Buffalo Billion

Buffalo Billion is a New York state government project led by Governor Andrew Cuomo that aims to invest $1 billion in the Buffalo, New York area economy. The project uses a combination of state grants and tax breaks to spur economic development. Governor Cuomo first announced the program in his 2012 "State of the State" address. The program is modeled on a similar program implemented in the Albany, New York area. A key project in the program is a $750 million SolarCity solar panel factory. The chairman of SolarCity is Elon Musk, the co-founder of Paypal and the CEO of Tesla Motors.

Buffalo is a city known for snow. It is not the first place one would think to build a solar panel factory. But the city will soon be the home of the largest such manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere, according to SolarCity, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company that is set to begin moving into the complex later this year.

An example of projects developing under Buffalo Billion include:

Sources:

SolarCity is the largest rooftop solar installer in the United States, headquartered in San Mateo, California. Under Buffalo Billion, SolarCity received $750 million in incentives in exchange for building a factory. According to The New York Times, after the factory is complete, SolarCity will create 1,500 new jobs on site; an additional 1,500 new jobs are expected to be created among suppliers in the area.

In mid-May 2016, the New York legislature had planned to take a vote on a measure that would have given an extra $500 million to the SolarCity project. However, legislators pulled back the vote. The New York Times wrote that legislators “hinted they would exercise more oversight of the governor’s banner economic initiative.” By March 2017, however, the legislature agreed to appropriate the funds. The legislature plans to approve a budget by April 1, 2017 that would give $500 million more into the Buffalo Billion program. In return, the legislature wants more transparency into how the money is spent.

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Wikipedia