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The County of Rockland
Industrial Development Agency (the Agency)
was established in 1980 as a public benefit
corporation under New York State Law (General
Municipal Law, Art. 18-A, Section 925-l,
Ti. 2). The Agency's purpose is to actively
promote, attract, encourage and develop
economically sound commerce and industry
by providing financial incentives and inducements
for business to locate and expand in the
County of Rockland in order to advance job
opportunities and to preserve the County's
economic health and general prosperity.
Agency members are appointed by the Rockland
County Executive and confirmed by the Rockland
County Legislature.
The Agency does not provide
financial assistance in the form of direct
loans, but acts as a conduit-financing agency
for funding from other sources, such as
banks, insurance companies and other institutional
investors. Traditionally, the Agency has
issued bonds, which represent the funding
provided from such sources. In 1993, the
New York State Legislature amended the laws
governing industrial development agencies
to permit them to provide financial assistance
through a straight-lease transaction. In
such a transaction, no funding flows through
the Agency as it would with a bond, but
is provided external to the Agency. A straight-lease
transaction could be accomplished without
incurring any indebtedness at all if the
project costs are funded with equity capital.
Section 874 of the General
Municipal Law provides that IDAs are not
required to pay any tax upon "any of the
property acquired by it or under its jurisdiction
or control or supervision or upon its activities."
Consequently, there are three tax benefits
associated with an Agency transaction:
Any mortgage filed with respect to an Agency's
interest in a project is exempt from the
one and thirty hundredths percent (1.30%)
New York State mortgage recording tax.
The Agency can offer exemptions from sales
tax on materials purchased during the construction
of a project and for equipment for the project.
The Agency issues a sales tax letter to
the project owner or lessee which provides
to vendors a description of the Agency project
and informs them that the project owner
or lessee is an agent of the Agency for
the purposes of completing the project,
and therefore no sales tax is imposed on
any property within the scope of the Agency
project. The sales tax letter is limited
in time and solely to the Agency project.
In Rockland County, the applicable sales
tax is 8.375%.
During the time that the Agency holds title
to the real property of a project, that
property is exempt from all general real
property taxes. However, all IDAs require
companies to make payments in lieu of taxes
(PILOTs). The PILOT agreement is made between
the company and the affected taxing jurisdictions
(County, Town, Village, School District)
where the project is located. PILOT payments
usually consist of an agreed upon percentage
of the property tax that would otherwise
be due on the property if the project had
been completed without Agency involvement.
The County of Rockland Industrial
Development Agency adopted its 
UNIFORM
TAX EXEMPTION POLICY on
July 16, 1997, readopted March 23, 1999.
Contact:
Phone: 845-735-0205
Fax: 845-735-5736
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