WAWAYANDA, N.Y.—The Orange County Industrial Development Agency says the veto of a tax break for a planned Amazon Warehouse in the town of Wawayanda is invalid.
The agency approved a 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program for a 3.2 million-square-foot warehouse on Oct. 23. Amazon stood to save $80 million in property taxes.
After the passing of the tax break, state Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat, asked the monitor for the agency, Brian Sanvidge, to veto the tax break and started a campaign to collect local signatures to oppose the program. Skoufis sent a letter on Nov. 11 containing 1,000 county resident signatures to Sanvidge, who vetoed the tax break on Nov. 25.
The letter from Industrial Development Agency CEO Bill Fioravanti said that the veto was the result of political pressure and would negatively affect both the local area and statewide if implemented. Fioravanti also said that the veto is null because Sanvidge waited too long to make a decision.
The monitor had a 72-hour veto period after the tax break was passed. On Oct. 25, Sanvidge, the agency, and Amazon made a written agreement that Sanvidge would submit all questions regarding the tax program on Oct. 28, and the 72-hour period would begin once he had gotten a response to the questions.
Fioravanti said that the agency sent a 101-page response to the monitor on Nov. 5 and that this would mean Sanvidge would have to respond on Nov. 10 or earlier. Sanvidge did not make any official decision until Nov. 25, two weeks after the veto deadline.
In the message accompanying the veto on Nov. 25, Sanvidge said the agency had failed to provide sufficient information for his questions. The monitor and the parties orally agreed to push back the 72-hour voting period until he had enough information for a decision, Sanvidge said.
Fioravanti said that there were no oral extensions and that they would not have been official had they happened.
The development agency letter said the monitor’s position is under too much influence from Skoufis. The state senator was heavily involved in the creation of the state-appointed monitor position for the agency in 2023 and is interested in continuing its existence after the initial three years it’s been funded for.
Fioravanti said that the veto decision “resulted from extreme and undue political pressure from Senator Skoufis, illustrating that this monitor is not truly ‘independent,’ as the law had intended.”
He said that Orange County would lose out on 750 projected warehouse jobs and 2,400 direct and indirect construction jobs if the veto were to stand.
The development agency has warned that Amazon may cancel the project without the tax break. If Amazon, scraps the project, Minisink Valley School District would miss out on $40 million in new tax revenue in the next 15 years and $8.3 million every year after that, the agency said.
The development agency has stated that the decision made by the state monitor threatens other development projects in Orange County. The idea that a similar veto could happen might chase away economic opportunities from the county and New York to more business-friendly areas and states.
Sanvidge told The Epoch Times on Dec. 4, “I have not received any response to my notice of violation.”
Skoufis said in a statement to The Epoch Times on Dec. 5 that Sanvidge is a “consummate professional.”
“It’s arrogant and shameful that the IDA is trying to diminish Mr. Sanvidge’s expertise rather than reflect on their own entitled, anti-taxpayer behavior,” he said.
“The thousands of Orange County taxpayers who feel ripped off have made their concerns heard, and it’s not that complicated: If Amazon wants to build here, they should pay their … taxes.”
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