The State Comptroller's Office continues to spread misconceptions about New York's best tool for jobs creation and capital by criticizing the state's brownfield program without a proper cost analysis and by focusing on projects before the 2008 reforms.
Reclaiming former industrial sites for 21st-century use advances environmental stewardship and smart growth. As reformed in 2008, the Brownfield Cleanup Program is effective at attracting developers to clean up others' contaminated property and generate new tax revenues that pay back the tax credits.
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli failed to weigh the revenues these projects will generate against the cost. A review of Department of Taxation and Finance reports confirms the $852 million invested by the state from 2007 through 2011 generated $5.97 billion in investment, a ratio of $7.01 of private sector for each $1 of state investment.
Hundreds of the state's contaminated sites were cleaned up under the program and transformed into taxable land.
DiNapoli claims the state will spend $3.3 billion on 389 projects in the program, but since the 2008 reforms reduced the average award from $14 million to under $2 million, the real figure is closer to $778 million. But even if $3.3 billion is correct, that would spur $23 billion of private sector investment in New York, almost all generating state and local income and sales tax revenue. For example, the New York City Economic Development Corp. calculated the city will reap a $188 million benefit in current dollars from a $32 million credit. This 5.9 percent return translates into a $19.5 billion return for governments on $3.3 billion in tax credits.
The program must continue to create economic activity through reclamation of toxic sites.
Hemmerdinger is co-president of ATCO and the N.Y. government relations chair for the International Council of Shopping Centers.