Brownfields

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From the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (link)

Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Romney budget vetoes blasted

Worcester loses fire station funds

By John J. Monahan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
jmonahan@telegram.com

BOSTON? State Sen. Edward M. Augustus Jr., D-Worcester, accused Gov. Mitt Romney of being out of touch with the needs of the state yesterday as he complained about the veto of $2 million in state funds for a proposed Worcester fire station, $15 million to clean up hazardous waste sites and millions more in historic tax credits.

?Plain and simple, the governor just doesn?t get it,? Mr. Augustus said in a statement attacking Mr. Romney for eliminating the funds from a $630 million economic stimulus and capital project budget this weekend.

Mr. Augustus said the veto of $35 million in historic preservation tax credits will cost the cities and the state many times more in lost revenues and development.

?Maybe if the governor spent even a fraction of his time in Worcester, instead of Utah and Michigan and California and South Carolina, he would understand the things that really matter to our community,? Mr. Augustus said.

Predicting the vetoes will be overturned by the Legislature, Mr. Augustus said the brownfield cuts would eliminate $15 million of $30 million to assist in private brownfield redevelopment across the state, and runs counter to the administration?s urban redevelopment policies.

?The governor talks a good game about smart growth strategies and a fix-it-first approach, but when he underfunds the brownfield trust fund, all he does is make it that much harder for communities to resist development pressures on their limited undeveloped open spaces,? Mr. Augustus said.

He pointed to the hopes to redevelop the Fisherville Mill site on the Blackstone River, and South Worcester Community Development projects as examples of the hundreds of projects that need brownfield redevelopment assistance.

Every state dollar spent on brownfields, he said, leverages $42 in private redevelopment investments and without that money, idle industrial and commercial sites remain off the tax rolls.

The governor said the $15 million he did approve would be enough money to fund brownfield projects for the next three years. Mr. Augustus questioned whether it would be enough to go around, because new laws have doubled the maximum grants for site assessment from $50,000 to $100,000, and opened the fund up to asbestos and lead paint removal work not eligible in the past.

Mr. Augustus said the tax credits for developers who undertake historic restorations, trimmed from $50 million to $15 million by the governor, also would restrain development. He pointed to the conversion of the GAR building in Worcester to a new restaurant and the project to renovate the Loew?s Poli Palace Theater into a performing arts center in the city as the kind of programs assisted by the tax credits that also generate business.

The governor said it was too much of a giveaway to developers.

?Right now we are providing the developer up to $15 million in tax credits ? that?s the same as giving them a check for $15 million from the commonwealth ? if they?ll rehab an old building, an old mill or some other old building,? the governor said. Raising it to $50 million, he said, would cost the state $44 million a year.

?That?s a tax break for some large developers to the tune of $4 million a year to build office buildings. We don?t need to be spending $44 million a year to build more office buildings, especially when they are not tied to jobs,? he said.

Mr. Augustus, state Sen. Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, and state Rep. James B. Leary, D-Worcester, all scolded the governor for cutting out $2 million to build a replacement fire station at the site of the 1993 Worcester Cold Storage & Warehouse Co. building fire on Franklin Street in which six city firefighters died.

Saying the tragedy was ?a devastating blow from which we will never fully heal,? Mr. Augustus said the governor had ?callously poured salt on the wounds of family members and local officials who have fought so hard to build this living memorial.?

In a letter to state Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, D-Boston, asking that the fire station money be restored by an override, Mrs. Chandler said she believes she will be able to ?round up the necessary votes.? She said the fire station is needed to replace one that was torn down, and it also would honor the memory of the firefighters who died battling the fire.

Mr. Romney said it was one of a number of projects, including a lakeside gazebo in Braintree and Victorian street lighting in Melrose, which should be paid for with local funds.

?The Legislature has chosen to select certain cities and towns to get special treatment and have the state pick up projects which are normally city and town projects,? Mr. Romney said of the fire station cut and elimination of funds for Victorian street lights and the lakeside gazebo.

?In some cases there are emotional reasons for doing so, the Worcester fire station for instance,? he said. But he argued, ?It?s simply not fair to the other 350 cities and towns. ? They are having Prop. 2-1/2 overrides or cutting their bills to be able to pay for their fire stations.?

Mr. Leary said the administration helped pay for a fire station on the South Shore several years ago, and the Worcester project would not set a precedent. Moreover, he said some of the funds are needed to clean up the site from the fire before the building is erected.

Mr. Leary said the plan also would free up space at the city?s Grove Street fire training facility, which is used by departments across the state for training.

?This was the site of an unbelievable tragedy. The city has taken over the site and is investing $4 million, and it is also a brownfield site that we would like to put back into use and it would be a living memorial,? Mr. Leary said.

Referring to the governor?s comments on the gazebo, Mr. Leary said, ?I truly do not know how he can compare the two.?
 

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