Senator Lavalle Fights Elimination of Empire Zones Program

Senator Kenneth P. LaValle (at podium) today joined state and county leaders, as well as business owners in the fight to restore Empire Zones.  The Senate and Assembly Democrats recently passed legislation to replace the program with the Excelsior plan, which is a much weaker economic development program.  The elimination of Empire Zones will cause thousands of businesses to lose tax benefits and hurt the ability of our region to attract new industry.         

“New York should be doing everything it can to help businesses thrive and create jobs,” said Senator LaValle. “Cutting back on such efforts is simply shortsighted. Rather than fix any problems that exist within the Empire Zones, the Democrats have abandoned a successful program and cut the state’s investment in job creation by 90 percent.

“The incentives offered through Empire Zones were able to create jobs right here on Long Island,” continued Senator LaValle.  “In these tough economic times, we should not be blindly slashing programs that were a vehicle for job creation. The Senate Democrats are further hindering new and existing businesses’ ability to grow, instead of encouraging them to invest in our local economy.”