Krogmann tosses GF school lawsuit on Finch’s taxes

By Gordon Woodworth, Chronicle News Editor

State Supreme Court Judge David Krogmann Monday threw out the Glens Falls City School District’s lawsuit seeking a larger share of school taxes paid by Finch Paper.

Judge Krogmann’s nine-page decision upheld the school district’s legal standing and its right to file the Article 78 lawsuit, but held that it waited too long to take action. He cited a four-month statute of limitations from the time the City of Glens Falls posted its final tax roll a decade ago.

“Here, then, the statute of limitations began to run in July 2005 — when the challenged apportionment first occurred and the petitioner was allegedly first aggrieved by it,” Judge Krogmann wrote.

“The [school district’s] argument that the Assessor’s utilization of the 2005 apportionment and assessment in the 2012 tax roll created a new four-month statute of limitations period commencing July 1, 2012, is incorrect…

“Based upon the foregoing, it is the Decision and Order of this Court that the Petition is, in all respects, dismissed.”

In October 2012, the city school district sued the City of Glens Falls and its assessor, plus the Abraham Wing school district and Finch Paper.

In 2012 the city school district received about $255,000 in taxes from Finch, while Abraham Wing School District received about $750,000.

The city school district claimed that Finch’s main mill, which is in the city school district, is under-assessed, and the portion of the Finch property in the Abe Wing district was valued too high.

The lawsuit asked that the assessment on the parcel in the city school district be increased to $22.47-million from $7.55-million, and the assessment on the parcel in the Abe Wing district be lowered to $11.2-million from $26.1-million.

E-mail messages to Paul Jenkins, Glens Falls City School superintendent and Finch Paper spokesman John Brodt were not returned by press time.