News At Olive Matters

Olive Matters is currently anticipating that a vote on the large parcel matter will be rushed through an Ulster County legislative committee on Wednesday of this week, the day before this issue came out. And Charles Blumstein, who’s confident that his lawsuit against the parcel law has merit, plans to file another suit against local publications (including this one) for slander and defamation of character.
"Somebody has to be brought to task for this," Blumstein declares. "They’re damaging us and our reputations severely. If a jury agrees, fine. If it doesn’t, at least we’ve taken it to the only forum that can judge something like this."
Other OM members are fully aware of what they perceive as a discrepancy in the application of the law in non-industrial Olive.
Members, recently, have taken umbrage with a letter sent out by Assemblyman Kevin Cahill in response to petitions sent to his office and to Senator Bonacic. The letter, in the estimation of most petitioners who received it, continues the distortions and misrepresentations of the law which OM claims have characterized the arguments of supporters of the large parcel since its inception.
The first of two lines of the letter in bold print "Large parcel law is a local option, not a mandate by the State," reflects all responsibility for the petitioners’ grievances to the school board. The other emphasized line states "We still face a challenge in funding a quality education."
Meanwhile, supervisor Bert Leifeld complains of this false "Weapons of Tax Deduction" spin put on his town.
"I’m trying to talk to the supervisors of other towns in Ulster County and everybody has in the back of their mind that Olive (with the large parcel invasion of the town’s tax base) is finally getting what’s due them," Leifeld noted. "They say ‘Well, it’s about time you paid your fair share of taxes.’ They don’t understand the situation; don’t have a clue. All they know is we have low taxes. That’s the way it’s been for years and that’s the perception. The town as a whole pays its share of taxes and the City should pay 52%, dammit, they own 52% of the assessed value- or better (than that) now."
Unspoken is Leifeld’s characteristic frugality as supervisor and the lower "overhead" in services in a township without municipal parking lots to maintain, without sidewalks, without so much of what runs up the bills in other townships. Highway department workers in Olive double as public park attendants when they’re not busy. Olive has one full-time police officer and the rest part-timers. They’ve eliminated a police car because there didn’t seem to be a need for it, bringing the squad down from 3 to 2. There are many other reasons for Olive’s lower taxes but the primary one, the fact that New York City owns more than half the town, has been severely modified by the parcel law. The restrictions imposed on businesses and residents by Olive’s major "tenant," however, have not been reduced. Nor have they been imposed on the other townships now sharing in those tax revenues.
These are circumstances that members of Olive Matters have pledged to change.