Groups Question Handling of Corporate Subsidies

NEW YORK CITY-Good Jobs New York and the New Jersey Policy Perspective are leveling their sights at a huge target–financial services firm Citigroup and other corporations of its size. The associations charge that such corporations play locales against locales to attract millions of dollars in subsidies without delivering on promised local-area jobs. The groups allege that the amount the financial-services firm has won from New York and New Jersey approaches $226 million over 18 years. The sum rises to $285 million when Kentucky and Texas are added into the mix.

The NJPP’s website describes the organization as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that conducts “research and analysis on important issues facing New Jersey.” GJNY’s site says it promotes policies that “hold government officials and corporations accountable to the taxpayers, particularly when economic development agencies give subsidies to large corporations that threaten to leave New York City.”

Bettina Damiani, project director for GJNY, tells GlobeSt.com that “Citigroup is a prime example of how big corporations take advantage of corporate giveaways and don’t always create the jobs that were promised.”