Re: [CPEO-BIF] (NY) White Plains BF project gets $110 million tax break

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

This article points out how New York's current system of providing 
brownfields tax breaks based upon the overall cost of development has 
led to subsidies that I believe are out of scale compared to the 
environmental and other demonstrable public benefits. It's useful 
because it not only describes the White Plains projects, but also the 
other mega-developments taking advantage the tax credits.

LS


bobh@np.craigslist.org wrote:
> Cappelli project in White Plains gets $110.3M tax break
> By JAY GALLAGHER
> Lower Hudson Online
>
> ALBANY - The $500 million hotel, office and residential project being built by
> developer Louis Cappelli in downtown White Plains is getting a $110.3 million tax
> break, according to state records.
>
> The project, which will include a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, is eligible for the break
> because it is on the site of a former gas station where gasoline and oil had leaked
> and polluted the parcel. The state has offered the breaks since 2003 in an effort
> to spur the cleanup and reuse of such polluted brownfields sites.
>
> But environmentalists and Gov. Eliot Spitzer say the program has gotten out of hand
> - in fact, the state is on the hook for more than $1 billion in breaks - more than
> six times what was budgeted for them this year.
>
> It also irks environmentalists that just four projects - the Cappelli development
> plus three in New York City - alone are getting $574 million in credits.
>
> "These tax credits are costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars, and in
> many cases are going to developers of projects that don't require any added
> incentives," Tim Sweeney of Environmental Advocates of New York said yesterday.
>
> For the entire article, see:
> http://www.nynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070712/NEWS02/707120368
>
> Bob Hersh
> CPEO
>
> _______________________________________________
> Brownfields mailing list
> Brownfields@list.cpeo.org
> http://www.cpeo.org/mailman/listinfo/brownfields


--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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