The powerful NYS Senate and Assembly economic development committee chairs say their bill prohibiting IDAs from abating tax revenue that would go to schools will be on the front burner in the coming legislative session. Committee Chair Senator Sean Ryan (D-Buffalo) told Bloomberg News the bill (S89/A351) will be his “top priority” in 2024. Ryan and his Assembly partner, Committee Chair Harry Bronson (D-Rochester), want New York to join Alabama, Florida, and Maryland, which already ban local school taxes from being given away as corporate subsidies.
Bronson also noted to Bloomberg News that Pennsylvania and Texas require school boards to sign off before the school portion of property taxes is abated.
A benchmark report by Christine Wen at national watchdog Good Jobs First found that NY schools lost $1.8 billion to corporate tax abatements in 2021, and that districts where a majority of children are people of color are among the most affected.
Wen, a scholar at Texas A&M, recently published another study in which she verified that corporate tax abatements are associated with a loss in school revenue per pupil, adding more evidence to previous studies.
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Other NY corporate giveaway news:
- NYS spent $55 million to turn a Buffalo office building into a tech hub for IBM, but the company has fallen far short of expectations.
- More concerns about copious consumption of water by Micron, which could receive up to $5.5 billion in giveaways from New York State.
- At Boondoggle, Pat Garofalo writes about Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’s work to roll back corporate handouts.
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