To the Editor:

The views of this writer, a member of the Ulster IDA, are his personal views and are not represented to be those of the IDA.

You don’t want politicians choosing winners and losers for tax breaks, particularly when some politicians play the game of “I Win, You Lose Because if You Win, I Lose.” Wouldn’t you want collaboration instead of win/lose?

The recent kerfuffle between the county executive, IDA and Romeo KIA Motors is good reason to keep the IDA independent from political machinations emanating from the 6th Floor of the County Building.

Why?

The County Executive, Pat Ryan, was prepared to approve the KIA Motors inducement, except for … in a meeting with IDA officials he told them he would only sign if the IDA signed an agreement giving control of the IDA back to the County Executive’s Office, specifically the Office of Economic Development. His publicly stated reasons for not signing the KIA tax inducement were pure malarkey and only developed after the IDA rebuffed his bullying approach a few weeks ago.

The IDA sent this project to the county executive on June 7. It took four months to finally come up with a reason why he didn’t like it? Actually, there were multiple unpublished reasons given over four months. Really? The actual reason is that he was perfectly willing to sign KIA Motors’ tax abatement, but used the threat of not signing as a wedge to get the IDA to agree to a change from being independent to being his exclusive tool. It was, and is, a blatant shakedown, a quid pro quo and coercion.

Instead of sitting down to work on collaboration and after many attempts by the IDA to do so, the county executive decided it was bully time and time for political “tricks.” The IDA refused to participate with this blatant lack of collaboration, a “I win, you lose” quid pro quo approach.

The statute that directed the IDA in its KIA decision is clear. This is in spite of both the county exec and the chairman of the legislature positing that the inducement should not be granted because KIA Motors was moving from a highly distressed census tract to a lesser-distressed census tract. The statute does not say that. It doesn’t matter that the politicians think it is not in the spirit of the statute. The statute does not, and should not, provide for politicians to decide the spirit of the statute when they are really advancing their own agendas of control, re-election and cronyism.

Question? A certain hotel wants to move into the same area, the same distressed area as KIA. Is the county executive going to deny it? Or maybe he will call it a tourist attraction? Tourist attraction would be a Mohonk-type project, not a standalone hotel. How is the 6th floor going to handle this?

An argument has also been advanced that KIA could have stayed where it was. False — the landlord wants them out, and the company realized they could move, and increase the number of jobs that would be impossible to do in the current space.

The county executive has also said that the program used to evaluate the cost-benefit of the KIA Motors inducement is flawed. Really? This is the same cost-benefit tool that gave the Kingstonian (which Pat [Ryan] supported) high economic impact numbers. The county executive even hired a second entity to do an analysis of the Kingstonian that said the same thing. Pat supported the Kingstonian, or did I miss something? Another project on Schwenk Drive was also in an “economically distressed” census tract. The county executive supported this project — it scored extremely high on economic impact and added jobs. The county exec loved the project. Where’s the logic of denying KIA Motors? There is none and KIA should have been approved in accordance with the statute, except the IDA would not “deal” with the county executive’s quid pro quo.

The IDA was run by the previous Ulster County Executive Department. Three years ago, the IDA membership saw a complete membership turnover, prompted by the County Legislature who controls the membership, and a group of volunteers wrested the IDA from the 6th Floor. The IDA is now being run independent of politicians and politics under the chairmanship of someone who goes to great lengths to be fair and just. Know this, the county executive would have signed off on KIA Motors except that the chairman and the members of the IDA wouldn’t play ball with his coercion.

KIA Motors is the victim here — “collateral damage” — the victims of an attempted shakedown. The seven members of the IDA will collaborate with the 6th Floor and work for the people of Ulster, and not be malleable to the brute control impulses of the occupant of the county executive’s office. He is the county executive, not Caesar. Collaboration, not dictates.

Citizens of Ulster should be concerned with this clear attempted shakedown by the county executive, no matter which side of the question of tax inducements you fall on.

And by the way, where is the Chamber of Commerce on this? They screamed bloody murder two years ago (at the bidding of the 6th Floor?), objecting to the IDA not being pro-business enough. Where are you now? And why aren’t you supporting a local business that meets the IDA criteria, and is being shaken down by the 6th Floor?

Rick Jones, as a private citizen

Kerhonkson

Editor’s note: The writer is a “member” of the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency; its seven members serve in effect as a board of directors.