Four Subsidy Stories You Might Have Missed This Week

January 13, 2022

1. The New York State Senate will hold a hearing on the effectiveness of business subsidies tomorrow at 10am.

This follows a December request from Reinvent Albany and five other groups for the Senate to hold a hearing, and the roster is an all-star lineup of subsidy experts:

  • Tim Bartik, Senior Economist at the Upjohn Institute.
  • Marilyn M. Rubin, whose report for the 2013 Tax Reform and Fairness Commission concluded that business tax incentives are bad policy.
  • Heywood Sanders, UT professor who wrote the book on why convention centers are a waste of public funds.

And more! Reinvent Albany Executive Director John Kaehny will also testify.

Don’t miss it! The hearing will be livestreamed, and we’ll be live-tweeting throughout.

2. Reinvent Albany issued a memo of support for the Fossil Fuel Subsidies Elimination Act, which would get rid of $336 million in NY fossil fuel subsidies.

3. Governor Hochul wants to invest in more chip fabs by upgrading tech parks across the state (Times Union). Some of NY’s most expensive and wasteful subsidies have been for chip fabs, such as the $1.4 billion that GlobalFoundries received in 2011, which cost a million dollars per job.

Hochul did not reveal how much she is hoping to spend on the infrastructure upgrades, although she said it would happen through Empire State Development Corp., the state’s economic development arm.

4. The Buffalo News Editorial Board writes about fraud in the MWBE certification program and how the state can better address misconduct.

[…] State agencies kept their findings hidden from the public, and were only recently revealed as a result of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s transparency initiative. It should also be noted, as Specht later wrote, that the Empire State Development Corp., the state economic development agency that oversees the MWBE certification program, declined to provide The News with a list of companies that paid damages for violations.

If you got this from a friend, sign up here. Subsidy Sheet is written by Tom Speaker, Policy Analyst at Reinvent Albany. Please send questions and tips to tom@reinventalbany.org. We look forward to hearing from you!