Subsidy Sheet: Breaking down “50,000 jobs,” $1 billion for chips, $22 million for MetLife

This week in NY corporate giveaway news:

• The Syracuse Post-Standard has an excellent breakdown of the “50,000 jobs” that Governor Hochul claims will come from the Micron deal, noting: “[T]hat 50,000 estimate also includes hotel workers and bus drivers, waiters and day care workers – the usual suspects promised in economic development multipliers. Those jobs wouldn’t all be good-paying or even necessarily full-time.” And the number is unlikely to hit 50,000 at all. Regardless of the jobs number, the state will give up to $5.5 billion in subsidies to the chip manufacturer.
• The state is also providing $1 billion for an effort to help equip a research building and a separate building that would house a lithography machine – and it’s totally unclear where the money will come from (NYT).
• The Rensselaer County IDA approved $22 million in sales tax breaks for MetLife – a deal that requires the multi-billion dollar insurance company to produce zero jobs (Times Union).
• NY electeds are pushing for NYU and Columbia to start paying NYC property taxes (NYT). This year, the universities have collectively saved $327 million.
• SL Green – “NYC’s largest commercial landlord” – wants tax breaks to convert an office tower into apartments (Crain’s).
• ESD continues to make a mockery of transparency with its “Database of Economic Incentives,” adding a new “Drill” button weeks after we criticized the function’s vague terminology:
  
  

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This is the final Subsidy Sheet of the year! Enjoy the holidays – we’ll see you again in 2024.

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