Tagged: industrial development agencies

More tax breaks does not equal more jobs.

That's according to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's latest report on New York's industrial development agencies (IDAs).

In his fifth report on IDAs [PDF], DiNapoli says the number of jobs created by the local economic development engines dropped by 22,000 from the year before.

DiNapoli also cites a $483 million gap in what IDAs gave out in tax breaks and how much they took in via payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOTs).

That breaks down, the report finds, to a $2,659 cost per job - up 9 percent from the year before.

"Taxpayers are not getting enough bang for their buck when it comes to IDAs," DiNapoli said in a statement.

Two days after being publicly outed for owing Syracuse and the county nearly $97,000 in back taxes, a board member of the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA) has resigned.

His tenure with SIDA was short: He sat in on just two board meetings.

But one of those meetings included a "yes" vote on a controversial tax break for a proposed construction project on the University Hill.

And that was the catalyst for his ouster.