Tax breaks for hotels will hurt the rest of us

Dear Editor: Developer Charles Blaichman and his partners in the Uptown Kingston boutique hotel projects, if approved for their proposed payment-inlieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreements, would not have to pay $632,305 worth of taxes for the next 10 years.

He was quoted as saying he believed any loss to the city and school district in tax revenue would be offset by the addition of an estimated 40 fulltime jobs and 25,000 annual visitors to the neighborhood. That is quite a pipe dream. What type of high-paying jobs are those 40 going to be? I doubt that hotel employees such as chambermaids and bellhops and cooks, etc., will generate taxes that will offset that lost revenue.

The truth is it is coming off the backs of the people who live in this city and cannot afford another tax increase, such as our senior citizen population, our widows and those on Social Security and pensions who do not get income increases to accommodate large jumps in taxes.

We will be priced out of our homes, and what PILOT will we see? Our assessments have gone up.

When a person starts up a business such as a luxury hotel, doesn’t he need the capital funds to be in place for all of these anticipated taxes and expenses? Is that not called the cost of doing business?

Many others have come into Kingston and built and refurbished buildings without asking for a dime.

Maybe Blaichman should concentrate on one project at a time, and complete it to see if it is a success before he tries too many at once, and we pay for his PILOTs. Barbara J. Secreto

Kingston