Subsidy Sheet: NY 2025 budget preview

January 10, 2025

It’s New York budget season, which means that corporate lobbyists are chomping at the bit to squeeze all they can out of NY’s $200 billion+ annual budget. The past few years have seen the state government provide $1.1 billion for the Buffalo Bills (2022), $7.7 billion for the film/TV industry (2023), and $500 million for a lithography center (2024).

But we at Reinvent Albany want to be optimists, and hope that the better angels of Albany’s nature shall prevail. Past budget cycles have also seen the adoption of two subsidy databases and a partial end to NY’s Opportunity Zone tax break. Here’s our wishlist for this year’s budget:

Start defining tax credits as on-budget expenditures. Every year, billions of dollars in tax credits are not disclosed or enumerated in the state budget despite their costs to taxpayers.
End the NY Opportunity Zone tax break for good. Trump’s re-election is likely to bring about an expansion of these handouts for out-of-state luxury condos and superyacht marinas. If NY does not take action, the state and city will lose up to $424 billion annually from 2029, according to the Citizens Budget Commission.
Prevent IDAs from abating school district taxes. Good Jobs First has shown that these tax breaks could be taking up to $1.8 billion a year from schools. It’s long past time to end the practice.
No expansion of the film/TV tax break. NY’s handout is already one of the largest in the country, and NYers are paying $75,000 per film/TV job.
End NY’s yacht and private jet tax breaks. The state ultimately declined to end these after the Senate’s one-house budget included proposals.

–

NY corporate giveaway news from this week:

Hochul vetoed a bill that would have required union and school district reps on IDA boards (Riverhead Local).
Members of the Economic Innovation Group, an OZ propaganda group, called for an expansion of the program (Governing Magazine), as did members of an OZ working group. ProPublica also profiled OZ booster Scott Turner, Trump’s nominee for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, noting his disdain for public housing.
Empire State Development will not be offering any tax breaks in exchange for a company’s purchase of a chip fab (Syracuse Post-Standard).
Micron submitted an environmental impact report required to receive tax breaks under the state’s CHIPS handout (Syracuse Post-Standard).
The Erie County Industrial Development Agency provided $200,000 to a German manufacturer for its relocation to NY (Buffalo News).

–

If you got this from a friend, sign up here. Please send questions and tips to tom [at] reinventalbany [dot] org. We look forward to hearing from you!