“We had no choice but to give this up,” said Alderman Moti Sandman, as city legislators approved a $184,761 tax refund for land occupied by a politically connected trucking company.
At their full board meeting Monday, aldermen agreed unanimously to issue the first installment of a $480,903 tax break for CSX Transportation. The refund coversthree properties on Middletown Avenue that CSX leases to the Anastasio family.
The refund comes under a state law that holds that railroads, which pay gross receipts to the state and federal government, cannot be taxed by the city as long as the business is being used “exclusively for railroad purposes.” (Click here and here for previous stories.)
A settlement was approved in February by the Litigation Settlement Committee, with Alderwoman Arlene DePino abstaining and Alderman Jorge Perez, who first raised a red flag over the issue, voting against.
By the time the matter came to the full Board of Aldermen, a settlement had been signed by the mayor, so aldermen felt they had no choice but to say “aye.”
They did take one proactive step: They voted to hire outside counsel to take a second look at the issue and see if the city should be issuing such tax breaks in the future.
Aren't the alders part of the check and balance system?? Why did they feel obligated to say "aya" simply because the Mayor signed some deal. This is wrong and its too bad the Mayor didn't see this and the alders didn't put up a bigger fight. It seems that only one paying attention was Alderman Perez (thank you!!). The fact that there was no dissention and all alders voted yes to this is disturbing. Someone should have had the cojones to say no...even if they were out-voted.
I'm sure some tax break is in the works for Gateway Terminals next right??? Why not give all the polluters and bad businesses a break!
This is just unsettling and feels dirty...someone got swindled and again, I think it was us, the citizens of New Haven.