Just when Gov. Andrew Cuomo thought he was done with “Buffalo Billion”…
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is conducting a sweeping audit of New York’s high-tech programs that will include a hard look at the taxpayer costs of the Tesla’s controversial SolarCity plant in Buffalo.
“Wꦆe have an audit underway looking at high-tech projects,” said DiNapoli spokeswoman Jennifer Freeman.
The audit will focus on high-tech programs run through the Empire State Development Corporation. One of the issues the comptroller would look at is whether taxpayers are getting enough bang for the buck — how many jobs are created and how much the state is subsidizing per job.
The Cuomo administration pumped $750 million into building the solar factory, part of his controversial “Buffalo Billion” program to revise the upstate econom𝓀y. With just 750 jobs created at the plant that would come to $1 million to create each job. Even when factoring in thousands of other 🙈jobs created by Tesla, the subsidy would still be well into six figures per job.
The project was tarnished from the get-go after becoming embroiled in a massive federal bid-rigging scandal that le๊d to the downfall of top Cuomo advisers and donor-contractors.
Louis Ciminelli, president of LPCiminelli, and Alain Kaloyeros, head of a state-affiliated development corporation and considered a “rock star” in the Cuomo administration🦩, were convicted on bid-rigging charges for their roles in the awarding of the contract to♐ develop the $750 million facility to house Tesla’s solar panel manufacturing facility.
Tesla’s solar roof panel business model has also come under fire during a drumbeat of negative news outlined in a recent and a series of stories in the Buffalo News, particularly questioning the acumen of CEO Elon Musk. The Vanity Fair piece was headlined, “He’s Full of S–t: How Elon Musk Fooled Investors, Bilked Taxpayers, and Gambled Tesla to Save Solar City.”
Musk earlier this year claimed that 2019 would be the “year of the solar roof” but the c🌠ompany has yet to begin high-volume produc♚tion, which it unveiled three years ago.
Tesla has repeatedly postponed the startꦫing date for ramping up solar roof production.
Cuomo invested $750 million in state dollars to build Solar City and gave the facility to Tesla-Solar City for $1 — in exchange for creating at least 1,460 high-tech jobs and another 2,000 jobs tied to sale and installation of the firm’s solar roof panels.
Ramping up production of the solar roof panel would help Tesla keep its promise to the state to create 1,460 jobs at the Bu♓ffalo plant by April 2020. But the plant had 730 workers in mid-April, so Te🌞sla would have to double employment at a time when its rooftop solar sales have plummeted.
Tesla cou꧅ld face a $41.2 million penalty 💎from the state if it doesn’t meet its jobs target. The company and state officials said the firm has kept is job commitments thus far.
The local media has been critical about the lack of production. “These are dark times for Tes𒁏l🔯a Inc.’s solar energy business and the Buffalo factory that state officials built for it,” a recent Buffalo News column said.
“To beef up its workforce in Buffalo , Tesla has started bringing other products to the Buffalo plant. It now makes electrical components for its batteries and its electric vehicle charging stations … But that’s not what the Buffalo factory was supposed to be about. It was supposed to give Buffalo a foothold in a fast-growing business that would bring other good-paying jobs to the region. Instead, Tesla is paying entry-level production workers for around $16 an hour and its declining installations mean that the cavernous 1.2 million- square-foot factory that was built for growth is nowhere near full. For $750 million, you expect more,” the Buffalo paper said.
The Cuomo administration defended the Tesla Solar City project. “Buffalo has experienced an economic renaissance after decades of decline, and Tesla’s presence only makes the community stronger. The company exceeded its job creation commitments, and we expect they will continue growing and adding employees in Western New York,” said an Empire State Development Corp. spokesman.
Tesla provided stat🎉ements from Musk explaining the delays in ramping up production at the Buffalo plant.
“We’re installing the Solar Roof in eight states. We’re about to complete version 3 of the Solar Roof. This is actually quite a hard technology problem, to have an integrated solar panel or solar cell with a roof tile, and have it look good, and last for 30 years,” Musk told sharehholders during a June meeting.
“Roofs have to last a long time. The amount of testing that one has to do, and do an accelerated life testing to say, ‘How can we predict how this will perform, if we just spend six months of testing and project that out to 30 years?’ It’s quite a hard problem, and then making it easy to install, getting the cost low.”
Tesla also pointed out the current ꦯstipulation is for the company to produce at least 500 jobs at the plant and a total of 1,460 jobs overall, including elsewhere in Buffalo.