This is the one where Mayor Doctor Professor Read doesn't look too smart. (OK, another one.) He staked quite a bit of regional political capital on getting $10 million out of the Town of Plattsburgh. That's $10 million that apparently doesn't exist, as Joe LoTemplio reports:
The original PILOT that was eventually agreed upon called for the city's share to be $850,000 per year for 15 years, Curtin said.But by all means, Mr. Mayor, spend a bunch of what, by your own pants-crapping account, is a dwindling tax base on legal fees to fight for this money, which actually wasn't ripped off because it wasn't ever the city's to begin with.
"They were lucky to get that," he said. "The property was never in the city, and they (city officials) were holding it hostage by threatening annexation. It was a money grab, that's all."
Curtin said the 15-year-deal was probably too long at the time, as most PILOTs are for only five or 10 years.
He noted that the plant has barely operated since the lucrative deal to sell electricity to NYSEG ended in 2009, and it isn't producing anywhere near the revenue it once did.
"There shouldn't even be a PILOT for that property anymore. It should be on the tax rolls, and the city would get nothing because it is not in the city, and it never was."
Sustainable!
