The Adirondack Council

News Release

For more information:
John Sheehan - 518-432-1770

Released, Wednesday, August 20, 2003

ALBANY, N.Y. - Town of Newcomb taxpayers will collect an annual windfall of $10,000 in additional tax revenue when New York State purchases 6,300 acres of land adjacent to the Adirondack Park's High Peaks Wilderness Area sometime next year, according to a new report released today by the Adirondack Council.

"With New York State facing fiscal crisis and local governments facing steep property tax hikes as a result, this must be welcome news for town officials," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "Many people assume that when the State buys land in the Adirondacks, local governments suffer, but the truth is that many private landowners take advantage of generous tax breaks. It is very often the case that local governments are fiscally better off when the state owns the land."

In May 2003, Gov. George E. Pataki announced that New York State will preserve more than 10,000 acres of forests, lakes and rivers in the heart of the Adirondack Park through a two-phase transaction.

In the first phase, approved by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) in July, the Open Space Institute (OSI) will purchase approximately 10,000 acres now owned by NL Industries, a mining company headquartered in Texas. In the second phase, subject to approval by the APA, OSI will subdivide the land into four parcels, including a 6,300-acre tract that the State will purchase and add to the Forest Preserve, forever protecting it from tree cutting and development.

Click Here to View the Complete Study

Currently, portions of these 6,300 acres are enrolled in the State's timberland tax abatement program (NYS Real Property Tax Law Sect. 480-a), which allows private landowners to take a tax break of up to 80 percent of the assessed value of their forest land.

In the Adirondack and Catskill Parks, New York State must pay tax on the full-assessed value of its Forest Preserve holdings - without any tax breaks. Therefore, the change from private to public ownership increases the taxable value of the land by more than 13 percent ($343,000) and means the Town of Newcomb can collect more tax.

"This is the third study conducted by the Council over the past five years showing that land preservation in the Adirondack's means more tax revenue for local governments, not less" Houseal said. The other two studies focused on the 93,000-acre Hancock Timber Resources Group holdings in five western Adirondack towns, and the 15,000-acre William C. Whitney Wilderness in Long Lake, purchased in 1998.

To receive a hard copy of the Council's full tax report on the Newcomb/Tahawus please contact its Albany office at (518) 432-1770.

The Adirondack Council is dedicated to ensuring the ecological integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. Founded in 1975, the Council is an 18,000-member, privately funded, not-for-profit organization with offices in Albany and Elizabethtown.