Letters to the Editor, The Journal News
(Original publication: July 13, 2007)
Tax abatements are outrageous
The actions of the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency in granting tax abatements to the Cross County Shopping Center is outrageous. Mayor Phil A. Amicone is spitting in the face of every hard-working taxpaying resident of this city.
In the 32 years I served as a member and chairman of the Yonkers Board of Assessment Review, I'd be hard pressed to recall one year out of the 32 that the shopping center did not petition for reductions in its property assessments resulting in the center receiving millions of dollars in property tax rebates.
The arrogance of this mayor in the face of an unbalanced budget and a major deficit for 2008-09 is appalling.
Nowhere is it written that because you have the right to grant tax abatements you must use that right even when your city is in financial chaos. And make no mistake about it, when we have to go year in and year out with our hat in our hand for bailouts, we are not fiscally stable and should forgo tax abatements to multi-million, nay, multi-billion dollar corporations, at least until our broken system is fixed.
Sidney G. Sloves
Yonkers
