Originally Posted by
Lee Chowaniec
Another apples to oranges comparison; the good of individuals over that of a business that is having it’s operation funded with millions of dollars of taxpayer money.
And the claptrap that if we didn’t take the money then someone else would is political claptrap mantra spouted by those in office seeking to stay in office.
Here is but one document FOIA’ED to the FAA from the Safe Aviation Coalition of Lancaster (SACL):
Dear FOIA Coordinator:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
I request that a copy of the following documents (or documents containing the following information) be provided to me:
This request refers to any and all documents required by the FAA for AIP funding. In this case we need copies of all documents supplied by the Town of Lancaster, NY in regards to Buffalo Lancaster Airport; time frame 1968 - to date.
Here was the response:
I've reviewed all of our Lancaster files. The FOIA requested all documents required by the FAA for AIP funding that were submitted by the Town of Lancaster:
Since the airport sponsor is a private individual, we do not have any correspondence from the Town of Lancaster in our files per the FOIA request. The only document we have from the town is a letter from the Town of Lancaster's Industrial Development Agency (IDA) stating that they have no interest in executing a Master Agreement (please see attached). This was in response to our conversations with the IDA about potentially doing a study to evaluate an acquisition of the airport by the town which would have required them to sign a Master Agreement.
I believe this satisfies the FOIA request.
What’s the point here? Airport owner Tom Geles declared at several meetings (town board and others) that if it was not for the town he would not have received any federal or state grants. Here we see an FAA correspondence that says they have no records file indicating the town actively supported this airport expansion process. Strange, eh?
Here we have a business that has tied up over 140 acres of property, over 100 acres beyond the special use permit allowing them to expand to only 31 acres, and this business wants and receives an assessment break because it isn’t doing well financially. The 140+ acre airport property will be now be assessed at $2.1 million and will only pay $60,000 in property taxes.
The land was purchased defying the legal limit set for expansion and is now deemed useless for light industrial development as it was zoned for. Can you imagine the tax dollars that could have been generated had the land developed as such.
And you wonder why people are pissed? They should be.
BTW - I am not aware of anyone calling the airport evil.