LiGreci:
no pandering here

By DAVID HULSE

GLEN SPEY — Lumberland Supervisor John LiGreci said he’s not pandering and he’s not waiting for Albany to act on some kind of reform on the tax status of properties held by not-for-profit corporations.

Last month, state Senator John Bonacic (R-40) said all of the major players involved agreed early on that LiGreci’s proposal for user fees levied against not-for-profit properties was unconstitutional. He went on to attribute LiGreci’s continuing pursuit of the issue as “pandering” in a re-election effort.

LiGreci, also a Republican, denied the pandering charge last week. “Everybody knows that butting heads with senior members of your own party will never do you any good in an election year,” he said.

He said Bonacic was not entirely candid and played with words in earlier statement. He agreed that user fees levied against some groups are unconstitutional, but that’s not the case with other private, exempt agencies.

The supervisor claimed there are already provisions of Real Property Tax Law that would prevent some of the abuses of “land banking” going on, but people continue to get away with it because the law is not referred to when the exemptions are granted.

LiGreci said he looked up applicable provisions of tax law himself in a few minutes. “He has staff to research these things… It took me 22 minutes to find this information… He doesn’t seem to know what I’m talking about, but he knows when I’m up for re-election,” LiGreci said.

LiGreci also said he is not encouraged with Bonacic’s claim that he is sponsoring curative legislation that would impact the tax status on effected tracts of exempted properties in excess of 300 acres. “It looks good when he says legislation is in the works, but that legislation from 1999. This is 2001… We can’t wait anymore,” he said.

Additionally, LiGreci said that a 300-acre minimum wouldn’t impact many existing tracts of 100 and 150 acres, who will continue to “get a free ride… If the senator would stop trying to be so politically correct and worked with us, we might get something done,” he concluded.