Tomorrow's meeting of the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA) has been canceled. The Galvan Foundation has withdrawn its application for the building proposed for 75 North Seventh Street.
Update: Dan Kent of the Galvan Foundation is quoted in an article that appeared in the Register-Star on May 8 as saying, "We are pausing development of 75 North 7th due to macroeconomic uncertainties."
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ReplyDeleteCan someone check in on Kamal and see if this will have implications for his and/or Randall Martin's Galvan housing in the First Ward?
Last time sudden things happened with Galvan's PILOTs certain Supervisors moved out of their Galvan housing very abruptly citing, in the press, "housing stability" reasons...
I kid...
Since Kamal and Randall did not recuse themselves ahead of this planned vote on their landlord, or disclose their possible financial conflicts of interests... we will now never truly know if there was any quid pro quo over the last decade with Galvan.
🪄 In an alternate universe in a City called HudDaughter in a state called New Amsterdam, there exists a brave and principled mayor who does not date anyone on her staff...
Who instead of waiting to see if Galvan could slip under the radar and score yet another multi-million dollar tax break... or push an almost decade delayed politically tricky tax reassessment onto a successor...
🎤 Called a Press Conference this week and said:
From this day forward everyone pays their fair share of taxes. As mayor, I will do everything in my power, this summer, so that:
1️⃣ We end all PILOT deals. No new ones, no extensions. Hudson should stop giving tax breaks to favored developers while some residents "randomly selected" pick up the tax slack. It’s time everyone pays in.
2️⃣ We're going to reassess every property in town every two years, using the same unbiased software New York City uses. That way it’s objective and not political which houses get reassessed and when.
3️⃣ I’ll work with the county, the schools, the churches, and even big nonprofits within the city limits (together more than 25% of the city?) to make sure everyone contributes something fair.
If we all pay our fair share, then everyone's taxes can actually go down.
This will likely help attract more small and medium private investors to build "missing middle housing"*, help residents to invest in ADUs and renovate their homes, and landlords won't have to raise rents to achieve their minimum net yield.
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But instead in our HudSon reality there will be crickets from Kamal... just another $1m budget deficit a year, neighbors paying wildly unfair and arbitrary amounts of taxes, and an ever growing number of taxable parcels leaving the tax rolls for good.
Kamal will likely use the upcoming "Community Survey" to advocate for more subsidizing housing, a nice sounding idea... but yet another increase in city expenses without increasing city revenues.
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💡 Maybe mayoral candidates Peter Spear and Joe Ferris can work with Margaret Morris and Heather Campbell to enact these common sense tax approaches to make Hudson more fair and affordable?
I'm no Mark Penn, but fair taxes, and no new tax breaks for billionaires and centi-millionaires, could play well in an election year when housing affordability and a looming tariff-induced recession are top of mind.
*** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing
Galvan, as always, folds its tent and moves on whenever it loses out on OPM. And, as always, the mayor fails to lead, speak, act. The former’s motto seems to be “not with my money!” While the latter’s seems to be “not with my time!”
ReplyDeleteConsider the sad mayor: 6 years and not one new “affordable” development. Indeed, not one anything — the man is an expert at conserving energy and clearly has no shame. He’s a moral sink hole.
And 6 years without getting in front of residents to offer a State of the City address and possibly take some questions from the people who pay his salary.
DeleteYou can find him on Facebook. He’s currently belly aching with the townies because Kathy Hocul is making kids put away their phones at school. As someone who’s likely suffering from phone addiction he can certainly empathize with these intellectually hindered children. It seems trivial at first, but him siding that way on the issue says a lot.
DeleteKamal probably missed "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness" by Jonathan Haidt.
DeleteHere is a good overview and back story on the narrative changed in public schools: https://www.thefp.com/p/taking-back-childhood-from-phones-jonathan-haidt
Curious indeed. Yeah, I’m wondering if they’re regrouping and waiting to reapply when the heat is off them, sparing the Mayor and Randall the appearance of conflicts before the election, and also hoping for the smart people on the IDA, like Margaret, to not be there when they come back. Or, are they having financing problems with current borrowing rates and the lack of, as John puts it, “other people’s money,” and just pulling out entirely? Or, have they’ve seen less than enthusiastic interest from potential renters for their market rate faux luxury building that’s currently wrapping up? Which, by the way, did get a tax subsidy, so congratulations to Galvan and the mayor on getting that one done. The rest of us will be subsidizing it for decades. I also saw yesterday, on the Facebook page of the mayor’s assistant, which does double duty between Wordle updates and as the official City Hall press room, that the mayor was proudly taking a hard hat tour of the building, with possible local tv stations in tow. If I was his PR advisor I’d recommend he stay as far away as possible from that building and his associations with Galvan. Good grief!
ReplyDeleteI believe it's not actually just these conflicts. Opposition to this particular PILOT wasn't exclusively coming from the usual suspects (the ones that the mayor routinely ignores) but also from members of his base. After the public hearing before the Council on the charter I talked to Quintin Cross and he had nothing nice to say about that PILOT, or Galvan for that matter.
DeleteThat is meanwhile not just Quintin but the whole Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition. We may not see another Galvan PILOT while Kamal is at the helm.
Well, you think support comes for free? They (QC, Claire Cousin, the “whole HCHC), like the mayor, supported the first Galvan Depot project before the planning board and for the pilots.
DeleteThe mayor still lives in a Galvan owned home. Claire Cousin does not anymore, and that’s why she had to move from the 1st ward. Galvan is listed on the HCHC website as a backer, but who knows if that’s still the case. They (HCHC) haven’t filed a 990 with the IRS for years, have had their 501(c)(3) status revoked, so there’s no way we can know where the money comes from or where it goes. But if you think this type of support for developers comes and goes based on earnestness and not because of some type of transactional relationship, well I have the Ferry St Bridge to sell you.
It is curious how one of the largest housing advocates (HCHC) flipped so quickly on the biggest housing developer (Galvan).
DeleteWho knows, maybe Randall Martin in the First Ward saw the informal poll where Alex Madero leads him 4:1 and he asked Kamal to get some of the conflict of interest heat off of him?
Randall... whenever you are ready... can you please let us know why you did not recuse yourself from the Galvan vote?
Indeed.
ReplyDelete🤯 It is wild that in a town 6000, barely 3500 eligible voters residents have to speculate about this stuff and the paid mayor ($80k a year) and the paid mayor aide ($50k a year) and the paid mayor's romantic parter cum Housing Justice Czar ($80k a year) do not comment on this housing issue publicly or at least make full disclosures.
This would never fly in first world countries 😜
Also John, alternative read... since we can only speculate as non-friends of Kamal... we are not in the loop... maybe Rick the former mayor who works for Galvan is coordinating with Kamal and the IDA to push these Galvan/PILOT tax questions off until after the election.
🗳️ That sure would help Tom and Kamal against their challengers.
That is not an unreasonable assumption since the mayor is already putting politics ahead of residents by delaying the town wide tax re-assessment by several years.
☎️ Kamal, Justin, Michelle, Rick... you have our cell phone numbers and emails, or you can comment here, or you can comment on your own channels... but could you please help us understand what happened here?
A: Did Galvan pull out, as it were, proving that without tax breaks one cannot build profitably in Hudson?
B: Or to avoid political embarrassment for Galvan subsidized tenants Kamal and Randall?
C: To help Tom with his re-election against Margaret?
D: Savannah, Georgia has better tax breaks So Galvan is moving its operation there?
E: Other?
💸 And Kamal, can you please share with residents why you are delaying a city wide tax re-assessment?
The last one was initiated in 2017, almost a decade ago. This is cowardly and putting your political interests ahead of the city.
And oh... I don't know... maybe New York State has guidelines on these sorts of things... oh wait, they do... they recommend "frequent" and "fair" and at least every "4 years". Not 11.
Look, they also advise a piece of neutral software... oh gosh... how helpful.
https://www.tax.ny.gov/research/property/assess/state_aid/cyclical_guidelines.pdf