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Publications / Memo series

High Road Policy · Vol. 1, No. 2

Economic Development on Common Ground

Two bipartisan state policies for defunding low road infrastructure.

By Russell Weaver · June 2020 · 11 pages

Key findings

  • From the Mercatus Center to Good Jobs First, researchers across the spectrum find targeted subsidies and tax breaks for firms wasteful.
  • Two bills before the 2019–20 Assembly, one of them an interstate compact, could phase these incentives out.
  • Federal COVID-19 relief for states and localities could help end the “interstate economic development arms race.”

In a year of record partisan division, business incentives are a rare point of agreement. This issue makes the case that New York can act on that agreement and stop competing with other states to subsidize firms.

Cite this issue

Weaver, Russell. 2020. “Economic Development on Common Ground.” High Road Policy 1(2). Buffalo, NY: Cornell University ILR School, Buffalo Co-Lab. https://hdl.handle.net/1813/76888.