Town of Delaware Supervisor Ed Sykes is often lauded as a savvy businessman. But in 2006, he was a member of the Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency board that voted unanimously to give a tax break to the Millennium Pipeline that cost the county more than $900,000 a year for 15 years. The justification was that the project wouldn’t have gone through without the tax breaks, and that something is better than nothing. But how savvy do you have to be to know that the gas line wouldn’t have gone anywhere else? It was after all to replace the 12-inch line already in place with a 30-inch line. Delaware’s Supervisor at the time, Jim Scheutzow and his board, “protested the abatement”. The Sullivan County Democrat of February 2, 2007 shows that Sykes was a booster for the tax break. He called it a “no brainer.” Others called it “nuts.”

Read more at www.sc-democrat.com/news/02February/02/pipe.htm [1] and www.riverreporter.com/issues/07-01-04/head1-ida.html [2].

Charlie Trowbridge

Hortonville, NY