ALBANY — A tax-break program promoted by Gov. Cuomo to boost the state’s economy cost more than $50 million but produced just 408 jobs in its first two years, according to a report released at the start of a holiday weekend, three months after it was due.
That comes to $122,549 a job.
Start-Up New York gives tax breaks in exchange for jobs.
More than 159 companies have signed up and promised to add 4,140 jobs in the next five years.
Critics blasted state spending on ads to launch the program and the loss of hoped-for tax revenue.
“The Empire State Development Corporation delayed and buried this report because the results prove the strategy failed,” said Doug Kellogg, spokesman for Reclaim New York, a nonprofit group that calls for government reform and accountability.
“The government must stop playing venture capitalist and fix the tax and regulatory problems that make New York the second-to-worst business-tax environment in the country.”
Kellogg charged that the program was “nothing more than cronyism.”
Assembly Republican Minority Leader Brian Kolb called it “long on promises but woefully short on actual jobs.” He also criticized the economic-development agency for timing the report’s release when few taxpayers would be focused on government news.
“Despite political rhetoric and false ‘open for business’ claims, this program is not working for communities across the state,” he said. “If Start-Up NY was truly effective, New Yorkers would not have waited three months for an update and details would not have been secretly posted on a Web site late on a Friday afternoon.”
Kolb called for changes to New York’s tax system and regulations to encourage business growth.
“Job creation and economic development will never be realized through gimmicks, casinos or grant programs that choose winners and losers,” he said.
Leslie Whatley, Start-Up’s executive director who recently announced plans to leave for the private sector, insisted she was extremely proud of the program, which she said will ultimately create more than 4,000 jobs in its first five years. She attributed slow job growth and the delayed release of the report to “growing pains.’’
