[CPEO-BIF] New York State legislative update

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

ALBANY UPDATE
New Partners for Community Revitalization
March 21, 2014

Following Governor Cuomo’s lead, neither the Senate nor the Assembly  
included money for the Brownfield Opportunity Areas (BOA) program in  
their one-house budgets, despite numerous calls from Upstate and  
Downstate communities to the Governor and Legislators. These budgets  
form the basis for three-way negotiations now getting underway. But  
there is still time to save the BOA program, and NPCR and our allies  
are actively pursuing a last-minute $15 million BOA appropriation. We  
urge you to call the Governor (518) 474 8390 and also your Senate and  
Assembly representatives, and tell them: “Restore BOA funding now!”

As three-way brownfield negotiations get underway in Albany, the one  
thing everyone seems to agree on is $10 million for the Environmental  
Restoration Program (ERP). The Governor has proposed a one-year  
Superfund allocation of $90 million, while the Assembly proposes to  
extend Superfund bonding for an additional 10 years, an investment of  
around $1 billion. Both the Senate and the Governor have proposed  
changes extending the Brownfield Tax Credits (BTCs), but in different  
ways, and the Assembly has no tax credit extension.

Earlier this week, NPCR issued the report, Steps to Stability, about  
BOA, the BCP and BTCs, (see Legislation/Reports on our website at:  
www.NPCR.net) and hard copies were distributed to Legislators and the  
press. Also – be sure to check out Susan Arbetter’s radio show  
interview of Jody Kass and Jeff Jones about the Governor’s  
brownfields budget - scheduled to air on Friday: http://www.wcny.org/ 
radio/capitolpressroom/


--

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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