Resident Henry Gull appeared before the Lancaster Industrial Development Agency (LIDA) recently and intimated that the TOPS Payment in Lieu of Tax (PILOT) agreement was not up to snuff.
Gull alluded to a chart that he had been provided in the late nineties that was supposedly provided by the assessor’s office.
“Looking at that chart,” said Gull, had the assessment stayed the same ($46.5), at the time the PILOT was struck, it was predicted that the town would receive $252,200 in tax revenues and the school district $440,800.”
“Supervisor Giza has informed us that in 2007 the town will receive $154,544 and the school $455,074. The school number is close, but the town revenue is off by near $100,000.
“The property assessment increased from $46.5 million to $54.5 million and I am also being told they are paying on $25.5 million. That’s not half!”
“The revenue distribution between school and town has become disproportionate. According to the chart the split ratio was 63 percent school and 37 percent town. It is now 75 percent school and 25 percent town.”
Gull had not received any feedback from the IDA members at the meeting, but had been informed by others that the math didn’t seem to add up and that he should check with the powers to be that the information he had received in the past was credible.
Gull did FOIL for information and did find the report he had been given years ago was based on incorrect information. The original owners of the TOPS warehouse and current owners Buffalo Logistics are paying town, school and county taxes as directed by the PILOT agreement.
“The tax rates on the report I received were incorrectly stated,” Gull declares. “The town tax rate per thousand dollars of assessed valuation was reported as $11 for the year 1998.
The information I just received puts it at $6.060643. The school numbers were much closer. The report I had been given says the school tax rate in 1998 was $19 per thousand assessed property valuation. It was $17.534479 per thousand.”
“The research did pay off,” said Gull. “The numbers do jive.”
After saying that, Gull did assert that although the IDA is taking the position that it is better to have a business paying less in taxes than none at all, it is important that taxpayers take an interest in making sure the PILOT agreement is meeting agreement guidelines within reason.
“The money any recipient saves in a PILOT agreement is taxpayer money and there is nothing wrong in the public being vigilant. Granted $909,000 is a lot of tax money paid at the new 50 percent abatement rate. No one wants to jeopardize losing that money. However, one should also consider the money saved by the TOPS owners since the inception of the PILOT.”
Since 1998 through 2007, the TOPS property owners have paid and saved (by abatement) the following in total taxes:
Town of Lancaster - $1,063,386 - $1,768,509
Lancaster School District - $3,267,031 - $5,458,840
County of Erie - $1,066,484 - $1,881,723
Totals - $5,586,714 (taxes paid) - $9,108,353 (saved by PILOT agreement)
Considering the abatement percentage remains at 50 percent for the remainder of the PILOT agreement, whatever Buffalo Logistics pays in taxes, they will be absolved from paying the same amount in taxes (now at $909,000).
It should also be noted that with reval, TOPS’ land is now assessed at $3,550,000 ($1,400,000 before reval) and building at $54,500,000 ($46,400,000 before reval) and is paying on a $29,025,000 land and building assessment, not $25,000,000 as previously reported.
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