No Greater Clarity for Brownfields

First published in The New York Times on June 23, 2008

By JEREMY W. PETERS

The future of a state program that provides tax credits for companies that decontaminate and redevelop polluted land appears to be as uncertain as ever.

Talks over how to overhaul the Brownfield Cleanup Program were said to be at an impasse in recent days, people involved in the talks said, though negotiations can often turn around in the last 24 hours of the session.

The major obstacle is the cost, which is hardly a small concern with the state’s financial outlook in question. Gov. David A. Paterson would like to see a limit set on how much each company can receive in tax credits, but Senate Republicans favor a less restrictive approach.

This month a report by the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, below, said that the tax credits could cost the state as much as $3.1 billion for the 200 projects currently in the pipeline. It also found New York’s benefits to be far more expensive than those offered by neighboring states like Massachusetts and New Jersey.

How to keep the cost of the tax credits down was one of many unsettled issues during negotiations over the 2008-09 budget in March and April. When agreement on a bill proved elusive, the Legislature approved a 90-day moratorium on accepting new contaminated sites into the brownfield program.

With that moratorium set to expire next month, and the Legislature set to adjourn for the year on Monday, the future of the brownfield program could remain in limbo for some time. That prospect has some of the program’s supporters anxious.

“The failure to fix the brownfields program before the legislative session ends will be a disaster for desperately needed economic development in New York, and for families living next to these contaminated sites for years,” said Mathy Stanislaus, co-director of New Partners for Community Revitalization, a nonprofit that promotes environmentally friendly development.