(a) jobs created in this state that (i) are new to the state,
(ii) have not been transferred from employment with another business
located in this state including from a related person in this state,
(iii) are either full-time wage-paying jobs or equivalent to a
full-time wage-paying job requiring at least thirty-five hours per week,
and
(iv) are filled for more than six months; or
(b) jobs obtained by an entertainment company in this state (i) as a
result of the termination of a licensing agreement with another
entertainment company, (ii) that the commissioner determines to be at
risk of leaving the state as a direct result of the termination, (iii)
that are either full-time wage-paying jobs or equivalent to a full-time
wage-paying job requiring at least thirty-five hours per week, and (iv)
that are filled for more than six months.
15. "Participant" means a business entity that:
(a) has completed an application prescribed by the department to be
admitted into the program;
(b) has been issued a certificate of eligibility by the department;
(c) has demonstrated that it meets the eligibility criteria in section
three hundred fifty-three and subdivision two of section three hundred
fifty-four of this article; and
(d) has been certified as a participant by the commissioner.
16. "Preliminary schedule of benefits" means the maximum aggregate
amount of each component of the tax credit that a participant in the
excelsior jobs program is eligible to receive pursuant to this article.
The schedule shall indicate the annual amount of each component of the
credit a participant may claim in each of its ten years of eligibility.
The preliminary schedule of benefits shall be issued by the department
when the department approves the application for admission into the
program. The commissioner may amend that schedule, provided that the
commissioner complies with the credit caps in section three hundred
fifty-nine of this article as applicable.
17. "Qualified investment" means an investment in tangible property
(including a building or a structural component of a building) owned by
a business enterprise which:
(a) is depreciable pursuant to section one hundred sixty-seven of the
internal revenue code;
(b) has a useful life of four years or more;
(c) is acquired by purchase as defined in section one hundred
seventy-nine (d) of the internal revenue code;
(d) has a situs in this state; and
(e) is placed in service in the state on or after the date the
certificate of eligibility is issued to the business enterprise.
18. "Regionally significant project" means (a) a manufacturer creating
at least ten net new jobs in the state and making significant capital
investment in the state; (b) a business creating at least ten net new
jobs in agriculture in the state and making significant capital
investment in the state, (c) a financial services firm, distribution
center, or back office operation creating at least one hundred net new
jobs in the state and making significant capital investment in the
state, (d) a scientific research and development firm creating at least
ten net new jobs in the state, and making significant capital investment
in the state, (e) a life sciences company creating at least twenty net
new jobs in the state and making significant capital investment in the
state or (f) an entertainment company creating or obtaining at least two
hundred net new jobs in the state and making significant capital
investment in the state. Other businesses creating one hundred fifty or
more net new jobs in the state and making significant capital investment
in the state may be considered eligible as a regionally significant
project by the commissioner as well. The commissioner shall promulgate
regulations pursuant to section three hundred fifty-six of this article
to determine what additional criteria a business must meet to be
eligible as a regionally significant project, including, but not limited
to, whether a business exports a substantial portion of its products or
services outside of the state or outside of a metropolitan statistical
area or county within the state.
19. "Related person" means a "related person" pursuant to subparagraph
(c) of paragraph three of subsection (b) of section four hundred
sixty-five of the internal revenue code.
20. "Remuneration" means wages and benefits paid to an employee by a
participant in the excelsior jobs program.
20-a. "Significant capital investment" means a project which will be
either a newly constructed facility or a newly constructed addition to,
expansion of or improvement of a facility, consisting of tangible
personal property and other tangible property, including buildings and
structural components of buildings, that are depreciable pursuant to
section one hundred sixty-seven of the internal revenue code, have a
useful life of four years or more, are acquired by purchase as defined
in section one hundred seventy-nine (d) of the internal revenue code,
and that is equal to or exceeds (a) one million dollars for a
manufacturer; (b) two hundred fifty thousand dollars for an agriculture
business; (c) three million dollars for a financial services firm or
back office operation; (d) fifteen million dollars for a distribution
center; (e) three million dollars for a scientific research and
development firm; or (f) three million dollars for other businesses.
21. "Research and development expenditures" mean the expenses of the
business enterprise that are qualified research expenses under the
federal research and development credit under section forty-one of the
internal revenue code and are attributable to activities conducted in
the state. If the federal research and development credit has expired,
then the research and development expenditures shall be calculated as if
the federal research and development credit structure and definition in
effect in federal tax year two thousand nine were still in effect.
22. "Scientific research and development" means conducting research
and experimental development in the physical, engineering, and life
sciences, including but not limited to agriculture, animal fiber,
electronics, environmental, biology, botany, biotechnology, computers,
chemistry, food, fisheries, forests, geology, health, mathematics,
medicine, oceanography, pharmacy, physics, plant fiber, veterinary, and
other allied subjects. For the purposes of this article, scientific
research and development does not include medical or veterinary
laboratory testing facilities.
23. "Software development" means the creation of coded computer
instructions or production or post-production of video games, as defined
in subdivision one-a of section six hundred eleven of the general
business law, other than those embedded and used exclusively in
advertising, promotional websites or microsites, and also includes new
media as defined by the commissioner in regulations.
24. "Green CHIPS project" means a project meeting all of the following
criteria: (a) is within the semiconductor manufacturing and related
equipment and material supplier sector; (b) includes sustainability
measures to mitigate the project's greenhouse gas emissions impact over
its lifetime; (c) provides for the payment of not less than federal
prevailing wage rates for its project construction; (d) makes
commitments to worker and community investment, including through
training and education benefits paid by the participant and programs to
expand employment opportunity for economically disadvantaged
individuals; (e) will create at least five hundred net new jobs and make
at least three billion dollars in qualified investment; and (f) the
participant undertaking a Green CHIPS project shall maintain a Green
CHIPS benefit-cost ratio of at least fifteen to one. Such projects are
eligible to enter into a phase one of a Green CHIPS project ten-year
benefit term. Such projects, provided they are in good standing with all
requirements of this chapter, are also eligible to enter into a phase
two of a Green CHIPS project, and therefore to initiate a new and
separate ten-year schedule related to phase two, provided that phase two
will create at least five hundred net new jobs beyond those created in
phase one, and that phase two will make at least three billion dollars
in qualified investment beyond the investment total associated with
phase one. For Green CHIPS projects, phase one and phase two terms may
overlap, depending on the time of initiation for both projects. In no
event shall credits be awarded for a Green CHIPS project beyond two
thousand fifty.