Tag: Economy

Feb 26

2023

Monday Morning Read

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Subscribe to WeeklyPost, if you don’t already. There’s more heat being applied to industrial development agencies. We’ve already reported on reform legislation being championed by Sen. Sean Ryan. Last week, the Albany Times Union reported that the chairman of the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations is launching an investigation into how IDA’s dole out tax breaks. Sen. James Skoufis is hot and bothered by a deal in Orange County. He’s likely to blow a gasket if he looks into the deals approved of late by the Niagara County IDA, subsidies for everything from fast food restaurants to market rate housing to a warehouse for Amazon, which[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Feb 21

2023

Allegations of racism at Tesla plant

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Black employees at Tesla’s Gigafactory in South Buffalo have alleged they’re routinely subjected to racist treatment by managers, problems they say have persisted since the plant opened five years ago. Seven current and former Tesla employees, all of whom are Black, told Investigative Post the treatment they’ve experienced has ranged from offensive remarks to being repeatedly passed over for promotions. In one case, five employees recounted instances where groups of Black men were having conversations on the factory floor, only to be told by management they weren’t allowed to do that because “the optics looked bad” and they looked “like[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Feb 16

2023

Tesla a target of unionizing effort

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The union behind the successful effort to organize Starbucks, both here and nationally, is trying to do likewise at Tesla’s plant in South Buffalo. But, much like with Starbucks, organizers are squaring off with an employer with a history of aggressively fending off unionizing efforts. To wit, just one day after Tesla Workers United announced its organizing drive, Tesla fired 30 employees at its Buffalo plant, including some members of the union organizing team. They were dismissed via email Wednesday evening. “I strongly feel this is in retaliation to the committee announcement and it’s shameful,” Arian Berek, a fired worker[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Feb 14

2023

IDA subsidizing more market-rate housing

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Under normal circumstances, market-rate housing is supposed to conform to the forces of the free market: A developer buys a piece of land, builds housing, and sells or rents it for a price that recoups their costs and turns a profit. But in Niagara County, the Industrial Development Agency is poised to subsidize two market-rate apartment complexes — a total of 90 units — to the tune of $3.9 million. In one project, the proposed IDA subsidy would cover 22 percent of the building costs. That project would create zero jobs. In the other, the subsidies would cover 44 percent[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Feb 9

2023

Podcast: Sen. Sean Ryan discusses IDA reform

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Throughout the State of New York, industrial development agencies give out tax breaks to companies in order to bring and expand operations to local communities. From entities as large as Amazon to as small as an A&W restaurant, these deals usually involve companies paying reduced property and sales taxes over an extended period of time. But, as Investigative Post’s J. Dale Shoemaker has reported, those deals can have expensive consequences for the community; including its children. Those expensive consequences include nearly $2 billion drained from public schools each year throughout the state. New York State Senator Sean Ryan believes these[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Feb 9

2023

Niagara IDA ups its subsidies for fast food eateries

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The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency on Wednesday doubled down on two projects its leaders claim will convince tourists to spend their vacation dollars in Niagara Falls rather than across the border. Those projects? Two fast food restaurants, a Moe’s Southwest Grill and an A&W. The IDA had previously signaled it would offer tax subsidies to those projects — a total of $172,000 in property and sales tax breaks — and made those offers official at its monthly meeting Wednesday morning. That alone drew the ire of local politicians, namely state Sen. Sean Ryan, who’s pledged to reform IDAs across[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Feb 8

2023

Report: Tax breaks costing schools big money

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Public schools across the state are losing out on close to $2 billion a year — and probably a whole lot more — because of tax breaks given to corporations by economic development agencies. That’s among the conclusions of a study released today by Good Jobs First, a national research group that tracks economic development subsidies. The report said tax breaks affecting schools in New York far outpace those in other states. That lost revenue has prompted state lawmakers, including Sen. Sean Ryan, to propose legislation that would prohibit economic development agencies from abating property and sales taxes that are[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jan 31

2023

Heaney discusses Tesla on ‘Pressroom

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Jim Heaney spoke this week with David Lombardo on The Capital Pressroom about Investigative Post’s recent reporting on the Tesla plant in South Buffalo and tax subsidies issued to fast-food restaurants in Niagara Falls. Both stories were reported by J. Dale Shoemaker. The Tesla story documented the failure of that $1 billion project to live up to its potential. Dale’s IDA reporting has prompted legislation intended to address what critics say is an abuse of the IDA law. Capitol Pressroom is broadcast weekdays on about 20 NPR stations across upstate. It airs on WBFO at 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and[...]

Posted 4 months ago