Reinvent Albany Thanks Assemblymember Dinowitz For Joining Senator Gianaris
as Co-Sponsor of Bill Eliminating NY Tax Breaks for Federal Opportunity Zones
NY should join California, Massachusetts and other states in ending massive
future subsidies for real estate developers – especially post COVID-19.
Bill eliminates estimated $63M of annual NYS subsidies and $31M
in NYC subsidies that will rise “substantially in 2029.”
Reinvent Albany thanks Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz for being the Assembly sponsor of the Opportunity Zone Tax Break Elimination Act (S3401-B), a bill introduced by Senator Mike Gianaris last year. Four states have already decoupled their tax code from the Trump administration’s 2017 federal Opportunity Zones program, which cuts real estate capital gains taxes in certain locations.
Last year, Reinvent Albany, Citizen Action, NYPIRG, and Fiscal Policy Institute supported the bill ending state and city Opportunity Zone subsidies in a letter to Senator Gianaris.
The groups and many independent fiscal watchdog groups say the Opportunity Zones program is a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars and does nothing for the lower-income communities it was claimed to help. Rather than bringing jobs to disadvantaged New Yorkers, the program instead serves as needless corporate welfare in a state that already gives out billions in tax breaks to real estate. New York’s subsidies and tax breaks have been proven by multiple studies to provide little if any benefit to the economy, and there is no reason to expect the Opportunity Zones program will be any different.
Prior to COVID-19, New York State and local governments gave away approximately $10B a year in business subsidies – among the most of any state.