,Local Development Corporations: Risks and Benefits - Case Studies in the Rochester Area

Local Development Corporations: Risks and Benefits - Case Studies in the Rochester Area


 

Publication Date: December 2007

Publisher: Center for Governmental Research Inc.

Author(s): Kent Gardner; Erika Rosenberg

Research Area: Economics; Social conditions

Keywords: Government Management; Public Finance; Program Evaluation

Type: Report

Coverage: New York

Abstract:

CGR, with funding from the Beatrice Bibby Fund at CGR in cooperation with the League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Rochester (NY), set out to identify the number, type and characteristics of local development corporations in the Rochester area. These quasi-government entities are not subject to the same public oversight as the counties, cities, towns or villages that create them, and are not tracked or monitored by any state body. CGR, in what is likely a first-ever report on a region in NY, identifies 16, with total assets ranging from $4,000 to $34 million, and finds the powers that allow them to do great good also leave them open to abuse. CGR urges state action.