Nassau IDA Claws Back Tax Breaks
We’ve been very critical of the Nassau Industrial Development Agency over the years for approving tax breaks for parking lots and storage garages. The purpose of the agency is to provide incentives to create long-term, high-paying jobs that otherwise would not come to the region.
So we were happy to see that the agency clawed back grants given to Dealer Track in North Hills, which failed to meet its obligation to provide those jobs promised. Clawing back tax breaks when the receiving company fails to actually create the jobs it promised is a needed policy that our Center for Cost Effective Government has been advocating for many years. Finally, they’re being implemented.
Kudos to Nassau County for New Buffer Law
Throughout the George Floyd riots, we saw numerous cases of hostile agitators getting in the faces of law enforcement personnel who were trying to protect people and property. The vile, spoiled protesters were in the faces of the police, snarling at them, spitting on them, provoking them, and at times even bumping them.
I said to myself, “How could we be allowing this? Why aren’t these people forced to move back or get arrested?:
And the answer was always: they had a First Amendment right to do this. That’s nonsense. They have a First Amendment right to protest, to shout, to march up and down, but not to try to physically intimidate a police officer, firefighter or EMT.
Many of these antifa-type agitators are looking to provoke a fight to get a viral moment and perhaps a settlement from liberal city mayors. Enough is enough! Protect our police, firefighters and EMTs.
Requiring protesters to stand 15 feet away from the police as they protest is not unreasonable. But it is long overdue.
The Politics of Wind
The Trump administration has put a hold on over 50 offshore wind turbines presently under the construction off Long Beach.
While this column has been quite critical of the lack of transparency related to the cost of these turbines, we question the legitimacy and efficacy of the Trump administration putting the kibosh on a project that is already in progress. The administration certainly does have the right to require more information and safeguards before any new projects are approved.
We continue to lash out at the terrible way our state government has promoted these wind projects. They issued mostly a bunch of press releases and virtue signaled how they were going to save the planet, but never fully told us how much these projects were going to cost.
Offshore wind is very expensive. Our energy costs are already going through the roof because our state leaders have blocked natural gas pipelines that would supply needed affordable energy.
Gas is cheaper. Gas is cleaner than coal or oil and has been the main factor in our nation’s reduction in carbon output over the last two decades. It is a smart transition fuel to the point when we can incorporate more alternatives as they become more affordable and reliable.
Wind is much cheaper if constructed inland as opposed to offshore, but wind is very expensive and often impractical. Its mass use is questionable once passed through a cost benefit analysis
So good for the Trump administration in sounding the alarm, but it is very unfair to the business entities who have already gone through the process and relied on approvals to be stopped in the middle of their projects.
We will agree with Trump on one thing: nothing further until we receive a real, honest accounting of the total cost.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com