Reject sales tax break, agency board is urged

KINGSTON, N.Y. >> The Ulster County Industrial Development Agency is being pressed to reject contractor 2-4 Kieffer Lane LLC’s request for a sales tax exemption on the purchase of eight cranes for a total of almost $13 million.

Mike Ham, a representative of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825, told the agency board at its most recent meeting that the proposal does not fulfill the agency’s goal of attracting unique businesses to the county.

Ham said a crane company saying it will use a local site as its headquarters for statewide operations is “no big deal” and that other companies would like the opportunity to get tax breaks.

“Bay is the largest crane company on the Northeast,” Ham said. “Bay said ... if you’re looking to offset our taxes when we purchase a brand new crane, how much property is available in Ulster County? They said, ‘We will put a crane depot in there tomorrow morning.’”

Ham said even though the cranes that 2-4 Kieffer

Auringer wants to establish his business at 2-4 Kieffer Lane in the town of Ulster, just off U.S. Route 9W.

Lane LLC wants to buy have advanced computer software, there is nothing that separates the company’s capabilities from those of Costanzi Crane on Sawkill Road in the town of Ulster.

“Mr. Costanzi is not my contractor; I compete with him all the time,” Ham said. “But you take his 175ton crane, you know what the difference is? Nothing.”

Thomas Auringer, the owner of 2-4 Kieffer Lane LLC, disagreed earlier this month with the comparison to Costanzi, saying it would not be able to “facilitate the volume business that I do.”

“Even if they had the same high-technology cranes that I have, they would have to triple their fleet,” he said.

Auringer wants to establish his business at 2-4 Kieffer Lane in the town of Ulster, just off U.S. Route 9W.