Niagara County IDA, Falls continue their war of words
Published: November 19, 2009, 12:30 am
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WHEATFIELD — The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency and the City of Niagara Falls continued their war of words Wednesday, while the IDA approved a tax break for a new hotel in the city.
IDA Chairman Henry M. Sloma had prepared a presentation emphasizing the assistance the agency has made to development in the city, but no one from the city showed up to hear it. Lockport Mayor Michael W. Tucker, the IDA’s vice chairman, denounced the city for not responding to an invitation the IDA sent after last month’s meeting, “which I think is rude.”
Niagara Falls Mayor Paul A. Dyster, reached by telephone later in the day, said he had spoken privately to three IDA board members and wanted to talk to others.
“We thought that might make the meeting better. We didn’t know [Wednesday] was supposed to be the meeting,” Dyster said. He added that he needed to have some input into scheduling.
“They can’t book the mayor. I have to agree to come,” he said.
Tucker said, “We do more for Niagara Falls than anybody else, and they take us to task in the paper. For them to treat us like Chump Street, like we’re some second-class committee, second-class agency, is wrong.”
Niagara Falls School District attorney Angelo Massaro, an IDA board member, tried to smooth things over, urging Sloma to phone Dyster.
“I’m not looking for an adversarial relationship,” Sloma said. “I have no problem calling Mayor Dyster.”
Sloma went through his presentation anyway. It dwelt heavily on the steep decline in Niagara Falls’ population and employment in recent decades, the large number of vacant properties and the city’s practice of taxing commercial and industrial property at a rate about twice as high as residential property.
“When we talk about barriers to development, maybe somebody ought to look at homestead/nonhomestead,” Sloma said.
Dyster obtained a copy of the presentation. He commented, “It seemed to be mostly how poor Niagara Falls is. They don’t have to have us there to criticize the City of Niagara Falls if that’s what they want to do.”
The IDA board voted unanimously to grant a 10-year payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, to SAI Lodging for a new 79- room, five-story hotel at 643 Rainbow Blvd. The project will cost $6 million. The principals of the company are the owners of the Days Inn on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Wheatfield.
Tucker voted yes but said, “At some point I’m going to need somebody from the City of Niagara Falls here to tell us they need our help and that they appreciate it.”
Asked if the PILOT is good or bad, Dyster said he wouldn’t know without reviewing the terms.
“The City of Niagara Falls isn’t looking for a fight,” Dyster said. “We have some very specific issues about what happens when a potential lead comes in for Niagara Falls. We have some [city] incentives to offer that involve casino revenues that don’t cost the taxpayers anything.”
Sloma said in this decade, the IDA has assisted 26 projects in Niagara Falls, bolstering $183.5 million in investment, saving 470 jobs and creating 613 others.
“Look around. Has the development happened without incentives?” he asked.
tprohaska@buffnews.com
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