STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5711--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 16, 2021
___________
Introduced by Sens. COMRIE, ADDABBO, GOUNARDES, SALAZAR, SKOUFIS -- read
twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the
Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions -- recommitted
to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions in
accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee
AN ACT to amend the New York state urban development corporation act and
the economic development law, in relation to the creation of a search-
able database
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 1 of chapter 174 of the laws of 1968, constituting
2 the New York state urban development corporation act, is amended by
3 adding a new section 58 to read as follows:
4 § 58. Reporting. (1) Definitions. For the purposes of this section,
5 the following terms shall have the following meanings:
6 (a) "Economic development benefits" shall mean and include the follow-
7 ing:
8 (i) available state resources and/or funds including, but not limited
9 to, state grants, loans, loan guarantees, loan interest subsidies,
10 and/or subsidies; and/or
11 (ii) tax credits, tax exemptions or reduced tax rates and/or benefits
12 which are applied for and preapproved or certified by a state agency;
13 and
14 (a-1) "Empire state economic development benefits" shall mean those
15 economic development benefits made available to the urban development
16 corporation and/or the department of economic development to award such
17 benefits to qualified recipients, or those economic development benefits
18 which are allocated to the corporation and/or such department but are
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10062-03-1
S. 5711--A 2
1 subsequently allocated to another state agency or other independent
2 entities for them to make such awards to qualified recipients;
3 (a-2) "Aggregate economic development benefits" shall mean those bene-
4 fits provided for in paragraphs (a) and (a-1) of this subdivision and
5 displayed separately in the database created pursuant to subdivision two
6 of this section;
7 (b) "Qualified participant" shall mean an individual, business, limit-
8 ed liability corporation or any other entity that has applied for and
9 received approval for and/or is the beneficiary of, any aggregate
10 economic development benefits of ten thousand dollars or more per
11 project;
12 (c) "New York state agency" shall mean any state department, board,
13 bureau, division, commission, committee, public authority, public corpo-
14 ration, council, office or other state governmental entity performing a
15 governmental or proprietary function for the state, as well as entities
16 created by any of the preceding or that are governed by a board of
17 directors or similar body a majority of which is designated by one or
18 more state officials;
19 (d) "Full-time job" shall mean a job in which an individual is
20 employed by a qualified participant for at least thirty-five hours a
21 week;
22 (e) "Full-time equivalent" shall mean a unit of measure which is equal
23 to one filled, full-time, annual-salaried position;
24 (f) "Part-time job" shall mean a job in which an individual is
25 employed by a qualified participant for less than thirty-five hours a
26 week; and
27 (g) "Contract job" shall mean a job in which an individual is hired
28 for a season or for a limited period of time.
29 (2) Searchable state subsidy and aggregate economic development bene-
30 fits database. Notwithstanding any laws to the contrary, the corpo-
31 ration, in cooperation with the department of economic development,
32 shall create a searchable database, or modify an existing one, display-
33 ing Empire state economic development benefits that a qualified partic-
34 ipant has been awarded. Such database shall also display other Empire
35 state economic development benefits such qualified participant has
36 received from another state agency provided that it is for the same
37 particular project which received the Empire state economic development
38 benefits. Such searchable database shall include, at a minimum, the
39 following features and functionality:
40 (a) the ability to search the database by each of the reported infor-
41 mation to the corporation and for the public viewer to show a qualified
42 participant which is a recipient of an aggregate economic development
43 benefit and view a list of all types and amounts of benefits received by
44 a qualified participant;
45 (b) for the prior state fiscal year, the following information:
46 (i) a qualified participant's name and project, project location,
47 project's complete address, including the postal or zip code in a sepa-
48 rate searchable field, and the economic region of the state;
49 (ii) the time span over which a qualified participant is to receive or
50 has received aggregate economic development benefits;
51 (iii) the type of such aggregate economic development benefits
52 provided to a qualified participant, including the name of the program
53 or programs through which aggregate economic development benefits are
54 provided;
55 (iv) the total number of employees at all sites utilizing such aggre-
56 gate economic development benefits at the time of the agreement includ-
S. 5711--A 3
1 ing the number of permanent full-time jobs, the number of permanent
2 part-time jobs, the number of full-time equivalents, and the number of
3 contract employees;
4 (v) for any aggregate economic development benefit that provides for
5 job retention and creation that a qualified participant receiving aggre-
6 gate economic development benefits is contractually obligated to retain
7 and create over the life of the project utilizing such aggregate econom-
8 ic development benefits, except that such information shall be reported
9 on an annual basis for agreements containing annual job retention or
10 creation requirements, and for each reporting year, the base employment
11 level the entity receiving aggregate economic development benefits
12 agrees to retain over the life of the project utilizing such aggregate
13 economic development benefits, any job creation scheduled to take place
14 as a result of the project utilizing such aggregate economic development
15 benefits and where applicable, any job creation targets for the current
16 reporting year;
17 (vi) the amount of aggregate economic development benefits received by
18 a qualified participant during the year covered by the report, the
19 amount of aggregate economic development benefits received by a quali-
20 fied participant since the beginning of the project period, and the
21 present value of the further aggregate economic development benefits
22 committed to by the state, but not yet received by a qualified partic-
23 ipant for the duration of the project;
24 (vii) for the current reporting year, the total actual number of
25 employees at all sites covered by the project utilizing such aggregate
26 economic development benefits, including the number of permanent full-
27 time jobs, the number of permanent part-time jobs, the number of
28 contract jobs, the number of jobs filled by minorities or women.
29 (viii) a statement of compliance indicating whether, during the
30 current reporting year, the corporation and/or any other state agency
31 has reduced, cancelled or recaptured aggregate economic development
32 benefits from a qualified participant, and, if so, the total amount of
33 the reduction, cancellation or recapture, and any penalty assessed and
34 the reasons therefor.
35 (c) the ability to digitally select defined individual fields corre-
36 sponding to any of the reported information from qualified participants
37 to create unique database views;
38 (d) the ability to download the database in its entirety, or in part,
39 in a common machine readable format;
40 (e) the ability to view and download contracts or award agreements for
41 each aggregate economic development benefit received by the qualified
42 participant to the extent such contracts or award agreements are avail-
43 able to the public pursuant to article six of the public officers law;
44 (f) a definition or description of terms for fields in the database;
45 and
46 (g) a summary of each aggregate economic development benefit available
47 to qualified participants.
48 (3) Certification regarding reporting. The corporation shall certify
49 to the New York state authorities budget office, the corporation's board
50 of directors and post to its website that it has fulfilled all of its
51 reporting requirements as required by law, rules, regulations, or execu-
52 tive orders. The corporation shall provide a list of all reports, the
53 due dates of such reports, and certify to the New York state authorities
54 budget office and the corporation's board of directors, that each report
55 has been submitted to the individual, office, or entity as prescribed by
56 applicable laws, rules, and regulations.
S. 5711--A 4
1 (4) Database reporting. The corporation may request any data from
2 qualified participants, which is necessary and required in developing,
3 updating and maintaining the searchable database. Such qualified
4 participants shall provide any such information requested by the corpo-
5 ration. Beginning on June first, two thousand twenty-two, the corpo-
6 ration shall make all reported data on such database available to the
7 public on its website. Such database shall be updated on a quarterly
8 basis with qualified participants added to any programs and any new data
9 provided by existing qualified participants required reporting.
10 (5) Reporting. The corporation's senior staff shall report on a quar-
11 terly basis, to the corporation's board of directors with a status
12 update on the development and maintenance of the searchable database.
13 § 2. Section 100 of the economic development law is amended by adding
14 a new subdivision 18-j to read as follows:
15 18-j. to assist the urban development corporation to establish a
16 searchable database pursuant to section fifty-eight of the urban devel-
17 opment corporation act.
18 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
19 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
20 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of
21 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed
22 on or before such effective date.
