TROY – The City Council president’s comments on projects provided assistance by the Troy Development Authority have created a furor over the interpretation of numbers.

Council President Carmella Mantello said she wants city residents to understand the impact of the IDA’s actions on property taxes, while Councilman Dan Bodnar, an IDA member, said Mantello is providing misleading information.

A recent audit by the Bonadio Group reported that in 2016 the city IDA granted tax abatements to properties in the city whose full tax value would have been S1,157,380. The payments in lieu of taxes for the properties were $410,144. That left $747,236 in abated city taxes.

The agreements between the property owners and the IDA have PILOT payments rising to 100 percent of the full tax bill over a certain period of years.

Mantello, however, recently commented to the Times Union in a story about the audit that the city was missing out on $1,198,366 in taxes because of the abatements — a sum that also included PILOTs the Rensselaer County IDA has in the city and the city IDA has with housing development and redevelopment companies. She argued that Troy homeowners pay more than 5 percent in property taxes to pay for the abatements.

Bodnar said Mantello failed to pay attention to the PILOT payments.

“She totally ignores the fact that the city actually received $410,144,” Bodnar said.

Bodnar said Mantello misinterpreted the information and that the IDA did not cost the city any property tax revenues. He said the projects most likely would not have been built and the city tax base would not grow.

"How do we know we wouldn't get the full amount" in taxes without the abatements, Mantello said Wednesday.

Mantello said she wanted to call attention to the full taxed value that was abated. The tax values for the county IDA amounted to $395,386 with PILOTS of $159,871 and abated taxes of $235,515. The city IDA agreements with housing companies amounts to $287,968 tax value with PILOTs of $72,383 and tax abatements of $215,585.

Mantello said the IDA doesn’t like to hear her pointing to the value of the tax abatements.

Bodnar and Mantello are Republicans. She is running for re-election as council president and he is running for the Rensselaer County Legislature.