Bill Text: NY A01108 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Relates to directing agencies that provide grants and tax expenditures for the purpose of economic development to make comprehensive information on such grants and tax expenditures accessible to the public on a searchable website.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-03 - referred to governmental operations [A01108 Detail]
Download: New_York-2017-A01108-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1108--A 2017-2018 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 10, 2017 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. HUNTER -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to directing agencies that provide grants and tax expenditures for the purpose of economic development to make comprehensive information on such grants and tax expenditures accessible to the public on a searchable website The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "online economic development grants and tax expenditures transparen- 3 cy act". 4 § 2. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 184 to read 5 as follows: 6 § 184. Online economic development grants and tax expenditures trans- 7 parency. 1. As used in this section: 8 (a) "Searchable economic development grants and tax expenditures data- 9 base website" shall mean a website that allows the public at no cost to 10 search for, obtain, and aggregate the information identified in this 11 section, which includes grants and tax expenditures for the purpose of 12 economic development. 13 (b) "Entity and/or recipients" shall mean any corporation, associ- 14 ation, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, or any 15 other legal business entity who receives an economic development grant 16 or tax expenditure for the purpose of economic development from the 17 empire state development corporation, the department of economic devel- 18 opment or any other state entity. It shall also include any economic 19 development grantee or sub-grantee, tax expenditure beneficiary or tax 20 expenditure sub-beneficiary, contractor or subcontractor, county, city 21 or other local government entity. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD01115-03-7A. 1108--A 2 1 (c) "Agency" shall mean any state department, office, board, commis- 2 sion, bureau, division, institution, or institution of higher education. 3 "Agency" specifically includes any authority created by an act of the 4 state legislature, including those authorities not receiving state tax 5 revenue. This includes individual state agencies and programs, as well 6 as those programs and activities that cross agency lines, and also 7 includes all elective offices in the executive branch of government and 8 the legislature. 9 (d) "Funding source" shall mean the state account from which the 10 expenditure is appropriated. 11 (e) "Funding action or expenditure" shall include details on the type 12 of spending, both appropriated expenditures, such as grants, contracts, 13 and appropriations, and tax expenditures, as defined by section one 14 hundred eighty-one of this article as it relates to economic develop- 15 ment. Where possible, a hyperlink to the actual grants or contracts 16 shall be provided. 17 (f) "Expected outcome" shall include, in relation to corporate subsi- 18 dies for the purpose of economic development, including tax exemptions, 19 credits, direct grants, or infrastructure assistance, the number and 20 quality of jobs to be created or retained, including wages and benefits, 21 the date the job goals will be reached, the estimated increase to the 22 state tax base, and whether the funded project involves the relocation 23 of jobs and if so how many and from where. 24 (g) "Final outcome" shall include, in relation to corporate subsidies 25 for the purpose of economic development, including tax exemptions, cred- 26 its, direct grants, or infrastructure assistance, the number and quality 27 of jobs actually created or retained, including wages and benefits, and 28 the actual increase to the state tax base for the fiscal year in which 29 benefit was given. The outcomes achieved shall also include any money 30 recaptured from corporate subsidy recipients for failure to meet 31 expected performance outcomes. 32 (h) "State audit or report" shall include any audit or report issued 33 by the comptroller, attorney general, agency, legislative auditor, 34 legislative committee, or executive body relating to the past or current 35 performance of the entity or recipient of funds or the budget 36 program/activity or agency for the purpose of economic development which 37 the director of the budget deems as relevant. 38 2. No later than January first, two thousand eighteen, the director of 39 the office for technology, in collaboration with the director of the 40 budget, shall develop a single, searchable economic development grants 41 and tax expenditures database website accessible by the public at no 42 cost, that includes: 43 (a) Annual state expenditures or funding actions for the purposes of 44 economic development provided to any entity, recipient or agency, as 45 determined by the director of the budget including the name and location 46 of any such entity, recipient or agency, the funding source, the amount 47 of funds appropriated including tax expenditures or other subsidies, the 48 funding agency or authority, and a description of the purpose of the 49 funding action or expenditure. If the funding action or expenditure is a 50 tax expenditure, information about the expected outcome of such tax 51 expenditure shall be included and information concerning the final 52 outcome shall be provided within thirty days from when it is reported to 53 the appropriate state agency; 54 (b) Bond debt payments and debt service for the purpose of economic 55 development including, but not limited to, amounts of bond interest paid 56 and sources of funds paid for individual bond issues;A. 1108--A 3 1 (c) Local economic development aid to cities and towns including, but 2 not limited to, amounts paid to individual units of government for indi- 3 vidually identifiable aid programs; 4 (d) Annual bonded indebtedness for the purpose of economic development 5 which shall include, but not be limited to, the amount of the total 6 original obligation stated in terms of principal and interest, the term 7 of the obligation, the source of funding for repayment of the obli- 8 gation, the amounts of principal and interest previously paid to reduce 9 the obligation, the balance remaining of the obligation, any refinancing 10 of the obligation, and the cited statutory authority to issue such 11 bonds; 12 (e) A link to any state audit or report; and 13 (f) Any other relevant information specified by the director of the 14 budget. 15 3. No later than February first, two thousand eighteen, the director 16 of the budget shall put into operation the searchable economic develop- 17 ment grants and tax expenditures database website. 18 4. The searchable economic development grants and tax expenditures 19 database website shall retain information for each fiscal year on the 20 single website for not less than ten years and shall include data for at 21 least the most recent fifteen fiscal years. 22 5. The director of the budget shall update the searchable economic 23 development grants and tax expenditures database website as new data 24 becomes available to him or her. All agencies shall provide to the 25 director of the budget all data that is required to be included in the 26 searchable economic development grants and tax expenditures database 27 website not later than thirty days after the data becomes available to 28 the agency. The director of the budget shall provide guidance to agency 29 heads to ensure compliance with this section. 30 6. Nothing in this section shall permit or require the listing of 31 individual businesses' tax liability, profits, sales or losses. 32 7. The director of the budget and the director of the office for tech- 33 nology shall not be considered in compliance with this section if the 34 data required for the searchable economic development grants and tax 35 expenditures database website is not available in a searchable and 36 aggregate manner or if the public is redirected by the searchable 37 economic development grants and tax expenditures database website to 38 other government websites, unless each of those websites complies with 39 the requirements of this section. 40 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 41 have become a law.
