Investigative Post: Buffalo, Rochester fail transparency test
“The cities of Buffalo and Rochester have received failing grades for a lack of transparency involving tax breaks given to the owners of old commercial buildings converted to new uses.
The 485-a program is often used to retrofit office buildings into mixed uses that include housing and retail. The report by Good Jobs First found that the granting of the tax breaks is done by bureaucrats without any public review and the cities don’t readily disclose the award.
The report, however, gave high grades to the industrial development agencies in the cities of Utica, Albany and Syracuse.
Transparency improves public engagement in tax subsidy programs, Good Jobs First researchers concluded, and could result in officials voting down bad deals. The watchdog group has previously found New York schools lose more than $1 billion each year due to various property tax abatements, several of which are in Western New York.
In its new study, the watchdog group studied 229 small and medium cities across the country, including five in upstate New York. It considered the transparency of a single subsidy program in each municipality.”
Read the full story at the Investigative Post.