AFTON – Why would a successful company need taxpayer dollars to take over another business?

That’s what a group of roughly 20 Afton residents asked the county’s Industrial Development Agency Wednesday at a public hearing regarding an agreement that would give Owego-based Wagner Lumber a large tax break for purchasing a struggling saw mill in the town.

The group also wanted to know why virtually no one in Afton knew about the deal, why the required public hearing was held at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday, and how no one knew about that, either.

“This was a poorly advertised meeting. And it’s a very poor time. This is a working class town,” said Village of Afton Mayor Sally Muller. “I’m speaking as a citizen. In the future, if the issue concerns our town, and the village is in the town, we should know more about what’s going on.”

What’s going on?

In July, Wagner Lumber filed an application with IDA for a Payment in Lieu of Taxes Agreement (PILOT), a state-authorized deal that cuts property taxes by 50 percent over 10 years as an incentive for industrial-type businesses to keep or create jobs in a county.

Chenango County’s IDA, like the ones that exist by state law in most counties, is granted the power to issue the break without taking the issue to public vote.