Getting Our Money’s Worth Coalition Responds to New Data Showing IDAs Spending More Than $2 Billion
New York, NY–This morning, members of the Getting Our Money’s Worth Coalition responded to the Authorities Budget Office’s Multi Year Analysis of IDA Financial Assistance Practices. The new data was posted on the agency’s website, at http://www.abo.ny.gov/.
Statement by Matt Ryan, Executive Director, ALIGN
Oversight agencies like the Authorities Budget Office and the Comptroller’s Office have been sounding the alarm about the shortcomings—and huge expense—of job creation programs like Industrial Development Agencies. It’s time our elected leaders in Albany do more to address the jobs crisis by bringing greater performance, accountability and transparency to New York’s broken economic development system.
Statement by Jennifer Diagostino, Executive Director, Coalition for Economic Justice
The tax exemptions granted by hundreds of Industrial Development Agencies around the state come with a huge price tag, which is mostly born by local taxpayers, governments and school districts. Local communities must be empowered to have a voice in the subsidy decision-making process, and must have the tools to monitor the performance of their investments and get a money-back guarantee when companies fail to live up to their agreements. This should be the case with the more than $2 billion IDAs have given in taxpayer dollars in recent years, as well as the more than $7 billion spent each year by New York’s main corporate subsidy programs.
###