WTC Records Folder 0123 Clippings label, Sept 2001

NYC-WTC_000137034 C; ity Proposes Priorities for Federal Aid to Rebuild Continued From‘Page D1 repopulate what some: calculate is the 25 million square;feet of space lost to the attack. The eap is designed to signal to the federa} government that the city is not:itrying to tuck general economic development into the package. i Bip, Other refinements under consider- ation by Mr. Schumer’and Mrs. Clin- ton include tax credits for business and tax-exempt financing for recon- struction projects, according to peo- ple familiar with the plan. Their plan would likely lengthen the time period the cash credit for employees and might not contain a cap.! 4 However, city officials: hintec that since it was unlikely that two huge towers would be built in the World Trade Center’s space and that small- er buildings might go there instead, businesses that chose to set up shop in other boroughs might be accom- modated by this plan if lower Man- hattan became overpopulated. For some developers, who are loath to build in Manhattan because of high costs and bureaucratic hur dies, the city would like to offer ac: cess to tax-exempt bonds that would Significantly reduce their costs of building. The city envisions develop- ers going ta its Industrial Develop- ment Authority to secure bonds on which purchasers would not be obli- gated to -pay city,-state ar fe“2ral taxes, in turn lowering the interest rate for the developers. ‘City officials argue that the benefit is attractive because although it would represent a ldéss of about $13: billion in tax revenues for the federal— government, it would not require a cash payout to the city. Tax on bond interest was not anticipated revenue anyway, since there were no plans before Sept. 11 te do major rebuild- ing in lower Manhattan. Outside of rebuilding and repopu- lating the area, known as the Liberty Zone, the city would also like to have a federal insurance pool created for businesses that cannot afford insur: ance, and pay for the rebuilding of a destroyed power substation, subway Station and ‘telephone switching sta-! - tion at a cost of roughly $2 billion NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document