GOSHEN – State Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall), chairman of the Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee, Wednesday asked the Orange County District Attorney’s Office to investigate any potential criminality in the Orange County Industrial Development Agency’s approval of more than $2.25 million in incentives to Mack Bros., Ltd./Milmar Food Group in Goshen.
Financial incentives are granted to businesses that maintain they could not move forward with their project “but for” the incntives.
Skoufis’ committee said the “but for” principle was “summarily ignored” when the company stated in its application that the project would go forward regardless of whether they were awarded the tax breaks – yet the senator noted the IDA granted the incentives.
The findings of the senator’s investigation also showed “a sustained pattern of deception” where Milmar relayed to the Goshen Town Planning Board in April 2022 that no job creation was anticipated – “presumably in order to skirt concerns about water, sewer, parking capacity, and other site planning issues that might show their process – then, just a few months later, articulated to the Orange County IDA that in fact 50 new jobs would be created – all in order to coax the agency’s support and secure tax breaks.”
Skoufis said Milmar “didn’t need those tax breaks (and) publicly admitted they didn’t need these tax breaks, then proceeded to lie to the Orange County IDA. Yet, the IDA granted these tax breaks anyway.”
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