Brighton officials won a small victory last week when COMIDA - the county's Industrial Development Agency - reversed itself and denied property-tax benefits for renovation of a hotel. But town leaders and other critics say they'll keep pushing for statewide IDA reform. And Henrietta Supervisor Jim Breese may join the fight.

COMIDA board members are appointed by the Republican-controlled county government. Brighton's elected officials are all Democrats, so their opposition might be considered political or philosophical. So might that of other COMIDA critics: local labor leaders and the liberal activist group Metro Justice. But Breese is a conservative Republican.

The critics say that the Brighton hotel case is a prime example of why statewide IDA reform is needed. The COMIDA board almost granted Brighton Lodging LLC well over $300,000 in tax breaks to renovate the Wellesley Inn on East Henrietta Road. And it would have required the company to create only one job.

At the last minute, the board deleted the $166,000 property-tax exemption from Brighton Lodging's benefits package, at County Executive Maggie Brooks' request. But the company still received more than $180,000 in sales and mortgage-tax abatements.

"I have a mixed reaction," Brighton Supervisor Sandra Frankel said later in the week. While she was glad to see the property-tax exemption removed, she said, the town opposes the other benefits.

COMIDA, and Industrial Development Agencies in general, have strong supporters, particularly in Upstate New York, where the economy continues to be sluggish. New York ranks as one of the nation's highest-taxed states.

Tax incentives, says COMIDA board chair Robert Hurlbut, are essential in attracting and keeping businesses in the county. And, he notes, the Rochester region and all of New York no longer compete only with places like North Carolina. The competition is international - from China, for instance.

"Empire Zones and IDAs wouldn't be necessary if taxes weren't so high," says Hurlbut.

Among the current COMIDA beneficiaries is AMC Laboratories, which held a ribbon cutting last Thursday to mark the completion of a $2 million expansion of its Elmgrove Park facility in Gates. The company, which does medical testing and has an international client base, will receive a property-tax abatement through COMIDA. In turn, it plans to create 30 new full-time jobs and 36 new part-time jobs.

It's one of more than 50 COMIDA projects in Gates. "The ones that we've had that I recall have been generally successful," says Supervisor Ralph Esposito.

Esposito admits there are trade-offs with publicly supported benefits packages. But which is better, he asks: a vacant building or a business that isn't taxed at the full level?

"It's by far not a perfect system, but it's an economic tool," Esposito says.

Critics question whether Industrial Development Agencies are a successful economic-development tool, however. Too often, they say, the number of jobs created doesn't justify the benefits. Every dollar of tax benefits has to be made up by other taxpayers.

Brighton Town Councilmember Ray Tierney, a consistent COMIDA critic, frequently notes that every year, his town loses the equivalent of the taxes paid by a small neighborhood - about $100,000 -because of COMIDA exemptions.

Tierney, Brighton Supervisor Sandy Frankel, and other critics want local governments to have more input into IDA decisions. Frankel wants the state to require IDA's to get approval of benefit packages from local governments. That approval is required for Empire Zone projects.

Henrietta Supervisor Jim Breese echoes Brighton's desire for more local involvement in granting tax breaks. Henrietta loses an estimated $110,000 each year in COMIDA property-tax abatements, says town assessor Nathan Gabbert. With Henrietta's tax rate of about $1.20 per thousand, that's about what 670 average homeowners pay in property taxes, he says.

Breese also says that COMIDA's decisions need more oversight. Both he and Brighton's Sandy Frankel say that many of the companies getting benefits would stay in the area without them. Tax benefits should be used, says Frankel, only to bring in new businesses or retain businesses that would otherwise move out of the area. Projects such as Brighton Lodging's hotel, she says, are driven by the market and won't leave.

And Breese notes that Henrietta's business development is growing at a rapid pace, but many of them are getting tax breaks.

Breese says he plans to get in touch with Brighton officials to see if the two towns can work together to push for reform.

Jobs With Justice, a statewide coalition of community and social-justice groups, recently released a report recommending reforms for IDA's. They include:

The state Assembly passed an IDA reform bill last year, but a similar bill failed to make it out of the Senate. With a new governor in office, many IDA critics are hoping that reform makes it into law this year, says Greenbaum.

Assembly member Susan John is working with her colleague, Buffalo Democrat Sam Hoyt, to draft IDA reform legislation. The proposal, which Hoyt says he hopes to introduce within a week, has measures similar to the Jobs with Justice recommendations.

And as the new leader of the Assembly's local government committee, Hoyt said last week that he's not willing to back off from reform. "I'm a pit bull," he said.

Critics are also looking beyond IDA reform. IDA's are only one piece of the economic-development picture, says labor leader Jim Bertolone. Reforms are also needed in the state's enterprise zones - originally intended to help revitalize blighted areas of cities but later expanded to suburbs - and public authorities, says Bertolone.

And Jon Greenbaum of Metro Justice says there is too much emphasis on IDA's as economic development tools. Infrastructure and education are just as important, he says.

"We need to make investments that pay more dividends," says Greenbaum.