New York state wants to phase out fossil fuels. Localities have given over a billion dollars in tax breaks to help keep them around.
Across the state, IDAs enter into payment-in-lieu-of-tax agreements, or pilots, with businesses, exempting the corporations from property taxes in exchange for a lower annual payment to the town, county, and school district and the promise of job creation.
And these little-known local authorities are quietly shaping the economics of the energy transition, in some cases threatening to undermine the state’s climate goals.
Jason Dole spoke with New York Focus reporter Julia Rock.
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