Subsidy Sheet: New Yorkers Paying $75,000 for Each Film/TV Job
Reinvent Albany published an updated analysis of ESD data showing NY paid $75,000 per film/TV job (FTE) in Q1 and Q2 of 2024, up from $67,000 in Q4 2022, a 12% increase in less than two years (Niagara Gazette). Given the state’s recent 11-year, $7.7 billion handout to the industry, the paycheck to Hollywood producers will only continue to skyrocket unless state lawmakers finally stop merely holding hearings and start reducing the subsidies.
To that end, the NY Senate held a long-awaited hearing on a December 2023 report by PFM Group that was scathingly critical of state tax incentive programs, especially film/TV reimbursable tax credits (State of Politics). Shout-out to the Senators present – particularly Senator Skoufis – for their highly informed and pointed questions to Empire State Development about what $4.4 billion in annual state tax subsidies are delivering for NYers (answer: not much!).
Reinvent Albany submitted testimony, praising 1) the Senate pushing for an independent analysis (one not controlled by ESD or the film/TV or other subsidized industry), and 2) the Senate’s ongoing push for more subsidy transparency, including state and local databases of deals and increased data reporting. Reinvent Albany also emphasized that PFM’s report, and its conclusion that corporate subsidies are a bad public investment, is consistent with dozens of studies by independent experts, including the 20 major studies we highlighted a few years ago.
Reinvent Albany asked the Senate to do four things related to tax incentives:
- Have PFM or another firm answer the “but-for” test of whether NY jobs would exist without subsidies.
- Account for reimbursable tax credits as expenditures in the state budget, instead of off-budget.
- Pass S543 (Gianaris) / A2170 (Dinowitz) to completely and permanently decouple NY from federal Opportunity Zone tax breaks.
- Pass S89 (Ryan) / A351 (Bronson), which bans IDAs from abating property taxes providing revenue to schools.
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Other NY corporate giveaway news from this week:
- The Investigative Post notes that Buffalo and Rochester get failing grades for subsidy transparency, citing Good Jobs First’s recent report.
- The estimated total cost of the new Buffalo News stadium – which will receive $1.1 billion in state and local subsidies – has mushroomed from $1.4 billion to $2.1 billion, with the new costs to be covered by the Pegulas, the billionaires who own the team (AP). Begs the question of why they claimed to need taxpayer help.
- Alain Kaloyeros, a key player in the Buffalo Billion bid-rigging scandal, is trying to return to the upstate tech scene (Times Union).
- The Opportunity Zone housing market continues to get mixed results (Title Report), but lawmakers still haven’t passed the aforementioned legislation to end NY’s OZ tax break, which will cost NY up to $424 million annually from 2029. In Governing magazine, Girard Miller also notes that the federal government is likely to extend the OZ program.
- GlobalFoundries will receive a $1.5 billion grant from the federal government for their chip fab (State of Politics).
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