Buffalo News, By David Robinson, February 19, 2012. After several years of handing out tax break after tax break to stores, restaurants, hotels and urgent care centers –all almost exclusively local projects that promised little in the way of job growth or increased wealth for the region –local IDAs are coming under greater scrutiny from politicians in a position to do something about it.
WNYC, By Marie Cusick, February 10, 2012. In 2009, IDAs gave away close to half a billion dollars in tax breaks to companies in the name of economic development. But in their four decades of existence, they’ve been accused of everything from failing to comply with state laws, to simply being inefficient. Reform advocates say it’s time to take another look at IDAs.
WIVB4, By Nalina Shapiro, January 20, 2012. Industrial development agencies are supposed to help attract, retain or expand local businesses locally through financial incentives. But is that really happening? People with the Coalition for Economic Justice in Buffalo say no, and that companies like VWR in the Town of Tonawanda are taking advantage of your taxpayer dollars.
A new report analyzing the performance standards and enforcement policies of the states’ major economic development programs was released today by Good Jobs First, a non-profit, non-partisan research center based in Washington, DC. The study, Money-Back Guarantees for Taxpayers: Clawbacks and Other Enforcement Safeguards in State Economic Development Subsidy Programs, shows that most states are highly inconsistent in how they monitor, verify and enforce the terms of job subsidies that cost taxpayers billions of dollars per year. New York State had one of the poorest track records, receiving a score of D+ and ranking 45th out of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.
The Huffington Post, by Michele Simon, January 18, 2012. Having saturated the rural landscape, shuttering local stores in small town America along the way, now, in the wake of stagnant sales and increased competition, Walmart desperately needs to expand into urban markets.