The state budget is now officially three weeks late, and unfortunately there’s no end in sight to closed-door negotiations. Like many New Yorkers, and even some of our representatives in Albany, we don’t have a sense of what will be included in the final budget. The blatant secrecy is quite stunning, but we’re still counting on New York Democrats to do the right thing and freeze corporate giveaways in the budget.
That means:
- Rejecting a $7.7 billion taxpayer giveaway to Hollywood
- Ending the Opportunity Zone tax break once and for all
- Rejecting a $300 million taxpayer giveaway to Broadway theater
- Rejecting a $455 million taxpayer loan to horse racing for the Belmont track
- Ending the Madison Square Garden tax break
- Rejecting a reintroduction of the 421-a tax break for real estate
- Rejecting the failed “Start-UP NY” as “EPIC”
We continue to support broad, fair, evidence-based investments in physical, social, and workforce infrastructure. These forms of economic development produce a high return on the taxpayer’s investment. In the face of a late budget, we will continue to advocate that New York State move toward economic development based on facts and measurability.
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New York Corporate Giveaway News:
- Opportunity Zones are an “Orwellian disaster” that turn “neighborhoods into domestic tax shelters for the wealthy.”
- Manhattan Community Board 5 rejected Madison Square Garden’s application to continue operating above Penn Station. Executives at MSG say they’ll relocate the arena if they get $8.6 billion in public dollars.
- SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse forked over millions of taxpayer dollars to a politically-connected private developer for a project that never materialized.
- The Community Benefits Agreement for the new Buffalo Bills stadium was structured to maximize tax write-offs for the team’s billionaire owners.
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