Reinvent Albany Support for Local Job Transparency Bill
TITLE OF BILL
An act to amend chapter 174 of the laws of 1968, constituting the New York state urban development corporation act and the public authorities law, in relation to establishing a semiannual employee resident report.
STATEMENT OF SUPPORT
New York spends billions on economic development subsidies, but there is no clear, public way to see whether those deals create local jobs and pay fair wages, or if the jobs are simply going to transplants from outside the community.
This bill requires certain companies that receive state or local subsidies to publicly report where workers live and wage ranges for jobs created or retained for each project receiving subsidies (with full worker privacy protections). Information about worker zip codes is integrated into existing searchable, downloadable subsidy databases with additional project information. This will help New Yorkers see whether companies are creating local jobs when they receive public money.
IDAs currently are only required to project jobs that will be created or retained when they apply for financial incentives, along with expected salary information for each job type, and how many anticipated jobs will be filled by residents from the economic development region (which can be as large as six counties) where the project will be located. This bill will require that companies report on jobs delivered to local residents in the project area, rather than simply expected jobs in a broad area.
This legislation is modeled on similar legislation in Camden, New Jersey. If companies take public money, the public deserves to know whether those deals create real, local jobs with fair wages. We urge the Legislature to pass the bill.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS
- Section 1 of the bill creates a new subsection 2 in 58*2 of the Urban Development Corporation Act establishing the requirements for the Semiannual Employee Residency Report submitted by companies with more than 25 employees receiving economic development benefits. The report will be filed twice annually – on August 1st for the first half of the current year and on February 1st for the second half of the previous year. The report will provide the name of the company receiving economic development benefits; the reporting period; the addresses of the company’s places of business in the state; the total number of company’s employees by the closing date of the report period, the number of company’s employees living in the zip code(s) where the project is located, and the number of company’s employees living outside of the zip code(s) where the project is located; the number of employees who are managers or non-managers in and outside of the zip code(s) where the project is located; and the average wage of the managerial and non-managerial employees in and outside of the zip code(s) where the project is located.
- The new subsection 2 also requires an authorized representative of the company to certify that the reported information is accurate or face penalties, provides protections against disclosure of individual employee personal identifying information, while maintaining that the report is subject to FOIL. The department may also issue guidance and rules for completing the Report and providing for digital submission.
- Renumbers subsection 3 as subsection 4 in 58*2 of the Urban Development Corporation Act and adds certain reported information submitted by companies in the Semiannual Employee Residency Report to the existing state database of economic development benefits (aka state database of deals) displaying empire state economic development benefits that a qualified participant has been awarded. Specifically, data from the Report that will be in the database will include for each individual project, the name of the company and their associated NAICS code, the number of employees living in the zip code(s) where the project is located, the number of employees living outside the zip code(s) where the project is located, and the average wage for managerial and non-managerial employees in and outside of the zip code(s) where the project is located.
Section 2 of the bill amends the local economic development benefits database (aka the local database of deals) in section 8 of the public authorities law to mirror the changes in section 1 of the bill made to the state database of deals. The Authorities Budget Office, which already administers a subsidy and economic development benefits database, will be responsible for ensuring compliance by companies in accurately submitting the information requested in the Semiannual Employee Residency Report. The ABO can utilize all its current powers to ensure companies submit the required data.
Section 3 of the bill establishes that this Act will become effective 180 days after it becomes law.