Developer Steve Aaron “owes more than $400,000 in property taxes on affordable-housing projects and has been accused by contractors of failing to pay his bills,” according to an investigation by the Times Herald-Record.
Kingston-based Birchez Associates and its president, Steven Aaron, owe taxes on three of four Ulster County senior and work force housing developments. Aaron is in court with three municipalities over unpaid taxes, and recently the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency voted to strip his tax break in four months unless he pays Kingston some $330,000.
Over the last five years, Aaron or his companies have been named in dozens of lawsuits, judgments or liens after contractors said they weren't paid, according to Ulster County court records. Yet last month, he won a state economic development grant for a new project in Fishkill.
“Aaron disputed claims against him point by point in an interview,” according to the report.
Aaron recently alleged racial bias and anti-Semitism was behind the demand of the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency that he pay $330,000 in taxes he owes to the city of Kingston or lose tax benefit he received for the Birchwood Village housing complex. He subsequently apologized for the allegation, saying he didn’t mean to be taken literally.
Aaron is working in Fishkill: The Birches at Fishkill, which was awarded a $1.8 million grant last month from the state Region Economic Development awards process.
For more details check out papers website.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120103/NEWS/201030327/-1/NEWSLETTER100
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