Good Jobs, Not Giveaways

CEJ along with members of Metro Justice, the WNY Area Labor Federation and the Rochester and Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation, and Teamsters Joint Council 46 held a rally in Rochester prior to the County of Monroe IDA (COMIDA) board meeting on Tuesday February 21 to request that the board end its tax break agreement with VWR and look into getting back the nearly $1 million VWR has received.

We went to Rochester to follow the money IDAs in Erie and Monroe County have handed to VWR over the course of decades. VWR has collected tax incentives from the ECIDA since 2001. When their last deal ended in 2011, they closed their warehouse in Tonawanda and laid off 41 workers. Meanwhile, VWR got tax break deals from COMIDA in 2001 and 2008 to expand their warehouse in Henrietta and create 7 new jobs.

As Richard Lipsitz, political affairs coordinator for the Teamsters Joint Council 46 and WNY Area Labor Federation president, said at the rally: “VWR has been doing deals with the Erie County IDA to avoid paying their fair share of taxes since the 1970’s. What they’ve promised in return – JOBS. But, just as they’ve done in other parts of the country, the minute the tax break ran dry they shut down the jobs. They’ve likely had this plan for years, because they’ve been racking up tax breaks in Monroe County since 2001, expanding their warehouse there in preparation for the Tonawanda shutdown. It is time for COMIDA to end its agreement with VWR.”

VWR, which recorded $3.6 billion in sales in 2010, is an international distributor of scientific and laboratory supplies and chemicals and is owned by Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners.

VWR’s pattern of job shifting extends beyond New York. In Brisbane, CA, VWR plans to close its warehouse, putting over 60 long-time employees out of work and plans to build a new warehouse 300 miles away in Visalia, CA, where it is eligible for multiple incentives and tax credits. VWR’s move was subject to a Commission of Inquiry led by Congresswoman Jackie Speier and State Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

CEJ’s executive director Allison Duwe, WNY Area Labor Federation’s president Richard Lipsitz, and Metro Justice’s president Paula Hansen as well as a few Occupy Buffalo folks also spoke during the board meeting’s public comment period, calling on COMIDA to end its tax break deal with VWR.

Once the public comment period was over, however, the board rushed through the meeting to approve several project applications, with hardly any discussion about what the job creation would be or how much these jobs were paying. Representatives from each company were present in order to answer questions but there never seemed to be any areas of concern. Along with the new projects approved, there were several existing projects requesting more funding. These projects alone totaled over 2 million dollars. No questions asked, money granted.

Along with our statewide partners, we will keep the pressure on COMIDA to end its tax break deal with VWR and make sure that we get our money’s worth.

To see press coverage, please visit the links below.

YNN:

http://rochester.ynn.com/content/top_stories/574517/are-ida-tax-breaks-a-good-investment-/

The Democratic & Chronicle:

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120221/BUSINESS/302200052/COMIDA-approves-6-projects-gets-earful-from-protesters?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CBUSINESS

WNED:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wned/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1906746/WNED-AM.970.NEWS/Protesters.Assail.IDA.Role.in.Local.Layoffs

Free Training: Confronting Corporate Power!

Fight for a Fair Economy

CONFRONTING CORPORATE POWER

Five Facts About New York State:
1. New York State isn't broke.
2. New York State gives out corporate handouts that add up to $8 billion a year.
3. These same corporate handouts are supposed to be creating quality jobs in our communities. Guess what? THEY AREN'T
4. It's time to end the free ride for corporations and change our broken economic development system.
5. TOGETHER: we can get New York back on the right track!

FIGHT FOR A FAIR ECONOMY will be holding a training, that will teach individuals and organizations how to help develop, implement and change policies and practices that will result in an economy that will work for everyone! Working together we can bring an end to corporate giveaways and start investing our money in the things that really matter - our schools, healthcare, infrastructure, quality of life services and good jobs.

Who should come? Activists, leaders, and rand-and-file members of labor, community, and faith organizations who want to build their skills and strengthen the growing movement to confront corporate power and build an economy that works for everyone.

WHEN: Saturday, February 18th, 2012. 8:30am-12:00pm
WHERE: 1199 SEIU Office. 2421 Main Street. Buffalo, New York 14214

Light breakfast will be served.
To save your spot in this training, or questions please contact CEJ at 892-5877

(Fight for a Fair Economy is a coalition of people who care about the future of our community. We want to see FAIR policies and FAIR practices from our elected officials and corporation that create an environment where ALL of our community can prosper, not just the rich and powerful!)

Wow NFTA Public Hearing!

Last night, CEJ attended a public hearing on the proposed NFTA route cuts, held at the Erie County Public Library. The rousing hearing began at 6:00pm and lasted well into the night, as one by one, impassioned individuals who were affected by the cuts made their needs and concerns heard by standing up for themselves and demanding an alternative to cuts, while chastising NFTA board members - calling them out for their disregard for their needs.

Mothers and fathers talked about how they would not be able to get to their jobs any more if the routes were cut. (Did you know that 71% of all riders rely upon public transit as their only means of transportation?) They made it clear that even with the current transit system, they often had to get up an extra three hours early just to make it to work on time. Stories of buses not showing up, being left stranded for hours, and having to make long transfer walks clearly demonstrated that an increase in service was called for, not cuts.

Particularly impressive was the turnout among the ability impaired community of riders. Their courageous and inspiring testimonies were a call to the conscious and the heart of all in the audience - especially the board members. They made it clear that public transportation was the key to their independence, and absolutely essential to their lives.

CEJ member Elise Blasingame, a student at UB, provided testimony on behalf of our organization and members. Thank you to Elise, and everyone who spoke out last night! We would strongly encourage all those who have not gone to one the these public hearings to attend one! Even if you know nothing about the proposed cuts or have never used a bus in your life - trust us, you'll be glad you went!

Here is the transcript of Elise Blasingame's public comment:

"My name is Elise Blasingame, and I am a student at UB, and a proud member of The Coalition for Economic Justice. CEJ is a coalition of labor, faith-based, and community organizations that collectively fight for workers’ rights, equitable and accountable economic development, and quality jobs in order to strengthen working families and promote a thriving, just economy that allows for equal opportunity for all.

We believe that public money should be used to better the public good, and that far too often, we squander our public resources and do not effectively promote what is in the best interest of our communities. For example, when the Erie County Industrial Development Agency provides huge tax breaks to a warehouse in Tonawanda, which then shuts down and lays off 41 workers – as actually happened a week ago – our public resources are effectively wasted on a project that did not create a lasting positive impact on our community. Then, having lost substantial revenue, residents of Erie County find ourselves faced with cuts to public services like quality education, access to reliable health care – and in this case –public transportation that residents of Erie County need and rely upon.

The Coalition for Economic Justice, and the hundreds of organizations and individuals who are members of CEJ – including myself – feel that not only is this unfair – this is un-just.

To give you a scope of the problem, last year alone over $8 billion dollars in cash subsidies and tax breaks were handed out by the various economic development agencies in New York State. Our organization and our partners monitored where this money was spent, and found that more often than not, tax subsidies were going to corporations that failed to live up to their promises on job creation – and many times actually cut jobs. In other words – we continuously subsidize profits for the 1% at the expense of working families and the services communities need.

The lesson learned? The money is there.

This means that we do in fact have the revenue and resources to support and even expand public transit, and that not to do so reflects a choice and makes clear a set of priorities – priorities which do not include building an equitable and efficient transportation system and working towards a more sustainable community.

An additional layer to the problem with our broken system of economic development bears heavily on our current situation. Our Industrial Development Agencies continue to subsidize projects which promote sprawl, rather than invest in our urban core. These projects often include retail or corporate office parks that do not create new economic activity, instead they shift the location of economic activity out of the city and into the suburbs. This means that more and more jobs are moving out to the suburbs. As need increases for economically viable public transportation options to create access to these jobs, you would think that public transportation services would exist to meet that need. Instead, the proposed cuts to public transportation would create barriers in access to these jobs by those who need them most – low-income residents, who are increasingly concentrated within the urban areas of Buffalo.

Bruce Fisher, economics professor at Buff State College wrote an article in last week’s Artvoice magazine and summed this problem up well, stating: 'Clearly, state agencies that spend taxpayer money are not communicating with each other, on transportation or economic development. Even state agencies that are in the same business are not communicating with one another. And there is nobody telling them to do so except the NFTA bus riders who fear that they soon will be unable to get to their jobs.'

Myself, the Coalition for Economic Justice, and the hundreds of labor, faith, and community organizations that form our coalition are demanding that the agencies responsible for spending our money coordinate much more effectively, consolidating where possible, and that we rein in our wasteful system of corporate subsidies. We cannot continue to fund these repeated failures on the backs of those who cannot afford to give any more.

Residents of Erie County are struggling. If these cuts take place or if efforts to offset the cuts involve further rate hikes – we will not forget where the priorities of our policy makers lay – and who they are not concerned with."