September 22, 2008
WCCS Board Members
Superintendent of Schools
Wayland-Cohocton Central School
2350 Rte 63 N
Wayland NY 14572
Dear Board Members and Mr. Wetherbee,
On April 23, 2008 (letter included), your board was warned that the taxpayers of the Wayland-Cohocton Central School District were being short changed by the PILOT for the First Wind/UPC Wind Project.
Today you are presented with an 18-page copy of the Cohocton Assessor roll dated and sworn on June 28, 2008. Also enclosed is a five page search index of entries from the Steuben County Clerk dated September 16, 2008.
A careful review of these documents clearly indicates that the PILOT for the Cohocton portion for the industrial wind project (AKA Canandaigua Power Partners) has not been completed or filed with the County Clerk. Only that entity known as the Dutch Hill Project (Canandaigua Power Partners II) is on record.
There are 15 industrial turbines in the Dutch Hill section. The Cohocton section has 35 industrial turbines. Three of these 35 turbines reside within the Naples Central School District. Therefore, there are 32 industrial turbines within your WCCS District. In addition, there are several tax accounts for infrastructure such as transmission facilities.
The Cohocton Assessors value EACH industrial turbine at $500,000.00 based upon a 20% of value. This amount will increase to $2,500,000 for EACH turbine upon commissioning. Each turbine has its own separate tax account. Currently the amount of taxable assessed value on the Cohocton portion, for the 2008-2009 taxable cycles, of the project is over $16,000,000.00.
This board refused to litigate the PILOT. Now that proof exists that the PILOT has never been completed and filed, as the law requires, it is the duty of the WCCS Board to collect the full amount of property taxes. All taxpayers in your district deserve equal treatment. Your legal liability and malfeasance for a refusal to bill and collect school taxes on each of these accounts are obvious.
In light of the NYS Attorney General’s investigation into First Wind and the Town of Cohocton government, it behooves the WCCS District to act and tax these accounts per the value established by the Cohocton Assessors. NYS Department of Education oversight has provisions in the law to enforce equable taxation compliance.
With no legal PILOT for the Cohocton portion, SCIDA and First Wind are defrauding taxpayers in your district. Your board is urged to make corrections of this injustice.
Cordially,
James Hall for CWW
No comments:
Post a Comment