Spitzer wants to adjust brownfields program

By JOHN GRYBOS
Legislative Gazette Staff Writer

First published in The Legislative Gazette, June 11, 2007

With costs for the state's brownfields program exceeding original estimates, Gov. Eliot Spitzer last Tuesday proposed new controls on the tax credits awarded to cleanup projects.

The governor's proposal includes expanded reporting for brownfields program participants. This would enable the state to better project how much state funding will be rewarded, as "the existing cost of the program has significantly exceeded original projections," according to a press release from the governor's office.

Spitzer proposes cutting out tax credits for developing a site, which would free up the funds dedicated to development through tax credits to instead go toward making brownfields clean and shovel-ready.

After a recent review, it was found that only a small fraction of tax credits awarded to projects already under way were related to cleanup costs for contaminated sites. Much of the tax credits are used to ease development costs.

Mathy Stanislaus, co-director of New Partners for Community Revitalization, an organization that has released two reports this session on inefficiencies in the state's brownfields law, said Spitzer's bill needs some improvement.

"We don�t support the governor's bill as it currently stands," said Stanislaus.

He said he's concerned the governor's proposal would result in well-financed developers doing whatever they want with the tax credits.

Stanislaus would like to see a bonus built into the governor's bill for sites that conform to the Brownfields Opportunity Area guidelines. Such projects address an area that would encompass many sites, like in an old industrial park, and the worn-out infrastructure left behind in those areas.

Opportunity area projects are typically beneficial to the community, and Stanislaus said community improvement should be a criterion for determining where state funds will be dedicated.

The New Partners for Community Revitalization would also like the eligibility of sites with historic landfill codified into law. In the past, contractors used fill that doesn't comply with today's environmental standards, but many of those sites aren't considered for brownfields funding because the contamination isn't considered to pose an immediate threat.

Stanislaus said, "it's a good step forward," and his group supports addressing the flow of tax credits - the subject of his organization's last report critical of the brownfields program.