short shrift to their critics.
"Folks in Olive have been led to believe that their 50 to 60 percent tax increase is due to the large parcel law," said Cahill. "What the town leaders failed to tell them was that 40 percent of that increase was attributable to the settlement with the city of New York (over the assessment of the reservoir). The holes in the Onteora school budget was another factor, and a very small portion of it is because of the large parcel law."
Bonacic said the push for the large parcel law had come from within Ulster County and that it was a fair solution for all county residents.
"Nobody likes to see their taxes go up, I understand that," said Bonacic. "But it's an issue of fairness and equity. It appears that the state Legislature the (Onteora) school board, the county Legislature, the Board of Assessors and Real Property Services all thought it was a good idea. I'll leave it at that."

©Daily Freeman 2005

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