Overhaul of state's brownfield cleanup programs in the works Budget could affect initiative
Overhaul of state's brownfield cleanup programs in the works Budget could affect initiative
By MARIA BRANDECKER
First published in the Legislative Gazette, April 7, 2008
Buffalo-area Sen. Antoine Thompson is urging lawmakers to reform the state's brownfields programs to ensure more abandoned industrial sites can be cleaned up and redeveloped.
Thompson was also among those last week who were airing their opposition to proposed budget cuts to the Brownfield Opportunity Area Program.
Thompson, D-Buffalo, said he wants to see a program bill first proposed by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (S.6177) enacted this week. The bill, which currently has no companion legislation in the Assembly, is aimed at improving the Brownfield Cleanup Program and the Brownfield Opportunity Area Program.
Thompson, the bill sponsor, stressed the importance of implementing the program bill, which he said would make the Brownfield Cleanup Program more 'user friendly.'
This bill would make statutory corrections that are intended to have the Brownfield Opportunity Area Program function the way it was originally intended. It would also change the way tax credits are awarded under the program to ensure they are used for site cleanup and economic development.
Also, the bill would establish a Brown-fields Shovel-Ready Program that would promote brownfield recycling, manufacturing center development and low- and moderate-income housing development.
According to the bill's author, the legislation �would likely save the state money as it caps the tangible property credit under the state's brownfield program at $10 million for sites developed in a Brownfield Opportunity Area and $5 million for all others.
Earlier this year, Environmental Advocates of New York called on state leaders to reform a number of the state's economic development program, including the Brownfield Tax Credit program, which encourages businesses to clean and build on formerly contaminated property in order to receive tax credits.
The advocates argued that the incentives were being misused and called on the governor's office to implement a system in which the tax credits are based on the cost of the cleanup.
Thompson said the program bill was developed after state officials met with local government representatives and business owners statewide last year to hear their suggestions for improving the brownfield initiatives.
The program bill would allow more people to file liability wavers, bring more people into the program and enable it to move faster, the senator said. The bill was referred to the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee on Jan. 9.
Thompson was joined at a press conference last Monday in the Capitol by Sen. Bill Perkins, D-Harlem, Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, D-Queens, Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster, and other legislators and environmental advocates to voice their concerns with the Senate GOP majority's proposed $10 million budget cut for the Brownfield Opportunity Area Program.
"Everyone talks about providing aid and opportunity for upstate New York, however, this proposed cut does exactly the opposite," Thompson said.
Thompson said he supports the allocation of $12.75 million in the budget proposed by Gov. David A. Paterson for the brownfield program.
The senator said the support sought by brownfield program applicants already far exceeds the level of funding available, and cutting more than $8 million would be a �substantial blow� and significantly harm the program just as it is staring to gain momentum.
The Brownfield Opportunity Area Program was created by legislation in 2003 to help revitalize underserved and deteriorating communities throughout the state including communities that have suffered from environmental disasters. The projects funded by grants and other types of financial aid distributed through the program are typically located in areas of low to moderate income and seek to help residents, organizations and property owners bring the community back to productive use.
Some of the renovation projects, often seen as a way to generate jobs and revenues for a community, include housing, stores, parks and infrastructure improvements.
According to the New Partners for Community Revitalization Inc. from 2004 to 2006, the state's Brownfield Opportunity Area Program provided $15,500,569 in grants throughout New York. "Continued funding of the BOA program is critical to revitalize the economically challenged communities burdened by multiple Brownfield sites," said Mathy Stanislaus, co-director of NYCR.
Dyster said Brownfield Opportunity Area-funded projects are vital to the Niagara Falls region. Niagara Falls has industrial sites, both in use and abandoned, that cover more than 1,000 acres of the city, the mayor explained, and of that amount several dozen sites, consisting of hundreds of acres, qualify as brownfield or potential brownfield sites.
"Taken all together, our brownfields comprise such a large portion of our total land and occupy such strategically critical locations that it's impossible to imagine how we can ever revitalize our city without revitalizing our brownfields in the process," Dyster said. "The very life of our community depends on it."
The mayor said the program provides assistance in assessing and analyzing land use, predicting market trends, identifying and describing sites and developing priorities and action recommendations for future use.
"Yes, one of our goals is to restore environmental quality to improve our quality of life," Dyster said, "but by creating opportunities to return dormant lands back to productive uses, we assure the future economic sustainability of our city we are looking for a hand up, not a handout."
"Without re-developing these areas we will never be able to get our economy back on track," said Environmental Advocates Executive Director Robert Moore.