[CPEO-BIF] Destiny USA (Syracuse, New York) tax breaks

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Destiny USA developer could collect $54 million from state for removing dirt

By Rick Moriarty
Syracuse Post-Standard
April 4, 2010

Destiny USA, the shopping mall expansion stuck in neutral, stands to 
gain $54 million in tax breaks from a state environmental cleanup 
program even though its cleanup costs are insignificant, state officials 
say.

The windfall for Destiny's Robert Congel comes via New York's Brownfield 
Cleanup Program, which started as a way to encourage developers to build 
on contaminated land but has turned into a mess of its own.

The law was poorly written and hastily approved by state lawmakers in 
the middle of the night in 2003. Developers of large, expensive projects 
on marginally contaminated properties quickly figured out how to collect 
tens of millions more than they sank into their cleanups.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/destiny_usa_developer_could_co.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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