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.
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...
It just doesn’t make sense that real estate developers and large retail chains are able to cash in on subsidies that will actually lead to fewer jobs than we had before. Small businesses like mine make an important contribution to the community, but they aren’t being adequately supported.
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.
The far-reaching 2009 Public Authorities Reform Act (PARA) was enacted in March, 2010 to establish sweeping accountability and transparency requirements in over 700 state public authorities and local Industrial Development Agencies. PARA was necessary in part because New York’s 50 largest public authorities have issued and are currently responsible for at least $161 billion of debt financed by taxpayers—a sum greater than the state’s entire annual budget.
This report, co-authored by Sarita Gupta of National Jobs with Justice and released by the Institute for Policy Studies, concludes that the economic crisis is still on the rise for millions of Americans, while at the same time the social safety net is failing to support many of them. It offers one of the boldest, most comprehensive plans to combat poverty and unemployment — beginning now.
The Roundtable, convened by Urban Agenda, developed a Green Jobs Roadmap to identify concrete steps that our City’s leaders can take to develop a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to prepare New Yorkers for green collar jobs. The Roadmap represents the culmination of the great work done in the Roundtable process aimed at building an inclusive green economy for the City’s future.
Designed to make specific and targeted recommendations, the Green Jobs Roadmap creates a workforce development plan for green collar jobs.
Achieving meaningful economic development in New York means reforming New York’s 116 IDAs, which are the drivers of economic development in every part of the state. We need a better solution for economic development in New York. Statewide IDA reform-- rooted in business standards, accountability measures, and transparency reforms—can lead the way.
This National Unemployment Law Project report shows how America's workplace laws are failing to protect our country's workers. In industries ranging from construction and food manufacturing to restaurants, janitorial services and home health care, workers are enduring minimum wage and overtime violations, hazardous working conditions, discrimination, and retaliation for speaking up or trying to organize. They have little recourse because of their need for work, especially during the recession. Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers is the first study of its kind, exposing systematic and routine violations of employment and labor laws in core sectors of the economy.
As the City moved its redevelopment plan through the zoning process, we joined with community residents and activists to ensure that the City’s plan would benefit the entire community and bring opportunity to residents. Several community residents were active during the campaign, raising their voices at public hearings and meetings with elected officials.