Castricone to Cuomo: Come Clean About IBM Deal

Candidate says “taxpayers deserve to know the truth’ 

STATEMENT FROM DAN CASTRICONE 

Tuxedo-NY Assembly Candidate Dan Castricone today called on the Governor Cuomo to reveal details of the IBM job retention agreement announced yesterday.

“The Governor and IBM have announced with great fanfare a ‘new’ agreement that will “boost’ IBM’s minimum job commitment to New York ‘by 750 jobs,’ said Castricone. “IBM cut 700 jobs in the region last year. Are taxpayers going to pay IBM to bring those jobs back?”

“The state has asked IBM to ‘maintain 2,350 jobs,’ according to the Times Herald Record, even though IBM employs more than 7,000 in the region,” added Castricone. “Does that give license to IBM to cut jobs without jeopardizing the one billion in subsidies New York has already provided the company to keep it in New York?”

“IBM is a great company and I want those jobs in New York,” said Castricone. “But taxpayers deserve to know the facts about the deal, the additional tax breaks, tax abatements and tax credits that have been offered IBM to remain in the region.”

“There is an ugly truth unstated in the announcement, and one all lawmakers need to hear,” said Castricone. “It takes tax abatements, tax credits, tax subsidies and tax free zones to convince employers to move to New York. It takes tax abatements, tax credits, tax subsidies and tax free zones to convince employers to stay in New York.  These kinds of deals are the necessary evil of an Empire in rapid decline, and unless lawmakers soon do something to better the business climate and cut the cost of doing business in New York, no amount of tax breaks or credits or abatements are going to keep companies like IBM in the Hudson Valley.”