The town of Hague has filed a complaint with the state Comptroller’s office alleging that Hague is shouldering an unfair portion of the Ticonderoga Central School tax levy.
“This complaint is based on four critical legal failures by the Ticonderoga Central School District that have severely distorted the tax levy to the detriment of town taxpayers,” states the complaint, dated June 12.
“I think it’s important to understand that this is not litigation. It is a complaint,” said Hague Supervisor Joshua Patchett, at the Hague Town Board meeting on June 9.
The complaint asks the Comptroller’s office to conduct an audit of the school district and to direct the district to take corrective action if the complaint is found to be valid.
The school district encompasses Ticonderoga and Hague.
The complaint alleges that an annual “off-the-books” payment Sylvamo, which owns a paper mill in Ticonderoga, makes to the school district to “make it whole” is not properly accounted for in the equalization rate calculation which determines the portion of the tax levy that property owners in each town bear, and that no written agreement dictating the payment could be found.
“Operating as an illegal corporate gift, this practice violates the Gifts and Loans Clause of the New York State Constitution, and statutory mandates,” the complaint states. “By hiding millions of dollars in true values from state equalization metrics, it forces Hague taxpayers to absorb an artificially inflated share of the regional school levy,” the complaint states.
The complaint further alleges that the mill’s assessment is undervalued, because it was not raised after International Paper Co., the mill’s former owner, spent $100 million on capital improvements between 2014 and 2016.
The complaint also alleges that “host payments” which Champlain Hudson Power Express make on a high-voltage power line underwater in Lake Champlain are not properly accounted for in the equalization rate calculation.
And the complaint alleges that lake-front property in Ticonderoga is underassessed.
School Superintendent Scott Nephew, in an interview on June 15, would not comment on the complaint.
The complaint is the latest development in a long-time dispute between the town of Hague and the school district over distribution of the tax levy.
Hague property owners pay 56.9% of the tax levy yet Hague accounts for 4% of the students, said Hague Councilman Jack Bast, in a telephone interview on June 16.
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