Tag: industrial development

In 2018, New York’s Finger Lakes industrial development agencies approved $60.4 million in tax exemptions to projects valued at $8.1 billion, a new report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli shows.

The 2020 annual “Performance of Industrial Development Agencies in New York State” shows that the 109 active IDAs across New York in 2018 approved incentives for nearly 4,300 projects with a total project value of $106 billion, an increase of $7.4 billion from 2017. Manufacturing projects accounted for 1,118, or 26 percent, of all active projects.

Some 61 percent of projects were located in Upstate New York regions and accounted for 41 percent of the total value of all projects. In 2018, project operators reported a job creation expectation of 229,257, as well as 280,932 jobs retained across the state. The median salary of jobs to be created was estimated at $38,570.

Two-thirds of all projects resulted in net job gains. All IDA projects collectively produced a net total of 179,057 jobs gained in 2018. Forty percent of those job gains were in Upstate New York, according to the report. In the Finger Lakes region, some 3,600 net jobs were gained in 2018.

In 2018, total IDA revenues were $96.3 million, while total expenditures were $98.7 million. The Finger Lakes region IDAs spent $13.6 million on 727 projects.

In the six-county Rochester metro area, the following IDAs approved projects in 2018:
• Genesee County — 74 projects, $625.9 million project value
• Livingston County — 32 projects, $335.7 million value
• Monroe County — 396 projects, $4.486 billion value
• Ontario County — 57 projects, $482.7 million value
• Orleans County — 23 projects, $264.7 million value
• Wayne County — 42 projects, $227.6 million value
• Village of Fairport — 6 projects, $26.9 million value

“Projects that come from Industrial Development Agencies continue to produce jobs across the state, but in the past couple of years the pace has slowed,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “As our local economies build back from the shock of the pandemic, IDAs may have a critical role in helping businesses and communities get back on their feet, with careful review of the tax breaks they offer and the impact on local government budgets.”

The 1969 enactment of the Industrial Development Agency Act allowed for the creation of IDAs by special act of the Legislature, with the goal of encouraging economic development and job opportunities. The legislation did not include any express financial reporting requirements until 1989, when legislation was enacted that required IDAs to submit to the Office of the State Comptroller audited annual financial statements that include information on bonds, notes and the dollar amount of tax exemptions for each project.

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