Later this month, the New York City Industrial Development Agency will consider lucrative
subsidy packages
for two of the world’s largest corporations: “big four” accounting firm
Deloitte, LLP
, and
Thomson Reuters
, a multimedia news and information provider. Meanwhile, despite recent reports of an improving unemployment rate, 385,000 New Yorkers are still jobless—twice as many as there were two years ago—and in the name of budget crisis, the city is slashing critical services for its poorest residents, from seniors and children to those with HIV/AIDS.
Why are these profitable firms up for tax breaks when everyone else is forced to sacrifice and there’s no guarantee these subsidies will create jobs for those who need them most?
Even in good times, there would be ample reason to question the wisdom of these deals. Let’s begin with Deloitte: The firm wants taxpayers to finance what amounts to a reshuffling of space in Lower Manhattan—a move from 2 World Financial Center, where it currently subleases space from Merrill Lynch, to 4 World Financial Center. (
Bank of America
acquired
Merrill
in 2008, and both firms have received hefty subsidies from the city and state.) Deloitte has allegedly been considering leaving the Financial Center in favor of
other locations
within the city. The company already received a $14 million cash grant under a program the state created to retain large businesses in Lower Manhattan after 9/11, not to mention millions in
BEIP
subsidies in 2008 from neighboring New Jersey. It is also likely that Deloitte received—or will receive as a result of its impending move—generous benefits from the
Lower Manhattan Relocation and Employment Assistance Program
, though the city withholds the names of participating businesses under a “tax secrecy” provision.
It’s also worth noting that Deloitte benefits from contracts worth tens of millions of dollars with New York City and state (not an unusual arrangement), and even has an office on the 6
th
floor of the city’s Municipal Building. The issue of double dipping aside, the potential for corruption should be of concern. Last fall,
Pennsylvania’s Auditor General found
that Deloitte was being awarded subsidies from the very entities it was auditing. While there’s no evidence that this is the case in NYC, Deloitte’s business practices in other contexts should be taken into account.
IDA is also considering a proposal to allow media giant Thomson Reuters to steer unused subsidies from a
1998 agreement
toward seven new locations in Manhattan. This might not sound so bad, except that the only information the public has to evaluate this proposal, an
IDA Annual Report from 2005
, shows that Reuters failed to meet job targets. It also shows that the company only used $2.4 million out of $26 million in subsidies. The public deserves the latest data on the true value of the remaining subsidy, Reuters’ employment record in the city since 2005, and the impact of its 2009 merger with Thomson Media on its job figures. IDA will release
project details
a week prior to the July 29
th
public hearing, but whether these and other critical questions will be answered remains to be seen.
Adding to the issues with the Thomson Reuters deal, the
Newspaper Guild of New York
has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging that the company plans to
cut wages
of reporters and other employees by an average of 10 percent this year without the union’s consent. Reuters
denies this claim
, but at the very least no subsidies should be considered until this dispute is resolved.
Both the Deloitte and Thomson Reuters deals are rife with transparency and accountability issues—not to mention Deloitte’s deep connection to the Wall Street crowd that got us into the economic crisis in the first place. This would be unacceptable even in good times. But with our most vulnerable residents set to suffer even more as the city and state retrench, New Yorkers should be especially outraged.