Subsidy Sheet: Brutal federal cuts mean Albany must choose public benefit or unethical corporate subsidies
Word is the Legislature will return for a special session in September to address massive impending cuts in federal aid. Some may try to push for across-the-board cuts, so that the programs they back won’t be disproportionately reduced. No, no, no. Before destroying the lives of vulnerable New Yorkers, cut the $4 billion a year in worthless corporate subsidies being handed out by the Governor, State Senate, and State Assembly. Yes, the decision is that stark.
Here’s just one example: New York State will not budget $300 million to make up for Trump administration cuts to addiction and recovery programs run by the Office of Mental Health and Office of Addiction Services and Support. This is inherently bad, but it also comes as the MTA’s challenges dealing with an influx of people struggling with mental illness in the subways have become a national political issue.
Meanwhile, the Governor and Legislature have agreed to reimburse film and TV producers with $800 million a year and Broadway producers with $400 million a year in state funds. As we and others have documented ad nauseam, there is an overwhelming amount of research by independent experts showing these corporate subsidies are a bad investment of taxpayer funds.
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More corporate giveaway news from this week:
- Opportunity Zone proponents see Congress’s recent passage of a budget resolution as a great sign for Trump’s handout to the super-wealthy. And investment experts say now is the best time to invest in oil and gas in Opportunity Zones! (For more on OZs and gas, read our Guns, Oil, and Crypto report.)
- The Trump administration is considering withholding CHIPS funding for Micron and others (Syracuse Post-Standard). In other news, Micron has begun construction on a sewage pumping station to prepare for its semiconductor plant in upstate Clay. And see where Micron is planning to put new wetlands after it destroys other wetlands!
- Senator Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Lasher introduced a bill, the “New York Determining Obligations and Guaranteeing Enforcement (DOGE) in Government Contracting Act,” which would have the state conduct a “DOGE” audit of the state’s billion-dollar handout to Tesla/SolarCity from 2015 (NY Times).
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