At present, property and school taxes are at an all time high and taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet. We don’t understand how the current Town Board could approve a 30-year PILOT agreement (twice) when this project did not have a public hearing for the PILOT, does not have Planning Board approval, and the Town Board did not consult with school district administrators or our school board about the school tax implications of the PILOT.
As engineer Rich Praetorius stated at the Aug. 16 Planning Board public hearing, a formula was used to predict that only 12 students from this development would potentially enter the school system. As there are 40 proposed units, and 26 of the apartments are three-bedrooms, suitable for families, we believe the developer’s calculation of additional students to be low.
Even if you were to use the 12 students as a low estimate, the cost of their education could be determined by using the current cost per pupil (approximately $18,000). In today’s dollars, that would be an annual cost of $216,000. If the project is proposed for 30 years, the net cost to the district for that duration could be calculated to be $6,480,000 ($216,000 x 30). The cost could be considerably higher if the students in these apartments require services for special education, or if more than 12 students from the project enroll in the district. If 30 students live in this 40-unit complex, the cost added to our school budget jumps to $540,000 annually or 16.2 million over the lifetime of the PILOT.
No matter how you do the math, there will be a significant cost to the Saugerties Central School District, which must be levied upon all property owners in our district who pay school taxes.
We are aware that a taxpayer’s petition was circulated and that 614 people signed in opposition to this project. The PILOT agreement that the Town Board passed provides no economic gain to the town; only to the developer. This 30-year PILOT’s cost would be devastating to taxpayers. We cannot support this. We ask that the Town Board rescind their decision to approve this PILOT and put Saugerties taxpayers first on their list of priorities. We also ask that the Planning Board require a new SEQR review, as this project and its impacts are significantly different from the prior project that was originally proposed for this site.
Kelly Myers
Village trustee, candidate for town supervisor
Pam Riggins
Candidate for town council
Joseph Roberti Sr.
Candidate for town council
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