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Hudson IDA votes for tax break criteria
Roger Hannigan Gilson reports for the Times Union that the city of Hudson's Industrial Development Agency is changing how it awards tax breaks to new construction projects with a vote Sept. 21 to adopt new criteria focused on community benefits. The Hudson IDA was recently criticized for giving tax breaks to high-end hotels. That led to a series of public workshops about reimagining the way it gives tax breaks. Hudson Mayor Kamal Johnson, a member of the IDA, said, "We want to make sure that everything new has a direct benefit to the existing city." The new criteria for tax breaks include asking developers to provide well-paying jobs; to give workplace-advancement training to employees; to provide workforce housing; and to improve the environment and offer goods and services that will benefit the community. Proposed projects are awarded points based on those criteria, and scores determine if a project gets a tax break, and how much that discount is. Read the full story in the Times Union.