Subsidy Sheet: Subsidy stories you may have missed

NY corporate giveaway news from this week:

• Governor Hochul still has a chance to stop one of the state’s worst corporate subsidies by vetoing the proposed extension of the exceedingly wasteful and out-of-control Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program (ICAP). ICAP cost New York City taxpayers $506 million in FY 2024 – up from $81 million in FY 2017 – and is strongly opposed by the business-backed Citizens Budget Commission, whose letter of opposition methodically demolishes this atrocious corporate giveaway.    
• Sadly, Albany-based Plug Power, one of New York’s oldest green tech companies, is circling the drain. The hydrogen power producer is hemorrhaging massive amounts of money, and its stock – which is in complete free fall – has dropped 80% in the last year. Plug Power was established in 1997, employs 3400 people, and is a favorite of Governor Hochul and Senator Schumer’s. 
• At Boondoggle, Pat Garofalo has a great write-up on how business subsidies hurt schools – and how they’re going to hurt even more due to a coming loss of federal pandemic aid. Garofalo points to the famous Good Jobs First research showing NY schools probably lost nearly $2 billion a year to corporate giveaways in 2021.
• Brian Fessler of the NYS School Boards Association makes the case for school representation on Industrial Development Agency boards (Capitol Pressroom). A bill passed by the Legislature would do just that.
• Wind turbine manufacturer Invenergy says that without at least $55 million in tax breaks from three Buffalo-area NY counties, a planned wind farm is unlikely to move forward (Buffalo News).
• Micron, the chip manufacturer that will receive up to $5.5 billion in handouts from NYS, opened an office in Syracuse (Syracuse Post-Standard).

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