My Think Tank can beat up Your Think Tank
So, the Comptroller is not completely satisfied with what the accounting IDAs, like COMIDA, do in terms of job creation. Fair enough. Heck, even the Editorial Board got into the act.
In a report released today, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said industrial development agencies “continue to report project, job creation and other data that is inconsistent, incomplete and not independently verified.”
Um, yeah. But here is the rub, Check out this news summary by the D&C. Read for yourself
A study by the Center for Governmental Research think tank this month found that the state’s IDAs actually created many more jobs than had been estimated in a May 2007 study by the activist group Jobs With Justice.
So in this corner - the Center for Governmental research. In that corner the Jobs with Justice group. Notice how one is a “think tank” and the other is an “activist group”? Interesting.
Today there was an expanded article so let’s look a little deeper shall we?
First off - here is the Web site of New Yorks Jobs with Justice (NYJWJ), and here is their report -Here is the Center for Governmental research report (CGR) that was commissioned by New York State Economic Development Council.
Read both reports. Here is a summary - some IDA’s create some jobs, IDAs don’t always fulfill their promise of job creation. The issue is how much. Yeah, shocking isn’t it?
What is interesting is the CGR report doesn’t discuss the TYPES OF JOBS created and treats jobs as all things created equal. I mean a job is a job isn’t it? I didn’t see discussed at all - retail jobs or grants from business’ that are bound geographically say the Midtown Athletic Club, Wellesley Hotel, Harley School. Seabreeze, various Dental offices, and others.
Predictably Maggie Brooks - quotes the CGR reports
“illustrates that throughout New York state, industrial development agencies are helping communities create jobs,” she said.
What is interesting is that both reports say that IDA create jobs, the discussion is over how many.
The CGR report (from a table on page three) says the percentage of projects statewide falling short of their job creation goal was 45% (NYJWJ says 47%). So almost half of the funded projects fall short of their goals.
It has been my experience in life that there is a grain of truth in both reports. But as you pour through these reports.
Ask yourself these questions
- Are all jobs equal?
- Are the tax breaks given to these companies worth the jobs created?
- Who benefits?
IDA reformers simply want Accountability. They want IDAs to deliver on promised job creation. They want companies who receive benefits to earn them by delivering on growth. Most importantly they want OUR TAX DOLLARS SPENT WISELY with the appropriate oversight - something IDAs do not have now.
IDAs reformers don’t want repeats of the Wellesley Hotel where citizens object, the project fails, taxpayer funds are diverted and possibly recovered via a tiresome process . A process, mind you, that would not have been started had the affected town not aggressively pursued the issue. The IDA (COMIDA) didn’t think it to be an issue until the Town of Brighton uncovered diverted tax funds, and actively sought to recoup money for both the Town of Brighton and the County of Monroe.
Unfortunately as both these reports indicate there are a lot of Wellesley Hotels out there.
One of the reports talks about it the other doesn’t.
not to be a brown noser, but this is an excellent article. it is easy to make political noise on both ends and forget the sensible middle ground: spending public money to create jobs can be ok and oversight is not always an accusation. too often this debate loses focus of the real issue with accountability and oversight. if ida’s have nothing to hide, don’t hide. if you do have something to hide, we need to find out before the public gets screwed.
Thanks -
I’m OK as I’m sure many readers with the concept of government trying to create jobs but there needs to be accountability. It is about investment and gets the most out of the invested tax dollar.
In the case of the Wellsely Hotel - 60K dollars (30K from Brighton and 30K from Monroe County) was lost - maybe it will be recovered but when and it was lost for this budget cycle. We could have used that money in the budgets much more effectively than giving it to a failed COMIDA project.
I would encourage everyone to read both reports - and remember - both reports say ~50% of projects don’t met their goals.
Let’s hope we don’t “solve” the problem by simply lowering the goals.
lowering the goals seems likely under comida ‘leadership’. i can see the lumberg-esque maggie bringing in the two bobs to go ahead and fix the glitch and assume the rest will work itself out, without actually solving the real problem.
Yep, I can see goal lowering given the “followship” demonstrated by our local IDA, COMIDA.
Two Wellsley Hotels is not better than one.
Interesting that the group that commissioned the “think tank” to do the study favorable to IDAs, says this about their membership (emphasis mine):
You find what you’re looking for. At least they got their money’s worth from the report.
Very good post. This whole think tank racket really bugs me. Thanks for cuttig through the nonsense.
[...] Got that? The crew at COMIDA is on the case. But exactly how is this stuff calculated in the ANNUAL survey? I suppose we can have a he said, she said battle of the think tanks. [...]
[...] of New York State taxpayers, so a smaller percentage of them are a direct hit on Monroe County.ÂÂ COMIDA benefits are straight out of our local property taxes.ÂÂ And last time I looked, we didn’t pay property [...]