GOSHEN – State Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall) Thursday blasted the Orange County Industrial Development Authority Board for its unanimous vote on Thursday night approving a series of financial incentives for the Royal Wine Corporation to build a 623,000 square foot wine manufacturing facility in the Town of Goshen.
The lawmaker, who is generally opposed to financial benefits for companies to locate in the county, said subsidy per job for this project is about $500,000, and that is an atrocity.
“This is shameful, even by the Orange County IDA standards, and quite frankly, they may be the worst negotiators on the face of the planet is they think this is somehow a good deal,” he said. “This is a raw deal; this is an awful deal.”
By comparison, Skoufis said the Amazon distribution center in Montgomery, “a bad deal for taxpayers,” cost $30,000 per job, and the Sims Foster hotel project in Newburgh will cost taxpayers some $50,000 per job when it is built.
Skoufis, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Investigations, said he and his team will be taking a close look into this latest IDA project.
