{"id":41266,"date":"2013-06-12T17:37:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T16:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/corporate-welfare-or-education\/41266\/"},"modified":"2013-06-12T17:37:23","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T16:37:23","slug":"corporate-welfare-or-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/corporate-welfare-or-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Corporate Welfare or Education?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWho needs the Cayman Islands?<\/a>\u201d That\u2019s how a May 22\u00a0New York Times<\/em>article began as it described \u201cTax-Free NY,\u201d a plan zealously promoted by New York State\u2019s Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo.<\/p>\n

Under the provisions of his Tax-Free NY scheme, most of the 64 campuses of the State University of New York (SUNY), some private colleges, and zones adjacent to SUNY campuses would be thrown open to private businesses \u2013 businesses that would be exempted from state taxes on sales, property, the income of their owners, and the income of their employees for a period of ten years. According to the governor, this creation of tax havens for private, profit-making companies is designed to create economic development and jobs, especially in upstate New York.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by businessmen, politicians, and top SUNY administrators on a tour of the state, Cuomo has embarked on a full court press for his plan. \u201cThere are winners and there are losers,\u201d he declared. \u201cAnd the point of this is to be a winner.\u201d Tax-Free NY, he announced, was \u201ca game-changing initiative that will transform SUNY campuses and university communities across the state.\u201d Conceding that these tax-free zones wouldn\u2019t work without a dramatic \u201cculture shift\u201d in the SUNY system, Cuomo argued that faculty would have to \u201cget interested and participate in entrepreneurial activities.\u201d As he declared in mid-May, the situation was \u201cdelicate, because academics are academics. \u2026 But you can be a great academic and you can be entrepreneurial, and I would argue you\u2019d be a better academic if you were actually entrepreneurial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the obvious problems this commercial approach raises for intellectual and academic integrity, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher is a strong supporter of the governor\u2019s plan. Only a few years ago, New York State law prohibited businesses from operating on SUNY campuses, but Zimpher arranged for that barrier to be swept away. Also, even if she didn\u2019t approve of a commercial invasion of the university, she \u2013 like individual campus administrators \u2013 would be unlikely to keep her job if she opposed the governor.<\/p>\n

SUNY\u2019s faculty and staff, on the other hand, have a greater stake in preserving the university\u2019s traditional role of education and the advancement of knowledge. United University Professions (UUP), the union that represents 35,000 faculty and other professional staff on SUNY campuses, has been disturbed for years by the state government\u2019s abandonment of its legal commitment to fund public higher education. Over a four-year period, SUNY lost nearly $700 million in state support through budget cuts, and state funding has remained flat over the past year. Today, nearly 75 percent of the university\u2019s operating budget comes from ever-rising tuition and fees. A decade ago, the state covered 75 percent of SUNY\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Naturally, then, UUP has promised to fight against this latest assault on the university. Rejecting Tax-Free NY, it argues that nothing in the governor\u2019s plan benefits SUNY, that any available space on SUNY\u2019s campuses should be dedicated to improving education through smaller class size and improved student services, that there are no assurances that business entities would support the academic mission of campuses, and that the tax-cutting plan would diminish tax revenues that could be used for public education.<\/p>\n

Also, there is considerable doubt that Tax-Free NY will spur economic growth. The Citizens Budget Commission, a business-backed group, has reported that New York State already spends about $7 billion annually to foster economic development and that there is no evidence that this funding has produced anything. The Alliance for a Greater New York, a group with a liberal orientation, has noted that, in the past year, the state gave away $490 million to businesses for projects through its Industrial Development Agencies. Of these projects, half failed to create any jobs and another quarter lost a total of 17,000 jobs. Criticizing Tax-Free NY,\u00a0Crain\u2019s New York Business<\/a><\/em>, a leading commercial publication, stated that \u201chistory tells us these kinds of strategies don\u2019t work.\u201d During the administration of Republican George Pataki, \u201cthe state created Empire Zones in supposedly depressed areas, with special tax breaks and incentives. \u2026 No area ever showed any real economic gains. They were eventually phased out when it became clear they had achieved virtually nothing.\u201d In addition, past economic development programs were riddled with abuse and fraud by unscrupulous companies.<\/p>\n

As a result, significant criticism of the governor\u2019s plan has begun to emerge. The small Conservative Party \u2013 a key ally of the Republican Party \u2013 formally denounced Tax-Free NY, arguing that \u201cgovernment should not be deciding what businesses receive government handouts that give them advantages over other businesses.\u201d Journalists asked the governor what would stop the favored businesses from simply packing up and leaving after their decade of tax breaks. And the Civil Service Employees Association has begun running ads against the program. According to CSEA President Danny Donahue: \u201cThe governor doesn\u2019t get the fact that more corporate welfare is no answer to New York\u2019s economic challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why, then, despite the obvious limitations of Tax-Free NY, is the governor promoting it so vigorously? One reason, some observers contend, is that Cuomo is a very ambitious man, with his eyes on a run for the White House. Determined to win reelection by a huge margin, he needs to strengthen his sagging appeal in upstate New York to do so. In addition, Cuomo has been closely allied with the state\u2019s corporate leaders, who have poured millions of dollars into promoting his pro-business agenda, which includes bludgeoning the state\u2019s public sector unions. Championing tax cuts to business helps cement this alliance.<\/p>\n

Ironically, it\u2019s quite possible that the governor could spur economic growth and job creation if he just reversed his proposal. Instead of throwing more tax dollars at profit-making businesses while starving public education, he could channel that same money into the SUNY system. In this fashion, he would help build the kind of university that, through its intellectual excellence, would foster advanced scientific experimentation, economic innovation, and a highly-educated workforce. But that\u2019s not at all his plan.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lawrence Wittner<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY\/Albany. His latest book is a satirical novel about university life, \u201cWhat\u2019s Going On at UAardvark?<\/a>\u201d (Solidarity Press).] He can be reached through his\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: Counterpunch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWho needs the Cayman Islands?\u201d That\u2019s how a May 22\u00a0New York Timesarticle began as it described \u201cTax-Free NY,\u201d a plan zealously promoted by New York State\u2019s Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo. Under the provisions of his Tax-Free NY scheme, most of the 64 campuses of the State University of New York (SUNY), some private colleges, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}