Good government groups plead with New York Democrats to end ‘love affair’ with wasteful spending
ALBANY — State Democratic leaders do not agree on bail, charter schools, or housing ahead of the April 1 state budget deadline — but they appear to be on board with spending another $1 billion in taxpayer money on questionable economic development programs.
A $455 million loan to Belmont Park is on track to get approved alongside $380 million in expanded tax breaks for film, TV, and Broadway productions after the state Senate and Assembly last week backed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plans for them in her $227 billion draft budget.
The new s⛄pending has been decried by good government groups.
“Please. New York Democrats, freeze your misguided love affair with trickle-down economics and corporate giveaways,” Dr. Elizabeth Marcello, a senior research analyst at Reinvent Albany, told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.
“Use public money to buy goods and services that create jobs and cleaner water, better transit, nicer parks, and more child and elder care, not line some corporation’s pockets,” she added.
Marcello and others also lament billions more in existing spending on state pr🎃ograms they say waste taxpayer dollars on economic development p🦋rograms like the $420 million and $100 million in existing tax credits for film, TV, and theater productions.
Hochul’s proposal would expand the total costs of a TV or film production that the state will rebate from 25% to 30% while increasing the current pot of money available to Hollywood from $420 million to $700 million.
“New York should immediately repeal its production and post-production tax credits because the state loses money on the deal,” Ken Girardin of the right-leaning Empire Center for Public Policy while casting doubt on the jobs and economic activity supporters says they tax breaks keep in New York.
He expressed similar skepticism Monday about the additional largess Albany Democrats are poised to shower on Broadway by doubling current sup🐟port from $200 million in the state budget.
“Given the fact that the battle cry to subsidize theatrical productions centers around an actual street … the threats about them leaving town rings even more hollow,” Girardin said.
The $455 million loan for🦩 Belmont faces similar criticism from opponents who questi♕on whether the proposed overhaul of the venue hosting the annual Stakes will be the success that Hochul and lawmakers claim it will be.
Critics say that money might never get repaid given th𒁃e uncertainty over the future of horse racing and expanded gambling opportunities that will include three𝔍 downstate casinos in the near future.
“You’re kind of hitching your wagon to an industry that is in long-term decline,” Victor Matheson, a Holy Cross College professor and expert on sports economics, told The Post last month.
Future revenues from Video Lottery Terminals – which have previously been diverted to support horse racing statewide – would help secure the loan 𝓰with interest over its proposed 20-year lifetime.
And the jobs and economic activity from overhauling the famed host of the Belmont Stakes would help restore the historic venue to its former glory, according to the Hochul administration, while attracting events like the Breeder’s Cup to New York.
“A new Belmont Park will create good jobs and generate important economic opportunities for residents in the communities surrounding Belmont–that’s why the project enjoys broad support among local elected officials, community groups and business associations,” Patrick McKenna, a spokesman for the New York Racing Association that runs Belmont, said.
Officials also credit tax breaks for Hollywood and Broadway as keeping the state competitive against other stat🌃es while♋ helping the state recover from COVID-19.
More than 1.7 million “hires” and $35 billion in spending have happened since 2014 because of the tax break for film and TV alone that has benefitted more than 1,5000 projects, according to the state’s economic agency Empire State Development.
“New York’s entertainment tax programs support tens of thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in annual spending across the state, and when New York lowered its film tax credit in 2020 as other states raised theirs, it resulted in vacant film studios and jobs moving across the Hudson. This is not movie magic, it is basic economics,” a spokeswoman said.
But good government groups say they are keeping up the fight to change hearts and minds among Albany leaders when it comes to their growing “love affair” with such economic development programs.
With less than two weeks to go until the April 1 deadline, they are focusing on Hochul, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie – the “three people in a room” who will hash out a final deal.
The thre🔯e leaders are still negotiating billions in additional economic development spending proposed by Hochul that good government groups while continuing to assail the tax breaks and Belmont loan that all three leaders have seemingly agreed upon.
“We need the Legislature to press the pause button and freeze any new tax credits that the Governor has proposed in the Executive Budget. We already spend over $10 billion in state and local funds on corporate giveaways and it’s not time to spend billions more on those discredited programs,” Ron Deutsch, director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, said Monday.
