By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — The World Trade Center site may soon get a boost from counties all over New York as local governments realize they have leftover stimulus bonds they can't spend by the end-of-year deadline.
Saratoga County, for example, will return nearly $6 million in bonds to the state, possibly for use at the World Trade Center. Saratoga used about half of its stimulus bonds on an animal shelter, but could not find a use for the rest of them, said Spencer Hellwig, assistant county commissioner.
Hellwig said he did not want to see the extra bonds go to waste.
"[The World Trade Center] is probably as a good a use as any," Hellwig said Tuesday. "At least it stays in New York state."
To avoid losing the tens of millions of dollars of leftover stimulus bonds, the Empire State Development Corp. voted Monday to authorize up to $200 million of the bonds to build Tower 3 at the World Trade Center site.
The state may consider other uses for the bonds as well.
Lower Manhattan officials said Tuesday that they strongly support the ESDC's vote and hope to see the bonds flow to the Trade Center.
"The most important thing is that we cannot allow [the bonds] to disappear," Councilwoman Margaret Chin said Tuesday. "We definitely need to keep it so we can use it for lower Manhattan."
Julie Menin, chairwoman of Community Board 1, said putting the bonds toward developer Larry Silverstein’s Tower 3 would stimulate the economy by creating both construction and permanent jobs downtown.
"Something like this could help get the project done…and not leave a hole in our neighborhood," Menin said.
New York state received a total of $555 million in tax-exempt Recovery Zone Facility Bonds from the federal government for private local development projects, but many cities and counties have not used them.
Both Dutchess County and the town of Huntington, N.Y. do not plan to issue any of their bonds, totaling a combined $23 million, representatives said.
New York City has spent only about $30 million of its $121 million in bonds so far.
But not everyone wants to see the leftover bonds go to the World Trade Center site.
"I was hoping [the bonds] would be distributed here," said Gary Domalewicz, chairman of the Albany County Industrial Development Agency. "I have other projects I could use it for."
Albany County has already received $15 million in stimulus bonds and plans to issue them within the next two weeks for an undisclosed project. Domalewicz said he would like additional bonds for office and hotel buildings in Albany County that need funding.
The counties and cities would have to waive their right to the leftover bonds before the state can reallocate them. The state has not made a final decision on how the bonds would be used.
The state has also not yet calculated how much of the $555 million in bond money will be left over at the end of the year, the ESDC said.
The calculation is difficult because some cities, like New York, hope to issue more bonds before the end-of year deadline.
In addition to the over $30 million in bonds the city has already released for developments in Brooklyn and Queens, the city has approved nearly $75 million for additional projects, but it is unclear if those bonds will be finalized in time.
"We’re actively working to allocate it," said Julie Wood, spokeswoman for the city Economic Development Corp. "We don’t want to have anything left over that could go back to Washington."
