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ACTION ALERT

ADK Needs Your Help

To Block Threats to Forest Preserve, Environment

 We Need to Take Our Case to the State Legislature

The Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves and New York’s environment in general are facing their greatest challenges in decades. Governor David Paterson’s 2009-10 Executive Budget includes disproportionate cuts in funding for environmental programs. But as deep as some of those cuts are, they are only part of the problem.

The governor’s $121 billion budget also tinkers with the funding stream for the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) in such a way that it threatens the very existence of this vital program. The governor has also proposed a cap on property taxes the state pays on Forest Preserve lands in the Adirondacks and Catskills, which would undo a 123-year-old, good-faith compact between New York state and Forest Preserve communities.

There was some hope that Governor Paterson might rescind these moves in his 30-day budget amendments, but he did not. Now the budget is in the hands of the state  Legislature, so we are urging ADK members to write to their representatives in the Senate and Assembly about these crucial issues.

Many of you are familiar with the facts about these issues, but here is some background:

EPF Cuts

Since it was created in 1993, the EPF has been the state's main funding mechanism for such things as recycling programs, waterfront redevelopment and land acquisition. The program was designed to ensure the state could pay for environmental projects in good and bad economic times. Legislation approved in 2007 authorized an EPF level of $300 million for the state fiscal year that begins April 1.

The 2009-10 Executive Budget released Dec. 16 proposed an EPF level of  $205 million, $50 million less than this year’s EPF level. But the governor's plan would also make a fundamental change in the way the state finances the EPF. Now, the EPF is paid for primarily from revenue from the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT). The governor wants to expand the Bottle Bill to include a nickel deposit on water and noncarbonated beverage bottles, which the administration estimates would generate $118 million in revenue from unclaimed deposits. Under the governor's plan, that $118 million would go to the EPF, not as additional funding for environmental programs, but to replace funding from the RETT.  

If the governor's budget is approved, the EPF would still get $80 million from the RETT, plus $7 million from miscellaneous sources, but would be dependent on passage of an expanded Bottle Bill for more than half of its cash. If the Legislature doesn't pass the Bottle Bill, there is no provision in the governor's budget to make up for the lost revenue source for EPF. In other words, we could be stuck with an $87 million EPF.

For years, ADK has supported an expanded Bottle Bill, which would greatly reduce the litter that defaces our wild lands and waters. But the Bigger Better Bottle Bill still faces significant legislative hurdles. If the budget passes and the Bottle Bill does not, the EPF would be devastated. ADK opposes the replacement of actual Real Estate Transfer Tax revenues with prospective revenues from a Bottle Bill that has not yet been approved. Even if it is approved, there is no guarantee that it will meet the administration’s revenue projections. 

Property Tax Cap

Under the common law principle of sovereign immunity, codified in the state's Real Property Tax Law, no municipality has the right to collect taxes from the state unless the state gives its consent. In 1886, the year after the Legislature created the Forest Preserve, lawmakers recognized the burden that extensive state land ownership would place on small rural communities and agreed to allow local property tax collections on Forest Preserve land. Under a decision upheld by state’s highest court, in Town of Shandaken vs. State Board of Equalization and Assessment, once the state consented to be treated like any other taxpayer, it could not arbitrarily limit the amount of taxes it pays.

The state pays full local property taxes on about 3 million acres of Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve spread across more than 100 towns and 16 counties. Many Adirondack and Catskill communities depend on these payments to maintain roads, operate schools and provide other essential services.

If the state refuses to pay its fair share of taxes on resources that benefit the entire state, the few residents of these communities will face disproportionate increases in their property taxes. That would undermine local support for open space protection in these regions at a time when the state has a rare opportunity to protect such treasures as Follensby Pond and portions of the former Finch, Pruyn lands. For more than a century, the Forest Preserve has provided a multitude of environmental, economic and recreational benefits for all New Yorkers, but Governor Paterson's plan would shift the burden of maintaining these crucial resources to residents of these sparsely populated areas.

(Although it is a nonprofit organization entitled to a tax exemption, ADK voluntarily pays property taxes, totaling about $30,000 a year, on its property in the Adirondack towns of North Elba and Keene.)

What you can do?

Legislators do take note of letters from their constituents, so we urge you to write to your senator and Assembly member. (Letters to the editor of your local paper are helpful as well.) If you do write, please e-mail a copy of your letter to us at adkadvocacy@nycap.rr.com.

Don’t know who you lawmakers are or how to reach them? Click on the links below.

 

Thank you for your help on these important issues.

Neil Woodworth

Executive Director

Adirondack Mountain Club