Money for nothing

From the NY Post:

These jobs are worth millions.

Nearly 600 city businesses got $262 million in tax breaks in exchange for creating or providing jobs -- but some are not making good on their pledges.

The companies -- many of them Fortune 500 firms headquartered in the Big Apple -- had created about 20,000 jobs as of 2008, according to self-reported figures.

But that's a fraction of the nearly 100,000 they had promised to deliver as part of long-term deals with the Industrial Development Agency, which offers tax incentives and exemptions to keep companies here.

Good-government groups are critical of the IDA deals, citing a lack of transparency and inadequate oversight.

2008 was the first year that the IDA-aided companies logged their annual results directly to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who is pushing legislation that would increase oversight of IDA's self-generated reports.

The city's Economic Development Corp., which oversees the IDA, said it requires companies to annually detail their hiring. But the agency doesn't audit what the companies report.