Subsidy Sheet: Ice cream, inflated CHIPS slush fund, unconstitutional IDA housing subsidies

NY corporate giveaway news from this week:

• Fresh from putting 100,000 New York State jobs at risk by canceling NYC congestion pricing, Governor Hochul found time to celebrate the building of a big new ice cream factory in Dunkirk, New York outside Buffalo. The new plant will create 270 jobs at a cost of about $6,700 in NYS subsidies per job per year. This is an OK deal by state standards, as it’s about ten times better than the $67,000 per year provided for each film/TV industry job.
• The Governor also announced the guidelines for a “Green” CHIPS community investment fund for Syracuse-area communities near Micron’s new chip fab. NYS taxpayers are slated to contribute $100 million up front, and Micron $250 million over 20 years. We strongly doubt the state will be able to raise another $150 million in new funds from as-yet-unidentified private philanthropies. 
• The Amherst Industrial Development Agency unconstitutionally approved tax breaks for mostly market-rate housing (Buffalo News).
• STAMP industrial park is still struggling to find tenants (Investigative Post). Investigative Post also interviewed Mark Masse, the new head of Genesee County Economic Development Center, the authority overseeing the upstate park.

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