Bill Text: NY A09069 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Enacts the "food retail establishment subsidization for healthy communities act" (FRESH Communities); provides loans, loan guarantees, interest subsidies and grants to businesses, municipalities, not-for-profit corporations or local development corporations for the purpose of attracting, maintaining or permitting the expansion of food retail establishments in underserved areas.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-03-26 - reported referred to ways and means [A09069 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A09069-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          9069

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 6, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced by M. of A. STIRPE -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Economic Development

        AN ACT to amend the New York state urban development corporation act, in
          relation  to  enacting the food retail establishment subsidization for
          healthy communities (FRESH Communities) act

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Short  title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
     2  the "food retail establishment  subsidization  for  healthy  communities
     3  act".
     4    § 2. Legislative intent. The legislature finds that the lack of access
     5  to  fresh  foods  is  a  problem  of growing concern in many communities
     6  across the state. Substantial increases in urban land values and  rents,
     7  limited  access to financing and other economic pressures have left many
     8  lower-income residents in urban and rural areas underserved by supermar-
     9  kets and other food retail establishments. The resulting lack of  access
    10  to  a variety of fresh food retailers makes it more difficult and expen-
    11  sive for these residents to maintain a nutritionally balanced  diet  and
    12  leads  to  increased  public  health  costs, dilutes the value of public
    13  assistance for food purchases, leads to greater travel times and  energy
    14  expenditures  to  obtain fresh food, and deprives the state's farmers of
    15  markets for their products. Providing access to financial assistance for
    16  urban and rural supermarkets in  underserved  areas  will  remedy  these
    17  adverse conditions, create employment opportunities and help to revital-
    18  ize and stabilize currently underserved neighborhoods.
    19    §  3. Subdivision 1 of section 16-m of section 1 of chapter 174 of the
    20  laws of 1968, constituting the New York state urban  development  corpo-
    21  ration act, is amended by adding a new paragraph (p) to read as follows:
    22    (p)  Loans,  loan  guarantees,  interest subsidies and grants to busi-
    23  nesses, municipalities, not-for-profit corporations or local development
    24  corporations for the purpose of attracting,  maintaining  or  permitting
    25  the  expansion  of food retail establishments in underserved areas.  The
    26  corporation shall consider the economic viability of the project and the
    27  potential impact on the community when evaluating applications for  such

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD08542-01-3
        A. 9069                             2

     1  loans,  loan  guarantees, interest subsidies and grants. The corporation
     2  shall establish performance indicators to assess  the  progress  of  the
     3  projects receiving monies pursuant to the authorization provided in this
     4  paragraph,  and  track and publish this information on its website.  For
     5  purposes of this paragraph, "underserved areas"  shall  include  low  or
     6  moderate-income census tracts, areas of below average supermarket densi-
     7  ty  or  having  a supermarket customer base with more than fifty percent
     8  living in low-income census tracts, or other areas demonstrated to  have
     9  significant  access limitations due to travel distance, as determined by
    10  the corporation, and "food retail establishments" shall  include  super-
    11  markets and other grocery retailers that operate on a self-service basis
    12  and  sell  a  minimum  percentage,  as determined by the corporation, of
    13  produce, meat, poultry, seafood, baked goods and/or dairy  products  and
    14  which:
    15    (i) participate in the New York grown and certified program;
    16    (ii)  accept  payment  from  electronic  benefit  transfer through the
    17  supplemental  nutrition  assistance  program  and  through  the  special
    18  supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children;
    19    (iii) do not charge a membership fee; and
    20    (iv)  hire residents living within a twenty mile radius of such retail
    21  food establishment.
    22    § 4.  This act shall take effect on the first of April next succeeding
    23  the date on which it shall have become a law; provided, however that the
    24  urban development corporation shall be immediately  authorized  to  take
    25  any  and  all  actions  necessary  to  fully  implement the provision of
    26  section three of this act on or before such effective date; and provided
    27  further, that the amendments to section 16-m of  the  urban  development
    28  corporation  act  made by section three of this act shall not affect the
    29  expiration of such section and shall be deemed to expire therewith.