CWC declares NYC tax litigation "most important issue"

MARGARETVILLE, N.Y., Dec. 2, 2007 - The Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) Board of Directors has declared that unresolved tax assessment litigation brought by New York City against upstate municipalities where the city owns dams, land and buildings is "the most serious issue presently facing the towns in the (City’s) West of Hudson Watershed."

In a resolution adopted at its November 27 meeting, the CWC Board urges a "global settlement" of current lawsuits, and requests that the City sit down to "discuss agreement on valuation methodologies so that future lawsuits might be avoided."

The CWC maintains a Tax Consulting Fund to help Watershed towns, counties and villages hire attorneys and assessment experts to address challenges brought by the City’s Corporate Counsel office. The Fund was originally capitalized at $3 million by New York City under terms of the 1997 NYC Watershed Memorandum of Agreement. However, most of that money has been depleted as a result of the ongoing lawsuits.

Noting that the City filed suits against 11 Watershed municipalities in 2007, claiming their properties were over-assessed, the resolution states, "Each of the 11 was also sued by New York City on identical claims in prior years, with many sued by the City each and every year since 1997. . . The magnitude of the real property taxes at issue in these proceedings, as well as the burdens of continued litigation, is a source of concern and cause of fiscal uncertainty to the detriment of all parties involved."

Continued the resolution, "In spite of the significant expenditure of funds by all parties to the proceedings, no court decision has definitively established valuation methodology and the disputes remain unresolved."

The resolution was adopted unanimously to the 11 Watershed town representatives on the Board present at the meeting. New York City, New York State and environmental representatives on the Board are ineligible to vote on matters involving the Tax Consulting Fund.