ALBANY – A recent report by the New York State Comptrollers Office is providing some details into how the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency (CCIDA) performed when compared to other county IDAs from around the state.
In June, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released his annual IDA report, which focuses on over 100 different Industrial Development Agencies that operate across New York State, using data from the 2019 fiscal year. There were a total of 55 County IDAs within the report, along with 53 IDAs being operated within various cities or village.
The report included data sets in 11 different categories for all IDAs: Project Count, Total Project Values, Total Tax Exemptions, Total PILOTs (Payments In Lieu Of Tax agreements), Total Net Tax Exemptions, Estimated Jobs Created, Estimated Jobs Retained, Full-Time Equivalents Before IDA, Current Full-Time Equivalents, Net Jobs Gained, and IDA Expenses.
It also provided a region-by-region comparison of IDAs, focusing on the 10 economic development regions of the state.
READ: COMPTROLLER’S 2021 IDA REPORT
When compared to the previous year’s numbers, CCIDA saw a slight drop in total operating expenses, going from $4.4 million in 2018 to $3.8 million in 2019. However, the total Net Tax Exemptions ($18.0 million) saw a noticeable increase, up 17.6%, compared to the previous year when it was $15.3 million.
When compared to other county IDAs, CCIDA once again ranked among the top in the state in 2019 when it came to operating expenses – $3.8 million (3rd out of 55, same as the prior year); as well as net tax exemptions given to projects – $18.0 million (5th out 55, up from 9th in 2018). But despite the high rankings in those two categories, CCIDA ranked among the lowest in the state when it came to job creation – 263 net jobs (43rd out of 55, up from 48th in 2018).
As a result of the findings, in 2019 the CCIDA had a poor rate of return, compared to other counties, when it comes to how much is spent for each net job gained ($14,562 per net job gained), as well as the amount of net tax incentives that were given for each job gained ($68,441 per net job gained).
According to the comptrollers report, IDAs must pay for their own administrative expenses, including personnel and overhead costs. These expenses are largely funded with project fees, and IDAs may also collect rent on properties they own. That means that the IDA operating expenses of $3.8 million had little impact on taxpayers in the county. However, the net tax exemptions provided by the IDA does come from the local tax base, primary through lost property taxes, but also sometimes from sales and mortgage tax exemptions. That means local governments in Chautauqua County likely missed out on an estimated $68,441 in lost revenue for each of the 263 net jobs gained in 2019. That’s actually an significant improvement (23%) when compared to the average cost of $89,000 per job gained in the prior year.
For the other eight categories, CCIDA ranked as followed: Project Count (17th – 49 projects), Total Project Values (21st – $767.9 million), Total Tax Exemptions (12th – $19.6 million), Total PILOTs (30th – $1.6 million), Estimated Jobs Created (32nd – 543), Estimated Jobs Retained (20th – 1,899), Full-Time Equivalents Before IDA (21st – 1,900), and Current Full-Time Equivalents (30th – 2,163).
For population comparison, Chautauqua County ranked 23rd on the list with 127,657 people.
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