It's the most wonderful time of the year.
Particularly for multi-billion-dollar corporations with an aversion to paying taxes.
Niagara County Industrial Development Agency Chairman Henry "Mickey" Sloma gave AES Corp. one of the most generous gifts of the Christmas season last week. At an IDA meeting, he affirmed the deal he brokered to present AES with a tax break worth at least $40 million. It's accurate to call it a gift, rather than a deal, because in return taxpayers get, well, nothing.
AES, which operates a power plant in Somerset and recently failed in efforts to land a state-backed expansion of its coal-burning plant, has been moaning about its tax assessment for years and repeatedly appealed its assessment to both the Town of Somerset and the Barker School District.
When those efforts failed, company officials found a much more receptive ear in Sloma. Always eager to rub up against the rich and powerful and spend money that isn't his, the would-be big shot eagerly struck a deal that would provide AES with long-sought relief from paying its share.
The 12-year package will cost the town, district and county at least $40 million, roughly the same amount the Niagara County Legislature whizzed away during its infamous tobacco-settlement spree -- if tax rates remain the same. Since that never happens, the full tab will likely wind up closer to $80 million.
After last Thursday's IDA meeting, Sloma essentially told representatives of the Barker School District and Town of Somerset to shove it, insisting his generosity would stand, despite the devastating impact on both governments, as well as the hit Niagara County will take over the 12-year life of the plan.
A Buffalo News reporter asked Sloma whether the package would be altered by the threat of lawsuits from the affected governments, a growing public outcry or plain old common sense.
"No," Sloma said, most likely with a smirk. Then again, he probably wakes up wearing one. Or maybe it's been surgically implanted.
He insisted that he couldn't change the deal, because that would require holding another hearing, and that might jeopardize closing the deal before the town finalizes its tax numbers for 2007-08.
In other words, he doesn't mind raiding the civic bank accounts, but wants to do so in a timely fashion. Sloma's sudden concern over public hearings is rather ironic. According to town and district officials, the deal approved by the IDA on Oct. 27 was drastically different than the one presented at a public hearing three days earlier.
Perhaps because he feared not seeming arrogant enough, Sloma offered these words of condescension to the school district, via the Niagara Gazette:
"Historically it doesn't look like they've had concerns with spending," he harrumphed. "I think this is a wake-up call for a lot of folks."
Now that the state Power Authority has rejected the AES expansion bid in favor of building a plant in Tonawanda, the supposed motivation for the tax break in the first place, no one has offered any reasonable explanation as to what anyone but AES gets out of the deal.
For his part, Sloma vaguely alluded to "protecting jobs."
As if AES could just pick up and move a highly profitable, massive billion-dollar plant that took years to build across the county line to, say, Lyndonville.
The whole thing makes as much sense as somebody walking down Center Street in Lewiston, waving a gun around.
Maybe Sloma's just overworked. After all, in addition to serving as IDA chairman, he serves as vice chairman of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's Board of Commissioners. He was also a member of the wildly popular state hospital-closing commission. According the commission's Web site, he also sits on the New York State Board for Professional Medical Conduct and something called the New York State Most Integrated Setting Coordinating Council, which must have absolutely fascinating meetings.
All that, and he still manages to serve as president and CEO of the Heritage Health Care Group, LLC, which the commission's site describes as "a consulting firm focusing on long term care." And let's not forget about his cable-television show, which is enjoyed by dozens across Niagara County.
Perhaps the busy schedule explains the decision to shower AES with public money. Or the botched John's Flaming Hearth deal, in which he encouraged the NFTA to make an offer on the property, then swapped the rights to Benderson Development after the Prozeralik family accepted the original offer, then washed his hands of the whole mess when Benderson pulled its usual feet-dragging routine.
That fiasco left a rotting shell of a building on Military Road and an honorable businessman facing foreclosure and possible bankruptcy. But, again -- it's not Sloma's money, so why should he care?
At least when members of the Niagara County Legislature went wild with money earmarked for health care, they were ultimately held accountable. Local and national media eviscerated them and they were ultimately held accountable at the voting booth.
Thanks to his generosity in giving to Republican candidates, though, Sloma is accountable to no one.
With the Democratic takeover in Albany, he's likely to lose most of his lofty positions before long.
That inevitability will surely cause much sorrow in the offices of companies like AES and Benderson.
For taxpayers in Somerset and throughout Niagara County, that day can't come soon enough.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | December 27 2006 |