It has been nearly 50 years since the New York State Legislature enacted legislation authorizing industrial development agencies (IDAs) for the purpose of promoting economic development. Now, towns, cities, and counties throughout the state have created their own IDAs under General Municipal Law (GML) Article 18-A (the IDA Act) and use them to encourage—and to financially assist—a wide variety of real estate developments, often to great success.
In many instances, however, an IDA’s efforts are met with objections, both in and out of court. Recently, for example, tax benefits afforded by a town’s IDA to the Green Acres Mall on Long Island aroused community criticism, and led New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to announce that he would audit the IDA to determine its compliance with policies and procedures related to its approval of the project.
