The other factor that should be an important part of any analysis is whether or not the credit was needed to make the project viable. Some of the largest beneficiaries of the credits were awarded very large credits on projects that were already going to happen, when the real intent of a program like this is to incentivize projects that might not otherwise happen. J. Justin Woods Director of Planning & Development City of Ogdensburg, New York
jwoods@ogdensburg.org (315) 393-7150 From: brownfields-bounces@lists.cpeo.org [mailto:brownfields-bounces@lists.cpeo.org] On Behalf Of larry@schnapflaw.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 11:01 AM
To: Peter Strauss; Larry Schnapf
Cc: 'Brownfields Internet Forum'
Subject: Re: [CPEO-BIF] New York's Brownfields tax credits I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of tax credits went to areaa that were not disadvantaged communities. I also agree we need to ensure that more projects are targeted for those areas and that the Governor's budget cuts to BOA undermines those goals. I was just making a simple point that when evaluating the effectiveness of the program, one should not just compare the tax credits to the amount of cleanup costs but to the total economic benefits conferred to the state by the project. Schnapf Law Offices
55 East 87th Street, Ste. 8B
New York, NY 10128
212-756-2205 (p)
646-468-8483 (c)
Larry@SchnapfLaw.com
http://www.SchnapfLaw.com/ Named to Chambers USA 2009-10 Client Guide of America?s Leading Lawyers for Business.
AV? Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell Listed in 2010 New York Super Lawyers-Metro Edition -----Original Message-----
From: Peter Strauss [mailto:petestrauss1@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 8, 2011 12:24 AM
To: 'Larry Schnapf'
Cc: lsiegel@cpeo.org, ''Brownfields Internet Forum''
Subject: Re: [CPEO-BIF] New York's Brownfields tax credits
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 > 55 East 87th Street #8B > New York, New York 10128 > 212-756-2205 (p) > 212-646-8483 (c) > Larry@SchnapfLaw.com > http://www.schnapflaw.com/ > > Named to Chambers USA 2009-10 Client Guide of America's Leading > Lawyers for > Business. > > AV Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell > > Listed in 2010 New York Super Lawyers-Metro Edition > > Blog: Visit Schnapf Judgment on the commonground community at > http://commonground.edrnet.com/resources/9d51c3f88e/summary > > > Linked-In Blog: Environmental Issues in Business Transactions > http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3607181 > > -----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 > > http://www.cpeo.org/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Brownfields mailing list > Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org > http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org > > _______________________________________________ > Brownfields mailing list > Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org > http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org
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