Platform of the New York State Greens / Green Party of NYS

Public policy and spending should support increasing community ownership of community wealth, so that as neighborhoods, cities, towns, and counties increasingly own and develop their own productive wealth, a portion of the surplus produced by economic activity goes straight into the public treasuries. The sectors that should be socialized, decentralized, and democratized as soon as possible include banking, insurance, energy, transportation, health care, and natural resources.

Corporate Welfare Reform

The Greens support the elimination of most if not all forms of corporate welfare. It is outrageous that the Governor, State Legislature and local governments continue to hand out billions in corporate welfare each year as vital services are cut and local property and sales taxes continue to skyrocket. Corporate welfare also hurts the competitiveness of small companies and other businesses that do not receive special breaks.

New York State presently provides special tax breaks worth about $1.9 billion a year to favored corporations - more than $500 million higher than welfare payments to poor children and adults. Local governments provide property tax exemptions worth more than $600 million a year to corporations in the name of economic development, as well as other direct subsidies in the forms of low-interest loans, direct grants and cut-rate energy. It is time for a Corporate Responsibility Act.

Tie Corporate Welfare to Job Creation. Any corporate welfare that is provided should be tied to the accomplishment of clearly defined public policy objectives such as job creation. Corporations should be required to give back their welfare payments if they fail to live up to their bargain. It is especially shameful when corporations receive welfare from the state and federal government as a reward for corporate downsizing and layoffs. In 1995, ten of the country's largest companies - including AT&T, Eastman Kodak, Mobil and Proctor and Gamble - laid off more than 130,000 workers even though they had profits of $60.7 billion, including $8.3 billion in tax subsidies.

Reform the Investment Tax Credit One of the state's major corporate welfare programs is the Investment Tax Credit, which is usually justified on the basis of job creation. Current law provides businesses with a credit equal to 5% of the money that they spend on plant and equipment (an additional Employment Incentive Credit of between 1.5% to 3% is also available for two years after the ITC credit). The ITC is so large relative to the level of corporate taxation that any company not running its equipment into the ground is able to reduce their tax liability to the minimum tax, plus builds up unused credits that can be carried forward for ten years. However, most of the ITC expenditures do not result in even a 1% increase in jobs. The ITC may actually act as a deterrent to job creation by subsidizing the cost of labor-reducing machinery relative to the cost of labor. Some groups support reducing the portion of the ITC that is based simply on making an investment and to increase the portion that is tied to job creation. The Greens would go even further and base the ITC solely on job creation. The Greens would also eliminate any carrying forward of ITC credits.

Recoupment of Tax Breaks and Subsidies. State and local governments should be required to recoup subsidies, on a prorated basis, from firms that do not live up to the job retention or job creation promises used to justify public subsidies.

Require State Corporate Tax Disclosure. Individual taxpayers have a right to know whether they are paying more in taxes than profitable corporations. Businesses demand public accountability of government agencies and should have no problem requiring the same of themselves. The Securities and Exchange Commission at the federal level requires publicly traded corporations to disclose how much they pay in federal taxes. This allows analysts to determine if profitable corporations are avoiding taxation. We need a similar mechanism at the state level. This would also hold firms accountable for the various tax returns they file in different states, to ensure that the information contained in them is consistent.

Increased Public Scrutiny of Industrial Development Authorities. IDAs tend to give tax breaks to companies based on political influence rather than merit. Tax breaks for companies often result in tax increases for local property owners. IDAs need to be democratically controlled by the voters. There should be a limit of one IDA per county. The composition of Board of Directors of IDAs should be reflective of the local community, with representation from local governments, schools, community groups and low-income individuals. Local governments should have veto power over any giveaway of their tax dollars. Companies receiving tax breaks or subsidies from IDAs should be required to sign contracts specifying the number of jobs that must be created to receive the welfare. Tax breaks and subsidies should only be provided for creation of new jobs, not the relocation of existing jobs from other communities or states. The size of the tax break should correspond to the number of new jobs to be created

. Renew and Expand the Ban on IDA Financing on Retail Businesses. Providing tax breaks to retail businesses such as supermarkets or chain stores like Wal-Mart does not increase jobs. More people do not buy food for instance if are more supermarkets are built; existing supermarkets not subsidized by taxpayers dollars are at a competitive disadvantage and often end up going out of business.

Right to Know Laws for Corporate Welfare. Businesses receiving economic assistance from the state and local governments should be required to state the specific public benefits, including jobs retained and created, that will result from the assistance. A process involving taxpayer and community input in evaluating applications and monitoring projects should also be established.