NY Senate Closes State Tax Loophole for Trump Opportunity Zones. Eyes on the Assembly.

     
22 Unions and Watchdog Groups Urge Assembly
to Completely End Wasteful Tax Break

Reinvent Albany thanks the New York State Senate for passing S6800-A (Gianaris) / A8081-A (Dinowitz), which completely ends New York’s tax break for Opportunity Zones. We also thank Senator Gianaris for his leadership in getting the bill passed. This bill is supported by twenty-two unions, watchdogs, and public policy groups including NYSUT, RWDSU, CWA District 1, and PSC-CUNY, and has 13 cosponsors in the Assembly.

The groups thank Assemblymember Dinowitz for his sponsorship and are cheering for his success pushing this common sense reform to passage in the Assembly.

New York State partially ended its tax break for Opportunity Zones in the 2021 budget, but that bill contained a loophole that could cost New York $420 million a year from 2029, according to the Citizens Budget Commission.

As the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News have documented, the Opportunity Zone program is a Trump handout to real estate and the wealthy whose beneficiaries have included a superyacht marina and luxury apartments with yoga lawns. Recent research has shown that the program primarily benefits the wealthy, and the program also forces NY to lose tax revenue to investments in other states.

We strongly urge the Assembly to pass the bill.