Latest Buffalo Billion Fiasco:
Athenex Pharmaceutical Collapses Despite $225M
in NY State Handouts
Another Big Reminder That Huge NY Taxpayer Gifts To
High-Tech Manufacturing Firms Are Foolish
The Buffalo News reports that Buffalo-based Athenex is selling off “non-core” assets and slashing jobs. Despite an infusion of state subsidies worth at least $225m, the company’s stock has plummeted from $12 to 96 cents in the last year amid massive losses.
The Athenex debacle is yet another failure of former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion, which has cost New York State taxpayers about $1.5 billion that could have been used to create good jobs cleaning the water and paving the roads of Western New York. Cuomo’s Tesla Buffalo Riverbend solar panel factory cost taxpayers $958.6m and was written down to $75m, a loss of $884m. (After much delay, Tesla has met its watered down job commitment of 1,460 jobs at Riverbend, jobs that cost NYS taxpayers an incredible $657,000 each!)
NY taxpayers spent $200m building a factory for Athenex in Dublin, which is in Seneca County about 50 miles south of Buffalo.
How Much is $200m in State Funds Worth to Seneca County, NY?
- $5,882 in cash to each of the 34,000 residents counted in the 2020 census.
- Twenty years of NYS ”CHIPS” road aid. Seneca got $1,021,350 in 2021.
- Five years of NYS School Foundation Aid. Seneca got $40.2m in FY 22.
We hope Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie stop wasting huge amounts of taxpayer funds on risky ventures with wealthy technology corporations and instead make smart decisions based on a Database of Deals.