This annual effort to control our school tax share is not good for our community because it results in a constant struggle with the Town of Haverstraw, since we share the school tax bill with them.  It is expensive and inefficient, especially when our own Supervisor misses important meetings with the State and conspires with Haverstraw to fight against his own residents. So, until the underlying property tax PROCESS is fixed, this annual conflict will continue.

I have a proposed solution that could end this constant Haverstraw/Stony Point struggle once and for all, and save both Towns hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.  The proposal is good for Stony Point AND Haverstraw.  At the same time, on a statewide basis, it will resolve the hundreds of similar problems, and save over $120 million in taxpayer dollars annually.  I put this together in a document entitled “A TAXPAYER’S PROPOSAL IN RESPONSE TO THE GOVERNOR’S CALL FOR CONSOLIDATION AND GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY – REAL PROPERTY VALUATION AND ASSESSMENT IN NEW YORK”.  You can view or print it here, but it is a big document so I had to break it into two parts: Cole-Hatchard_Tax_Proposal_Part_1_of_2.pdf &   Cole-Hatchard_Tax_Proposal_Part_2_of_2.pdf.  In August I submitted the proposal to the Governor, the Lt. Governor and the New York State SAGE Commission which focuses on Government savings and consolidation ideas.  I am hoping to testify before our State Senate and Assembly within the next few months to forward the idea.  Basically, the proposal, if adopted, would consolidate the over 1,200 governmental assessing units in New York into about 62 units, require property assessments be at 100% of market value, and eliminate the need for “equalization rates”, the root of all these school tax “apportionment” problems.

In addition to setting forth the consolidation and cost savings plan, the proposal contains some good summaries of many of the concepts we have been discussing lately, such as "apportionment", "equalization rates" and "assessment levels", so please feel free to dig through it. 

NOTE REGARDING THE SCHOOL DISTRICT’S USE OF RESERVE FUNDS:  The Haverstraw politicians are laughing at us and our Supervisor AGAIN, and not only does our Supervisor not understand why, he doesn’t even realize it.  He just doesn’t comprehend the issues, nor does he grasp how Haverstraw is using him to their advantage and our disadvantage.  Like it or not, the minute the school district was combined in 1957, and it became necessary for our two Towns to split the annual sch

ool tax bill, by definition the two Towns are at odds each year regarding which will pay what portion of those taxes.

The use of reserves by the School District did NOT alter the fact that Stony Point pays an unfair share of those school taxes as claimed by our Supervisor.  The reserves were accumulated in the same unfair proportion as taxes were collected.  Thus, despite having 25% of the students in the District, Stony Point paid in about 46% of that reserve money.  Using those reserves temporarily lowered the total tax levy (until the reserves run out), but since Stony Point taxpayers paid an unfair proportion of those reserves, we again paid an unfair proportion of the money used to soften Haverstraw’s school tax increase this year.  You see, using the reserves this year was HAVERSTRAW’S idea which they convinced our Supervisor to support, because HAVERSTRAW was facing a double digit school tax increase as a result of our efforts in Albany.  However, last year when WE faced double digit increases, the School District reserve was just as huge – but Supervisor Sherwood didn’t say a word about using any of it as he should have – again, he just does not understand these issues and that is destroying our ability to fight the tax problems both on the School and Town levels.

With all of this said, please remember Election Day is two weeks away.  Because of my tax fighting activities despite his and Haverstraw’s attempts to interfere, Mr. Sherwood will surely be sending out two or three pieces of mail specifically directed at me – but remember, he was caught lying and cheating before, including in the Eggers matter, so no doubt whatever he sends out will be more of the same old fabricated garbage.  If you receive something that may be of concern, feel free to give me a call or email.

Talk to you all soon, and thanks.  STEVE

MIRANT LOVETT SITE CONTAMINATION - ADDED INFORMATION

October 21, 2011:     I have received a lot of emails requesting a copy of the DEC report on the Mirant site, so here it is.  DEC_report_(Mirant).pdf.  As you will see, contrary to Mr. Sherwood's claim, it was copied to the Town on October 5th.  He received it on Friday, October 7th.  Thanks.  STEVE

October 19, 2011:    In a reversal of its previous ruling based on efforts by the prior Town Board and current Town Counsel, and in the face of opposition by Supervisor Sherwood, the DEC has declared that there are six contaminated areas of the Mirant Lovett site that require environmental remediation.  The real story is the cover-up by Supervisor Sherwood.  The Town was notified over two weeks ago, on October 5, about the redetermination by the DEC.  Supervisor Sherwood has withheld that information from the Town Board and more importantly from Town residents hoping it would not be revealed until after Election day because of

his prior published comments about the site.

In a January 21, 2010 article printed in the Rockland County Times, Sherwood blasted the Town Board and Town Counsel Dennis Lynch for pursuing a Town environmental law that would have required entities such as Mirant to be responsible for the contamination of industrial sites in Stony Point.  Sherwood said he believed those activities on behalf of our residents were frivolous, and was willing to accept Mirant’s own declaration that the Lovett site was not contaminated.  In that article it was stated that “Sherwood said he believed legal issues with Mirant are clearing up.  There had been results issued with the DEC that showed there were no contaminants spilled on the power plant site”.  He called the efforts to adopt the law “duplicitous”, and scoffed at the decision by the DEC to conduct further tests of the site as a result of that law.

That “frivolous” law and resulting lawsuit of two years ago, condemned by Sherwood, resulted in communications with the Town expert, Town Counsel and DEC that turned the DEC from accepting the “no harm” reports of Mirant to requiring further testing and DEC monitoring.  Those tests were conducted over the past two years.

On October 5, 2011, the DEC announced the results of those newly required studies – there are in fact six contaminated areas on the M

irant Lovett power plant site.  These new results will now allow for a proper remediation plan to be formulated and implemented at Mirant’s cost, NOT the Town’s, as would otherwise have been the result if Sherwood’s plans were followed.  The efforts by the prior Town Board and the Lynch firm, deemed “frivolous” by Sherwood, have paid off substantially - the Mirant contamination of the Stony Point site will be remediated with diligent oversight of governmental officials, all at no cost to Stony Point taxpayers.

The worst part of all of this – these results have been covered up by Sherwood.  Since receiving the new report on October 5 from the State, he has not notified the Town Board, Town Counsel, or our residents and neighbors living near the contaminated site.   He didn’t whisper a word of this at the October 11 Town Board meeting, in public or in executive session.  He provided the information to no one.  He was obviously hoping to hide these serious health risks and concerns affecting our residents until after Election Day.  Such acts are despicable.  Of course my revealing this information will infuriate him so be prepared for thousands of dollars worth of his junk campaign mail over the next couple of weeks trashing me again.  My dad always said you can’t debate a liar – boy was he right!!  Thank you. STEVE