N.Y. fixes brownfields law

Cara Matthews • Albany bureau • July 24, 2008 ALBANY — Gov. David Paterson signed legislation Wednesday that will provide more incentives to clean up polluted sites, cap tax credits for redevelopment to limit the state's liability and increase fiscal accountability for the tax breaks. The legislation revamps a program created in 2003 to clean up some of New York's 10,000 polluted properties, called brownfields. Lawmakers and the governor wanted changes because a small group of developers reaped tens of millions of dollars in refundable tax credits for properties that likely would have been redeveloped anyway. That's because tax credits were based on the total cost of cleanup and redevelopment, and there was little incentive to remediate sites beyond minimum standards. The new law gives more incentives for cleanup, and it will... [read full story]