Former Senator Murphy Failed to Bring Tax Benefit to Yorktown

In 2016, George Latimer submitted a bill (S 8211) to have New York State pay taxes on State parkland located within Westchester County.

Yorktown has thousands of acres of NYS parkland, including FDR and Trump parks. According to a 10/30/16 LoHud article, Putnam County towns receive at least $4 million a year in property taxes from the state for such land.

On 2/24/17, Lohud reported Murphy ‘saying that the Senate Committee on Investigations & Government Operations, which he chairs, “will get to the bottom of exactly (what) the policy is and what remedy can be sought…”’

After Latimer was elected Westchester County Executive, Murphy became the sponsor of Senate bill (S05481) to do a study. But once again -- even after Councilman Patel submitted a resolution asking Murphy to seek tax payments for State land -- Murphy did not come through for Yorktown.

In fact, there already had been a study called the “Compensating Local Governments for Loss of Tax Base Due to State Ownership of Land.” This study concluded “all local governments would be compensated at a fixed annual payment per acre for all eligible state lands.”

Requesting the State pay Yorktown for state land, just as it does in other towns, is a no-brainer. These are funds that could be used to fix roads, meet the needs of seniors, etc.

It looks like Murphy delayed the process with a redundant study.

I understand Supervisor Gilbert spoke to newly elected Senator Harckham on Yorktown’s behalf and Senator Harckham will support the effort to get the money.