Under current law, Speaker Silver, Majority Leader Bruno and Gov. Spitzer must each sign off on indvidual BOA grants.An innovative state law meant to help communities clean polluted industrial sites is still caught in a bureaucratic tangle after nearly three years, according to the Times Union [1].

The Brownfield Opportunity Areas program [2] has pledged $8 million to more than 50 projects, but has yet to pay out a single penny. In the Capital Region alone, two dozen projects totaling more than $1.3 million are stalled, from cleaning up former steel mill sites in South Troy, to pollution in the neighborhood around the General Electric plant in Fort Edward and the Scotia-Glenville Industrial Park.

The problem is that Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver must all agree to each individual grant before cash can be released. The last time that happened was in 2005.

Negotiations between those parties are proceeding on a memorandum of understanding, according to a spokesperson for Silver.

Reforming the state's brownfield initiatives is a major component of NYLCV's 2008 State Policy Agenda. Click here [2] to check the agenda out for yourself.