The New York City-based Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) has posted a blog entry and interactive map designed to call into question the current priorities of New York state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP).
The CBC is urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office and the New York state legislature to consider what it calls the current “high cost of BCP redevelopment credits and [the] need to better focus benefits on the cost of cleanup and environmental remediation.”
CBC says its interactive map, found here, highlights both the high cost of past projects and what it says is a tendency for BCP projects to “have been concentrated in New York City.”
In their March 18 post, CBC bloggers Tammy Gamerman and David Copeland write, “Although the goal of the program is environmental cleanup, the redevelopment component—called the tangible property tax credit—has accounted for 85 percent of benefits. Notably, the tangible property credit has cost 58 percent more than developers’ cost of site cleanup and groundwater remediation ($963 million versus $609 million), meaning that a 100 percent tax credit for environmental cleanup costs would have been a far more cost-effective way to return these sites to productive use.”
According to the duo, the BCP was established in 2005 to encourage the cleanup and reuse of brownfields—former industrial or commercial properties with significant environmental contamination. “Benefits have been concentrated in New York City and among large projects,” they continue. “More than half of benefits have gone to New York City projects, and the top 10 projects have accounted for 64 percent of total tax breaks.”
Regarding reforms, Gamerman and Copeland write, “Further tightening of eligibility, as the governor has proposed, is important because the program has functioned more as a real estate development program rather than an environmental cleanup program.”
The CBC is urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office and the New York state legislature to consider what it calls the current “high cost of BCP redevelopment credits and [the] need to better focus benefits on the cost of cleanup and environmental remediation.”
CBC says its interactive map, found here, highlights both the high cost of past projects and what it says is a tendency for BCP projects to “have been concentrated in New York City.”
In their March 18 post, CBC bloggers Tammy Gamerman and David Copeland write, “Although the goal of the program is environmental cleanup, the redevelopment component—called the tangible property tax credit—has accounted for 85 percent of benefits. Notably, the tangible property credit has cost 58 percent more than developers’ cost of site cleanup and groundwater remediation ($963 million versus $609 million), meaning that a 100 percent tax credit for environmental cleanup costs would have been a far more cost-effective way to return these sites to productive use.”
According to the duo, the BCP was established in 2005 to encourage the cleanup and reuse of brownfields—former industrial or commercial properties with significant environmental contamination. “Benefits have been concentrated in New York City and among large projects,” they continue. “More than half of benefits have gone to New York City projects, and the top 10 projects have accounted for 64 percent of total tax breaks.”
Regarding reforms, Gamerman and Copeland write, “Further tightening of eligibility, as the governor has proposed, is important because the program has functioned more as a real estate development program rather than an environmental cleanup program.”