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January 25, 2010


Hon. Antoine Thompson
New York State Senate
Legislative Office Building, Room 902
Albany, New York 12247

Dear Antoine:

On behalf of the 2,500 employer members of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, I write in support of Senator Stachowski’s proposed legislation, S.1716-A, related to tax increment financing (TIF), and urge you to support it in the Senate Local Governments Committee. This legislation allows – but does not require – school districts, in a municipal redevelopment area which benefits from an authorized economic development project, to pledge the incremental school district real property taxes resulting from the project, to be applied along with those from the sponsoring municipality, toward the payment of debt service on TIF bonds.

TIF provides a powerful economic development tool for brownfield projects, and at the same time, effective accountability measures to protect taxpayers. It has been used successfully by localities throughout the United States to stimulate investment and expand the tax base in distressed urban areas by helping to finance infrastructure maintenance, repair and expansion; revitalization of blighted areas – including brownfields; and other public improvements necessary to make development possible.

This proposed legislation remedies a major defect in current law by making school district property tax revenues available to support the repayment of TIF bonds – making such bonds much more attractive investments than if funded by incremental municipal property tax revenues alone.

The Partnership strongly supports this legislation as it would serve as a positive mechanism to provide much-needed economic development opportunities to many communities in Upstate New York. Adoption of this legislation is especially timely now, given the current fiscal and budgetary downfall in our state. I urge you to make its passage a priority.

Sincerely,

Andrew J. Rudnick

cc    Hon. William Stachowski