Florida official blasts Beech-Nut deal

By KERRY McAVOY, The Leader-Herald
FLORIDA — Town Planning Board member Leon Gray criticized the deal Montgomery County officials made with Beech-Nut in an effort to keep the baby food manufacturer in the county, saying the deal was not in the best interest of taxpayers.

Gray addressed the Town Board Tuesday, less than a week after he and the rest of the Planning Board unanimously approved the site plan for the project.

“I’ve heard comments this deal got shoved down our throats,” Gray said. “I think it got shoved another place too.”

Gray said the agreement made to allow Beech-Nut not to pay taxes for a set number of years was wrong, and the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors was partially at fault for the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement reached with Beech-Nut.

Under the PILOT agreement, Beech-Nut will not have to pay property taxes on the site for the first 13 years of the facility. Instead, the company would give the Montgomery County Industrial Development Agency $2.5 million a year for 13 years. The state would reimburse Beech-Nut for that cost.

For years 14 to 20, the company would give $60,000 a year to the towns of Amsterdam and Florida. Beech-Nut also would pay $10.2 million to the Greater Amsterdam School District and $6.8 million total to the county.

The company also stands to receive about $104.5 million in state funding and $24 million in state Empire Zone benefits.

Supervisor William Strevy said the supervisors had nothing to do with the creation of the PILOT agreement. He said the agreement was reached independently between the IDA and Beech-Nut.

“We had no input. We were told it was already done,” Strevy said.

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors will vote on the PILOT agreement during its next board meeting May 27 at the county building in Fonda.

Gray said he also was concerned no local jobs may come from the construction of the new facility.

“Everyone was involved to help a corporation who may not be looking at local interest like they said they were,” Gray said. “This is not creating local jobs for local people.”

Gray said he feared Beech-Nut would not even use local construction workers to build the 635,000-square-foot facility in the Florida Business Park. Gray said workers could come from out of state since there is no clause in the land agreement that Beech-Nut hire local contractors to do the work.

“I don’t think the taxpayers’ best interests were looked at,” Gray said.

Strevy said the IDA and the Board of Supervisors kept more than 350 local jobs for people employed at Beech-Nut’s Canajoharie and Fort Plain plants. Strevy said it was important to keep those jobs local.

Beech-Nut will move approximately 350 jobs from its Canajoharie facility and 15 from its Fort Plain site. Thirty-five corporate workers will move from temporary offices in Latham.

The company said it plans to hire 135 new workers.

Councilman Steven Rackowski said area people have been hired since Troy company Rifenburg Construction was hired to do the site excavation.

Gray said even with the hiring of local companies, the actual workers could come from out of state.

“This isn’t a guaranteed deal to create local jobs,” Gray said.

Beech-Nut is planning a ground-breaking ceremony Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. at the new location on Route 5S between the Target Distribution Center and the Mohawk Mills Housing Development.



Kerry McAvoy covers Montgomery County. She can be reached at montco@leaderherald.com'>montco@leaderherald.com'>montco@leaderherald.com'>montco@leaderherald.com.