Good Jobs First Blog

Reinvent Albany, a nonprofit that advocates for transparent, accountable, effective New York government, recently celebrated a major victory when the State Assembly voted to decouple from federal Opportunity Zone tax breaks. Policy Analyst Tom Speaker talked to Good Jobs First about why this is such a big deal.

We posted a new version of Subsidy Tracker, Good Jobs First’s database of company-specific subsidy awards from state and local governments across the country as well as federal agencies. During this round of updates, we added over 17,000 entries from 112 state and local programs from 28 states. We also updated the federal programs. We also added nine megadeals.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has revealed significant oversight deficiencies in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program (EIDL). This report demonstrates several of the GAO’s concerning discoveries, including incomplete loan reviews, lapses in recordkeeping, and insufficient oversight plans within the Small Business Administration (SBA). These discoveries and ongoing concerns of fraud have compelled the GAO to add the PPP and EIDL its 2021 High-Risk List, which is the agency’s watchlist for “programs and operations that are vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement or in need of transformation.”

Good Jobs First's Katie Furtado explains how the organization was able to determine public school districts lost $2.37 billion to corporate tax abatements in fiscal year 2019 -- and that's just what we could confirm. The actual total is much, much greater.

Oversight is not an abstract public relations battle – it can be a matter of life and death for those struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic. For every dollar lost to fraud and every day that aid is delayed, more Americans inch closer to precarity. Efficient, effective, and equitable distribution of relief funds helps ensure that all families can continue to put food on the table. If the Biden administration intends to make “build back better” more than just a campaign slogan, its oversight activity must continue on its current, productive trajectory.