TRR file photo Governor George Pataki and Rep. Ben Gilman posed with workers at the Kohl’s warehouse in Mamakating last summer after Pataki announced Sullivan’s new Empire Zone designation. (Click for larger image)

Explaining the Empire Zone

By DAVID HULSE

MONTICELLO — Since Governor George Pataki first announced it last summer, many people around Sullivan County have been trying to figure out just what or where the county’s Empire Zone is.

While it’s new here, Sullivan County Planning Commissioner Alan Sorensen explained that Empire Zones (EZ) have been around since the late 1980’s. Sullivan County’s zone was designated on July 30 of last year.

The EZ rules are complicated in part, because its state-supported tax benefits are many, Sorensen said. For the average small main street business, the designation can be worth $60,000 a year, for a large corporation, like Kohl’s Department Stores, it can be $2 to $3 million annually, or more.