WITHOUT ENOUGH VOTES, COUNCIL PUNTS'TIL SATURDAY

Unable to secure the five votes necessary to push through questionable changes to the City's Empire Zone map last night, Council President Lesnick refused to allow a vote and adjourned the Special Council meeting he had called. The new meeting is now expected to be called for Saturday morning at 9 a.m. By adjourning until Saturday, Lesnick now needs only four votes under a Rule which provided that the five votes were necessary because the Council had the Legislation for less than eight days.

Mr. Lesnick cited "unanswered questions" as the reason for the adjournment. However, the one central question, how does the Cross County Shopping Center reasonably fit the criteria for Empire Zone benefits, still won't be answered by Saturday because it can't be.

At the hastily called Real Estate Committee meeting Tuesday night, Councilmembers spent at least an hour and one half trying to get the answer to that question from someone, the owner, the administration, anyone. Nobody had a straight answer. When asked why the shopping center should be in the Zone, all present numbly and repeatedly recited the litany of tax breaks and credits that the owner would receive as a result of Empire Zone designation. But the tax breaks are not the purpose of the Empire Zone...they are the means. The purpose is to attract or retain businesses in depressed and marginal neighborhoods where they either would not otherwise locate or might choose to leave. Cross County, a successful economic engine even before its present rehabilitation plan isn't planning to go anywhere.

There is simply no good reason to give it these tax breaks. New York State taxes, the highest in the nation, are a zero sum game. If Cross County gets a tax break, overall taxation in New York doesn't change. Someone else, another business or perhaps every New York homeowner just ends up paying the difference.