Tag: economic development

Feb 2

2022

Intel lured by $2 billion subsidy

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The microchip subsidy game is getting more and more costly for taxpayers. Multiple media outlets reported this week that it cost the state of Ohio more than $2 billion worth of incentives to convince tech-giant Intel Corp. to invest $20 billion in the construction of two chip-making plants just outside of Columbus. The subsidy package for what’s been described as the largest single private-sector company investment in Ohio history reportedly involves $1.2 billion in cash incentives, including a direct cash grant to the company valued at $600 million.  Economic development officials in Ohio described the $600 million as an “onshoring[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 25

2022

How a stadium can benefit the community

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This is the first of a three-day series in our continuing in-depth coverage of issues related to a proposed stadium for the Buffalo Bills. Before the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers broke ground last summer on a new arena, the team’s owners, elected officials and civic groups made certain the $1.8 billion project would benefit the entire community. In September 2020, the parties signed a community benefits agreement, or CBA, that outlined who would get jobs and contracts during and after construction, how much those jobs would pay, what the project would look like, and how the city and its residents[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 24

2022

Another high-tech miss for Genesee County

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Another tech giant with big microchip expansion plans is bypassing New York, this time for Ohio.  Intel Corp. announced on Friday plans to invest at least $20 billion to develop amicrochip manufacturing complex  in Jersey Township, outside of Columbus. Company officials said the plant will employ 3,000. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with production expected by the end of 2025.  Intel’s CEO Pat Gelsinger said the project is part of the company’s plans to invest $100 billion to build up to eight microchip factories on the Ohio campus by 2030. The project is being billed as the[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jan 5

2022

Samsung turned down subsidies worth $1.9B

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Think the $950 million the state doled out to build and equip a factory for Tesla in South Buffalo was a lot of money? State and local officials offered Samsung twice as much to build a semiconductor plant in rural Genesee County. The $1.9 billion subsidy package would have been the second-largest deal in state history if the company had accepted it. It ranks high nationally, as well. “It would be right in the top dozen of all time in U.S. history,” according to Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a national subsidy watchdog group.  Still, New York’s[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 28

2021

Tesla reaches its jobs target

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Tesla has finally met its job creation goals at the company’s plant in South Buffalo, according to a state spokesperson. The state required Tesla to employ 1,460 at the plant in exchange for subsidies worth $950 million. Meeting that mandate has proven difficult for a variety of reasons, including Covid-19.  Employment stood at 1,058 on May 31, the original deadline to meet the job goals. The state extended Tesla’s deadline to Dec. 31. In response to questions from Investigative Post, a spokesperson for the Empire State Development Corp. said Tuesday that, as of Nov. 10, Tesla had reported  employment of[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Dec 13

2021

Little economic benefit from new stadium

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A new stadium for the Buffalo Bills would boost the Western New York economy as much as a new Target store. Which is to say, very little. While some supporting construction of a new stadium maintain it would be an economic boon, research by economists across the political spectrum has found stadiums generate limited new spending. Rather, they simply redirect how leisure dollars are spent.  “All you are doing is moving time and money around. People are going to the game instead of the movies,” said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a national subsidy watchdog group. Nor[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Nov 23

2021

Surprise winner of Samsung plant

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At the beginning of the year, it looked like Austin, Texas, was the frontrunner to land a $17 billion Samsung microchip plant that Western New York officials were hoping to lure to rural Genesee County.  In recent months, a new leader emerged – the City of Taylor, just outside Austin – that agreed to a slew of city, county and school district incentives that would reportedly reduce Samsung’s tax burden by 90 percent during the first 10 years of the plant’s operation.  “I thought this was Austin’s to lose,” said Nate Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas-Austin who[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Nov 23

2021

Report: Samsung building plant in Texas

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The tech giant Samsung has apparently decided where it’s going to build a new $17 billion microchip plant in the United States and a report from the Wall Street Journal suggests the project won’t be landing at a large industrial site in rural Genesee County. The Wall Street Journal reported early Tuesday that the company will build its plant in Taylor, Texas. While representatives from Samsung have not confirmed the decision, the Journal reported that the decision on the selection of Taylor will be discussed at 5 p.m. today when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is scheduled to make an “economic[...]

Posted 2 years ago
Investigative Post

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