Yet another stupid idea…. Should we expect anything different though? Gee I wonder why nothing else has worked, try the same insane policies year after year after year. It is once again government leaders thinking they have all the answers. Instead of doing what needs to be done to draw businesses anywhere in WNY like lowering taxes, utilities, ending the endless permit process to build or remodel anything down town, instead policing the streets and making them a safer place for people to walk, instead of stopping all the revenue generating parking tickets, blah, blah, blah….. My god they just don’t seem to have a clue. Government is not the answer except to make this area inviting for businesses and people. It’s no wonder they can’t find a real job, they have to continue to grow government interference.

Lawmakers propose retail aid

Standing before a long-vacant Main Street building in Buffalo that may soon find new life as a mixed-use development, a team of state lawmakers are proposing legislation to encourage retail development.

The plan unveiled Monday would grant sales-tax free status to retailers in the central business district of upstate cities such as Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, N.Y., as a means to encourage the opening of more stores that would fill in empty storefronts.

Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, was joined by fellow Assembly members Francine DelMonte, D-Niagara Falls, and Crystal Peoples, D-Buffalo, along with Erie County Executive Joel Giambra, to push for legislation that would make central business districts a sales-tax free zone for retailers selling specific goods and merchandise like clothing. Restaurants and bars would not be covered by the legislation.

The final version of the proposed legislation is currently being drafted.

Hoyt’s proposal is the latest effort to prop up downtown retailing districts by doing away with the collection of sales tax receipts. Various other efforts have all failed.

Hoyt said he hopes this is not the case.

“It might be that the stars are aligning,” he said.

What remains unclear is if the bill will make it to the Assembly and Senate floors and then to the desk of Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

more–>Bizjournals.com