Comptroller Liu establishes Task Force on Public Benefit Agreements (including CBAs)

Comptroller John Liu, who has previously criticized Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs), is moving forward, by establishing a Task Force on Public Benefit Agreements, which cites, among other things, the City Bar Association's recent report calling for reforms.

From the Comptroller's web site

The Task Force will develop recommendations on best practices and draft a framework for a more effective and equitable process to guide public subsidized economic development projects in the City of New York, including accountability and enforcement mechanisms that would apply when tax dollars, rezonings, and other public resources are used to facilitate private development.

The recommendations should be guided by the following principles: accountability, transparency, inclusiveness, consistency and fiscal responsibility.

Strategy & Goals

To achieve this mission, the Task Force will:

• Assess the strengths and shortfalls of recent Public Benefit Agreements (PBAs). PBAs include but are not limited to legal deals between developers and the affected community also known as Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs).
  
  
• Identify and evaluate best practices to determine how those successes can be transferred to the New York City economic development context.
  
  
• Issue recommendations so New York City can become a model for effective and equitable economic development.