Trudi Renwick and Ron Deutsch on Reforming Economic Development Incentives
Our guests today are Trudi Renwick, senior economist with the Fiscal Policy Institute, and Ron Deutsch of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness. Renwick and Deutsch discuss the problems of New York’s Empire Zone program and other subsidies for economic development, and explore some of the possible solutions. They criticize the conventional wisdom that cutting taxes and offering corporate subsidies are the most effective way of promoting economic development, and they raise issues such as the lack of transparency and the expansion of Empire Zone programs into relatively wealthy areas at the expense of more impoverished locations.
The occasion for this discussion is our guests’ recent visit to Buffalo recently to participate in the conference The High Road Runs Through the City: Advocating for Economic Justice at the Local Level, organized by UB Law Professors Sara Faherty, Sam Magavern, and Martha McCluskey, and hosted by UB’s Baldy Center on Law and Social Policy, Cornell University ILR School, and the Coalition for Economic Justice. Ms. Renwick was a speaker on the panel, Who Benefits? State and Local Subsidy Reform. Join us for a conversation with Vineeta Baronos and Gal Shalev, students at the University at Buffalo Law School, as they interview Trudi Renwick and Ron Deutsch.
Thank you for joining us today. The theme music is Baja Taxi by Brain Buckit, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.
