“P.L.I. LLC, (Camarda) a limited liability company with offices at 1699 Rte.6 has requested that the Industrial Development Agency provide financing for the Company in the form of tax-exemption/or taxable industrial development revenue bonds in an aggregate amount not to exceed Thirty-Three Million to be used to finance a certain project consisting of the following:

a. The construction of new buildings, comprised of approximat…ely 210,000 sq. ft on approximately 44 acres to be used as a retail center and as community and office space and the installation of certain equipment to be used by the Company to be used for commercial purposes and to be located at 3741 Danbury Avenue in The Town of Southeast. (Stateline)

b. Paying certain incidental expenses, including costs of issuance incurred in connection thereto.

c. Granting of certain other financial assistance available pursuant to Section 874 of N.Y. General Municipal Law, as amended including but not limited to certain real property tax relief, sales and use tax exemptions and mortgage recording tax exemptions.”

Patterson Crossing Realty Company, LLC. (Camarda) has also requested the IDA to finance in the form of tax-exempt and/or taxable industrial development revenue bonds not to exceed Fifty-Five Million dollars.

There will be three hearings:

Southeast Town Hall on RT.22
Feb. 23rd, 2011
10:00 AM **

Patterson Town Hall
Feb.23rd, 2011
12:00 Noon**

Kent Town Hall
Feb. 23rd 2011
1:00 PM**

Carmel Town Hall
Feb. 23rd 2011
2:00 PM

** Conveniently timed so that the working stiffs can attend the Public Hearings

Other taxpayer-funded gifts for this developer have included:

Interest-free 450K loan given by the Town of Carmel on the sale of the 19 acres for the Hotel project.

Interest-free loans given by way of allowing Camarda to pay his building fees in installments.

Empire Zone designation for the Carmel hotel & Union Place which comes with a tax abatement beginning at 50% of the nominal property tax for town, school, county, and increases 5% per year for ten years until it reaches 100%;

$1.5 million in multi-model grant to improve Rte 311 (Improvements that the developer promised to pay for);

…and now 55 million in IDA Bonds for Patterson Crossing and $33 million in IDA bonds for Stateline Crossing, and 110 million for Union Place in Mahopac.

Now, can someone please explain how these projects will be bringing “tax relief?”

If I were a better writer and could match the skills of even the most middling of authors, life in Putnam County would make quite excellent reading. But so few publishers would believe what I had written as genuine they’d have to place my book in the fiction section of bookstores and the fantasy section of libraries. But I can assure you that what we experience here as residents is real and genuine even though it reads – and too often feels – as if we’re living in a 1950′s Central American Banana Republic. In only a very few other places around the world, perhaps in one of those central Asian “stans” no one can pronounce, could we write about the depths of malfeasance that passes for government in our bucolic 240 square miles. If Voltaire or Shalom Aleichem were alive today even they could not have surpassed the fantastical mysteries and ironies that abound in our every day lives. Welcome to Putnam County, New York.

Tomorrow evening, Wednesday, May 26th, at 7PM in Room 318 of the County Office building, the Putnam County Legislature’s Physical Services Committee will meet to discuss the creation of a “Road Improvement District” that largely incorporates properties owned by Ridgefield, CT resident Paul Camarda and his Patterson Crossing project with the intersection of New York State Route 311 and Interstate highway 84 being the focus. The district would allow Mr. C to build necessary traffic improvements to assist in minimizing the expected impact of the ~400,000 square foot mega-project with the added benefit that the county would reimburse his costs through tax credits applied to the expected sales tax revenues generated in a recovering economy.

I spoke to a county legislator yesterday afternoon who prefers to remain anonymous, who said that the project was sold as repairing an immediate environmental calamity of some sort. I thought, stormwater. Okay, well, both the state and the Federal government are MS4′s in their own right and according to the law must perform remediation actions on their own conveyances and that this was not the responsibility of a private developer doing so on the county’s dime.

Seeing the logic in that, the focus shifted to safety concerns. ‘I’ve heard’, the Legislator said, ‘ that this is a dangerous intersection and the state said they will not fund repairs.’ Okay, I said back, then you sue the state using regular channels to have that problem resolved but it’s not something that should be done by a private developer on the county dime.

Do you see a recurring pattern here?

Here’s what the bill says, in part:

From Section 1: It is hereby found and determined that residential and commercial development in the vicinity of the Route 311 and I-84 intersection, Putnam county, has resulted in such intersection being inadequate to efficiently serve the needs of the residents of the county… and decreasing the attractiveness of the surrounding parcels for development that certain improvements to the Route 311 and I-84 intersection ingress and egress ramps are essential…

If you read further down this article you’ll find that it is these very improvements that Patterson Crossing needs to make in order to meet the requirements set by the FEIS and his approvals for construction and that he has agreed to fund – in full.

From Section 3, in part:

The county of Putnam shall provide for a credit for the value of work performed or financed by a property owner within the road or highway improvement district or districts or benefited area or areas for the work as described in section one this act [sic]. Agreement for the provision of such credit shall be set forth in a written instrument of understanding between Putnam County and the property owner and documented in some other permit, approve site plan or official finding issued by Putnam County or the town of Patterson.

The following parcels are affected:

Patterson:
22.-3-1 containing 39.4 acres. Owner: Patterson Crossing Realty
33.-2-23 containing 33.96 acres. Owner: Patterson Crossing Realty
34.-2-3 containing 4.31 acres. Owner: Patterson Crossing Realty

Kent:
22.-2-48 containing 16 acres. Owner: Patterson Crossing Realty

putnam_camarda_district

A loose poll of Legislative members shows that if the committee passes a positive recommendation on to the full Legislature which will meet in special session immediately after, that there are at the very least 5 votes in favor of what amounts to millions of dollars in corporate welfare granted by a Republican Legislature who claims to be fiscally conservative and is always condemning Democrats for taxing and spending. How is this different? Well, when Republicans do it it’s economic development and public safety. When Democrats do it, it’s creeping socialism.

The truth is that in this economy, when property taxes are breaking the backs of homeowners and the newspapers are filled with pages of foreclosure notices, that raising taxes to pay for a privately owned development is probably not the best way to go.

Raising taxes? Sure! That’s what’s being proposed here. If the county offsets millions in expected revenues (via credits to the developer) those dollars still have to come from somewhere before they find their way into the county budget and if they’re not coming from Patterson Crossing where will they come from? That’s right… from your pocket. Isn’t it enough that our county has the highest sales tax rate in the state? Some of the highest school tax levies in the nation? Why would the County Legislature insist that you, and not a private developer, bear that burden for highway projects that he has been mandated to complete? Why are we compensating him for this? And most important, what gets into the heads of our legislators that allows them to believe we will go along with this?

What will happen is that the county will propose this law which then goes to Albany for passage where such local laws are so routinely accepted that it’s hard to believe anyone even reads them. Odds are the Ballster will vote against it, riding his wave of teabaggery while Ms. Galef and Senator Leibell will pass it without a thought as being a ‘local issue’.

Well, let’s take a quick look at Patterson Crossing and what the developer is supposed to do in order to have received his approvals…

Hey! It’s amazing! The developer is supposed to mediate traffic problems that just happen to fall within the geographical boundaries of this new special traffic district and he’s supposed to do so on his own dime.

From Camarda Development’s website about the project they have this:

Center will pay for the vast majority of high-cost road and stormwater improvements needed to address existing problems

I’ll grant that it’s in the small print and is the very last line on the page, but as of this writing (8:44AM) it’s there and the language is clear. “Center will pay….”

In the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the project dated July 17, 2008 and available here (PDF), we read the following:

The FEIS has identified several improvements that will be completed by the Project Sponsor [emphasis, mine] to mitigate the increase in traffic resulting from the retail center including:

• NYS Route 311 at the Project entrance would be improved with right and left turn lanes and a new traffic signal;
• At the Fair Street/NYS Route 311 intersection the curb radii will be widened;
• At the NYS Route 311/Interstate 84 Westbound ramp a left turn lane, off-ramp turn lane, signalization and queue detection will be added; and
• At the NYS Route 311/Interstate 84 Eastbound ramp a left turn lane, off-ramp turn lane, signalization and queue detection will be added.

The document then says to check out Appendix K where these issues are better spelled out. So, from Appendix K we read the following:

Guide:
Intersection
DEIS Suggested
Revised Improvement Program
Responsible Party

1. NYS Route 311 and NYS Route 164
Add NYS Route 311 right and left turn lanes. Signalize
Revise Geometrics
NYS DOT and Applicant

2. NYS Route 311 and Fair Street
Signalize and Add Fair Street right turn lane
Widen curb radii on Fair Street (see FEIS figure K-1)
Applicant and County

4. NYS Route 311 and Westbound Ramp I-84
Signalize, add NYS Route 311 left land and off-ramp turn lane
Signalize, add NYS Route 311 left turn lane (Figure K-3) or roundabout
Applicant

5. NYS Route 311 and Eastbound Ramp I-84
Signalize, add NYS Route 311 left lane and off-ramp turn lane
Signalize, ad NYS Route 311 left turn land and off-ramp turn lake (Figure K-3) or roundabout
Applicant

10. NYS Route 52 and Barrett Hill Road
Add NYS Route 52 left turn lane. Add NYS Route 52 center turn lake
Left turn lane on TIP post 2010/Signalize
NYS DOT/Applicant

13. NYS Route 311 and Access Road
Signalize/Add NYS Route 311 right turn lane
Signalize/Add NYS Route 311 left and right turn lane (Figure K-4)
Applicant

There are other traffic and flow improvements outlined with some of those falling on the county’s shoulders.

I’m willing to bet we’ll hear long-winded speeches from those in favor of this welfare program talking about safety and economic development and partnerships and the like but what they’re really doing is couching a multi-million dollar corporate welfare scam in nice words that polls show the public salivates for.

Members of the Physical Services Committee include, Mary Ellen O’Dell, Vincent Tamagna and Richard Othmer with at least two of those members already in favor and one leaning heavily in that direction. And while I have the personal emails of pretty much everyone on the Legislature, to protect their privacy it’s best to write to them at their county address: putcoleg@putnamcountyny.com

Please write. Then come to the meeting tomorrow night and voice your opinion. Then be prepared to work against and vote against those legislators whether at the State level of here in Pumpkin County who would support this corporate welfare plan.

Corporate Welfare, Putnam Style.

You’ve got to love it!

School Board and budget elections are tomorrow. Unless there’s a candidate who has made consolidation a key component of their campaign, write in someone instead of voting for the guys/gals on the ballot. You’re not wasting your vote, you’d be stating your opinion and that’s what elections are all about. Who to write in? Me. Matt Damon. Clarance Darrow. Jerry Garcia. It matters not. But please, do go to the polls. School district costs represent, by far, the largest portion of your property tax bills and since no one seems to care much about changing the way we pay for education (see A6009 as the only viable solution) you need to make your voices heard.

Only four of you have voted in our latest poll on what you like to do on weekends. I’m willing to bet had the poll question been, “Which Putnam County Politician Would You Most Like to See Naked” we’d have more than four votes. Go vote.

If you’re heading down to the city today, note that several trains no longer exist due to cost cutting by the MTA. Check the schedules carefully.

It was quite a weekend here in Putnam County. The weather was stellar and there were so many events to pick and choose from it made planning difficult. But in the end, on Saturday we stopped in at the CCE Master Gardener’s plant sale at Tilly Foster Farm:

Then at the new Farmer’s Market in Kent where I got some olive-rosemary bread that might actually last until tomorrow night’s dinner:

Yesterday we were at the Chuang Yen Monastery in the Free State of Kent Cliffs celebrating, with hundreds and hundreds of others, the birthday of the Buddha. There’s additional pictures posted at my Facebook page.

Have You Ever Milked a Goat?

Back in the summer of 2008 during a floor debate on an equal work for equal pay bill, part time Assemblyman Greg Ball had this exchange with Assembly Labor Committee Chair Susan John:

Speaker: Mr. Ball.

Mr. Ball: Will the sponsor yield for some questions?

Speaker: Will you yield Ms. John?

Ms. John: Certainly Madam Speaker.

Mr. Ball: Hello Ma’am, how are you? I have a question, just to clarify, I’m a little bit slow. Uh, so if you could just help me. What exactly are the new mandates and regulations that will be required by small business owners? I was just hoping you could spell those out.

Ms. John: The legislation requires that an employer will provide to an employee a written statement of the job title and the wage rate. It also requires that the employer, pursuant to regulations developed by the State Department of Labor, provide that information to the Department of Labor.

Mr. Ball: When you’re specifically talking about this piece of legislation, where is the efficiency argument? Where does efficiency come in? Because, you could conceivably have two people doing the same job, the same number of hours, and there has been a lot of emphasis as I listen to the debate in the amount of hours somebody worked. For instance, I grew up on a farm, have you ever milked goat?

Ms. John: No, I haven’t.

Mr. Ball: Well I would suggest that if we were both on a farm, that if you allowed me four hours, and you four hours, in an agricultural setting, I’d work you under the table. And, you being a female and me being a male, uh, I may command a higher wage in that particular setting. So, in that instance, are small business owners… are they protected? Is efficiency… does that ever become part of the argument or is that too capitalist?

For the record, Ball voted for the bill in the end. Thanks to the Albany Project for reminding me of all this.

In the meantime, the Ballster’s State Senate campaign website claims he’s a champion of woman’s rights. I’m assuming he means the right to remain barefoot, the right to remain pregnant and the right to remain in the kitchen, but not the right to be barefoot and pregnant and milking goats in the barn.

Schlepping Off to Gaza

My friends over there on the Left are undertaking a campaign to bring 8 ships into Israeli waters in an attempt to break the sea embargo that Gaza is currently experiencing which was put into place by the PLA to stop the flow of weapons into the territory. Four of the ships will be carrying goods while the other four will be laden with passengers, allegedly to be used as human shields. Cripes, even Egypt won’t allow anything to cross its border with Gaza that has not come from a registered agency.

There is nothing stopping material goods from entering Gaza if brought in by legal means, and tons of such goods have come in since Hamas got their asses handed to them a while back. In April of this year, 12,000 tons of humanitarian aid and 200,000 gallons of diesel fuel arrived in Gaza and product destined for market in Europe came out. Also in April, Hamas launched 31 rockets into Israel as their way of saying, “thanks!” for the help.

The last time my friends tried this they failed. One of the ships was confiscated and its passengers arrested – and then deported. Another was rammed by a navy cruiser and sank after returning to port in Lebanon. What they don’t want you to know is that the supplies aboard the confiscated ship were later trucked to Gaza by Israeli authorities after being checked for weaponry. Follow the rules and your material aid makes it to its intended destination. Attempt to run a naval blockade and odds are you could die.

What they also don’t realize, or perhaps they do, is that Israel has intercepted several vessels carrying military supplies destined for Hamas in violation of UN Resolution 1747, and all coming from Iran. And just this week, Hamas destroyed the homes of 40 Gazan families along the Egyptian border at Rafah, allegedly to aid the construction of tunnels which are used to smuggle weapons into the territory.

And while I’m the first on the block to defend liberation struggles, I’m also realistic enough to know what my friends either don’t know or don’t care to know: Hamas, the governing body of Gaza, wants the middle east wiped clean of Jews. Every last one of them.

Here are some clips from their Charter:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).

“The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. ”

“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”

“After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.”

Their belief in the “Protocols” says it all.

So, my Lefitst, wayward friends, spend your time and efforts setting Hamas on the path to peace and you won’t have to worry about blockades. And to Hamas and their supporters I say, Never Again.

• Have You Ever Milked a Goat?
• Schlepping Off to Gaza
• People need a greater say in protecting resources
• Ossining student wins prestigious award for sturgeon study
• The Genetically Modified Fabric of our Lives
• Curbing kilowatts in private buildings
• A history of false starts for US energy independence
• Congress may override efforts by Secretary Gates to cut defense spending
• Health Insurance Companies Talk Sh*t
• The Crying Conservative: How Glenn Beck Taught His Feminine Side To Turn Tricks

People need a greater say in protecting resources

By Ned Sullivan

The state Senate recently missed a golden opportunity to restore the right of all New Yorkers to have a stronger voice in environmental decisions that could seriously impact our health, safety and prosperity.

By voting down the Environmental Access to Justice Act, the legislators refused to reinstate the balance originally intended in the State Environmental Quality Review Act — the chief means of ensuring that developments won’t have adverse consequences for our air, water and land. In essence, they’ve cut out a large segment of the population when it comes to speaking out about the pros and cons of residential or industrial projects.

At issue is “standing,” an outgrowth of Scenic Hudson’s 17-year fight to halt a massive hydroelectric project from defacing Storm King Mountain, a Hudson River landmark. In 1965, the group won its first major victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Scenic Hudson had standing — the right to present evidence in court that the project would be an environmental albatross.

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Ossining student wins prestigious award for sturgeon study

Sean Maiorano, 18, an Ossining High School senior, won the Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History. He submitted a paper based on his research on the sturgeon population in the Hudson River. The sturgeon was declared off-limits to commercial fishing in 1996. The Ossining student worked with scientists from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, primarily in the Haverstraw Bay section of the river. Maiorano is set to attend Roger Williams University in Rhode Island this fall, looking to study marine biology. Maiorano also took part in this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, Calif.

Q: Why are the sturgeon an important species and why are they worth studying?

A: The sturgeon used to be called Albany beef. They used to eat the meat, smoked, and its roe, the eggs. They’d cut it open and take the eggs out. They’ve been known to grow 14 feet.

They’re rare now. Sturgeon takes 14 years to mature, when they can begin to spawn.

Q: What did your research project entail?

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The Genetically Modified Fabric of our Lives

Cotton farmers in China are reporting that a genetically-engineered version of cotton designed to combat the prevalent bollworm pest is now turning other, once minor, cotton pests into destructive ones.

Bt cotton is a cotton seed injected with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), a bacterium that is toxic to the bollworm (and other insects), which releases this toxin and wipes out the pests, thereby reducing the need for cotton farmers to spray pesticides on their cotton crops.

The only problem is that the lack of spraying is allowing the populations of other once minor pests to boom and to spread to other fields.  While Bt cotton reduced the amount of pesticide usage significantly when it was introduced in the 90′s, now farmers are back to spraying roughly the same amount as they were, and using a genetically engineered seed that they must purchase year after year instead of saving their own.

Just another example of the GM merry-go-round that harms both the environment and farmers by making them dependent on corporations.  Farmers begin spraying for the bollworm, seed companies create a genetically engineered seed that is bollworm resistant, it has some unforeseen effect that eclipses its benefits, so farmers find themselves in a place that is worse than where they started, until the seed companies invent something else for the farmers to buy from them.

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Curbing kilowatts in private buildings

By Jim Redden

Jeremy Wijer, who recently opened the Portland [Oregon] Thai Boxing gym in an old Northeast Portland warehouse, insisted the owner install energy-efficiency building upgrades.

With their reputation for punishing opponents in the ring, mixed martial artists might not seem the most likely advocates for energy-efficiency building upgrades.

But Jeremy Wijer, owner of the Portland Thai Boxing gym, sounds like a lifelong environmentalist when he talks about the benefits of saving energy.

“Energy efficiency is good for everybody. It saves money, it reduces pollution and it’s good for the power grid,” says Wijer, who picked up his earth-friendly ethos growing up in Eugene.

So when Wijer recently looked at opening his gym in an old warehouse, he knew the old metal cone lights had to go. Not only was the quality of light poor, but Wijer knew they would cost a fortune to operate.

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A history of false starts for US energy independence

Billionaire financier and philanthropist Michael Milken recently held a global conference on “America’s Energy Future.”

Today, The Money Game highlighted Milken’s opening presentation. It included eight broken campaign pledges to work toward energy independence since the 1960s.

From The Money Game:

* In 1974 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources, President Richard Nixon said, “At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need.”

* In 1975 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources, President Gerald Ford said, “We must reduce oil imports by one million barrels per day by the end of this year and by two million barrels per day by the end of 1977.”

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Congress may override efforts by Secretary Gates to cut defense spending

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has vowed to impose fiscal austerity at the Pentagon, but his biggest challenge may be persuading Congress to go along.

Lawmakers from both parties are poised to override Gates and fund the C-17 cargo plane and an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — two weapons systems the defense secretary has been trying to cut from next year’s budget. They have also made clear they will ignore Gates’s pleas to hold the line on military pay raises and health-care costs, arguing that now is no time to skimp on pay and benefits for troops who have been fighting two drawn-out wars.

The competing agendas could lead to a major clash between Congress and the Obama administration this summer. Gates has repeatedly said he will urge President Obama to veto any defense spending bills that include money for the F-35′s extra engine or the C-17, both of which he tried unsuccessfully to eliminate last year.

“Secretary Gates is a very deliberate and careful man,” said his press secretary, Geoff Morrell. “He does not make idle threats.”

Gates is hardly the first defense secretary to try to kill expensive weapons systems, only to have them spring back to life on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are reluctant to cut programs that provide jobs in their legislative districts, even if the programs’ military usefulness is marginal.

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Health Insurance Companies Talk Sh*t

If you were a regulator interpreting the new requirement that health insurers use at least 80 or 85 percent of their premium dollars to pay medical bills or otherwise improve consumers’ health, which of the following expenses would you count toward the quota:

1. Combating fraud and other overbilling by doctors and hospitals.

2. Running “utilization review” or “pre-certification” departments to determine whether the insurer should cover treatment that doctors have proposed.

3. Conducting internal or external reviews when patients appeal an insurance company’s decision to deny coverage.

Insurers have urged regulators to give them credit for all of the above.

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The Crying Conservative: How Glenn Beck Taught His Feminine Side To Turn Tricks

By Alexander Zaitchik

If people know one thing about Glenn Beck, it is that he cries. He is the Crying Conservative. Alone among cable news and talk-radio personalities, he frequently chokes up, his lips quiver, he wipes his eye, and he holds tortured misty pauses until he can hold them no more. For more than a decade, Beck has been crying on the radio, on television, on stage, in interviews, and even in scripted commercials. Sometimes the tears are implied; at other times, such as during a 2009 stage performance, he gets into a fetal position on the floor and bawls. But whatever the gradation, he owns the scale. It defines him like nothing else.

This is not an accident. As they were always intended to do, Beck’s tears have become a distinctive corporate-brand handle. They mark him clearly from everyone else in the broadcasting industry. When Beck began his career in conservative commentary, the field was thick with tough-guy know-it-alls—from the lace-curtain boor O’Reilly to the cigar-chomping blowhard Limbaugh.

But the cast of the late 1990s was incomplete. It contained no emotional Nancy, no repentant prodigal son, and no needy Twelve Stepper. Beck, a careful student of positional marketing theory since his days as a morning-zoo deejay in the 1980s and ’90s, identified and exploited the open niche. He began practicing the act during his transition from Top 40 to talk radio in the late 1990s. According to his Connecticut colleagues, he was known for being both genuinely emotional and able and willing to fake cry on cue.

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