N.Y. General Municipal Law § 874: Tax exemptions

§ 874. Tax exemptions. (1) It is hereby determined that the creation

of the agency and the carrying out of its corporate purposes is in all

respects for the benefit of the people of the state of New York and is a

public purpose, and the agency shall be regarded as performing a

governmental function in the exercise of the powers conferred upon it by

this title and shall be required to pay no taxes or assessments upon any

of the property acquired by it or under its jurisdiction or control or

supervision or upon its activities. Provided, however, if the agency is

located within a transportation district referenced in paragraph (a) of

subdivision two of section two hundred fifty-three of the tax law, it

shall not be exempt from the additional tax on each mortgage of real

property situated within the state imposed by such paragraph.

(2) Any bonds or notes issued pursuant to this title, together with

the income therefrom, as well as the property of the agency, shall be

exempt from taxation, except for transfer and estate taxes.

(3) Payments in lieu of taxes received by the agency shall be remitted

to each affected tax jurisdiction within thirty days of receipt.

(4) (a) The agency shall establish a uniform tax exemption policy,

with input from affected tax jurisdictions, which shall be applicable to

the provision of financial assistance pursuant to section eight hundred

fifty-nine-a of this title and shall provide guidelines for the claiming

of real property, mortgage recording, and sales tax exemptions. Such

guidelines shall include, but not be limited to: period of exemption;

percentage of exemption; types of projects for which exemptions can be

claimed; procedures for payments in lieu of taxes and instances in which

real property appraisals are to be performed as a part of an application

for tax exemption; in addition, agencies shall in adopting such policy

consider such issues as: the extent to which a project will create or

retain permanent, private sector jobs; the estimated value of any tax

exemptions to be provided; whether affected tax jurisdictions shall be

reimbursed by the project occupant if a project does not fulfill the

purposes for which an exemption was provided; the impact of a proposed

project on existing and proposed businesses and economic development

projects in the vicinity; the amount of private sector investment

generated or likely to be generated by the proposed project; the

demonstrated public support for the proposed project; the likelihood of

accomplishing the proposed project in a timely fashion; the effect of

the proposed project upon the environment; the extent to which the

project will utilize, to the fullest extent practicable and economically

feasible, resource conservation, energy efficiency, green technologies,

and alternative and renewable energy measures; the extent to which the

project will provide onsite child care services or otherwise facilitate

new child care services; the extent to which the proposed project will

require the provision of additional services, including, but not limited

to additional educational, transportation, police, emergency medical or

fire services; and the extent to which the proposed project will provide

additional sources of revenue for municipalities and school districts.

(b) The agency shall establish a procedure for deviation from the

uniform tax exemption policy required pursuant to this subdivision. The

agency shall set forth in writing the reasons for deviation from such

policy, and shall further notify by certified mail, return receipt

requested or an electronic correspondence with a read-receipt, the

affected local taxing jurisdictions of the proposed deviation from such

policy and the reasons therefor. When the affected local taxing

jurisdiction is a school district, the agency shall notify by certified

mail, return receipt requested or an electronic correspondence with a

read-receipt, the district clerk and district superintendent of each

affected school district.

(5) Payments in lieu of taxes which are delinquent under the agreement

or which an agency fails to remit pursuant to subdivision three of this

section, shall be subject to a late payment penalty of five percent of

the amount due which shall be paid by the project occupant (where taxes

are delinquent because of the occupant's failure to make the required

payment) or the agency (because of the agency's failure to remit

pursuant to subdivision three of this section) to the affected tax

jurisdiction at the time the payment in lieu of taxes is paid. For each

month, or part thereof, that the payment in lieu of taxes is delinquent

beyond the first month, interest shall accrue to and be paid to the

affected tax jurisdiction on the total amount due plus a late payment

penalty in the amount of one percent per month until the payment is

made.

(6) An affected tax jurisdiction which has not received a payment in

lieu of taxes due to it under an agreement may commence legal action in

any court of competent jurisdiction directly against any person, firm,

corporation, organization or agency which is obligated to make payments

in lieu of taxes under an agreement and has failed to do so. In such an

action, the affected tax jurisdiction shall be entitled to recover the

amount due, the late payment penalty, interest, expenses, costs and

disbursements together with the reasonable attorneys' fees necessary to

prosecute such action. Nothing herein shall be construed as providing an

affected tax jurisdiction with the right to sue and recover from an

agency which has not received payments in lieu of taxes from a project

occupant.

(7) Any refinancing of a project shall be subject to the provisions of

section eight hundred fifty-nine-a of this chapter, except where such

refinancing was previously approved pursuant to such section.

(8) Agents of an agency and project operators shall annually file a

statement with the state department of taxation and finance, on a form

and in such a manner as is prescribed by the commissioner of taxation

and finance, of the value of all sales and use tax exemptions claimed by

such agents or agents of such agents or project operators, including,

but not limited to, consultants or subcontractors of such agents or

project operators, under the authority granted pursuant to this section.

The penalty for failure to file such statement shall be the removal of

authority to act as an agent of an agency or a project operator.

(9) (a) Within thirty days of the date that the agency designates a

project operator or other person to act as agent of the agency for

purposes of providing financial assistance consisting of any sales and

compensating use tax exemption to such person, the agency shall file a

statement with the department of taxation and finance relating thereto,

on a form and in such manner as is prescribed by the commissioner of

taxation and finance, identifying each such agent so named by the

agency, setting forth the taxpayer identification number of each such

agent, giving a brief description of the property and/or services

intended to be exempted from such taxes as a result of such appointment

as agent, indicating the agency's rough estimate of the value of the

property and/or services to which such appointment as agent relates,

indicating the date when such designation as agent became effective and

indicating the date upon which such designation as agent shall cease.

(b) Within thirty days of the date that the agency's designation

described in paragraph (a) of this subdivision has been amended,

terminated, been revoked, or become invalid or ineffective for any

reason, the agency shall file a statement with the department of

taxation and finance relating thereto, on a form and in such manner as

is prescribed by the commissioner of taxation and finance, identifying

each such agent so named by the agency in the original designation and

setting forth the taxpayer identification number and other identifying

information of each such agent, the date as of which the original

designation was amended, terminated, revoked, or became invalid or

ineffective and the reason therefor, together with a copy of the

original designation.

(10) Each agency shall develop policies for the suspension or

discontinuance of financial assistance, or for the modification of any

payment in lieu of tax agreement to require increased payments under

circumstances as specified in the policy, which may include but shall

not be limited to events of material violation of the terms and

conditions of a project agreement.

(11) Each agency shall develop policies for the return of all or a

part of the financial assistance provided for the project, including all

or part of the amount of any tax exemptions, as specified in the policy,

which may include but shall not be limited to material shortfalls in job

creation and retention projections or material violations of the terms

and conditions of project agreements. All such returned amounts of tax

exemptions shall be redistributed to the appropriate affected tax

jurisdiction, unless agreed to otherwise by any local taxing

jurisdiction.

(12) Each agency shall at least annually assess the progress of each

project for which bonds or notes remain outstanding or straight-lease

transactions have not terminated, or which continue to receive financial

assistance or are otherwise active, toward achieving the investment, job

retention or creation, or other objectives of the project indicated in

the project application. Such assessments shall be provided to board

members.