Back in 1969 New York State enacted legislation to create the Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) and seven years later NYS established the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency (UCIDA).

The purpose of the UCIDA program is to facilitate economic development and improve economic conditions in localities through a program of incentives. This helps to encourage businesses to locate or re-develop in the area. The Nevele re-development project is an ideal example of how this program creates new broad economic opportunities.

The UCIDA is administered by board members appointed by the Ulster County government and consists of area community and business leaders. The board is also contracted by the Ulster County Office of Business Services to administer their operations and to process applications.

The IDA's goal is to attract, retain and expand businesses within each jurisdiction such as Ulster County. It accomplishes this through furnishing financial incentives to private entities in order to help them be as competitive as possible.

The reason the UCIDA offers these tools and incentive programs is to alleviate some of the major upfront costs in the establishment or expansion of a business. By doing so, a firm can spread their funds among many other business needs via the UCIDA tax incentives on sales and use, mortgage tax and real property.

For example, Sullivan County's Empire Resort applied and will be receiving tax program incentives from the Sullivan County IDA. The Nevele Resort, Casino & Spa in Ellenville, has decided to also seek similar relief in order to remain competitive. These savings will help tremendously with the start-up costs for the construction of Nevele's $640 million project,which include providing 2,000 construction jobs and the materials necessary to build a world class destination resort. Upon completion of construction, the Nevele will offer an additional 2,000 jobs. This all has a major impact on the cash flow of the business and it is why these programs are so important.

The millions in tax revenue created by the Nevele will serve to benefit Ulster County, the Town of Wawarsing, the Village of Ellenville and surrounding Hudson Valley region. The site plans include 446 luxury guest rooms, three hotel towers, a rooftop pool, five miles of rail trail, 83,000 square feet of casino gaming, a luxury spa, horseback riding, skiing, golf, tennis, summer zip lines, world class dining featuring Hudson Valley wines, farm-to-table and locally-sourced, organic foods, etc. in an art-deco style resort destination. The resort construction will begin upon license approval.

The Nevele Resort, Casino & Spa will be paying millions of dollars in taxes. The IDA incentives help ease the large upfront costs of construction particularly since Nevele will have no revenue until the doors open two years later. Taxes include the following:

• Payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) will be $173,104 for property taxes with new increased PILOT payments, in year 6, becoming $3,168,340 per year.

• Taxes stay flat during the construction period of 2.5 years to help stabilize operations, then annual PILOT payments increase to $3 million by year 5; $6M by year 10; and ultimately $12M annually in taxes.

• Create over $700 million in economic impact to the region including 2,000+ jobs.

• Over $7,000,000 in additional sales tax revenue.

• $170,000,000 in annual payroll with direct and indirect jobs.

• 70 percent of payroll typically spent locally or about $101,000,000.

• 10 percent of NYS Gaming taxes go to the host Ulster County and community (Wawarsing and Ellenville).

• 10 percent of NYS Gaming tax revenue go to the host Catskill region.

• Guest bedroom sales tax.

• School taxes unchanged.

The tax incentives offered to Nevele and all Ulster County businesses exist to level the economic playing field and give the Nevele, Resort, Casino & Spa its best chance to compete with Sullivan County and ensure its success in bringing millions of people to the entire Hudson Valley Catskill region for years to come. The reason for the UCIDA is to provide for Ulster County's future.