Due to a change in the PILOT agreement for Agrana Fruit, the Baldwinsville Central School District will lose $111,000 from its tax levy for the 2014-15 school year. Assistant Superintendent for Management Services Jamie Rodems explained the issue to the BCSD Board of Education at its Nov. 3 meeting.
Last year, Agrana applied for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement from the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA) as part of the fruit preparation company’s plan to build a plant in Lysander.
“The original PILOT document said the sales taxes on the property wouldn’t be exempt until 2015,” Rodems said. “OCIDA decided to retroactively waive the taxes for the 2014 school year after we set our levy.”
Agrana will still pay the district $34,000 this year, but the BCSD is losing $111,000.
Rodems said OCIDA gave the district little warning about the change. OCIDA informed the district’s attorney that Agrana’s exemption would be “backdated.”
“We have not been able to get any explanation through our attorney as to how this error occurred. What could we do next time to avoid this?” Rodems said. “We have to eat the $111,000 and I don’t think that’s fair. They make a mistake and we suffer.”
Rodems noted that the school district was not part of the negotiations for Agrana’s tax breaks, but the school had been involved in talks for a similar agreement for Anheuser-Busch.
“Why weren’t we allowed to be at the table for this one?” Rodems said.
Rodems said it is not practical for the district to take legal action against Onondaga County because the legal costs would be too steep.
“The attorney said, ‘You could not sign [the agreement] and start a legal kerfuffle, but do you want to spend the legal money?’” Rodems said.
“We need to let them know that they need to communicate much better than they have,” Board President Joan Reeves said.
The board voted to allow Rodems to sign the new agreement “under protest.”
Rodems said the school does not plan to take further action on the Agrana PILOT, but the district will consider future PILOTs carefully.
“Next time the county wants a PILOT, I’m going to be there to tell them why I don’t like the PILOT,” Rodems said.
