NEW YORK (Reuters) ? New York City has paid $898 million in subsidies to companies that promise more jobs and not to move away, but has failed to track whether the firms meet their commitments for each project, officials said on Tuesday.
Financial services firms benefited the most from these subsidies over a 23-year period, according to the city's Independent Budget Office.
Finance companies' projects were the largest by far, averaging $268 million, followed by information and media at $196 million.
Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the top projects that got city subsidies were for sports and recreation, according to the report.
But those data are skewed by the subsidies granted for new stadiums for both major league baseball teams -- the Mets and the Yankees -- under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's tenure.
The average construction projects were the smallest -- $2.5 million -- with wholesale trade projects averaging $4 million and manufacturing $4.7 million.
Over half of the 1,098 subsidized projects were in Brooklyn and Queens, with over a quarter in Manhattan, the report said.
New York City's subsidies include grants, tax credits, tax-free financing and the use of public land through sales or leases. For projects on state-owned land, the city charges payments in lieu of taxes, which typically are lower than what would be owed if property taxes were levied.
Despite the largesse, the report said: "It remains impossible to make use of the data obtained from all of the (city's) Economic Development Corporation's reports together to evaluate the efficacy of the incentive projects in creating jobs or the project's fiscal impact."
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a Democrat who commissioned the report, has proposed legislation to require the city to report the number and cost of jobs added at each location. Currently, companies only report the total number of people they employ in all five boroughs, "making it difficult to determine whether subsidies for specific sites are producing the jobs intended," he said.
David Lombino, a spokesman for the city's Economic Development Corporation, said in a statement: "We fully enforce all reporting requirements, which includes the change in number of jobs at a project site, projected employment growth and the amount of benefits a company has received to date."
Under Bloomberg, the city has recaptured $55 million from companies that failed to meet their promises. (Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Jan Paschal)
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