Thank You NYS Senate, Leader Stewart-Cousins, Sen Gianaris for Passing Bill Ending OZ Subsidies – All Eyes on Assembly

We thank Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Senator Gianaris for passing legislation ending New York’s irrational and wasteful Opportunity Zone tax breaks for the fourth session in a row. OZ tax breaks can send New York subsidies to projects in other states and cost NY government more than $400 million a year in lost revenue.

For the past four years, the OZ bill, S3340 (Gianaris) / A3246 (Dinowitz), has not moved in the Assembly, perhaps because of pressure from the wealthy investors pocketing millions from OZ subsidies. 

The Assembly needs to end New York’s misguided OZ subsidies now, as big blue California did long ago. Powerful OZ lobbyists are urging the US Senate to include a provision in the federal budget bill that will significantly affect New York government revenue as soon as next year. The proposal would allow investors to shortcut the so-called “10-year tax break,” which requires investments to be held for 10 years in order for gains to be tax-free. If the Senate does their bidding, and NY does not pass this bill, the state will begin losing millions from next year.

NY’s mirroring of the federal tax code regarding OZs is completely illogical. The program forces NY to subsidize OZ investments by New Yorkers in other states, meaning that NY is helping fund luxury real estate in Texas and Florida. As we noted in our Guns, Oil, and Crypto report, even gun sellers, oil refineries, and cryptomining can benefit from the program, meaning that the state is contradicting its own policy goals by not decoupling.

The bill is supported by over twenty unions and watchdog and organizations, and is cosponsored by over 30 Assemblymembers. We urge Speaker Heastie and the Assembly to take up the bill.

Unions in support:

Civil Service Employees Association
Communications Workers of America, District 1
New York State United Teachers
Professional Staff Congress/CUNY
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
United University Professions

Organizations in support:

Reinvent Albany
ALIGN-NY
Alliance for Quality Education
American Economic Liberties Project
Citizen Action of New York
Community Service Society of New York
CPC – The Chinese-American Planning Council
Good Jobs First
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy
Legal Aid Society
Long Island Progressive Coalition
New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness
NYPIRG
New York State Council of Churches
Strong Economy for All
Tenants PAC

Assemblymembers in support:

Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz (Sponsor)
Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon
Assemblymember Karines Reyes
Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal
Assemblymember Emily Gallagher
Assemblymember Phil Steck
Assemblymember Deborah Glick
Assemblymember Robert Carroll
Assemblymember Anna Kelles
Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani
Assemblymember Ron Kim
Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright
Assemblymember Brian Cunningham
Assemblymember Steven Raga
Assemblymember Catalina Cruz
Assemblymember Steven Otis
Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha
Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi
Assemblymember Amanda Septimo
Assemblymember Amy Paulin
Assemblymember MaryJane Shimsky
Assemblymember Harvey Epstein
Assemblymember Chris Burdick
Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest
Assemblymember Dana Levenberg
Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas
Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson
Assemblymember Alex Bores
Assemblymember Al Stirpe
Assemblymember Tommy John Schiavoni
Assemblymember Micah Lasher
Assemblymember Patrick Carroll
Assemblymember Emérita Torres