Proposal would require what has already been achieved

After failing for years to meet the city’s goal for New Rochelle residents to do 20% of the construction work in the city’s downtown redevelopment project, the New Rochelle Industrial Development Agency (IDA) is proposing to stop appearing to fail by lowering its own passing grade to 7%.

At their meeting on Wednesday, October 28, at 7:30pm, the IDA is expected to vote in favor of a resolution reducing the city’s goals for local hire and family supporting jobs. 

According to City staff, IDA rule changes do not require a public hearing, so there may be no opportunity for the public to speak before the October 28 vote.

The city has long given lip service to the potential economic benefits of downtown development for New Rochelle residents.  

In 2016 the City Council unanimously passed an Economic Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy (EONDP) requiring developers to make “best efforts” to reach a goal of 20% of construction work hours by New Rochelle residents.  But the EONDP had no enforcement mechanism, and the city has never come close to meeting that goal.  

To address the continued failure to deliver on its promises to taxpayers, in 2021 the IDA adopted a “Social Equity Program” requiring that 15% of a project’s total costs go to local hire, union labor, or Minority or Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs), with financial consequences for non-compliance.  Data suggests that most of the benefits of this requirement have gone to businesses technically owned by women, not to minority-owned businesses or labor.

According to the agenda packet available to the public in advance of Wednesday’s IDA meeting, “The current 15% Social Equity participation requirement will not change, but the policy will now include a local hiring component. Under the revised policy, New Rochelle residents must perform at least 7% of total construction work hours and 10% of ongoing work hours after a project is complete.” 

The new policy will be framed as a revision to the city’s Uniform Tax Exemption Policy (UTEP), which sets conditions developers must meet in order to receive tax exemptions.  

Unlike the unenforceable 2016 EONDP, the proposed new UTEP will include a reporting structure allowing the NRIDA to “track progress while construction is still underway” and a vision of a “collaborative roadmap to compliance.”But it will also include “clear procedures … for specialized labor waivers and workforce participation exceptions” to be submitted “wherever practicable, before non-regional labor is used”–loopholes that may enable developers to avoid the new requirements.

In 2025, the year with the most recent available data, a mere 6% of jobs created by developers receiving public subsidies through tax breaks from the New Rochelle IDA went to local residents (see chart below).  In effect, the new policy would take steps to assure that the local hire rate does not fall below its current level, but it abandons the pretense that it is aiming higher.

And when it comes to the quality of the jobs New Rochelle residents are hired for, the IDA plans to do nothing, thereby continuing to support and subsidize, with taxpayer dollars, the creation of poverty wage jobs with no future. 

In addition to adopting the 7% local hire requirement, the IDA is expected to vote to require 10% of the post construction work to maintain the buildings be done by residents – a number already exceeded by developers in 2025 (see chart below) – again, codifying its own failure.

The local IDA has failed to prioritize not just local hire and good, family supporting jobs, but job creation in general.  The numbers tell the story – between 2021 and 2024, the New Rochelle IDA distributed over $131 million in tax exemptions to developers, and developers created only 294 new jobs – an average cost to the city of almost $450,000 for each job created (see charts below). 

It doesn’t have to be this way. There is precedent for developers in New Rochelle to do the right thing by supporting union jobs and union apprenticeships so New Rochelle residents can enjoy the benefits of family-supporting careers in construction with union contracts.   One need only look at the leadership of the late Rhoda Quash to see how intentional action can make a difference.

In addition to a union contract securing good wages, health and retirement benefits, and a voice at work, unionized building trades members build safe, build right, and deliver projects on time. 

Rather than requiring less, the IDA should demand more from developers so residents can benefit from the city’s development. Advocates have lobbied the IDA and the City to change the 2016 EONDP wording from “shall make affirmative efforts” and “shall make good faith efforts” to “shall be required,” and adding “project labor agreements” as a requirement for developers who seek public investment in the form of tax breaks through the IDA.

Echoing the developers, members of the IDA and City staff have claimed that requirements for local hire and local union hire are unreasonable burdens for developers and have asked community advocates and union leaders to provide the specific number of skilled local workers available.  Why hasn’t the city challenged developers to connect to the pipeline of skilled and semi-skilled workers coming out of union and non-union apprenticeship and training programs, including those funded by the city’s own Corporation for Local Development (CLD)?.  

The history of the labor movement has proven that access and opportunity to a liveable wage is rarely just given, despite the well-documented evidence that a thriving middle class produces  strong and sustainable communities. The IDA’s role should be to advocate for the people of New Rochelle–not to parrot the unproven claims of profit-seeking developers who have no vested interest in providing New Rochelle residents with family-supporting jobs and careers.  

The proposed rule change is a very small step in the right direction.  However, the members of the IDA and its chair, who have given millions of dollars in tax breaks to developers, should be firmly committed to making sure that all the goals of the 2016 EONDP are met – 20% of the construction jobs and 25% of the non-construction jobs for New Rochelle residents and 1,000 apprenticeship hours for every 20,000 hours of construction work. 

The decade-long race to the bottom for workers while using public funds for tax subsidies to enrich developers must end.