By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- In the face of difficult budget decisions being made in Albany, promised financial support from the state for communities that consolidate governments should not be seen as a certainty, says Assemblywoman Addie Russell.

But state Sen. Joe Griffo says he would fight to make sure the Citizen Empowerment Tax Credit (CETC) would be paid to Potsdam if the village were dissolved.

The CETC program is supposed to pay a bonus equal to 15 percent of the newly combined government’s tax levy. In Potsdam’s case, the estimate of the payment is $570,000, or approximately $1.21 per assessed valuation. That translates into a $60.50 annual property tax savings for a house assessed at $50,000 and $121 for a $100,000 house.

But doubts have been raised about those payments actually making their way to Potsdam, in light of the budget cutting the state Legislature has undertaken.

“These are budget realities. I would not assume the CETC payments will be annual or into perpetuity,” said Russell.

However, Republican Sen. Joe Griffo, whose 47th district includes Potsdam, says he would be firm about any such commitment to communities.

“If the village does approve a resolution, he would work to see that they get all of the Citizen Empowerment Tax credits that they are qualified for,” Griffo’s spokesman Rayan Aguam said.

“If the village is going to move forward on their commitment to dissolve, then the state should honor its commitment to giving the funding agreed upon in the Citizen's Empowerment Tax program. Should the state try to renege on the agreed payments to the municipality, then Senator Griffo will certainly do everything in his power to make sure that doesn't happen,” Aguam said.

Russell, whose 118th Assembly district includes Potsdam, said she is concerned because the state has been delaying payments that are due to localities including St. Lawrence County, and they have not been “received in a timely manner.”