Comptroller puts IDAs on notice
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- February
- 27
    In a report released today, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said industrial development agencies “continue to report project, job creation and other data that is inconsistent, incomplete and not independently verified.” He is proposing measures to make the state’s 116 IDAs more accountable and their financial reporting more accurate, he announced. IDAs are independent authorities that offer real property tax abatements, sales and mortgage recording tax exemptions, and low interest-rate bonds to attract, retain and expand businesses.
    Measures DiNapoli will take include:Â
    —Accepting only audited annual financial statements that are in compliance with regulations. Failing to report all job information, for example, could result in a suspension of financial assistance.
     —Expanding his office’s oversight of IDA and Local Government Development Corporations to include access to tax and wage data during audits.
    “IDAs are supposed to create jobs. When they report on job creation, taxpayers should know that the numbers are right,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “Given the way IDAs are currently reporting information, there is no way of knowing that. These measures will make IDAs more accountable to the public they serve and establish clear standards that IDAs must follow, or they risk serious consequences.”
    The report found that there have been some improvements in data reporting, but the complete project costs were not available for 27 percent of all projects. Complete and accurate job data was not reported for 9 percent of projects.
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on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 11:43 am by Cara Matthews.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
