Where's New York State's Database of Deals? Revinvent Albany says Empire State Development is dragging on subsidy transparency. (I wonder what it will say about Atlantic Yards)

Reinvent Albany 4/29/21 published Subsidy Sheet: What the Heck Will It Take to Get NY to Publish Its Database of Deals?, noting:

Every single year, New York State government spends $4.4 billion in business subsidies, incentives, and tax breaks (our local governments spend an additional $5.5 billion). But after decades of spending – and six years since the Buffalo Billion bid-rigging scandal of 2015, taxpayers still cannot see how much they are paying to individual businesses to create jobs or whether jobs are even being created.

A Database of Deals is a fundamental transparency reform that would list all of the taxpayer subsidies received by a corporation, including the type of subsidy, jobs created or retained, and the cost per job to taxpayers. NYC, Florida, Maryland, and Indiana all have one. But efforts to make it a reality in New York State have been much tougher than expected.

Their posting offers a litany of delay, from--guess who?--Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that also oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. 

I'd be curious to see what the database eventually says about this project, especially given the use of obscure subsidies like discounts on utilities and sales tax breaks for materials purchase.

Reinvent Albany notes that, since 2015, when the pressure started, Gov. Andrew Cuomo in August 2018 pledged to establish such a database, and $500,000 funding was included in the budget passed in April 2019.

Despite ESD testimony in February 2020 that the database would be live by the end of the year, that didn't happen--COVID?---but in February 2021 ESD President Eric Gertler said the database would be live in “a matter of weeks."

But we're still waiting.