Gov. Andrew Cuomo presents his 2014-15 executive budget proposal in Albany on Jan. 21, 2014 (AP Photo/Mike Groll) |
New York’s Brownfields Cleanup Program would be extended by another decade, with an emphasis on redeveloping upstate sites, that will also include “important reforms to protect taxpayers,” according to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s 2014-15 state Executive Budget.
The Brownfields program – designed to “enhance private-sector cleanups” of industrial sites where potential contaminants, like hazardous wastes or petroleum, are impediments to redevelopment – provides tax credits associated with cleaning up and redeveloping such sites.
Brownfields dot the Western New York landscape once home to much heavy industry. Buffalo’s waterfront now attractive for development has numerous contaminated sites that require some level of remediation before they can be built upon.
Cuomo’s tax reforms include allowing remediation tax credits only for “actual cleanup costs” with redevelopment credits being “rationalized to only cover sites that have been vacant for over a decade, worth less than the cleanup costs, or are priority economic development projects,” according to the budget statement.
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