Today, we are applauding Governor Cuomo’s successful efforts to foster New York State’s thriving wineries using encouragement, smart policy and a very modest $8 million in marketing spending. We hope the governor is inspired by his success with wineries — and this is a real success — to rethink the state’s bloated and wasteful business subsidies, which now exceed over $4.5B a year. With wineries, craft beers, yogurt and possibly hemp, the governor has identified a winning formula for economic development that does not depend on the state giving enormous handouts to giant multi-national corporations in high risk deals that will cost taxpayers huge sums for each job promised. The governor says that the state’s wineries have a $4.8B annual economic impact. Consider the State’s return on investment for the wine industry compared to the $750m to build the Riverbend factory for Tesla/Solar City at a cost of $514,000 in public funds per job or $225m in state funds to Athenex for a pharmaceutical factory that will taxpayers $250,000 per job.