Intriguing!

This D&C article says that they are going to get rid of the Empire Zone program, and replace it with the Excelsior Jobs Program.

From the article:

"Meanwhile, the 22-year-old Empire Zone program, criticized for its lax oversight and inability to stimulate significant job growth, will likely be ended in favor of a new program designed to target specific industries.

Gov. David Paterson plans to submit to the Legislature a measure for the creation of the Excelsior Jobs Program; a program aimed at targeting job growth in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, clean energy, manufacturing and financial services.

If approved, the program in its first year would provide $50 million a year in tax incentives for firms that create between 25 to 125 jobs or more, depending on the industry. Within five years, the program would be capped at $250 million in incentives."

And:

"Empire Zones are geographic boundaries where a business can receive credits for property, capital and payroll taxes based on job creation.

More than 9,000 companies participate in the Empire Zone program, which provides $600 million a year in tax credits.

If the program is discarded, the companies would be able to continue with their tax credits until their contract expires."

Like Congel and his mega tax breaks for 10 years? Great.

Well, one good thing out of this "new" Excelsior program:

"The new program would also reduce the contract time for tax breaks. Empire Zone contracts run 10 years; Excelsior contracts would expire after five years."


The beginning of this article talks about legislation that was "scrapped" - the reporter says:

"ALBANY — Business groups were victorious this week when legislation that would require prevailing wages on public projects was scrapped, but they are voicing concern over a plan to revamp the state's main economic-development tool, the Empire Zone program.

Business groups have opposed a bill that would have forced state prevailing wage guidelines on publicly funded construction projects, and it was pulled from an Assembly committee this week."

What the reporter fails to mention, is that this "prevailing wage" is in regards to projects that use IDA money/assistance/incentives.

NYS already has prevailing wage laws for public works projects. Link.

What this legislation would have done, is require ANY project through an IDA (Industrial Development Agency) to have prevailing wage laws. So, "private" projects that get COMIDA assistance - like Lakeridge Centre, or RBTL, or Wegmans etc., would have to pay prevailing wages on their "private" projects.

For some reason, that point was not made in this article.