Subsidy Sheet: NJ city data shows state-subsidized businesses employ few locals and pay them lower wages

Happy July 4th No Kings Day Celebration, America. We’ll be back next week with details of what the new federal budget means for business subsidies in New York. Until then, something important just happened across the river in New Jersey. 

After a hard-won campaign by advocates, Camden passed the first law in the nation requiring businesses receiving state or local subsidies to report the residency and salary of their workers. Using data disclosed by the ordinance, national watchdog Good Jobs First revealed in a new report that, on average, only 9 percent of workers at state-subsidized companies actually live in Camden, and those that do are mostly relegated to the lowest-paying jobs.

At Holtec International, a nuclear power plant equipment manufacturer in Camden that received $260 million in 2014 under the Grow New Jersey Assistance Program, the largest state tax break of that year, only 3 percent of the workforce lives within city limits. 

Plus, subsidized companies pay Camden residents less than nonresidents: 83 percent of local residents made under $50,000 a year vs. 23 percent of non-Camden residents; non-Camden residents are more than five times as likely to be in the highest income category at subsidized companies ($143,000+) than Camden residents.

Needless to say, an economic development program that mostly leaves out low-income residents and people of color – Camden has twice the Black population than the rest of its surrounding metro area and double the population living with incomes below the federal poverty line – is not the best use of state tax money to improve the lives of its most vulnerable residents.

Good Jobs First recommends that other cities follow Camden’s lead in requiring reporting of resident vs. non-resident jobs. We are hoping that Buffalo, Albany, Syracuse, and Rochester will pass disclosure laws like Camden’s and shine a light on who actually benefits from state and local subsidies to corporations.

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And still more NY corporate giveaway news:

• In an op-ed for WAMC public radio, NYPIRG senior policy advisor Blair Horner took a deeper look at plans for New York’s first new nuke plant in 36 years, noting that the last round of state bailouts for private nuclear plants could end up costing taxpayers $7.6 billion. At the very least, writes Horner, Gov. Hochul should commit to full independent review of her plans – which we believe needs to identify who will ultimately end up paying for the new nuke: the broader public or energy intensive data centers, chip fabs, and crypto miners?
• A Niagara Reporter analysis of Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino’s proposed $200 million Centennial Park arena estimates that to reach the projected $8.1 million in annual revenue, it would have to attract a junior hockey team (still uncertain), book 60 concerts a year (most similar arenas host under 20), and host dozens of youth sports tournaments (“impossible”). And even then the city would likely face $13 million a year in debt service paid out of an operating budget of $105 million – meaning it’s less a question of whether Niagara Falls would be awash in red ink than of how much.

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