ELIZABETHTOWN -- A court decision in Chautauqua County two weeks ago ordered New York to stop making all payments on state lands.

This could be disastrous to Adirondack communities.

The decision by Judge Timothy J. Walker, acting Supreme Court Judge, claimed the "jumbled" approach to state land taxation is "a �hodge podge' of statutory provisions devoid of any consistent rationale for taxation."

The order responded to a lawsuit brought by John C. Dillenburg III, supervisor of the Town of Arkwright, a small community of about 1,124 people near Lake Erie.

Dillenburg has been trying for years to get the state to pay taxes on about 2,000 acres of Department of Environmental Conservation property in that town for hunting and recreation.

In his order, Walker "enjoined" the state, from "paying taxes and/or (PILOTs) on state-owned land to counties, municipalities, school districts, or special districts Â…while not making payments on state-owned land situated elsewhere in New York state."

Stayed pending appeal

The judge also ordered a stay of his decision, pending appellate review.

Attorney Michael Bobseine, with the small firm Brautigam & Brautigam LLP in Fredonia, brought the lawsuit to court.

"All we asked for is, look, if you could just take care of one community, we'll go away; we'll pretend this Rube-Goldbergian system doesn't exist," Bobseine said in a phone interview Friday.

But the truth is, he said, it does exist.

"We came back this third time and the state told us we could not ask just for relief it's all or nothing."

And the judge ruled against the entire state-land payment system.

Council outraged

The Adirondack Council is outraged.