Subsidy Sheet: Massive Statewide Push to Stop Local IDAs from Diverting $1.8B a Year from New York’s Public Schools

This week in NY corporate giveaway news:

• Reinvent Albany joined the state teachers union, AFL-CIO, and two dozen other education and faith groups at a Capitol press conference to support a bill stopping IDAs from abating local property and sales tax revenue that would otherwise go to schools (Lockport Journal). In 2021, New York schools lost at least $1.8 billion in funding because of tax breaks to businesses provided by IDAs, according to Good Jobs First. Read abut the bill, S89 (Ryan) / A351 (Bronson), here.
• We submitted testimony to the Legislature calling the state’s $4.4 billion in annual business subsidies “totally flawed, irrational, and a particularly wasteful form of trickle-down economics.”
• Despite the state’s goal of reducing carbon emissions, local IDAs in New York State have approved over $1 billion in fossil fuel tax breaks since 2010. During the same period, IDAs have provided $400 million for projects supporting renewable energy (New York Focus).
• The New York Times looks at the debate over how to replace the state’s 421-a tax break. Under 421-a, developers have their NYC property taxes reduced in exchange for financing properties that include affordable housing. 421-a ended in 2022 after a storm of criticism over its high cost, and is still costing NYC $1.8 billion a year. 
• State of Politics covers Plug Power’s dependence on government aid to remain solvent. In 2021, the upstate Genesee County Economic Development Center and other entities approved subsidies for the company worth $4 million per job.

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