Thursday, 18 Apr 2024

De Blasio’s program spent $300M to create only 3,000 jobs

Mayor Bill de Blasio spent $300 million to create just 3,000 jobs, a top city official admitted Monday.

Testifying at a City Council hearing, James Patchett, president of the city’s Economic Development Corp., defended the slow progress of the mayor’s $1.35 billion “New York Works” program, launched in 2017.

The program is supposed to create 100,000 jobs each paying at least $50,000 by 2027.

Patchett said the city has spent $300 million so far investing in job training and infrastructure for companies that expand or relocate to the city. “We have made great progress in seeding job opportunities and ensuring we stay on track to reach our goal,” he said.

When Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) asked how many jobs had been created so far, Patchett said 19,000 were projected.

But when Torres pressed, Patchett admitted most of those jobs were in the pipeline and not producing paychecks.

“I would say of the 19,000, we believe we’re at, we’re at about 3,000 of those actual jobs, people working today,” Patchett said.

“But I want to be clear: We’re doing annual updates . . . We did our best to prepare for this hearing because we were holding it today,” he added defensively.

He couldn’t say how many of the jobs went to low-income New Yorkers.

The program counts jobs as city-created if the administration takes actions that help the business, such as providing financing.

Patchett also called the failed Amazon deal “an historically missed opportunity,” as “most” of those jobs would have counted toward the 100,000 goal.

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