And when they say “lucrative,” they mean for the guys getting the tax breaks, not your broke ass:

Democrat & Chronicle: Local News

(March 15, 2007) — Rochester and Monroe County businesses received a combined $64.5 million in state tax breaks during 2003-05, according to never-before-released state Empire Zone records.

Calculating the corresponding benefit in jobs created is more difficult. By the most generous estimate, the tally is 3,631. Most of the jobs were created in the city, records show, yet the county zone has seen more dollar growth.

Suburban businesses claimed $12.6 million in tax credits in 2005, making Monroe County the eighth most lucrative Empire Zone in New York state. The Mall at Greece Ridge and Corporate Woods, a Brighton office park, led the way.

Corporate Woods, eh?  Wanna bet those tax breaks aren’t going to Phillips European?  In fact, there doesn’t seem to be much of anything of interest there except maybe the company that I presume owns the property, Pioneer Management.  No Halliburton, no easily-identifiable scandals per se.  But why is this place getting such outrageous tax incentives?  Whom do they hire in that building, exactly, that justifies the expense?

While Metro Justice has been complaining about Empire Zones and the like for years, this is the first actual window into the workings of the tax incentive program originally designed to make depressed communities viable locations for business investment.  The result?  Here as elsewhere in New York State, jobs created in the Empire Zones cost NYS taxpayers somewhere in the neighborhood of $17,000 per job over a two-year period.  Or $8,500 a year, if you prefer.

Eight grand a year is a lot of money.  Put it this way: the average taxpayer making $40,000 a year will pay about $2000 a year in state taxes, give or take a deduction (see page 6 of this form, PDF).  But if that person works in an Empire Zone, even though the money comes out of their paycheck each week, the state’s actually taking a $6500 a year loss on them.

Dig that!  For every one worker in an Empire Zone, the state needs to have created another 3 and a quarter jobs outside of the Empire Zone to make up for the loss.  That’s not what we were sold.  In fact, the citizens of this state have generally been given the canard that “well, it creates jobs, and those citizens pay taxes, too.” 

But now we see that the two sides of the equation don’t come close to adding up.  Now the question is: what do we do about it?

Technorati Tags: Empire Zone, New York State, Taxation

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