WHEREAS, the Federal government enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("ARRA") in order to stimulate the national economy and increase employment; and

WHEREAS, the ARRA created the Recovery Zone Facility Bond ("RZFB") program in order to support private business development projects and trade activity in designated economically distressed areas termed "Recovery Zones"; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to the ARRA and as described in Notice 2009-50 of the Internal Revenue Service (Notice 2009-50), the State of New York ("State") received an allocation of RZFB Volume Cap of $555,147,000; Notice 2009-50 further required that such allocation be initially allocated among counties and certain large municipalities ("Original Allocation Recipients") in the amounts as provided therein ("Original Allocations"); and

WHEREAS, to advance the State's economic development efforts, Empire State Development Corporation ("ESDC") and the Department of Economic Development ("DED") distributed a memorandum on December 29, 2009 requesting information from Original Allocation Recipients about their issuance plans for RZFBs and use of the Original Allocations and requested the delivery of express and affirmative waivers to ESDC of all or part of their Original Allocations in the event such allocations would not be used, attaching a form to be used for such purpose; and

WHEREAS, under ARRA, RZFB's must be issued before January 1, 2011 (the "Expiration Date"); and

WHEREAS, the State, through the efforts of ESDC and DED, has provided extensive guidance about RZFBs to Original Allocation Recipients, including outreach and assistance to elected officials and economic developers related to projects and reallocation requests; and

WHEREAS, in November 2010, the Chair of the New York State Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Cabinet, which I created to manage the development of State and local infrastructure projects financed through ARRA, issued a request for RZFB waivers, which noted FSDC's authorization to act for State regarding RZFB guidance and included the waiver form previously distributed by ESDC; and

WHEREAS, it is critical that the State and its localities take advantage of the RZFB program to create jobs, foster economic development, and develop critical infrastructure, and therefore, to the extent any Original Allocations will not be used by the Original Allocation Recipients, it is imperative to provide for the re-allocation of such unused allocations to projects that would promote economic recovery of the State prior to the Expiration Date; and

WHEREAS, there is no reasonable basis to assume that such Expiration Date will be extended by the Federal government; and

WHEREAS, the ARRA and Notice 2009-50 provide that all or any portion of the Original Allocations may be waive or deemed waived by the Original Allocation Recipients and upon such waiver, a state shall be authorized to re-allocate the waived allocation in any reasonable manner as it shall determine in good faith in its discretion;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, David A. Paterson, Governor of the State of New York, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Laws of the State of New York do hereby order as follows:

1. Original Allocations which have not been utilized for the issuance of RZFBs shall be deemed waived by an Original Allocation Recipient unless such Original Allocation Recipient delivers to ESDC on or before December 21, 2010, a written report detailing the RZFB issuance plans of such Original Allocation Recipient, specifying amounts and projects.

2. ESDC shall reallocate such deemed waived Original Allocations, together with allocations heretofore waived by Original Allocation Recipients, in any reasonable manner for use for eligible costs for qualified Recovery Zone purposes.