JP Morgan Chase isn’t living up to its end of an agreement to provide a certain number of jobs in exchange for subsidies the bank receives to have offices at MetroTech, according to activists quoted in a Daily News story. Chase said it would bring 5,000 jobs when it signed a 25-year deal for space at Downtown’s MetroTech in 1989—an agreement that gave the bank $235 million in tax breaks and subsidies—but at present the firm only has 1,593 full-time jobs on the books. (The bank says it has the equivalent of 2,600 full-time jobs counting temp and part-time employees.) Nathalie Alegre, an organizer with the Alliance for a Greater New York, is quoted as saying the deal is “is one of the most egregious examples of wasteful corporate subsidies.” Meanwhile, Bettina Damiani, director of Good Jobs New York, says “We shouldn’t be playing games with major corporations and chasing them around the tri-state area. …Subsidies will never make a bad location good.” Industrial Development Agency officials say the deal with Chase only required the company to have 4,500 jobs at MetroTech through 2002, and that they fulfilled that requirement. The subsidies are set to expire at the end of next year.
J.P. Morgan Chase Slammed on City Subsidies for Downtown Brooklyn’s MetroTech [NY Daily News]


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