Corporate handouts take away education funding, and NY schools are starting to notice. A local paper for Riverhead, NY (Long Island) notes that property tax exemptions there cost the town $2.7 million in 2022 – at a time when the school district is badly in need of space.
An attorney for the Riverhead school district points out that long-term Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) subsidy agreements can last longer than kids are even in school. “With 25 years, the district wouldn’t be looking at full taxes until the kids who move in the first day this apartment is built … are already graduated from college and working.”
Riverhead schools are not alone, and a bill from the state legislature’s economic development chairs (S89 (Ryan) / A351 (Bronson)) would bar Industrial Development Agencies from waiving local taxes funding schools. Ryan and Bronson are Democrats, but local State Senator Palumbo, a Republican, says he would vote for the bill, and was unaware that schools were losing so much to PILOT agreements like those in Riverhead.
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Other NY corporate giveaway news:
- Our Senior Policy Whiz Rachael Fauss calls for the end of Madison Square Garden’s tax break, which has cost NYC a billion dollars.
- ESD came up with rosy projections for the Penn Station Redevelopment just days before a PACB vote on the issue.
- Gov. Hochul announced $40 million in state funding for high-tech manufacturing companies, as well as up to $16 million for an ice cream plant.
- Some developers are complaining about the state’s stopgap 421-a replacement.
- A look at Opportunity Zones’ mixed results in South Carolina.
- How Foxconn reflects a common “economic development” model: Give away gobs of government money, get nothing in return.
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Fun Fact: Fossil fuels are being subsidized at the rate of $13 million a minute, according to the International Monetary Fund.
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