Re: [CPEO-BIF] New York's Brownfields tax credits

[Peter Strauss <petestrauss1@comcast.net>]

Larry:

If you are saying that the tax credits not used for cleanup were  
targeted at disadvantaged communities, then your statement about  
recognizing other economic benefits would have greater merit.   
However, brownfield projects, as far as I can tell, do not have to be  
in areas that are disadvantaged - such as the ones mentioned in the  
article in White Plains and outside of Syracuse.

It would be interesting to see what the proportion of NY brownfield  
grants are given disadvantaged areas.  Is that information available?

Peter Strauss
On Feb 7, 2011, at 5:37 PM, Larry Schnapf wrote:

> There is no doubt that the NY BCP is very generous and probably  
> needs some
> tweaking. However, the article seems very one-sided to me.
>
> First, it does not take into account the economic benefits flowing  
> from
> these projects, just compared the cleanup costs to the tax credits.  
> The
> developers of these projects invested real dollars into New York and  
> created
> jobs. These benefits seem to have been completely ignored.
>
> Second, these projects were accepted into the program before the tax  
> caps
> were implemented. It would be interesting to see how the tax caps are
> working.
>
> Larry
>
> Lawrence Schnapf
> Schnapf Law Office
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>
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: brownfields-bounces@lists.cpeo.org
> [mailto:brownfields-bounces@lists.cpeo.org] On Behalf Of Lenny Siegel
> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 8:04 PM
> To: Brownfields Internet Forum
> Subject: [CPEO-BIF] New York's Brownfields tax credits
>
> State 'fix' losing credit
> Builders make lucrative use of state tax credits meant for site  
> cleanup
>
> By BRIAN NEARING
> Albany Times-Union (NY)
> February 7, 2011
>
> ALBANY -- It could take years to fix the state program that, while
> intended to clean polluted sites, has resulted in hundreds of millions
> of dollars flowing into a relative handful of costly mega-projects  
> with
> mini-cleanups.
>
> In three years, the Brownfield Cleanup Program cost taxpayers more  
> than
> $464 million in tax credits, which are cash payments directly from the
> state treasury, but created only about $340 million in cleanups,
> according to a Times Union analysis of annual reports by the state
> Department of Taxation and Finance.
>
> Instead, more than 90 percent of the credits rewarded developers for  
> new
> buildings, according to the analysis, which covers 49 projects that
> received tax credits from 2007 through 2009. Dozens of other projects
> form a backlog that could cost the state eye-popping sums for years  
> to come.
>
> ...
>
> For the entire article, see
> http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/State-fix-losing-credit-1000275.php
>
> --
>
>
> 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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