The Watertown Daily Times reports - “A new state tax cuts into grant and payments-in-lieu-of-taxes money that industrial development agencies pass on to local municipalities and businesses.

The state Department of Taxation and Finance has levied a 4.72 percent assessment on gross revenues from every industrial development agency in the state. The assessment, approved as part of the 2009-10 budget, brings $5 million into state coffers.

IDA officials complain they did not receive adequate notification of the fee and that it unfairly taxes items that aren’t really earnings for the agencies.

Gross revenue includes collections of payment-in-lieu-of-taxes and grant revenue, but IDAs don’t actually keep any of that money. They pass the money directly on to local municipalities and businesses or programs that they serve as the applicant for.”

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