Subsidy Sheet: How did the NY Legislature’s budgets address corporate giveaways?

This week, the NY Senate and Assembly released their one-house budget proposals. Since the NY budget is where many of the state’s worst tax breaks are passed, we were glad to see the Senate’s budget include a number of bills that reduce some of the most absurd corporate subsidies and increase oversight over unaccountable economic development agencies:

• End NY’s Opportunity Zone tax break (S543-A (Gianaris) / A2170-A (Dinowitz)).
• Reject $400 million for the Governor’s proposed New York Works slush fund.
• End fossil fuel tax breaks (somewhat watered down from S3389 (Krueger) / A7949-A (Simon)).
• End NY’s private yacht tax break (S2557 (Hoylman-Sigal)).
• End NY’s private jet tax break (S2556 (Hoylman-Sigal)).
• Establish a database of subsidy deals for Industrial Development Agencies (S1737 (Krueger) / A6762 (Solages)).
• Provide more funding for the Authorities Budget Office, which oversees 591 local and state authorities, as well as a bill that would give the ABO more teeth.
• Require more affordability for housing developers to receive the 421-a tax break.

Unfortunately, the Assembly’s one-house budget did not include any of these provisions. Though we shouldn’t let either house off the hook, historically, the Assembly has been the most resistant to even modest reforms of New York’s out-of-control $11 billion corporate welfare machine. While the Senate has passed the Gianaris/Dinowitz bill ending NY’s Opportunity Zone tax break twice now, the Assembly never has. 

Read the Senate’s budget here, and the Assembly’s budget here.

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Other NY corporate giveaway news from this week:

• The Real Deal says that reaching an agreement on a 421-a replacement will be tough. City & State also writes about what the tax break might look like (note, again, that the public is almost entirely missing from negotiations).
• Hydrogen producer Plug Power is circling the drain and its stock price is near historic lows, but Albany County Executive says a “huge” announcement about the company’s work in Bethlehem, NY is forthcoming (Times Union).
• For Sunshine Week, Good Jobs First highlighted the best databases of deals around the country.
• Courtesy of NYS taxpayers: Ten free Buffalo Bills vs Miami Dolphins seats in the I LOVE NY hospitality suite for director Guillermo del Toro’s production staff.

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