Yorktown open space plan blocked by Assembly 
By ROB RYSER 
THE JOURNAL NEWS 
(Original publication: June 24, 2001) 

YORKTOWN — A novel plan by local politicians to tax each property owner $30
for an open space preservation fund has been squashed by members of the New
York state Assembly, who call it unfair, unprecedented and possibly illegal. 

"What Yorktown is trying to do hasn't been done in New York state or anywhere
in the country," said Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining. "The reason it
hasn't happened elsewhere and the reason we have a problem with it is because
the tax is the same whether you own 10 acres or a quarter-acre. There is an
issue of fairness." 

State legislators are investigating whether it was legal for Yorktown to put
the open space initiative on last November's ballot, Galef added, since there is
no precedent for flat-rate taxation in state law. 

Yorktown Supervisor Linda Cooper vowed on Friday to fight for the initiative
in the fall when the state Legislature meets for a new session. She said most people
in Yorktown who were willing to pay extra to preserve open space preferred the
flat tax over payments based on property assessments, the way similar open space
initiatives are being funded in many neighboring communities. 

Last November, voters by a 2-to-1 margin passed open space referendums in
Irvington, Bedford, Lewisboro, North Salem, Pound Ridge, Somers and Yorktown.
In total, voters approved $17 million to preserve woods, wetlands and meadows
from development, costing the average taxpayer between $40 and $150 a year
extra in taxes. 

The difference in Yorktown was that voters chose to pay a flat $30 fee every
year, which would have raised about $400,000 annually. 

Since there was no precedent for a flat tax rate, Yorktown needed state
approval.  The town got permission easily enough in the Senate, which passed a bill in
February. But it ran into trouble in the Assembly. 

"We are not going to do anything with it in this session," Galef said on
Friday. "It is not as though nothing will ever happen, but right now it is very problematic."

Cooper said, "We are very disappointed that it wasn't passed in this go-around,
because we believe this is an equitable way of funding open space. While there
may not be any precedent for it, we believe it is good policy, and we hope to
work with the Assembly and win them over on this." 

The Town Board went with the flat tax because, in a survey last summer, a
majority of residents said that was how they preferred to finance the
initiative. 

"This is what the consensus was, and this is what we put on the ballot," Town
Board member Nicholas Bianco said. "And the referendum passed 2-to-1." 

Conservationists had mixed reactions. "We're disappointed, but we hope
Yorktown will do what it takes to make the open space fund a reality," said Tom
Andersen, project director for the Westchester Land Trust, whose group helped get open
space referendums on the November ballots in northern Westchester and
Irvington. 

Most of the communities have already named advisory committees to pinpoint
property for conservation. "When this was being debated, there were people who
told the supervisor that this was illegal and couldn't be done," said Beryl
Harper, president of the Yorktown Land Trust. "But we supported Yorktown. Yorktown
went into this with its eyes open."