Ontario IDA Recipient Constellation Brands to Cut Jobs
About 5%, according to the D&C.
Some readers may remember that Ontario County’s IDA lured Constellation Brands to move 5 miles down the road from Fairport to Victor by letting them pay lower taxes.
Does anyone else wonder how that helps Victor or Ontario County? Those were the same jobs, recycled. Except now Victor and Ontario County have had to provide services and infrastructure to support the new HQ, but without the benefit of an appropriately expanded tax base.
And now there’s even less jobs. A fired-up commenter in the D&C chat for the story puts it pretty well:
it was the useless and incompetent Ontario County IDA that jerked the taxpayers and residents of Victor around. Wasn’t it worth it to give Constellation Brands a $325,000 sales tax break to furnish empty offices and the Rainaldi Bros. 10 years of tax abatements for a soon to be half empty building?
The commenter concludes that government therefore has no role in incenting business, but I think a better conclusion is: a corrupt and short-sighted government entitity should have no role.
You can use a hammer to build a house, or commit a crime. Or a whole lotta crime. It’s not the tool– it’s the way that you use it.
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Just exactly like that. Ontario County IDA staff have been preening in the Econ Dev world for years, off of a pattern of urban sprawl that brings industry further and further to the Southeast, through all the “P” towns, until– like MAGIC– they become jobs “made” by Ontario IDA. More than a little ego involved there, too.
Generally pleased to see Constellation Brands, the world’s biggest wine corporation, not taking over the countryside, though. Ever watch the movie Mundo Vino? It’s good.
[...] The lower taxes gained by moving 5 miles down the road didn’t help Constellation brands from cutting some jobs but I’ll bet that some IDA got credit for “job creation”. Yeah, this time it [...]