ROCHESTER - A coalition of Adirondack and conservation organizations is seeking permission from the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court to join in the state's legal defense of its tax payments to local governments in areas where the state owns large tracts of forest land.  Those payments were threatened by a lower court decision last October.

The coalition asking permission to join in the state's defense of property tax payments to local governments is comprised of the Adirondack Council, Open Space Conservancy, Adirondack Landowners Association, Adirondack Mountain Club, Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, and Audubon New York. 

The deadline for such requests is May 19.  The case is being heard by the Appellate Division's Fourth Department in Rochester.  The case is expected to be heard in September.  Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is defending the state.  The groups filed their "friend of the court" brief in an effort to assist the attorney general.

At stake is more than $70 million in annual property tax payments to 92 towns, 12 counties and dozens of school districts in the Adirondack Park alone, on 2.7 million acres of constitutionally protected NYS Forest Preserve.  Statewide, close to $200 million in annual revenue to local governments is at stake.

Last fall, a NYS Supreme Court justice ruled that all state property tax payments to local government must stop.  In that case (Dillenburg vs. New York State, 2007) a Chautauqua County Town of Arkwright supervisor sued the state because it would not pay taxes on state-owned forest lands in the town, although it made payments to other towns for similar forest lands.

The judge ruled that the town was right in claiming unfair treatment and issued an order halting all state tax payments to all local governments.  The judge voluntarily held-off on the execution of his order, allowing the state time to appeal the decision before the payments to local governments are stopped.