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April 24, 2006
Bill ties benefits, jobs to subsidies
If businesses don’t deliver on promises, they would have to repay tax breaks
MetroNY
By Patrick Arden
A State Assembly bill would force large projects that receive subsidies to meet stated goals or lose state subsidies.
If passed, how could the bill affect promises made by developers in these Community Benefits Agreements that are becoming popular in NYC?
Under IDA reform, businesses getting government subsidies would have to meet certain standards. Construction jobs would have to pay prevailing wages, for instance, while permanent employees would have to earn at least 185 percent of the poverty level for a family of three. Local hiring would also be mandated. Many of these provisions are now being negotiated separately under so-called Community Benefit Agreements.
“We’d like to take the question of jobs, benefits and local hiring off the table from the beginning — if agencies are going to give out public subsidies, then these kinds of conditions should be attached to those subsides right off the bat,” said Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of New York Jobs With Justice.
Posted by lumi at April 24, 2006 12:17 PM