The Amherst Industrial Development Agency today granted more than $790,000 in tax breaks to

Bryant & Stratton College to help it move its Amherst campus to a new site on Millersport

Highway.

The college said the $5.9 million project will increase the size of its Amherst facility by

a third and allow it to install additional technology that will improve its teaching and

training programs.

Without the aid, Bryant & Stratton officials said the college would have to delay

implementing some of the new technology, such as messaging services for its students. The

project is expected to create 15 new jobs at the college, which employs 55 full-time and 60

part-time workers.

The agency approved the aid even though offering incentives for educational services

generally is prohibited under the eligibility policy that is used by all of the IDAs in Erie

County.

James J. Allen, the IDA's executive director, urged the board to approve the tax breaks

because one of the state laws governing IDAs that had listed educational services as

ineligible for tax breaks has not been reauthorized by the state Legislature.

Board member Stuart Shapiro cast the lone vote against the incentives, arguing that Bryant

& Stratton officials had given no indication that the project would not proceed without the

tax breaks.

The IDA also granted $2.9 million in tax breaks for a $15.3 million project that will allow

Fidelis Care New York to move its Amherst office to a new location within the town that is

more than double the size of its current facility.

Fidelis Care, which provides government-sponsored health care programs, plans to move its

back office facility, currently in a 40,300-square-foot building in the Audubon Industrial

Park, to a new, 90,000-square-foot building at 480 CrossPoint Parkway.

Fidelis Care expects to create 138 new jobs within the next two years, bolstering a payroll

that now tops $20 million annual for its current 429 full-time and five part-time workers.

Fidelis Care officials said the company has outgrown its current office at 40 John Glenn

Drive. The new building will have room to accommodate future growth, while also improving

efficiency by allowing the company to operate from a single facility that has been tailored to

its specific needs.

The IDA also voted to contribute up to $1,000 toward legal fees associated with a lawsuit

that the New York State Economic Development Council may launch against a new tax on

industrial development agency revenues that will cost the Amherst IDA $44,217 this year.

The Erie County IDA earlier this month agreed to contribute $7,500 toward the lawsuit,

while IDAs in Lancaster and Clarence also have agreed to provide up to $1,000. The new tax has

spawned a groundswell of opposition among local IDA and economic development officials who are

backing new legislation to repeal the tax.

IDA board member Aaron Stanley voted against the contribution. "I just don't believe we

should get involved in a lawsuit," he said.

The IDA also voted to amend its policy for charging fees on tax-exempt financing projects,

reducing its normal 1 percent charge to 0.5 percent for projects that only receive a mortgage

tax exemption. Projects receiving property tax breaks still will be charged a 1 percent fee.