As the legislative session came to a close Tuesday, June 24, the bill that would have Colonie residents paying a one-time corrective tax to help whittle down the town’s $18 million deficit seemed to slip through the cracks of the Senate floor.
The bill (A.11562/S.8496) was introduced by Assemblyman Bob Reilly, D-Newtonville, and Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Delmar, in mid-June. At the time, Colonie Supervisor Paula Mahan was hopeful that it would pass through both houses of the Legislature, and allow the town to collect enough funds in October to pay off some of its short-term debt.
After passing the Assembly, 87-to-53, on Tuesday, June 17, the bill had less than a full week to pass in the Senate and become law.
According to Breslin, there was no reason the Colonie bill should not have passed the Senate after it had already passed in the Assembly on Tuesday, June 17.
It appears as though the Senate majority is just looking at it, not in terms of good government, but in terms of politics, he said.
Breslin said that more than 9,000 bills have been introduced this session and about 100 made it to the floor Tuesday, June 24, on the final day the Legislature was scheduled to meet before a possible reunion in July. The Colonie one-time tax bill was not one of those hundred.
In an effort to move the bill along in the Legislature, an item on the Thursday, June 12, Colonie Town Board voted 3-to4 to issue a home-rule message that would urge the Legislature to adopt the one-time tax bill.
The tax itself was last estimated to cost 90 percent of homeowners in Colonie about $155, about $135 for homeowners who reside in either the Village of Colonie or the Village of Menands.
Commercially, the maximum tax for a town parcel would be capped at $7,500 per parcel for commercial property assessed between $4,565,000 and under $50 million, and $15,000 for a commercial property assessed at $49,999,999.99 or higher.
In percentages, residents in the Town of Colonie would have a tax levy of $1.273 per $1,000 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.
Mahan has said that the tax was expected to generate about $7.5 million to use toward paying off the deficit.
When the resolution for the home-rule message came to the table at the Town Board meeting, two Republican board members voiced concerns with the tax.
Councilman Brian Hogan declared that he was `certainly not in favor of this,` and Councilwoman Nicole Criscione-Szesnat, said she was not well informed about the one-time tax ahead of time.
A resident in favor of the one-time corrective tax, Gloria Knorr, of Loudonville, said that she had been following the bill in the Legislature and was disappointed to see it fail.
`I wanted it to go through the Assembly and pass in the Senate, especially so they wouldn’t take money away from other things in the town, like the library,` she said.
Now that the bill has been put on hold, perhaps only until July when the Legislature is expected to meet again for a summer session, otherwise until January, Mahan said the town has to move forward with the sale of some of its assets to raise money to pay off both the long- and short-term debts.
`This is a very serious situation, as you know, and we have to continue our efforts to stabilize. Part of our plan is the sale of assets, so we will intensify our search in terms of that,` said Mahan.
One of those assets is a parcel located on Central Avenue, currently used by the town as a storage garage. At the last Town Board meeting, Thursday, June 26, the board passed a resolution to begin receiving bids for the parcel, Mahan said. The town has already received one bid for the parcel from the North Colonie Central School District.
Mahan expressed disappointment that the one-time tax bill did not go through the Legislature, but she said the town would be able to recover without it.
`It’s definitely a hardship, not being able to implement the one-time tax, but we have made some good, positive gains, such as the sale of Heritage Park,` said Mahan.
Mahan said the contract for Colonie’s portion of the park, which will bring in about $2.7 million, has been signed by the town, and officials are waiting for it to be signed by Albany County.“