WAWAYANDA – Just because a state monitor vetoed the financial inventive package for the Amazon facility in Wawayanda does not mean it is a dead issue.
The company has options to sort out since the town planning board has approved the 3.2 million square foot, five-story facility.
The veto means the payment in lieu of taxes will have to be re-submitted to the Orange County Industrial Development Board for consideration of a revised version. If it were to be resubmitted exactly as is, the monitor could veto it again and go into a veto spiral.
Another option is the matter could end up in court with the resolution to be determined by the judicial system.
Amazon could also opt to build the facility without IDA incentives, which would mean the project would cost more and could be built with out-of-town labor.
But, opponents of the incentives say construction without them would mean more money in the pockets of the local taxpayers.
Under the IDA agreement, the facility would have to be constructed using a majority of labor from the Mid-Hudson region. Without that deal, workers could come from anywhere, meaning the local labor force would lose out, something the IDA board and the Hudson Valley Construction Council opposes.
On the flip side of the project argument, is those including the Protect Orange County group that says it should not be built at all because of the environmental dangers.
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