A recent piece of legislation sponsored by State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt and state Sen. Antoine Thompson, both from nearby Buffalo, has drawn sharp criticism. The bill proposes a series of reform measures for local Industrial Development Agencies, also known as IDAs. The piece that seems to be drawing the sharpest criticism is the inclusion of mandated living wages for employees of IDA funded projects and paying construction workers union scale for IDA funded building projects.

In spite of complaints about the possibility of employees making too much money, nobody seems to want to put caps on the amount of profits the construction companies or businesses make. They get their corporate handout with no questions asked.

The concept of IDAs is simple, at some point, the government of the State of New York realized that the reason businesses did not want to come to our state is that the taxes are too high. So instead of making government more efficient and lowering all of our taxes to stimulate economic growth, they decided to give tax breaks to large corporations instead. They also figured they could entice them with other incentives like low cost electricity.

In theory, even though the company relocated to our state because we bribed them to come here, they are supposed to fuel job growth. Some say it works, and some say not. This latest piece of legislation and the opposition to it certainly raises some interesting questions.

On the surface, if lawmakers are opposed to paying living wages and union scale then the message is clear. One of the NY governments marketing tools is to promote cheap labor. The problem with that scenario is that if an employer does not pay a living wage then the rest of us wind up having to pick up the rest of the workforces expenses in the form of food stamps, free school lunches and government subsidized healthcare. Even worse, sometimes the only way you can pay your bills is not to work.

I would rather subsidize a workforce of well-paid employees than create a bunch of low paying jobs where the workforce cannot even afford to go out to dinner on occasion. The fact is that if you put more money into the hands of the middle class they will spend it in their own communities and fuel economic growth that way.

Construction and other costs will increase if an IDA funded employer has to pay a higher wage, but at least most of that money will stay in the area and the workers will be paying taxes, because unlike big corporations, regular workers do not get big tax breaks. In other words, we may actually see some of the money in our local communities instead of winding up in the hands of executives in the form of a big bonus.

When people see the person in line at the grocery store in front of them buying steak and lobster with food stamps they get offended. On the other hand, it seems like nobody bats an eye when we give huge tax breaks to companies like Wal-Mart and JP Morgan Chase, and then do not hold them accountable for creating the jobs they promised.

The key to sustained growth, and the foundation of our economy, is small to medium sized business. At the core of every stable local economy is a corporation with roots in the area, not some business lured away from another locality. Critics of the latest IDA reform attempts call Hoyt and Thompson's bill a "job killer." It may be, but the real job killing is occurring all over New York in the form of tax increases on the middle class and small to medium sized businesses.