Are those property-taxed slopes you’re skiing on?
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- July
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Private ski areas, golf courses, campgrounds and other businesses are joining together to ask that Gov. David Paterson sign a bill to examine the outdoor recreation industry. If signed, a commission would study ways to create “fair” competition between publicly and privately owned facilities. The groups urging its passage include the Business Council of New York State, Ski Areas of New York, the New York State Turfgrass Association and the Campground Owners of New York.
“Private sector outdoor recreational facilities, which pay real property taxes, payroll taxes, sales and use taxes—all of which support communities—are being asked to conduct business against government-owned and taxpayer-subsidized competitors,” Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of the Business Council, said in a statement.
Competing with “taxpayer-financed facilities raises fundamental issues of fairness and for many owners of such businesses, has forced them to question whether they can continue to exist,” said Mike Elmendorf, state director for the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
Bellayre Mountain in Ulster County, which is run by the state, has hurt business at privately owned ski resorts, according to Tim Woods, president and general manager of nearby Windham Mountain in Greene County.
The bill passed the Legislature this year and is under consideration by the governor’s administration.
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on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 6:29 pm by Cara Matthews.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
