County to seek payments from nonprofit

Town of Tusten has its own arrangement

By FRITZ MAYER

TUSTEN, NY — Sullivan County Treasurer Ira Cohen doesn’t think the Gurdjieff Foundation deserves the tax-exempt status it enjoys in New York State, and he thinks the courts would side with him if the case were put to the test.

Town of Tusten Supervisor Ben Johnson doesn’t agree with that assessment; he thinks the town might very well lose a court case over the matter, and he doesn’t think it would be prudent to spend the town’s money on a risky lawsuit.

Now, Cohen has told the county legislature that legal action from the county might be needed in order for the county and the Sullivan West School District to get money out of the foundation.

Here’s the background.

In 2007, Cohen went to the Tusten Town Board and asked them to consider making a test case out of the foundation that could serve to put limits on the tax exemptions for some organizations. The Tusten board did not move forward with legal action at the time because, among other reasons, the county could not guarantee that it would pay the expenses of any possible litigation.

Since that time, however, Johnson has negotiated with Gurdjieff to get a $10,000 payment in lieu of taxes agreement (PILOT) from the organization.

At a county meeting on August 14, Cohen said that the agreement the town signed did not include payments for the county and school district. Cohen said that if the organization were paying taxes on the 160-acre parcel at Beaver Brook Corners, the split would be 60 percent to the school, 20 to the county and 20 to the town. Cohen said it was inappropriate that the town would sign an agreement without including payment for the county or school district.

County attorney Sam Yasgur agreed, saying the town assessors represent the county and school district, as well as the town, when setting assessments and otherwise dealing with property taxes.

In a phone interview, Johnson said he had urged Cohen to get the school district involved in the matter when the negotiations with Gurdjieff were going on, but did not get a response.

Cohen said that now that the town had signed the agreement, there may be no choice but to undertake legal action to have the situation remedied.

Lawmakers urged him to try to find a way to settle the matter without going to court.

Cohen still believes, as he expressed to the town board in June 2007, that Gurdjieff is not entitled to any tax breaks as an educational organization because it does not meet certain state criteria.

Johnson said the exemption Gurdjieff has is not that different from the one enjoyed by the Boy Scouts, and that any attempt to get organizations like Gurdjieff back on the tax rolls would need to be undertaken by state legislators in Albany.