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| Help a fella pay his country club dues? |
In a rare occurrence in the Finger Lakes, an Industrial Development Authority has declined to dish out taxpayer cash to a tin cup rattling developer.
On Tuesday, the Auburn Industrial Development Authority voted unanimously to deny a payment in lieu of taxes request by Calamar Construction, a Wheatfield-based company planning a $9.3 million independent senior housing complex.
"I don't believe in PILOTs for residential at all," AIDA board member and City Councilor Matthew Smith said. "There aren't going to be jobs, and it's a severe cause of market distortion."
Smith said if the project was needed and profitable it would be built without public assistance.
We've more than once seen this type of well-funded developer, who typically comes from a government regulatory background, bully local officials into submission, so Auburn's decision is a breath of non-subsidized fresh air. Next step: get rid of all the IDAs and give their budgets back to the taxpayers.
Disappointing. I wanted a tax abatement and a pilot for my residence. Everyone has been getting them, so it is seems so unfair that I have to pay taxes and make up for their abatements and pilots. Abatements and public assistance for all --- after all, it's free money, or is it?
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