Green Island woman arrested with bootlegged cigarettes

GREEN ISLAND - A town woman was found with 454 cartons of bootlegged cigarette cartons and charged with unlawful possession of untaxed cigarettes and criminal tax fraud as part of the culmination of an undercover investigation of a Capital District bootlegger.

Pearl McLaughlin, 67, of 65 Hudson Ave. faces two class D felonies which are punishable by up to seven years in state prison.

By possessing these bootleg cigarettes, McLaughlin allegedly evaded an estimated $14,000 in unpaid state and local taxes, according to Tax Department's Criminal Investigations Division

Department of Taxation and Finance Acting Commissioner Jamie Woodward said: "This arrest should serve as a warning to others who may be tempted to engage in trafficking in untaxed cigarettes. The defendant faces substantial prison time and our department is committed to doing all that it can to insure that other traffickers in bootleg cigarettes face a similar fate."

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Green Island budget passes

GREEN ISLAND — The village board unanimously passed the $3.1 million budget with a 3.65 percent tax levy on Monday night.

Residents can expect to pay $208.85 per $1,000 and an average assessed home will see an increase of about $44 from last year, said Sean Ward, executive assistant to the mayor.

When the budget was first brought to Ward, he said, the tax rate increase was around 12 percent, but they cut it down to 5 percent.

At that point, the elected officials on the board said they wanted a rate that was at least below 5 percent.

These sentiments stemmed from the knowledge that the state aid was likely to decrease to $38,481 from about $41,000 and sales tax revenue is projected to decrease for a third year in a row.

“Things are very tight in the budget and we are taking chances that we normally would not take,” Ward added.

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Two caught stealing scrap metal in town of Waterford

WATERFORD -- A man and a woman were arrested Thursday morning after they were caught taking scrap metal from nearby the Highway Department building.

Several workers for the Town of Waterford Highway Department saw 26-year-old Andy Peltier and 29-year-old Agnes Veletto, both of Watervliet, removing the metal from a building adjacent to the Highway Department, according to Waterford Police. Peltier claimed they had permission to take the metal.

But the building's owner told police no one was given permission to take anything from their building.

Police located Peltier and Veletto at R.K. Freedman & Sons, Inc., in Green Island, where they were were selling the stolen metal.

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GIPA plans take a big hit

COHOES -- Plans by Green Island Power Authority to build a 100-megawatt hydro plant above Cohoes Falls took the biggest blow to date after federal regulators dismissed the bid in a ruling Thursday.

GIPA, which provides electricity to residents and businesses in the Village of Green Island, has been fighting for years to build the facility, which would replace an existing hydro plant below the falls operated by Brookfield Renewable Power of Toronto.

Last fall, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit revoked Brookfield's license for the plant, located on School Street in Cohoes, saying that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission may have failed to properly consider GIPA's plan when it granted the Canadian company's license in 2007.

Many observers had been expecting FERC to reopen the licensing process and allow GIPA's proposal to be considered.

But on Thursday, the commission issued an order restoring Brookfield's license and rejecting GIPA's proposal outright. It also said it did not err in shutting GIPA out of the process in the first place.

The commission went on to say in the order that although GIPA's proposed $75 million project was feasible from an engineering standpoint, it wouldn't work economically because the real costs would amount to $370 million.

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Businesses credited for low tax increase

GREEN ISLAND — If not for the village’s many businesses, this year’s tax rate increase could have been at nearly 50 percent.

Instead, with the hard-working municipal officials to thank as well, the proposed increase stands at 3.65 percent with a $3.1 million budget, said Sean Ward, executive assistant to the mayor, at a budget public hearing Wednesday.

This translates into $208.85 per $1,000 and an average assessed home will see an increase of about $44 from last year.

The village board plans to vote on the 2010-2011 financial plan at their meeting on April 19 at 6:30 p.m.

When the budget was first brought to Ward, he said, the tax rate increase was around 12 percent, but they cut it down to 5 percent. At that point, the elected officials on the board said they wanted a rate that was at least below 5 percent.

“We went into this with everyone aware of the fiscal conditions outside of Green Island and inside Green Island as well,” said Ward. “This was the most challenging budget that I can remember.”

These sentiments stemmed from the knowledge that the state aid was likely to decrease to $38,481 from about $41,000 and sales tax revenue is projected to decrease for a third year in a row.

“Things are very tight in the budget and we are taking chances that we normally would not take,” Ward added.

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