As is the case with any hot-button issue, when discussing the impact of industrial development agencies and other economic development functions upon the economy the discussion needs to be extended beyond debates of the philosophical. The issue also needs to be looked from a data-driven standpoint, looking at various numbers from both sides of the argument, such as jobs created, dollars invested, and tax dollars negated.

It sounds like an incredibly easy request. But, in all actuality, it’s not.

Even though Albany is the epitome of Big Government and for nearly everything seems to conduct or demand incredible amounts of recordkeeping it is lacking in such vigor when it comes to IDAs. One would think there would be a state clearinghouse for IDA information, but none exists. Being that IDAs are quasi-governmental by design their relationship with Albany is not as cut and dry as that of tax-funded agencies that are completely accountable to the state legislature and, essentially, the voters. By law IDAs are designated as independent public benefit corporations (authorities per se) and this disconnects them from typical bureaucratic reporting structure.

Regardless, each and every IDA does maintain records that by law are accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, in the case of most of the state’s 115 IDAs data is only painfully accessible.

With many an IDA a concerned soul could simply request and be given a basic annual report. Annual reports are only an "okay" method to start researching IDAs as they tend to be lacking in substantive and objective information. They are more or less executive summaries, a few pages in length and just bare bones details of what happened at the IDA over the course of the year. Such reports can be misleading as they can be written with spin to appease the reader and make the IDA look good, much like the way many stockholders reports and project plans are conceived in the private sector.

If you want to dig deeper and get "factual" reports and numbers in your hands, there are two methods to pursue. If one has time to spare they can typically request from a specific IDA’s public records officer the chance to visit the IDA office and peruse their records in the confines of the IDA headquarters. This is time consuming and you have nothing at the end of the day other than your notes.

The standard practice that most of the concerned citizens and the like follow requires a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, by which the person is able to receive and keep physical copies of any records that they’d like. Even though the information requested is public record by its truest definition, the FOIL must be submitted in writing and the receiver must pay a photocopying fee. It is "open government" but with an obstacle and a cost.

Comparing records across multiple IDAs one will find dissimilar methods of recordkeeping. Although they all follow standard accounting procedures when it comes to their financials, the meaty stuff like non-financial statistics that really matter to municipalities are difficult to comprehend. The Tompkins County IDA has a different method of tracking job gains and local taxation impact than does the Niagara County IDA than does the Town of Amherst IDA. Consistency is lacking across the board.

We the people are not alone in attempting to assail this mess. This elaborate puzzle of records proved to be just as confounding to Albany. Last year the State Comptroller’s Office conducted a study of a handful of IDAs and found many lost records, incomplete records, and just plain strange records, citing the Erie County IDA as a chronic abuser. Maybe that’s why they selected only six IDAs for their study…a full-blown study would be an impossible undertaking.

Therefore, at this point in time, one cannot definitively say if IDAs are good or bad through non-philosophical methods. Both sides are lacking in ammunition because the real numbers (the facts!) just aren’t there. Albany needs to step in and require consistent, accurate, and accessible recordkeeping, so they know what’s going on and so we know what’s going on. Then and only then will we have even a modicum of ability to determine if IDAs make New York better by being catalysts of much-needed private development or whether they make it worse by shifting growing tax burdens to those who can shoulder no more.