LiGreci seeing
a light at the end

By DAVID HULSE

GLEN SPEY, NY — Sitting in his office going over proposed state legislation last Friday, Lumberland Supervisor John LiGreci could be pardoned for the self-satisfaction evident upon his face.

LiGreci was studying a legislation package being introduced by state Senator John Bonacic and Assemblyman Jacob Gunther, which would overhaul the property tax exemption process. It would help local municipalities get back some portion of the nearly 33 percent of all New York properties that are now exempt from property tax.

LiGreci says the use of exemptions, to “land bank” undeveloped acreage for profitable sale later could conceivably bankrupt a small municipality. He says his targets are not organizations providing free charitable services, but those who charge clientele for services and receive public funding.

LiGreci has been seeking legislation like this since he first won public office as a councilman in 1999. It’s a package that has been the central focus of his service as supervisor.

It has not been easy.

Large tax-exempt corporations are powerful lobbies in Albany. LiGreci’s proposal was initially deemed so unlikely that he was once accused of pandering, pressing an unattainable goal to win favor with voters. He has had appointments with officials canceled without explanation, and those same officials later denied those appointments ever existed.

But conditions changed after the September 11 terrorism attack. Suddenly New York State had a huge deficit. LiGreci pressed his points home before a governor’s task force on local government reform and the issue became part of their final report.

“I think that this is the time when it’s really going to happen,” he said last week.

This winter, Bonacic authored six pieces of legislation and his Senate Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development is holding joint statewide hearings throughout this month. The new laws, in part, would tighten exemption language, open municipal options for reviewing exemptions and force the state to pay property taxes on its lands.

In a statement, Bonacic said that he believes the lawmakers’ original intent for the exemption process has been skewed over many years.

“I do not believe the founders ever intended property exemptions to be so liberally construed that they encourage taxpayer inequity.”

LiGreci, who has been asked to review and comment on developing legislative drafts, gives credit to Bonacic and Gunther for their efforts in putting the package together.

“They have really worked hard on this and they deserve recognition for it,” he said.

LiGreci has been asked to testify at the committee’s Kingston hearing on March 6.