To the Editor:

This is what I wrote to Guilderland Industrial Development Administrative Assistant Linda Cure, and Guilderland’s grant writer, Donald Csaposs.

It would be wrong for Guilderland to award tax breaks for the proposed hotel (Hotel Devco, LLC) on Western Avenue.

There may be a few exceptions — but people making a decision to come to the region will make that decision for other reasons than the availability of the hotel to be owned by Hotel Devco, LLC. (The economic literature indicates that very few people travel out of their region to go shopping but even fewer of those long-distance shoppers stay overnight. Of course, those staying overnight for other reasons usually do some shopping).   

The construction jobs will be an addition for the region — because it is new construction — but 55 construction jobs are too few to justify the $2.415 million in tax breaks requested by Hotel Devco.

The requested tax breaks cannot be assumed to increase the pay of workers at the hotel (estimated to be about 50 persons by the applicant) nor add to county-wide employment (insofar as the one hotel takes business away from another hotel/motel, the net gain in permanent hotel employment would be insignificant, as well as it will be for those other businesses that supply linens and other services to hotels).

Therefore, the tax breaks are a gift — reducing costs for the owners while not adding to the well being of either Guilderland residents or Albany County residents or requiring the applicant to do anything to compensate taxpayers for the tax forgiveness and loss of services that the taxes would have paid for.

IDA-awarded tax breaks can be justified for a project that is “community building” — promotes improvements for those who must bear the increased taxes to offset the loss in public services the taxes would have financed.

Some have claimed that more available hotel rooms will help promote Albany’s convention business (basketball tournaments, etc). There are so many cities trying to attract these NCAA-type events that to give $2 million in tax breaks in the hope that more of these will come to Albany is a “guess” accompanied by nothing more than a “wish.”

It is likely that the owners, Devco, will build the hotel with or without the tax breaks and will build it on Western Avenue with or without the tax breaks. After all, the corporation has been accumulating the hotel land for many years and the gossip about the Crossgates hotel has been circulating for just as many years.

As noted, a few people may choose to travel to Crossgates for shopping because the hotel is more convenient to Crossgates than other area hotels, but surely not enough to offset the $800,000 in New York State sales and compensating use tax breaks, nor the $230,000 in mortgage recording tax breaks, nor the $1,385,000 in property tax breaks.

Nearly all of the people who will use the hotel would have stayed at one of the dozens of other hotels in the county had the Hotel Devco, LLC building not been available. The Devco property will be competitive, but not unique.

The net gain to the area from the new hotel will likely be small (but not zero).

Therefore I request that the Guilderland IDA not approve any of the tax breaks requested by Hotel Devco, LLC.

Don Reeb

Guilderland

Editor’s note: Don Reeb is the president of the McKownville Improvement Association. See related story.