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The (Syracuse, NY) May 28, 2003 CANASTOTA SCHOOL BOARD CHALLENGES TAX-EXEMPT STATUS Larry Richardson Staff writer While giant turbines in the
town of Fenner turn wind into energy, the Canastota school district
is churning its legal options to get tax money from those properties.
The Canastota school board Tuesday night voted 6-0 to file suit
against the Fenner town assessor over the tax status of land on
which energy windmills were built. The Canastota school district won a favorable ruling in that suit
because the review board did not have a quorum when it made its ruling.
Priscilla Suits, Fenner town assessor, said Tuesday night
that on March 1 she placed those properties in the Canastota school
district on the exempt portion of the tax roll. That action sparked the
Canastota school board to take legal action again.
Suits referred all other questions to town attorney James Stokes.
"I'm trying to fathom it," said Harry Kilfoile, Canastota's
superintendent of schools. "We were working toward an agreement to
hopefully avoid this lawsuit, but that didn't happen."
Twenty windmills in Fenner are owned by Canastota
Windpower, a subsidiary of CHI Energy. Four are in the Canastota district.
The others are in the Cazenovia and Morrisville-Eaton school districts.
A section of state Real Property Tax Law provides for tax
exemptions for solar or wind energy projects for companies that apply. The
law, however, allows school districts to decline to grant the exemption.
Joseph G. Shields, legal counsel to the Canastota school district,
said Tuesday the district exercised its right to decline exemption on such
properties in 1991, both with the Office of Real Property Services and
with the former state Department of Energy.
Kilfoile said he and the school board members remain frustrated
with the Fenner assessment board and the town assessor.
"Nobody from the town or representatives of the windmill
company have talked to me," the superintendent said. "We got a favorable
judgment (in the first court case), but I haven't seen any money yet."
That money would be about $75,000 to $80,000 per year, depending on
assessments, said Shields, who is with the East Syracuse law firm of
Ferrara, Fiorenza, Larrison, Barrett & Reitz.
Stokes, Fenner's attorney, said the judge's ruling in the
first case applied only to last year.
"A decision was never reached with regard to whether the school
district validly opted out of the tax exemption," he said.
Regarding talks with the school district, Stokes said there have
been discussions between Canastota Windpower and the district on payment
in lieu of tax.
"The town's in the middle of this," he said. "It's not up to us to
negotiate a payment in lieu of tax between Canastota Windpower and the
Canastota Central School District."
After Tuesday's school board vote, board President Chuck Sweeney
said the Fenner action confuses him.
"It's pretty simple. The school district filed all the proper
paperwork - in 1991, and we're entitled to those taxes," he said. "The
frustration is we completed one lawsuit in favor of the school district
and seem to be back to square one."
Sweeney said the school district spent about $8,000 on the first
lawsuit against Fenner officials.
"Now our taxpayers will have to spend more money on something that
was already ruled on by a judge," he said.
School board Vice President Doug Gustin echoed the frustration.
"It's been 12 years since we made a resolution to not exempt
property," he said. "When does it end?"
Illustration: PHOTO Copyright, 2003, The
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