STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4980 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN SENATE February 14, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. MARTINEZ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Local Government AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to the preserva- tion of regionally significant projects The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 862 of the gener- 2 al municipal law, as added by section 1 of part J of chapter 59 of the 3 laws of 2013, is amended to read as follows: 4 (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subdivision, no finan- 5 cial assistance of the agency shall be provided in respect of any 6 project where facilities or property that are primarily used in making 7 retail sales to customers who personally visit such facilities consti- 8 tute more than one-third of the total project cost. For the purposes of 9 this article, "retail sales" shall mean: (i) sales by a registered 10 vendor under article twenty-eight of the tax law primarily engaged in 11 the retail sale of tangible personal property, as defined in subpara- 12 graph (i) of paragraph four of subdivision (b) of section eleven hundred 13 one of the tax law; or (ii) sales of a service to such customers. 14 Except, however, that [tourism destination] regionally significant 15 projects shall not be prohibited by this subdivision. For the purpose of 16 this paragraph, ["tourism destination"] "regionally significant project" 17 shall mean a location or facility [which is likely to attract a signif- 18 icant number of visitors from outside the economic development region as 19 established by section two hundred thirty of the economic development 20 law, in which the project is located] where: (i) the agency board has 21 determined with the benefit of an independent third-party analysis of 22 costs versus benefits that shows more benefits to the community than 23 costs, that the project is likely to attract a significant number of 24 visitors from outside the economic development region as established by 25 section two hundred thirty of the economic development law, in which the EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD09872-01-5
S. 4980 2 1 project is located and that undertaking the project will serve the 2 public purposes of this article by preserving permanent, private sector 3 jobs or increasing the overall number of permanent, private sector jobs 4 in the state; and (ii) where the agency board makes such a finding, 5 prior to providing financial assistance to the project by the agency, 6 the chief executive officer of the city, town or village where the 7 project is located shall confirm the proposed action of the agency. 8 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.