Subsidy stories you may have missed

NY corporate giveaway news from this week:

• A developer wants major subsidies to build a data center at the rural Genesee County STAMP industrial park, presumably for a tech company such as Amazon or Google (Investigative Post). Given that the property and equipment are valued at $3.3 billion, the tax breaks would likely cost many millions. STAMP’s planned anchor tenant, Plug Power, is also close to running out of money and has paused construction on a hydrogen production plant and power substation there. 
• The Ithaca Teachers Association is opposing a major tax break package that could net a developer $85 million (Ithaca Voice).
• Two Opportunity Zone stories:
  • One company reaping major tax breaks from OZs in Puerto Rico is … Chick-fil-A (Bloomberg Tax), whose heirs have a net worth of $33 billion. Don’t forget that because of the way OZs work, NY State and City governments may end up subsidizing these Puerto Rico tax breaks if investors live here.
  • NPR asks whether OZs have achieved their goal in Detroit. Key language from the reporting: “We don’t know what money has come in. We don’t know where it’s gone. And we don’t know who it’s benefited.”

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