The Peru Gazette

At the state fair last summer, employees from the small company staffed a START-UP NY booth and helped tout the state’s plan to create jobs through tax breaks and utilizing businesses resources in the state university system. In recent months, START-UP NY, a central part of Cuomo’s massive economic development arsenal, has been vilified by some state legislators and conservative think tanks after it was reported the program created just 408 jobs across the state since 2014, leading the critics to question whether the $53 million spent on advertising and marketing was worth it. […] critics say the 162 jobs were assisted by other incentives — including six START-UP companies that received cash awards through 43North, a part of the governor’s “Buffalo Billion” development program that is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. State Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, a Democrat from the Buffalo suburbs, questioned Empire State Development Corp. CEO and fellow western New Yorker Howard Zemsky about what the legislator has claimed is misleading reporting in the job-creation numbers. The legislative showdown was the latest in a series of attacks on the state’s economic development policies, which included a scathing report last month from the state comptroller’s office that said ESD couldn’t document whether companies met goals tied to tax credits provided through the Excelsior Jobs Program. Zemsky counters that Buffalo’s higher participation is likely the result of the State University at Buffalo’s designation as one of the highest federally funded research institutions in the SUNY system — and a fuel for research-inspired businesses. The state Legislature approved START-UP NY in 2013, allowing new or expanding businesses to be free of sales and income taxes for 10 years — provided companies are not on the long list of unauthorized uses like hotels, restaurants, retail and wholesale distribution centers. The program also requires companies to locate on college campuses, or an approved building nearby, so they can benefit from tax-free leases, faculty knowledge, student interns and equipment. The Mohawk Valley, where SUNY Cobleskill sits, reported one job created between 2014 and 2015 — from a Canadian aviation company that, according to Mohawk Valley Community College, set up in a trailer near one of their school buildings that is under construction in Rome, Oneida County. […] state Assemblyman Peter Lopez, a Republican who represents Schoharie County and voted for the START-UP legislation, said colleges have been provided little support or guidance from the state about how to integrate economic development into their educational mission. The Mid-Hudson region’s only business that claimed job creation by the end of 2015, Sustainable Waste Power Systems, has an office at the sprawling former IBM campus near Kingston and qualified for START-UP in part because Ulster Community College declared the IBM campus an off-shoot of its institution. […] Sustainable, which is working on a system that turns animal or plant waste into fuel to power equipment, is doing all its construction and testing at space its leasing from a power tool company in Saugerties.

Source: Highly touted START-UP economic program creates just over 400 N.Y. jobs – Times Union