Costco seeks bigger tax break for new store
Objections arise ahead of hearing on exemption request
GUILDERLAND — Everyone knows that construction costs have risen sharply in recent years. But does that mean that tax breaks should rise as well?
That’s one of the questions that may arise Wednesday night as opponents of a Costco store slated to go next to Crossgates Mall question why a tax exemption request appears to have ballooned from $400,000 to more than $2.1 million. The latest request, for $2.1 million use and sales tax exemptions on construction of the Costco is in a letter from the developers to the Guilderland Industrial Development Agency.
“Why should we be giving this huge corporation a tax break?” asked Lynne Jackson, who is among the band of opponents protesting the Costco store. Their objections, which have been rejected in court, have centered on traffic and environmental impacts they say the project will have on the area, which is next to the Pine Bush nature preserve.
Now, Jackson and others are asking why the developers, subsidiaries of the Pyramid Company,
which operates Crossgates Mall, should get a tax break.
“I think it’s way out of line,” added Robyn Gray, another opponent. They plan a news conference in front of Guilderland Town Hall at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. A hearing on the request is then scheduled before the IDA at 7 p.m.
According to correspondence from one of the project’s lawyers, construction of the project was initially estimated to cost $39.9 million. But in the most recent document, it has grown to $41.4 million, an increase of just under 4 percent.
But the tax exemption they are seeking would go from
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