Free Buffalo News Alert on IDAs--a draft for discussion

[woodstock]

Michigan’s Lemon Industrial Policy

my bad, i didnt realize this was "speakup Michigan" - just gave what was in text about THIS county. i'll say no more.

[WNYresident]

I"m glad you found the Michigan which shows the concept isn't as good as they think. It's good to learn from other communities mistakes so they are not repeated over and over

[Jim Ostrowski]

It's nice to know no one disagrees with this report. Out it goes.

[Jim Ostrowski]

Interesting. Looking for allies in the fight to abolish the useless IDAs, I googled "abolish IDAs". Free Buffalo was responsible for the first four or five hits.

[woodstock]

It's nice to know no one disagrees with this report. Out it goes.

but truth be told, the only "discussion" was left open to those agreeing to the idea.

oh since you've already sent out your IDA report, can i suggest a new report? you maybe can do a study on the state supreme court judges? what role/impact and/or if theres a connection to the downfall of our 45 year decline? i think that would make an interesting thread of discussion, dont you?

[Stevenco]

[Jim Ostrowski]

"you maybe can do a study on the state supreme court judges? what role/impact and/or if theres a connection to the downfall of our 45 year decline? i think that would make an interesting thread of discussion, dont you?"

Are you serious? I already did a study on that, and wrote part of a book on it.

It's not so much the judges in their judging role, but the money extracted from potential candidates for judge that helps fuel the machine.

[therising]

The Hevesi report (which I've only perused so far) was good in, at least, exposing the fact that the IDA's are far from perfect, showing that only 1/3 of the projects they studied actually met job growth projections.

The FB Report points out that the IDA's cost the State nearly $500 Million / year. Yet it doesn't seem to address what results came about from the $500 Milllion.

How many jobs were created, paying how much? How much tax was generated from these jobs? How many of these jobs would've left the State if not for these incentives? How many income was generated from construction jobs? (as well as spinoff of carpenters, contractors, office furniture etc etc etc). Sales tax generated by residents that stayed in NYS as opposed to leaving?

I'm not sure these questions really can be answered.

I'm not a huge fan of the IDA's by any means. For sure, they are flawed. Still, I see them as a necessary evil.

How do you counter the fact that, if NYS suddenly abolishes IDAs, we'll still be competing with every other State in the Union that is still offering incentives?

Will that $478 Million back in the State's coffers really be enough to make our tax rates competitive with other states?

Without a fair assessment of these, and other, questions, I'm not sure anyone can actually assess the net effect of the IDA's.

[woodstock]

It's not so much the judges in their judging role, but the money extracted from potential candidates for judge that helps fuel the machine.

very, very interesting.

[Batman]

The idea and mission statements behind IDA's sounds good but the execution is flawed. Small businesses in competition with these companies are put at a disadvantage unless they have the information, time and resources to apply for their own IDA help. Most of them don't. People in the know can use the process to drive small competitors out of business and grab a good share of the market. I don't think the current setup is adequate to address these kinds of negative repercussions and doubt if there is any foolproof way to prevent it.