Dueling Videos on Taxes and Properties

It's not exactly the Sundance Film Festival, but dueling videos about taxes and properties in town are making the rounds of websites and provoking outrage on both sides in the process.

The duel began last week with the release of a video purporting to prove that through its housing policies, the town is destroying the tax base of Huntington Union Free School District 3. As facts and figures scroll by, various scenes of destruction play out.

In turn the town released a response over the weekend, disputing several claims in the original video.

But what set off Town Board member Mark Mayoka was the use of a tax bill-with name and property address blacked out--of one of the presumed makers of the original video. The town's video counters claims about taxes collected from the town's Take Back the Blocks houses to the taxes paid on a comparable property, that of the resident linked to the first video.

At the end of the town video, the names of all members of the Town Board are listed

"It's unscrupulous to highlight the property taxes of a particular resident that was alleged to have created the original video," Mayoka, the lone Republican on the board, said. "It's not our responsibility to respond to YouTube videos. Is this going to be the new policy, to respond to each new video that is produced through the coming years," he said. He also took issue with the fact that his name was listed at the end of the video even though he hadn't approved of it..

But town spokesman A.J. Carter said, "The video was produced at the direction of the majority of the Town Board. Its purpose was to correct factual errors in the video that was being circulated. While the Town respects differences of opinion and encourages debate on issues of public concern, the Town has a responsibility to point out errors that may be improperly affecting the discussions and to provide the facts that correct those errors."

 Carter said the video was produced at no cost. 

There is yet another video making the rounds, mocking the town version with crude noises.

The town's version was released over the weekend on a Facebook page but posted to the town website Monday afternoon. The town-produced video was the subject of debate on some sites this weekend, with posters discussing whether it was a town project or a private one.