Riverhead school official slams tax break

Angered that a developer planning to complete a bankrupt bowling alley in Aquebogue wants a break on the taxes, the president of the Riverhead school board did something last week that resulted in suspensions three weeks ago for two of the district's high school students.

She Tebowed.

There was a difference in this case, though. The students, suspended for a day, had been warned not to Tebow -- go down on one knee and bring a hand to the head in prayer, just like Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow -- in the school hallway.

But no such directive had been issued for meetings of the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency.

Ann Cotten-DeGrasse said the state's 2 percent tax levy cap means she will have to cut $3.1 million from this year's budget to deal with increasing costs next year. And, she said, it was wrong to give Jeffrey Rimland -- the developer who wants to finish the bowling alley -- the same tax credit that the original developer was entitled to but never applied for.

Cotten-DeGrasse dropped to one knee and announced she was praying for the school district. The prayer lasted for less than a minute and elicited no comment or reaction from IDA members. When Cotten-DeGrasse got up, she said the tax breaks would cost the district $250,000 over the next seven years.

The Riverhead IDA has the authority to exempt the project from state sales tax and give it a 50 percent reduction in town taxes for three years, which would decrease by 5 percent in each of the next four years, then be eliminated.

Rimland said it will take four to six months to complete the bowling alley, and when finished it will create 50 full- and part-time jobs with a payroll of $900,000 to $1 million. He said the facility -- which will have a lounge, restaurant and party rooms -- would initially buy $150,000 worth of crops a year from local farmers.

Town board members James Wooten and Jodi Giglio spoke in favor of Rimland's application before the IDA, whose members are appointed by the town board but which acts as an independent agency. Wooten said that, even with the proposed tax break, the school district would get more money in taxes each year than if the facility remains uncompleted.

The 31,000-square-foot bowling alley is on 6 acres at 96 Main Rd., near where Routes 25 and 58 meet east of downtown Riverhead.