This new report from the Fiscal Policy Institute identifies $5.4 billion a year in state government “back door” spending in the name of economic development and job creation. An additional $2.8 billion a year is being drained from New York’s local government budgets because of a variety of tax expenditures in state law. In these tough budget times, these billions of dollars in business tax expenditures, which have historically lacked transparency and accountability, must be examined carefully – program by program – to determine whether the promised benefit is real, and if so whether the expense entailed is justified.