Coalition wants reservoirs dropped from large-parcel law

By Jay Braman Jr., Correspondent Daily Freeman February 22, 2006

MARGARETVILLE - The Executive Committee of the Coalition of Watershed Towns is urging state lawmakers to remove New York City reservoirs from a state law that allows counties and school districts to tax those reservoirs separately from the towns they occupy.
The matter was brought before the coalition by town of Olive officials, who saw school taxes for the rest of their town skyrocket in 2004 when the Onteora school district decided to enact what is commonly referred to as the "large parcel" law and remove the Ashokan Reservoir property from the town's tax base. At the time, school officials argued that non-reservoir properties in Olive had been paying proportionately less than similarly valued properties in other towns within the school district, like Shandaken and Woodstock.
The large-parcel law evened the tax burden that year; Olive's taxes more than doubled while increases were minimal in Shandaken and Woodstock. But the Board of Education reversed the decision in 2005 after a change in board personnel.
Olive Supervisor Berndt Leifeld, along with Deputy Supervisor Bruce LaMonda, is trying to get the reservoirs removed from state law so the school district would no longer have the option of enacting it.
On Monday, LaMonda, a member of the watershed coalition's Executive Committee, moved one step closer to that goal, but committee Chairman Patrick Meehan made it clear that the coalition was only asking state lawmakers to amend the law. The final decision, Meehan said, is up to the Legislature.
Of the 10 members that voted, only Shandaken Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. opposed the measure. Cross told the committee it was making a mistake because, even though they believe they are acting to protect the towns that host reservoirs, called impoundment towns, they are also hurting the towns that border them. The result, he said, could be that the coalition may suffer an unraveling, as he believes some of the member towns may choose to drop their membership.
"I know there's a couple towns that will be hurt by it greatly," Cross said.
Coalition member Len Utter, the supervisor of the Delaware County town of Middletown, said he wants the city's reservoirs removed from the law because, if it's unchanged, the law will lead to battles throughout the watershed, similar to what was seen in the Onteora school district.
Olive residents were furious about the Onteora's 2004 decision to use the large-parcel law, so much so that the Town Board considered seceding from the school district. Instead, Olive residents elected some of their own to the school board.
"I can see what this bill could do to Delaware County," Utter said.

©Daily Freeman 2006

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