S 655 changesEnacts the accountability for development assistance act

What changed

+679 / −4242 words · LargeConfidence: high

This bill comprehensively repeals New York's Accountability for Development Assistance Act framework by systematically removing all provisions that established oversight, reporting, and accountability mechanisms for state economic development assistance programs. The changes eliminate the entire definitional structure that governed development assistance programs (including definitions of recipients, state granting bodies, development assistance agreements, and job creation metrics), dismantle the annual unified economic development budget reporting system that tracked aggregate tax revenues diverted through development assistance, remove all standardized application and progress reporting requirements for assistance recipients, abolish recapture provisions that previously required repayment when recipients failed to meet capital investment or job creation/retention commitments, and eliminate transparency mechanisms including Freedom of Information Act requirements and public disclosure of program performance data. The wholesale removal of these provisions effectively ends the state's statutory framework for monitoring economic development tax credits and exemptions, tracking their fiscal impact, enforcing job creation requirements, and ensuring public accountability for development assistance programs operating under General Municipal Law articles 18-A and 18-B.

Change log

• SECTION 3980 > (a)

  removedhigh confidence

  Removes requirement for application-specific tracking numbers tied to granting agency

  This section previously required that applications receive a tracking number specific to both the state granting agency and to each individual application. This requirement is being eliminated entirely.

• SECTION 1401 > (6)

  removedhigh confidence

  Removes requirement to report number of new and retained employees by employment type

  This section previously required reporting the number of new employees and retained employees that an applicant stated would be created by development assistance, as specified in the development assistance agreement or application. The information was required to be broken down by full-time, permanent, part-time, and temporary positions. This reporting requirement is now removed entirely.

• SECTION 1401 > (9)

  removedhigh confidence

  Removes requirement for narrative describing employment reductions at New York sites

  This section eliminates a reporting requirement that previously required recipients of development assistance to provide a narrative explaining how their use of the assistance reduced employment at any site in New York during the reporting year. The narrative was only required when necessary, meaning when employment reductions occurred. This removal means recipients will no longer need to document or explain employment losses attributable to their use of development assistance.