ALBANY – New York would continue to pay its fair share of local taxes on the Forest Preserve and other state-owned lands under a budget deal worked out over the weekend, but the deal won’t be final until the budget is approved.

Under the Executive Budget, state payments to local governments and school districts would have been frozen at 2008-09 levels, which would have caused double-digit property tax increases in some rural communities and hampered open-space protection statewide.

“While it’s not final yet, we are very pleased that this ill-conceived policy has been stricken from the budget,” said Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club. “The freeze would have had a significant fiscal impact on communities in the Adirondacks, Catskills and other parts of the state and would have crippled the state’s open-space program at a time when so many critical parcels are available.”

Under the common law principle of sovereign immunity, the state is exempt from local taxes unless it gives its consent to be taxed. In 1886, the year after it created the Forest Preserve, the Legislature allowed these lands to be taxed because lawmakers recognized the problems that would be created if large tracts of land were removed from the tax rolls of these small rural communities.

Over the years, the Legislature has expanded the system of tax payments to include other areas with large tracts of state forest or park land. For example, the state pays full taxes on Harriman State Park, Sterling Forest and Allegany State Park. For some lands, the state pays school taxes. In fiscal 2007-08, New York paid more than $170 million in local taxes on more than 4 million acres statewide.

The proposed freeze would have severely undermined local support for state land acquisition at a time when New York has so many opportunities to protect natural treasures. Those include Follensby Pond and the former Finch, Pruyn land in Adirondacks and the Hemlock and Canadice lakes property in the Rochester area.