Check out that headline in The Register-Star by the usually smarter writer Francesca Olsen. If you read deep down in her story you see why the officials are stressing a future building purchase: they don't want you to think about the tax increase they just passed. Five paragraphs in Olsen mentions "Local laws renewing an additional half-percent of mortgage tax and an additional $2 per $1,000 of additional transfer tax on real property were also enacted." Finally, seven paragraphs in, Olsen quotes Rick Rielly, president of the Columbia-Greene Board of Realtors, saying, “These are taxes, any way you look at it.” Olsen doesn't even dare to say who voted for the tax, only that, "The renewal of taxes passed, with Supervisor John Musall, D-Hudson 1, abstaining, Supervisor William Hughes, D-Hudson 4, voting no on the additional transfer tax, and Supervisor Ed Cross, D-Hudson 2, voting no on the renewal." Cross voted no on both taxes.

UPDATE:
Here is who voted for the mortgage tax:
Ancram's Thomas Dias; Canaan's Richard Keaveney; Chatham's Jesse DeGroodt; Claverack's James Keegan; Clermont's Raymond Staats; Copake's Reginald Crowley; Gallatin's Lynda Scheer; Germantown's Roy Brown; Ghent's Lawrence Andrews; Greenport's John Rutkey Sr.; Hillsdale's Arthur Baer; Hudson's 4th Ward-William Hughes, 5th Ward -Bart Delaney; Kinderhook's Douglas McGivney; Livingston's Philip Williams; New Lebanon's Margaret Robertson; Stockport's Leo Pulcher; Stuyvesant's Valerie Bertram; Taghkanic's Elizabeth Young. The same group voted for the transfer tax, except for Hudson's William Hughes, who voted against.