Report shows IDAs to be ineffective

NYS Comptroller shows Industrial Development Agencies to be bunk

It may not have been by current NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli but a 2006 report by then-Comp Alan Hevesi showed that Industrial Development Agencies (IDA) throughout the state, including Monroe County’s, have no effect on the economy and often fail to abide by the guidelines laid out for said IDAs.

The study cites a number of flaws with IDAs and the manner in which they operate.  From the report:

Each IDA is legally required to annually submit a financial statement to OSC that includes data related to the number of jobs created or retained and amount of all tax exemptions provided.

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Unfortunately, a number of studies have shown that inconsistent and inaccurate reporting has limited the utility of the data available through these annual reports.

If you want to witness this first hand try contacting COMIDA and attempting to get employee numbers on a company who has received abatements. I guarantee you will never receive a call back.

The report continues:

A lack of objective selection and evaluation data and criteria – The criteria by which IDAs evaluate potential projects are not always clear and/or consistently used, and IDAs do not always seem to make an attempt to evaluate the potential success of proposed projects.

This has been seen time and time again with COMIDA.

The report also found numerous instances of “pirating,” or the use of IDA incentives merely shuffling jobs from one location to another within the state rather than creating new ones.

A separate report by the Assembly’s Local Governments Committee found that pirating accounted for a “significant portion of IDA activity.”

Another interesting section of the study deals with the then-existing restrictions on IDAs to provide incentives to retail projects such as those proposed by Wilmorite and Bersin Properties LLC that are currently drawing so much attention:

Retail ventures are treated differently because they usually do not increase the level of regional jobs or economic activity and can damage local competitors or put them out of business. For example, a chain store opening up in a community generally will not increase the overall demand for retail goods and may
lure shoppers away from already established (often smaller and independently-owned) stores, potentially putting them out of business. Providing tax expenditure benefits for these “jobs-neutral” types of economic activity generally results in a net financial loss for the community.

I find it amazing that the above principle was understood in 2006 by the very state government that created these entities but seems to have been forgotten just two years later by COMIDA head Judy Seil and her band of marauding corporate cum-dumpsters (see, because Seil and the COMIDA board are constantly getting fucked).