Finger Pointing Follows Huron Assessment Settlement

8/14/2012 (Updated 11:25:01 PM)

Who's fault is it?
That seemed to be the big question Tuesday, following the news that total taxes for Endicott residents could go up by more than three hundred dollars for the average homeowner.

That's because of a big reduction in tax assessments for the Huron Campus properties:

Beverly Townsend is running for a trustee seat on the Endicott board, and blames Endicott Mayor John Bertoni's fault for  not anticipating the problem?  But is it really the mayor's fault?

Recently. a  tenyear tax abatement deal with Huron expired--opening the way for renegotiations --with the  Town of Union, which sets tax assessments for itself and Endicott.

The assessment on the Huron complex has been drastically reduced,-- reducing along with it its tax obligations to the village--shrinking by $1.8 million, to just over 600-thousand dollars.

Mayor Bertoni blames Union for not letting Endicott in on the negotiations with Huron, saying the deal was already completed before he even received notice of what had occured.

But just an hour earlier, Town of Union officials were blaming Berton.  Union Supervisor Rose Sotak said Bertoni did not make much of an effort to get involved.  "He should have been beating down our door."

Bertoni's response is that he refused to be part of any negotiations that required confidentiality agreements and "secret" meetings.

At Endicott's Board meeting Tuesday, business owner Dick Masters wondered how such an agreement could even be legal.
 
But Bertoni says not to panic-- he and his team are working the numbers, and a big tax increase is not a certainty--in fact, he and others on the board, including Cheryl Chapman say, "it's  not an option."