Goya began the consolidation of its distribution and headquarters facilities in Secaucus with a groundbreaking today on its 615,000-square-foot facility.
The warehouse is expected to cost $127 million and house between 491 jobs (and just nine new ones, based on its application to the state Economic Development Authority for tax breaks) and 580 jobs (of which 80 would be new, according to company officials today).
The state awarded $82 million in tax breaks, which translates into about $10 million per new job (based on the application) or $1 million per new job (Goya statement).
New Jersey Policy Perspective has repeatedly criticized the use of tax breaks to attract and retain jobs as bad economic policy, because the tax losses far outweigh the gains in employment.
Gov. Christie is having nothing of it. Speaking during today’s groundbreaking he said:
“That’s not what it’s about. It’s not just those 500 jobs. If Goya were to leave the state, it would have a downstream domino effect on a lot of other companies and businesses that do business with Goya because they’re here. It’s just too simplistic to take the number of jobs and divide it into the incentive.”
New Jersey Poverty & Economic Reporting Project 
Leave a comment