State Senator For Sale: How Real Estate Interests Killed OC Preservation Bill

$362,607.25 was given to State Senator Skoufis while he helped kill a bill to permit Orange County towns and villages to tax property sales in order to preserve land.

On August 14th, 2020, State Senator James Skoufis voiced his concerns to The Times Herald Record about a land preservation bill involving Orange County.

This struck many as odd at the time. Why would a Democrat be against land preservation during a climate emergency?

Today, we know why.

Land preservation is a big issue in the Hudson Valley, especially in Orange County, because many people move here from New York City to enjoy the scenery and local wildlife. The last thing anyone wants to see when they come to Orange County is the city-like environment they just fled from.

Given the worsening climate crisis, and water restrictions in major Orange County towns such as Woodbury and Palm Tree, and villages like South Blooming Grove, one would think the local Democrats would want to protect and preserve what green space that they can.

Before, it was to preserve the aesthetics of the surrounding area. Now, it’s a question of this area’s very survival as the planet warms.

But if you know anything about Orange County politics, it’s that the local Democrats (with a few exceptions such as Town of Monroe Councilwoman Maureen Richardson) are mostly bought and paid for.

Woodbury Village Trustee, James Freiband, for example, is a Democrat. Despite this, he is a vocal advocate of lifting the building moratorium in Woodbury to allow for further development. As are upcoming Woodbury Village Board candidates Tyler Etzel Jr and John Kelemen. (Although Kelemen was a Republican up until recently, switching parties as part of a cynical effort to garner voters during an upcoming election cycle with a likely high Democratic voter turnout.)

Previously, Monroe Town Supervisor Harley Doles, also a Democrat, allowed for much of the building projects you see happening in and around the Town.

This is not to blame the Democrats exclusively, after all it was the current Monroe Town Supervisor Tony Cardone and Monroe Councilwoman Dorey Houle that were pushing for development of land set aside by the town for preservation, but typically, the push for development in our area comes from Democrats.

The reason is simple: If you want the money and support of hanhallah, you need to support building regardless of the environmental costs.

State Senator James Skoufis is no exception.

During the life of this proposed land preservation bill, funded through a real estate transfer tax, Senator Skoufis received $362,607.25 in donations to his pac, Friends Of James Skoufis.

Of the top ten donors during this time period, half of them are wealthy real estate developers and parties with interest in the real estate business: Gary Barnett (Excel Development), Ira Riklis (Sutherland Capital Management Inc), David Gefner (Perigrove Capital Limited), Manju Amar and Raja Amar (AUM Group.) Together, these five individuals represent $48,600 in campaign contributions to Senator Skoufis.

Introduced by State Senator Jen Metzger, and State Senator Liz Krueger, that bill — known as Senate Bill S6224B — would have accompanied Assembly Bill A7699B in allowing for Orange County towns and villages to hold a referendum. The referendum would have allowed each municipality within Orange County to create a real estate transfer tax for the purposes of preserving land. The sole exception would be Warwick, where they already have such a tax.

The Assembly bill was created and introduced to the Local Governments Committee on May 16th, 2019. It made its way to the Senate in January of 2020, was killed, and then found itself back in the Assembly, where it was then passed, again, and sent to the Senate in February of 2020.

The Senate version of the bill, as of this writing, is still with the Local Government Committee, where it has remained since June 9th, 2020.

Senator Metzger was successful with an virtually identical bill — easily passing the Assembly and Senate, and becoming law, — which granted Ulster County towns and villages the capability to create a real estate transfer tax if they voted to have one.

So, Why Didn’t Orange County’s Bill Pass?

On May 2nd, 2024, with bipartisan support, Orange County’s legislature asked the same question.

And once again, they passed a resolution asking the assembly and senate representatives of Orange County to either pass the current bill, still in committee, or draft and pass a new one. You can see that resolution here on Page 20. I’ve reached out to Assemblymen Brabenec, Eachus, and Maher asking if they will introduce such legislation.

It’s not likely we will see support of it by Senator Skoufis, so I also reached out to Yvette Valdes Smith, who is running for the State Senate seat slightly north of us if she will support the bill on the Senate side of things.

(I didn’t bother asking Dorey Houle for comment, despite her doomed campaign for Skoufis’s Senate Seat. A sentient paper bag would be a better candidate, and also provide a better quote. Given that Mrs. Houle was for the Rye Hill preserve being developed before she was against it, it’s not likely we would receive an honest answer from her if asked. If you don’t want to vote for Skoufis, I encourage you to write-in “Brown Paper Grocery Bag” as your choice this Fall.)

How do we know Skoufis won’t support this new bill?

There was an interesting comment made during the Orange County legislature meeting on the 2nd concerning State Senator Skoufis that you should hear. It begins at 18:46 in this video. (At the moment, I’m unable to embed it here on Substack.)

Kate S. Ahmadi is a hero. You should listen to her comments in full, but I’m going to share with you her comments about Senator Skoufis:

“In 2019-20, you voted unanimously to pass this HVCPA bill. But our present senator [Skoufis] stopped it in Albany. He said it was because of taxation, which once again makes no sense since under the bill each municipality sets its own real estate transfer tax as minuscule as it wants.”

A month before State Senator Skoufis mentioned his concerns about the bill to The Times Herald Record in August of 2020, Friends of James Skoufis received $7,500 from Berish Schonbrun, owner of Orange County Superior Concrete.

He also received $5,000 from Bernard Mittelman of MBH Development Group. (If Mr. Mittelman’s name sounds familiar to readers of The Monroe Gazette, that’s because we previously reported on his $11,600 donation to Congressman Pat Ryan.)

Chaine Horowitz, of Sapphire Ventures LLC and numerous other LLCs, donated $7,500 to Friends of James Skoufis.

Two months before Senator Skoufis mentioned his concerns about the bill, he received $18,000 from Manju and Raja Amar, $5000 from the New York State Association of Realtors Inc., and $2,500 from the Real Estate Board Pac.

This came in addition to $2,500 from the Real Estate Board Pac in June of 2020, which followed a donation of $5,000 from the pac in January of 2019. Not to be out done, Rpac Of Nys (The NY Association of Realtors) donated $2,800 a month after Mr. Skoufis publicly expressed skepticism about the bill, which came just three months after they had given him $5,000

That’s $55,800 contributed to Senator James Skoufis from real estate interests in a three month window while the Orange County bill was being discussed.

The list of large donations to the Senator goes on. You can see some of Mr. Skoufis’s largest donors on this spreadsheet on the “All Over 1k Tab.” I am currently in the process of cataloguing all of the donations related to real estate.

Between January 1st of 2019 and December 31st of 2021, Senator Skoufis brought in over $864,137.16.

What Does The Senator Have To Say For Himself?

A little less than a month ago, sent on official New York State Senate letterhead for reasons only the sentient paper bag can figure out, I received an angry letter from State Senator Skoufis.

During my brief discussion with the Senator, when asked about the large donations he received from the local hate group, he said this:

It's not my responsibility to explain someone else's reasoning for donating, but it is my responsibility to ensure those donations don't change how I approach this work.

Based on the facts presented here, and elsewhere, can anyone with a straight face tell me that the senator is telling us the truth with this comment?

There’s only one way to find out.

I encourage you to email skoufis@nysenate.gov and ask him if he’s going to introduce this legislation, as requested by Orange County.

Because it’s one thing for him to say he’s not influenced by $362,607.25 (and counting) of campaign contributions, but it’s another entirely for him to prove it.