Cuomo should agree to bill extending tax credits for cleaning up brownfields

Soon, if reports are accurate, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will be presented with a bill to extend temporarily the states Brownfield Cleanup Program. For Buffalo, Western New York and other regions with contaminated properties that will not otherwise be developed, it is urgent that he approve the legislation.

Indeed, the measure is perfectly aligned with the governors determination to restart the Buffalo economy. The signature project in that massive effort, the RiverBend project, is being constructed on a remediated brownfield site.

The program provides valuable tax credits to developers who undertake the challenge of reusing old industrial sites that would otherwise remain contaminated eyesores.

The tax credits will end unless Cuomo signs the bill, which would extend it through March 31, 2017. That would give lawmakers and the governor sufficient time to craft a permanent extension that deals with some of the objections that Cuomo and others have, including gross misuse of the law in Manhattan.

Those issues absolutely need to be fixed, but Cuomo must not allow a critical program to end because some people have abused it. The Brownfield Cleanup Program has been fundamental to Buffalos change in fortunes, and some projects now planned will fail unless he agrees to the extension.

Among those developments is Project Hello, a planned $102 million development expected to create more than 170 local jobs with average earnings of $72,500. Reports are that Alita USA Holdings, the steelmaker planning to locate in South Buffalo, will not proceed if the legislation is not extended by the end of the year, now just over two weeks away. Just the uncertainty over the programs renewal is causing jitters among developers in Western New York.

Whatever its defects, the measure provides the necessary financial push to overcome the risks and expenses of building on brownfield sites. According to the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, which is advocating on behalf of the bill, the program has leveraged more development in Erie County 28 projects than any other in New York since 2008. In the same period, 10 projects in Niagara County have used the program, seventh-most in the state. By the Partnerships reckoning, the program has played a role in the creation of more than 4,200 jobs and millions of dollars in development.

Those are staggering figures, and evidence of the programs importance to Western New York. Also staggering is even a short list of some of the projects that have proceeded because of the program. They include Conventus, a center for collaborative medicine under construction on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus; the HealthNow headquarters on West Genesee Street in Buffalo; One Canalside, the project that transformed a dreary state office building into a new hotel and law office across Scott Street from the HarborCenter development; and the $31.7 million project to turn the former F.N. Burt box factory on Seneca Street into high-end office space and apartments.

Cuomo has poured his heart into restarting the Buffalo economy and evidence of those efforts is all around. Failure to extend this program threatens to interrupt the progress that is under way.

Ongoing developments may not suffer, but long-term success depends to a great extent upon capitalizing on the momentum that Cuomo has set in motion. If the momentum flags, so will Buffalos prospects. In a city where brownfields are ubiquitous, a program to remediate them is essential.

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Cuomo should agree to bill extending tax credits for cleaning up brownfields