Nonprofits Sue New York Town Over Road Assessment

More than a dozen upstate New York nonprofit groups, including several churches and a university, have gone to court to block the city of Geneva from charging them a levy for road maintenance, says the Finger Lakes Times.

The organizations had threatened legal action if the City Council adopted legislation to impose the assessment on all properties in Geneva, including those exempt from property taxes.

In the lawsuit, nonprofit organizations such as Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the Roman Catholic and Episcopal dioceses of Rochester, call the measure a “transparent attempt to circumvent the petitioners’ real property-tax exemptions.”

The Transportation Benefits Assessment District approved by the council in May is set to come into force at the start of 2012. It would raise an estimated $2-million, the cost of Geneva’s street program.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Finger Lakes Health, another organization pursuing the lawsuit, had offered to pay $2-million over 10 years in payments in lieu of taxes if the road assessment was rescinded, but it said the city refused.

Mathew Horn, city manager of Geneva, said the city was reviewing the lawsuit, “but we are also moving ahead with finalizing the district assessments.”