In the first session the State Senate held after reuniting, the legislators released from limbo a slew of bills that had been waiting for their stamp of approval.
Among them was an extension of the Lower Manhattan commercial incentives, put in place in 2007 to aid in the post-9/11 recovery of the neighborhood’s businesses. Under the bill, businesses below Canal St. will be eligible for reduced rents and sales tax exemptions for equipment purchased for an additional four years, through June 2013. Eligibility for the sales tax exemption will last another two years, through September 2015, at the World Trade Center and the World Financial Center and in Battery Park City.
The Assembly passed the commercial incentive extension bill in June, and the Senate finally took it up at 12:30 a.m. June 10, shortly after the leadership impasse was resolved. Sen. Daniel Squadron sponsored the bill in the Senate and Speaker Sheldon Silver sponsored it in the Assembly. Gov. David Paterson signed it this week.
