Hawley: Historic day in Batavia as zombie property relief bill signed into law

I'm curious. Does this tax exemption mean that zombie properties which are made rental properties require landlords to rent to section 8 tenants?

It probably doesn`t require it but that`s exactly who will be living in them. This town has turned into a welfare/hud haven. The landlords rake in the high Hud rents and the town turns into a bigger dump! The good people are being chased out of their neighborhoods! What does that do for the tax logs?

This tax relief is actually only going to apply to houses that are owner -occupied, and they must be single family homes. No rental property or apartments will be eligible.

Jim, these are abandoned houses. Would you rather try something, or leave them as is? This is at least one solution to abandoned property.

Allowing someone to buy and fix up these properties will still put them on the property tax roll. It will just give the buyers a bit of a break which will be an incentive to get these abandoned properties back to looking decent and bringing in some tax dollars to the city. it doesn't mean they will be completely tax exempt. I think it is a good thing, for a lot of reasons .

There is ALWAYS going to be at least one negative voice (JU), but this is a great idea, and is really unprecedented for a small community. I really do hope people take advantage of this and bring these properties back to life.

Here comes the welfare/hud crowd always perpetuating myths and rumor.....

If you make 50,000.00 a year...you pay:

4,000.00 for corporate subsidies,
247.00 for Defense budget,
235.00 for Medicare,
43.00 to disablilty and retirement for Govt employees.
22.00 for Unemployment insurance
3.00 for Natural disaster relief.

But only...
36.00 for SNAP (Foodstamp Program)
6.00 for Welfare... If these last two things we all pay for piss you off and the rest doesn't, are you sure you are pissed off at the right people?

Lay off the whining about Hud, and Welfare crap until you get the big expenditures like the rest under control. After all if the Govt did what you asked and stopped them all together, you don't think you'd get a cent back to yourselves do you? It would go into the rest of these items in a heartbeat.

I resent the fact that people on here insinuate that only bad people are on any kind of assistance and are chasing good people out of neighborhoods. Maybe if you stopped looking down on them and treated them like equals you'd find out the truth.... Rather than isolating yourself from them and looking down on them like they are some kind of wretched creatures.

Think about that for a bit.....

Well said, Kyle.

LOL Irene I don't hear that often..... Its something I feel strongly about, there are alot of people out there who end up falling on hard times, more so now than ever before. But attitudes like you see on here, based most on media myths tend to add a component of shame to things like this.

I want to know.....where is the shame for the corporations that get bailed out by our tax dollars, but then still pay their corporate heads millions in bonuses and salaries? It's unfair at the least but we all allow it with our apathy. Easier to strike out at the poor family down the street than to hold the Govt and corporations accountable I guess.

*tapping his cane in agreement* Here, here!

Kyle Couchman, I could not possibly agree with you more.. People tend to complain about things around them without even knowing the facts of what they are complaining about. I, myself was not even aware of the figures, thank you for pointing them out. And I know I would rather be the person paying the taxes and living as I do, than the other way around. It's not always as black and white as it looks. Thanks for the insight, I hope a lot of people read your post and take heed.

It must be Halloween cuz it's a scary, scary morning.... I'm agreeing with both Kyle and Richard!

Great post and points, Kyle!

A couple or 30 years ago a friend from college started dating this guy in Rochester who had just purchased a run-down house under a similar program. He had something like 30 days to move in, and 6 months to bring the house up to code. I believe the couple is still living in that house. The program was a very good investment for the city.

Kyle, not sure where you're getting your facts and figures from. You're saying somewhere north of 90 percent of federal tax dollars go to corporate welfare (and we have no idea what you mean by that phrase). That doesn't align with any breakdown of federal spending I've ever seen.

The majority of federal spending is on what might broadly be called social services (with the vast majority of that going to retirees) and the next biggest chunk goes to the military, followed by interest on debt.

I don't see "corporate welfare" on any of these charts.

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spe…

I can't find the site that I got those number from originally, but I did do some research on it before giving it credibility. The numbers aren't too far off. But you are right corporate subsidy is suspect but given just our local experience with GCEDC and how it hands out tax breaks, we have an idea on how it is done and it's very difficult to pin down. But it does exist.

Here is an example of how slick some of these subsidy disbursements happen, which when put together with our own local observations is starts to become apparent.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/1998/0420/6108042a.html

The Bank bailout of 2008 is also a big corporate subsidy that has had lasting effects that continue to this day.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikecollins/2015/07/14/the-big-bank-bailout…

The truth is I just posted my opinion based on what research i could do and my own personal experience, the numbers are generalizations and you can pick it apart. But to be honest the kind of facts you are requesting would take a Doctorate in accounting and finances to dig up, and to understand.

The point of my post is that people like to point fingers on welfare, foodstamps and housing assistance as part of the problem when they really arent. They are just convenient scapegoats to vent frustrations on, They perpetuate myths and media fallacies about fraud, ( it does exist in these programs but it has been no morethan 2% for decades ) and continue to shame them.

But the truth is alot are having their eyes opened, as more become retired or lose investments like most former Kodak employees have. They have to turn to these programs and learn that they are very meticulous in screening applicant and very strict in what actions you must take to get and keep any benefits.

To be honest though I am surprised that at the moment I have 7 up votes and no down votes (@ 10 am) . Perhaps the kernel of truth in this post has reached more of the Batavian community than I thought it would. I'm sure at least a couple of people who hate me here would have down vote-ed it by now....

Also the 33% of the federal budget that you say " broadly be called social services " is not what people are referring to here.

The site you are citing labels that 33% chunk as Social Security, unemployment and labor. That is not part of the welfare system as i can tell you when applying for or recieving section 8, welfare or food stamps. Unemployment income and social security income are tallied up as factors to how much assistance you get from those agencies. They are separate.

While its hard to nail down the programs that people here complain about the most fall under what the site you refer to calls Housing and Community 2% with the exception of the SNAP (or foodstamp) program which because it is run by the USDA would also include some funding from Food and Agriculture 4% area.

That would make the numbers I posted a little more accurate, still a generalization but a more credible one. Don't you agree Howard?

"This tax relief is actually only going to apply to houses that are owner -occupied, and they must be single family homes. No rental property or apartments will be eligible."
It didn`t state this in the article so I guess I jumped the gun. I was responding to the first comment. I am not referring to all of the Hud/welfare clients either. Obviously some people can fall on hard times and need help. I am referring to situations like on my street where there is one Hud approved apartment building owned by a company out of Rochester that has brought nothing but chaos to our neighborhood! Drug deals up and down the street, screaming and fighting at all hours of the night, strangers stumbling by the house coming from there at 3 o`clock in the morning. etc. I had the same situation occur on East Main St as well. You can see by the article on the gang attack today what that area has turned into. More than one neighbor on my street is talking about selling and moving because of the crap that goes on in this one house! If you don`t think that this is contributing to the downfall of Batavia, you are blind! I don`t need your figures Kyle, I have lived it.

Then stop being a victim, and speak out... You don;t have to just accept things when they effect your quality of life. Drag things out into the light, keep calling police on every little incident, get your Ward councilman involved. Contact the Rochester group that is renting this out, better yet contact their insurance company or bank. There are ways to start changing things. But you and your decent neighbors need to take a stand TOGETHER and do these things TOGETHER.

There is fewer and fewer places to go to get away from this stuff, no matter where you go, this stuff can even happen out in rural areas so moving is only a temporary fix Jim.

Police have been contacted by numorous neighbors and were told that they are becoming nuisance callers! The Rochester group was contacted and stood behind their tenants after a robbery occured next door. The cops are called to this residence 3-5 times a week! It`s not just Batavia, it`s everywhere. Batavia has been going downhill for years now though.

Jim, what is the name of the company and the address of the building?

So then be a nuisance caller, and keep calling as long ass their are valid concerns then the nusiance is warranted. Thats a hell of alot better then putting up with the nusiances yourself. I did a check and that spot can be a nuisance.....but there is alot of traffic there and the organization that you have nearby (trying to keep your place private) might be able to help you out as far as some of the nuisances go.