Tagged: incentives

It's not looking good for subsidies for renewable energy.

A 30 percent upfront tax credit for commercial renewable power projects known as the 1603 program expired at the end of 2011.

Another 30 percent credit for wind projects, that's a part of the long-debated payroll tax bill, is scheduled to expire at the end of 2012.

And while there are still a host of incentives offered by states and the federal government that remain unaffected, the question is inevitable:

Is the federal government preparing to cut loose the renewable power industry?

Xerox is bringing a new call center to its Webster, N.Y. manufacturing campus.

But not without a hefty aid package from the state.

"We've got call centers in more than a dozen states," says Xerox spokesman Carl Langsenkamp. "We could have put the call center anywhere."

Xerox is spending $4.3 million on the new customer care center and planning to create up to 500 jobs by the end of 2013, according to Langsenkamp.

To land the project, the state's economic development arm is dishing out up to $6 million in incentives and Monroe County is chipping in with $271,000 in tax relief.

One observer says the cost far outweighs the benefit.

"For the 300 to 500 families who will get a job at the call center, this is great news," Reuters columnist David Cay Johnston tells the Innovation Trail. "For everybody else, this is awful.

"It is the latest example of corporate socialism."

Monroe County's industrial development agency (COMIDA) approved a $271,000 sales tax exemption for Xerox Tuesday.

The goal: land a call center in Webster that could create 350 new jobs over the next three years.

But cementing the tax deal doesn't guarantee that Xerox will go ahead with the project.

"This is significant. It will play a role in our decision process," said Xerox spokesman Bill McKee. "However, we are still exploring where we will place that call center."

McKee says locations in Maine, Kentucky and other states are in also in the running. He says Xerox will build the call center "where it makes the most economic sense."

Call it a case of growing pains.

Unifrax, a global manufacturer with its corporate headquarters in Niagara Falls, has pleased local officials with a spate of recent growth. That success means that Unifrax has outgrown its current location, and needs to expand.

But the company’s future no longer includes Niagara Falls.

Unifrax claims there were two options on the table: moving to Tonawanda, a journey of just a few miles, or re-locating to Indiana, a few hundred miles away.

When the Boscov's department store first came to downtown Binghamton, it made the national news.

Why? Because the way then-mayor Juanita Crabb went about wooing the store was so novel. She romanced Boscov's, sending flowers and balloons to the company's Pennsylvania headquarters, on a daily basis.

The firm finally relented in 1984, signing onto a set of tax breaks from the city, in exchange for locating in downtown Binghamton.

Now, Binghamton mayor Matt Ryan's office has confirmed that the city has begun negotiations for a new deal.

No word on whether or not he's put in a call to the florist.