Brokerage firm agreed to create 2,000 new jobs in 1997 when it was granted $28 million in city and state subsidies in a 15-year deal. Instead, banking giant cut 2,765 jobs
A watchdog group is rolling out a new public awareness campaign to highlight corporate welfare gone wrong — starting with tax breaks for Merrill Lynch that failed to create jobs.
The labor-backed Getting Our Money’s Worth Coalition launched the Corporate Tax Dodgers Hall of Shame campaign with a website this week and will “induct” Merrill Lynch during a protest Friday in midtown Manhattan.
“With such high unemployment, New York needs good job creation, not broken promises,” said Matt Ryan, executive director of ALIGN, part of the left-wing community-labor coalition.
Merrill Lynch was granted $28 million in state and city subsidies in a 15-year deal signed in 1997.
The brokerage, which was purchased by Bank of America in 2009, agreed to retain 9,000 existing jobs and create 2,000 new jobs by June 2012. Instead, the banking giant cut 2,765 jobs.
The city should have been able to recoup more than $2 million since Merrill had broken its job creation commitment, but the city reduced Merrill’s sales tax exemption by just $379,000.
A spokesman for the city Economic Development Corp. said the Merrill deal was negotiated under Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The Bloomberg administration terminated the agreement a year early, in 2011, saving $5 million, and has pursued deals that spur job growth, not just retention, spokesman Kyle Sklerov said.
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