| Company | New York Board of Trade |
| Date Announced | 4/4/1999 |
| Site | 4 World Trade Center |
| Total Subsidy | $31 million |
|
??? |
| Promised Job Creation | 3,600 |
| Promised Job Retention | 2,800 |
| Length of Contract | 15 years |
| Competing Sites | none |
| Conditions | According Charles Gargano, chairman of ESDC, the agreement contains penalties if the Board of Trade doesn't create 3,600 new jobs. |
| Notes | This $31 million package
includes rent subsidies totaling $17.5 million, $3.5 million in sales tax
breaks and a $5 million grant from the state. In addition, the state
agreed to make a $5 million low-interest loan to the Board of Trade. The
city's 1996 subsidy offer of $98.8 million to the two exchanges that later
merged into the Board of Trade expired before it was ever used. After the
1999 deal was made, Empire State Development Corp. Chairman Charles
Gargano said, "Admittedly, it's an open question whether the
exchanges would have really moved to Jersey. But the important thing is
that they are committing to adding 3,600 fairly high-paying jobs. We have
in our agreement particular penalties if they don't reach those job
levels" (New York Times, 4/4/99). This deal was made after all the other major exchanges had received their retention packages. Nasdaq and the American Stock Exchange received a $200 million retention package in 1998; a package worth $184 million was given to the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1994; and the New York Stock Exchange was offered a package worth over $900 million in late 1998, which had risen to over $1 billion by September 2000. |
| Corporate Notes | Formed in 1998 by the merger of the Cotton Exchange and the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange. This deal supplants a $98 million offer made by the City in 1996 to the two exchanges. The exchanges did not use that offer before it expired. |
| Critics | James Parrott, Chief Economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute (a sponsor of Good Jobs New York), said, "They're content to declare victory in the battle to retain the city's status as a financial center. As a consequence, they're unable to shift their attention to other pressing economic needs" (New York Times, 4/4/99). |
| A
note on sources -- or why many of these profiles appear incomplete.
They are. Good Jobs New York compiled the numbers in these profiles from
press releases and news accounts of the deals. Unfortunately, more
detailed information on these subsidies is very difficult to obtain --
even though it should be readily available to the public. In many cases,
neither the company nor the city nor state released certain information,
particularly the terms of the agreement, i.e., the conditions which the
company had to meet in order to receive the subsidy. It should also be
noted that the value of the subsidy may not end up being equal to the
value estimated at the time of the agreement. And it should not be assumed
that the actual number of jobs retained and created will be the same as
the numbers predicted.
Because the public deserves easy access to information about how taxpayer dollars are being spent, Good Jobs New York will update these profiles as we uncover more information. Good Jobs New York - May 25, 2001 |
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