Jobs Program Off to Slow Start, But It’s Better, Critics Say

New York companies added more than 6,400 employees over the past four years in the state’s premier job creation program, a fraction of the nearly 37,000 promised over a decade in return for tax credits.

While critics still raise questions about corporate welfare, they say the relatively slow start actually reflects an improvement over a previous jobs program that gave tax credits up front.

“The linkage of tax subsidies with job creation has always been tricky,” said E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Empire Center. “If a business can find a way to be more productive with one less employee, they will. … The second problem, and it’s part of this program, is the state offering credits for something many companies would be doing anyway.”

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the August 11th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.