Genesee IDA pocketing $50 million plus from perverse $3.9 million per job subsidy deal

March 7, 2025

Apparently, “the mother of all subsidy deals” was not enough for the 58,000 residents of Genesee County in rural western New York. Yesterday, the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) out-boondoggled itself with subsidies to STREAM U.S. Data Centers that will total at least $3.9 million per job – not including discounted hydropower and state tax credits (Investigative Post). This subsidy amounts to $8,138 per Genesee resident per $472 million in tax breaks for 122 jobs. 

The Genesee IDA will pocket deal fees worth “between $47 million and $79 million” from the STREAM/U.S. Data Center Deal.

Who is this deal good for and why the hell is the state of New York allowing unelected local economic development officials to give away hundreds of millions of state property tax and discounted hydropower? This deal should set off alarm bells across Albany and the State Comptroller and Authorities Budget Office should be asking tough questions about the bottom line benefit for New York tax payers. 

In our April 2024 report, “Perverse Incentive: How New York State’s IDAs Depend on Giving Away Tax Dollars” Reinvent Albany and Good Jobs First showed that New York’s 107 Industrial Development Agencies collected $290 million in deal fees in the five years from 2018 through 2019, and that deal money was 80% of their operating revenue – the money paying IDA executive salaries and bonuses. There is something rotten in IDA land, and you can start with the salaries of top executives being paid for by deals that giveaway tax dollars. 

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The Real Deal digs into luxury Opportunity Zone real estate and highlights President Trump’s involvement: “OZ was really his baby,” says Michael Episcope, co-founder of Origin Investments, on the president’s role in the program. Of the properties, there’s not much new here, but the article did uncover one hitherto unseen monstrosity: publicly subsidized OZ pickleball.

In other OZ news, Trump is apparently announcing plans for “maritime Opportunity Zones” to bolster the US ship industry (Wall Street Journal). Dog spas and cabanas … on yachts?

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Trump urged Congress to kill the federal CHIPS program during the State of the Union (Times Union). “Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing,” he said. “We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn’t mean a thing. They take our money, and they don’t spend it.” The speech raised concerns about the future of Micron’s planned chip fab in upstate Clay, NY, which is expected to receive billions in unnecessary subsidies from New York State (CNY Central).

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NY corporate giveaway news from this week:

  • We reissued nine memos of support for bills reducing corporate giveaways, including legislation to end NY’s Opportunity Zone tax break, prohibit IDAs from abating school tax revenue, and ending tax breaks for Amazon. We also reissued a memo of opposition to a bill that would allow IDAs to be involved in housing production.
  • Gothamist details Hochul’s plan to give the film/TV industry $9.5 billion to stay in NY, and notes our opposition to the proposal.
  • Plug Power, which could still get $4-million-per-job subsidies from Genesee County, is planning more layoffs after reporting a $2 billion loss in 2024 (Times Union).
  • ICYMI – the New York State 2026 tax expenditure report is out. The report cites 2025 data about handouts as gross as $12 million for private jets and $140 million for fuel sold to airlines.
  • A semiconductor manufacturer wants $3 million in tax breaks from Onondaga to bring a vacant chip fab back to life (Syracuse Post-Standard).
  • Despite its huge tax break, none of the best picture nominees were filmed in California, and one, “Anora,” was filmed in New York (Bloomberg Government). It’s still unclear how much the film received from NY. Thanks to the Academy for awarding Best Picture to the most-deserving nominee, but we’re still upset about “Challengers” getting snubbed.
  • Senator Zellnor Myrie writes about how Elon Musk got $1 billion from New York when Cuomo was governor (LoHud).

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