Tax-Day Rally to Reveal Economic Development 'Dirty Dozen'

NEW YORK CITY-Several local advocacy and labor groups will organize a rally this afternoon to protest what they say is the abuse of tax breaks by major corporations. The event will take place from 5pm to 7 pm at the US Post Office’s main branch in the James A. Farley Building on 33rd Street and 8th Avenue.

The demonstration is sponsored by Good Jobs New York and the Alliance for a Working Economy along with the New York Immigration Coalition, New York Jobs with Justice and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Organizers hope the event will shed light on what they say is a lack of accountability that has allowed firms to accept job-retention subsidies with one hand while handing out pink slips with the other. The sponsors plan to release a list of 12 companies, dubbed the “dirty dozen,” which they say received significant tax breaks but still laid off workers.

In addition, the groups will express their growing concern that the bulk of job-retention funds earmarked for Downtown will go to big businesses that have no intention of leaving the city. “Jersey City and Lower Manhattan have been fighting with each other for years,” GJNY director Bettina Damiani tells GlobeSt.com. “Companies say ‘I’m going to relocate because New Jersey offered me a subsidy deal. If you look at New Jersey right now, their budget situation is not amenable to providing large tax subsidies to corporations.”