Subsidy Sheet: NYS Dems are going big on trickle-down economics

March 31, 2023

NYS Democrats are on the verge of approving a budget that steers $7.7 billion in taxpayer funds to film/TV producers over the next 11 years. Not long ago, many of those same Democrats rightly blasted the public subsidies Amazon would have gotten for building a new headquarters in Long Island City, Queens. On Monday, we published new research that shows New York taxpayers currently give producers $66,819/year for each film/TV worker they employ, which is 3x more per job than the proposed Amazon HQ2.

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New York Corporate Giveaway News:

  • The Post calls New York Democrats “hypocrites” for supporting taxpayer giveaways to Hollywood.
  • New York taxpayers shelled out $463,000 for every job created at the South Buffalo Tesla plant according to a new report released Thursday. 
  • National watchdogs Good Jobs First debunked the myth that state and local governments have to match Federal CHIPS Act subsidies. 
  • MSG is the lead contender for the biggest sports tax break in NYC. The NYC Independent Budget Office published a report this week that compares subsidies for NYC sports venues, including Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, and Barclay’s Center. 
  • Trump-era Opportunity Zones have had “mixed, limited, or no effects,” according to a new assessment from the Urban Institute. 
  • Governor Hochul announced Plan B for the Penn Station redevelopment after canning her fantastical proposal to give public dollars to a self-selected private company. We’ll call that a victory. Curiously though, we still don’t know how she’s planning to finance the new plan.
  • Actor Edie Falco criticized the dubious plan to have state taxpayers finance a new luxury racing facility at Belmont. 

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If you got this from a friend, sign up here. Subsidy Sheet is written by Elizabeth Marcello and edited by John Kaehny.