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Unique financing scheme proposed to bring more electricity to Appletree Acres

By Howard B. Owens

It's going to take a good deal more electricity to power an expanded Liberty Pumps in Bergen and adding more transmission lines to Appletree Acres will cost a bit of money.

To help pay for it, Genesee County Economic Development Center is proposing a financing scheme known as a PIF -- PILOT Increment Financing.

Liberty Pumps already has an approved PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) for its expansion, and a PIF reallocates some of their PILOT payments toward infrastructure payments.

In this case, GCEDC is proposing a 50-percent PIF, meaning the taxing jurisdiction will get half of the PILOT payments and half will go toward a fund to pay for the additional power lines and poles.

The cost of the electricity project is estimated at $150,000.

The power expansion will benefit all of Appletree Acres, making it more attractive to potential businesses considering the park and Village of Bergen residents, said Mark Masse, VP of business development for GCEDC.

It will also mean ratepayers in the Village of Bergen -- which has its own power utility -- won't see a rate increase as a result of infrastructure upgrade.

Of the 10-year period of the PILOT/PIF, the county will receive nearly $80,000 in PILOT payments and $80,000 will go to the electricity project. For the county, the gain/loss of $80,000 is not currently either a budgeted expense or budgeted revenue.

For the Village of Bergen the split is $17,600, and for the Byron-Bergen School District, it's $287,850.

All three jurisdictions will need approve the PIF.

Masse will explain the project to the Byron-Bergen School Board tonight.

A PILOT is a mechanism to relieve a new or expanding business of some property tax burden on projects expected to create new jobs. The property is either owned or leased by the nonprofit GCEDC so there are no property taxes owed; the business then makes payments in lieu of those taxes during the PILOT period. The payments increase on a graduated scale over a 10-year period, usually started at 20 percent of the increase in assessed value.

A PIF, then, takes those payments and allocates at least a portion to a specific community project.

The County's Ways and Means Committee learned about the PIF plan for Appletree Acres on Wednesday, but was not yet asked to vote on the project.

Liberty Pumps is planning to add 100,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space.

Mark Potwora

Financing scheme is a good way to put it..This money that in reality the county and the school district will be giving up to pay for someones upgrade to the electrical system..So when its all broken down it is the county property tax payer who is paying for this...The county legislators should start representing all taxpayers and not just a few..

Liberty Pumps already has an approved PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) for it's expansion, How did this get approved already with out a public hearing?..

Mar 6, 2014, 9:51am Permalink
Mark Potwora

I guess these are the kinds of deals you get when your the ex chairman of the GCEDC board..Ok raises for all of them a few months ago and get the taxpayer to pay to upgrade the electric system the feed the power to your plant.....

Mar 6, 2014, 12:24pm Permalink
bud prevost

You are all just jealous that you aren't one of the lucky pigs who can feed from Boss Hyde's trough. Shame on you for ever questioning who is worthy of being an insider.

Mar 6, 2014, 1:26pm Permalink
Bob Harker

So Charlie Cook resigns from the GCEDCand weeks later is asking for a 1.3 million tax break. But of course the recent GCEDC vote on Liberty’s incentive package will be a provisional one. Final approval cannot take place until a public hearing is conducted. Can anyone tell me of a single time that GCEDC accepted public input and didn't go ahead with it's original plan anyway?

And now MORE taxpayer $ be dumped back into the profitable Liberty Pumps.

Ridiculous. Belay that. Sickening.

Mar 6, 2014, 6:30pm Permalink

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