New York Daily News, By Erin Durkin, November 12, 2011. J.P. Morgan Chase is raking in millions in city subsidies for its downtown Brooklyn buildings — but falling far short on it promises to bring jobs to the borough, advocates charge. Chase Manhattan Bank, which has since merged with J.P. Morgan, pledged to bring 5,000 jobs to two buildings at the MetroTech Center when it signed a 25-year deal for $235 million in tax breaks and other subsidies in 1989.
Buffalo News, By Stephen T. Watson and Matt Glynn November 11, 2011. An activist group Thursday rallied against tax breaks awarded for the expansion of a car dealership in Amherst, one day after a restaurant/retail project in Lancaster also got tax breaks. Critics are pointing to these and similar projects as examples of industrial development agencies granting generous tax breaks to enterprises that don’t spur economic growth or create jobs.
Brooklyn Paper, By Natalie O’Neill, November 11, 2011. Occupy Wall Street protesters – some in costume – hit Downtown on Thursday, rallying outside JP Morgan Chase’s offices to condemn tax breaks that gave the wealthy bank hundreds of millions in subsidies even though the company did not retain the thousands of jobs it promised.
WNYLaborToday, November11, 2011. Using the Northtown Lexus Dealership on Sheridan Drive in the Buffalo Suburb of Amherst as a backdrop to underscore the misuse of public dollars given out by Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) that fail to create good jobs or promote broad community benefits, Organized Labor, Community Activists and members of Occupy Buffalo called for a number of reforms to ensure IDAs do not waste taxpayer dollars.
WNED, By Mike Desmond, November 11, 2011. The war of words over local economic development agencies like IDA's is heating up again with a report from the statewide group Getting Our Money's Worth. In a report based on 2009 data, the group says many of the tax breaks given that year produced no jobs.
