SUBJECT:

PURPOSE:

ALBANY
Monday
April 26, 2004
11:00 AM

Hamilton Hearing Room B
Legislative Office Building
Second Floor
Albany, NY

The Empire Zones Program, enacted in 2000, was intended to serve as a development tool to promote economic activity in distressed communities characterized by poverty and unemployment. To stimulate job creation, the program provides a range of tax benefits to attract employers to locate and to expand within a zone.

Over the past year, evidence of program abuses have accumulated, including businesses receiving full zone tax benefits by simply changing their corporate identities. Additionally, certain anomalies in the program have been cited, including certified businesses losing jobs and many jobs being created that are either part-time or pay below the median wage for a particular industry.

Statutorily, the Department of Economic Development, doing business as the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), has the responsibility to administer the Empire Zones Program and to provide relevant and necessary information to the Legislature. However, ESDC has not provided the Legislature with all of the necessary information essential to understanding and evaluating the current program. With the Empire Zones Program currently set to expire on July 31, 2004, the Assembly Committees would like to examine closely all issues related to the operation and administration of the program.

Oral testimony will be by invitation only and limited to 15 minutes' duration. In preparing the order of witnesses, the Committee will attempt to accommodate individual requests to speak at particular times in view of special circumstances. These requests should be made on the attached reply form or communicated to Committee staff as early as possible. In the absence of a request, witnesses will be scheduled in the order in which reply forms are postmarked.

Ten copies of any prepared testimony should be submitted at the hearing registration desk. The Committee would appreciate advance receipt of prepared statements.

Individuals or organizations not invited to testify may submit written testimony at the hearing or send it to the address below.

In order to meet the needs of those who may have a disability, the Assembly, in accordance with its policy of non-discrimination on the basis of disability, as well as the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has made its facilities and services available to all individuals with disabilities. For individuals with disabilities, accommodations will be provided, upon reasonable request, to afford such individuals access and admission to Assembly facilities and activities.

1. What is the current status of the Empire Zones Program?
2. Should the program be reauthorized?

PUBLIC HEARING REPLY FORM

Persons invited to present testimony at the public hearing on Empire Zone Reform are requested to complete this reply form as soon as possible and mail it to:

Benita Leigh-Lewis
Committee Assistant
Assembly Committee on Economic Development
Room 520 - Capitol
Albany, New York 12248
E-Mail: leighlb@assembly.state.ny.us
Phone: (518) 455-4928
Fax: (518) 455-5182

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