[CPEO-BIF] Critique of New York Brownfields tax credits

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Tax breaks help developers clean up
But state pollution plan does little to help poor areas, critics claim

By Brian Nearing
Albany Times Union (NY)
June 7, 2012

ALBANY - As the state searches for ways to control expenses, leaders  
ought to look at a program meant to clean up pollution that has  
turned into a billion-dollar cookie jar for affluent developers but  
does too little to help polluted poor neighborhoods, an environmental  
group said Thursday.

The state's Brownfield Cleanup Program has cost taxpayers $1 billion  
since it started in 2006. At the heart of the program are state tax  
credits paid to developers for cleanup costs and, just as  
importantly, construction expenses.

So far, 68 developers have gotten an average tax credit of $14.7  
million. Most of that money subsidizes construction, but thousands of  
polluted sites across the state, especially in poorer areas with  
legacies of industrial pollution, remain untouched.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Tax-breaks-help-developers- 
clean-up-3618151.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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