A state monitor has informed the Orange County Industrial Development Agency that he has vetoed a PILOT agreement between the IDA and Amazon for a warehouse facility in Waywayanda. Senator James Skoufis, who had requested a state monitor review the agreement, tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley he had objected to the PILOT agreement.
For your listeners who may not be aware of even what a PILOT is, a PILOT is a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes. It is effectively a property tax break for select corporations and agencies known as IDAs grant these breaks. And so here in Orange County, the Orange County IDA was looking, and they approved, an approximately $80 million property tax break for Amazon, the second most profitable company on planet Earth, to build what would be the largest warehouse in all of New York State at 3.2 million square feet, just outside of the city of Middletown in a town called Waywayanda. And the entirety of the PILOT was objectionable because one, as I stated before Amazon and Jeff Bezos do not need a tax break to build anything. But more relevant to Orange County, the local community, a tax break here is not only unwarranted but it's also unnecessary. And the Orange County IDA, they have demonstrated over many years, no regard whatsoever for taxpayers. They are just giving Amazon a handout here to pad their pockets. And I am thrilled and grateful to the state appointed monitor that I had installed a few years ago. He came in and vetoed the decision late last night.
You had requested, as you mentioned, the state monitor and in a release you also said that his veto holds the Orange County IDA accountable for their rogue and reckless behavior. So how should the IDA actually be held accountable?
Well, for the first time, perhaps in a long time if ever, the Orange County IDA has been around for 51 years. They finally have someone who is telling them no, you cannot do this. No, you cannot continue to use and abuse taxpayers as your own piggy bank. Nor can you use and abuse taxpayers as a piggy bank for your corporate interests that you look to pad the pockets of. Hopefully the monitor’s veto here also serves as a reminder to the IDA that there are rules they have to follow. There are laws they have to follow. And most importantly, they are fiduciary responsible not to Amazon, not to the corporations that walk through their doors, not to themselves. They are fiduciary responsible to taxpayers and they seemingly have forgotten that for a long time. This should serve as a stark reminder that their days of thinking that they operate in the wild west are over. Now, in addition to all of that, the IDA has attempted to stonewall and sideline this state appointed monitor that, by state law, is required to watch their every move and make sure that taxpayers are protected. They have stopped inviting him into some meetings, which is a violation of the state statute. They're questioning even his ability to veto, which is a clear obfuscation and clearly contrary to the state law that I helped negotiate. It's more broadly, hopefully going to serve as a stark reminder, an in-your-face reminder, to the IDA about who they work for. They work for the people. They don't work for anybody else.
Senator Skoufis, you mentioned the stonewalling. One of the things that stood out as I read the monitor's Notice of Violation was the number of times he mentioned that the IDA and/or Amazon were totally unresponsive to his requests. If they were unresponsive when he was doing his investigation, what do you think that the IDA and Amazon will do moving forward after his veto?
That's the most immediate question now, isn't it? The stonewalling was so extreme that they would not even respond to his emails. He is a state appointed monitor. You cannot just ignore him. You can't just disregard him. And so the next question is, will the IDA acknowledge the veto as valid? If the IDA and Amazon do not acknowledge the veto as valid, then we're going to wind up in court, and any judge is going to see very plainly that the monitor acted legally, the IDA acted inappropriately, contrary to law, and quite frankly, arrogantly and offensively. But if they don't acknowledge the veto was valid, then we're going to wind up in court as soon as next week.
Senator Skoufis, Amazon has been attempting to build distribution facilities in communities across our listening area. What kind of message do you think the monitor’s veto for the Orange County IDA will send to other communities that are considering potential Amazon projects?
This veto, I would hope, well beyond Orange County to your point, galvanizes any community and any economic development officials in areas where Amazon or any of these big distributors are looking to construct facilities and seek tax breaks. We should all wake up and understand we shouldn't give them a dime, and that's good for the economy. That's good for our schools, that's good for our first responders if Amazon is paying their damn taxes.
That was New York state Senator James Skoufis reacting to a state monitor’s veto of an agreement between the Orange County IDA and Amazon for a proposed distribution warehouse in Waywayanda.
