In a 4-3 vote last night (Thursday, June 12), the Colonie Town Board adopted a home-rule message which would encourage the New York State Legislature to pass a one-time corrective tax bill for the Town of Colonie, which would average to about $155 per household in the town and around $135 per household in the villages of Colonie and Menands.
Town Supervisor Paula Mahan had originally speculated that the tax would come out to about $250 per household townwide. The vote was cast with opposition from the three Republican board members, who were certainly not in favor of this, according to Board Member Brian Hogan.
Hogan said he, and the other two Republican members, would rather continue examining costs that can be cut within the town instead of imposing the tax on residents. He also said, `I would have loved to have seen us put a freeze on all non-essential new hires,` a proposal that was rejected by the board at their last meeting, May 29.
Another Republican on the board, Nicole Criscione-Szesnat, complained that she was not well-informed about the one-time corrective tax, calling for a public hearing to be held to discuss figures involved in the tax. `It seems like everything we read about this is through the press,` she said. After the resolution was voted on, and passed, Criscione-Szesnat rescinded her resolution to hold a future public hearing since, she said it was too late.
But according to Mahan, information was available for all members of the board to examine, and inquire about, as well as for people of the Town, and the villages, which, as of last week, had qualms about paying the same amount as taxpayers in the Town since the number of Town services the villages use are limited.
`We met with the villages because they had some concerns,`
said Mahan, explaining that as a result of discussing the one-time tax with the villages, they would be paying less than residents in the Town.
Residents with a higher assessed property value would be paying more, according to the one-time corrective tax bill which was introduced in both the Senate and the Assembly (S.8496/A.11562) this Wednesday, June 11, the maximum tax for a town parcel will not exceed $500 for residences and could be capped at $7,500 per parcel for commercial property assessed between $4,565,000 and $49,999,999.999, and $15,000 for a commercial property assessed at $49,999,999.99 or higher.
In percentages, that means that the residents in the Town of Colonie would have a tax levy of $1.273 per thousand of taxable assessed value; $1.152 for residents in the Village of Menands and the Village of Colonie; $1.64 for commercial property in the Town of Colonie; and $1.363 for commercial property in the villages.
The bill, which would mandate residents and commercial property owners to pay the tax, was referred to the Ways and Means Committee in the New York State Legislature on Thursday, June 12. Mahan said, should the bill become law, the Town will hopefully receive the funds in October, or worst case scenario, January, totalling an expected $7.5 million.
Also at last night’s meeting, the Town Board adopted a measure to have only Town Designated Engineers working on residential and commercial projects throughout the Town.
For more on this story, check back at www.spotlightnews.com, or read the June 18 print edition of the Colonie Spotlight.“