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Green Collar Jobs Roadmap

Initiated in 2008, the Green Collar Jobs Roundtable brought together 170 green employers, unions, workforce development providers and environmental justice organizations to develop a Green Collar Jobs Roadmap, a comprehensive policy proposal for jumpstarting New York’s green economy.


The Facts About IDAs

Each year, IDAs are required to report on the projects they subsidize. In the last three years, we have analyzed that data and produced key facts about IDA performance. A look at the most recent data reveals increased spending and revenue loss to local communities, and wasted subsidies.


Top Reasons to Reform IDAs

Our state is facing economic and budgetary crises of historical proportions. Instead of contributing to the economic recovery and revitalization needed in our communities and our state, IDAs are falling asleep on the job. Instead of contributing to the economic recovery and revitalization needed in our communities and our state, IDAs are falling asleep on the job. New research shows...



About Industrial Development Agencies

Our government spends billions of dollars each year on lavish corporate subsidies, but these investments too often fail to create the good jobs New Yorkers need and leave local communities without much needed revenue. It's time we get our money's worth from economic development programs.New York created Industrial Development Agencies, or IDAs, in 1969 to serve as engines of economic growth for our communities and to advance the “job opportunities, health, general prosperity and economic welfare of the people of the state of New York.”

Unfortunately, IDAs are not living up to their promises. Each year, IDAs provide hundreds of millions of our tax dollars to private businesses who in turn commit to create or retain jobs. However, much of this money goes to companies that create poverty-wage jobs, no jobs at all, or some that actually cut jobs. The patchwork of 116 IDAs throughout the state often pits community against community, resulting in job shifting instead of new job creation.