By David Lombardo
November 14, 2011
Taxpayer dollars are getting wasted on the state’s Industrial Development Agencies, say economic justice advocates.
Based on statistics released by the state Comptroller’s Office for the year 2009, the Alliance for a Greater New York and the Buffalo based Coalition for Economic Justice put out a report detailing what they characterized as useless tax incentives by IDAs. IDAs are local economic development agencies that are able to provide incentives to companies that promise expansion or job creation.
The report noted that half of the projects that ended in 2009 didn’t actually create a single job and that $141 million of the state’s IDA tax breaks went to companies that cut jobs or didn’t create new jobs...
The 25 projects in the Capital Region that didn’t reach their initial job creation or retention promises ended up falling 5,400 jobs short of the mark...
Allison Duwe, Executive Director of the Coalition for Economic Justice, noted that the trends in the Capital Region have persisted around the state with the IDA system.
“IDAs were not performing well before the economic crisis, and the latest data reinforces that IDAs are not equipped to respond to New York’s jobs crisis, despite giving away considerable public dollars in corporate subsidies,” said Duwe...
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