IDAs and the ruse of 'economic development'

Earlier this month, the NYS Assembly Committee on Local Governments held hearings on reform of Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs).

WMHT's New York Now program devoted its show last week to reform of the controversial IDA and Empire Zone programs.

Defenders of these programs claim that these programs are ways of offsetting the high cost of doing business in New York. But the real solution to that problem is to reduce corrupt wasteful spending, such as in the state's infamous public authorities (exposed as an over $1 billion slush fund by an excellent series in The Syracuse Post-Standard).

This would lower state and property taxes for EVERYONE, rather than letting the good ol' boy network dish out tax breaks to their buddies. If anything, these special tax giveaways reduce the amount of revenue coming into the public coffers and ends up RAISING taxes for everyone else, those without good connections. Steal from the hard working small business owners so you can give $1.2 billion to the gargantuan multinational.

I'll specifically deal with Empire Zones in a future entry, but New York Now pointed out something that shocked me: IDAs have the power of eminent domain.

It's bad enough that elected bodies like a city council can seize your property and give it to monied developers. It's even more disgusting that an unelected, opaque body like an IDA can do so.

In addition to appearing on the New York Now episode referenced above, local small businessman Matt Funiciello testified before the Assembly committee. His testimony explaining the wasteful and unaccountable nature of the IDA process can be found here.