2011 CPEO Brownfields List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:03:56 -0700 (PDT)
Reply: cpeo-brownfields
Subject: [CPEO-BIF] (no subject)
 
Brownfield Blunder: New York should take more care in dispensing tax breaks

Editorial
Syracuse Post-Standard (NY)
August 10, 2011, 5:00 AM



The policy goals of the state’s 2003 Brownfield Cleanup Program were laudable. Who could argue with cleaning up polluted and abandoned properties so that they can be returned to productive use, with the added bonuses of discouraging sprawl and preserving suburban and rural “greenfields”? That’s just the kind of development the state should be encouraging, and tax credits included in the legislation were intended to compensate developers for taking on such difficult sites.

In execution, however, the Brownfield Cleanup Program went terribly wrong. Tax incentives turned out to be so generous that not only could developers write off the cost of cleaning up the property, they could claim a tax credit for 10 percent of the cost of the project they built on top of it.

To no one’s surprise - and the state’s horror - savvy developers took full advantage. Among the applicants were a luxury hotel in White Plains ($114 million), a Manhattan shopping complex ($58 million) and Syracuse’s own Destiny USA ($54 million).

...

For the entire editorial, see
http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2011/08/ brownfield_blunder_new_york_sh.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, 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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