New York Looks at Legislation to Combat Offshoring

A bill that would bar companies that move jobs out of New York state from getting taxpayer-funded development incentives is drawing support. The bill grapples with the hot issue of disappearing jobs, one that has long been a concern in the state and is now part of a national debate reaching into the presidential race.

Two Westchester County legislators -- one a Democrat, the other a Republican -- introduced identical bills in both houses. They define ''outsourcing" as moving jobs out of the state and ban most forms of incentives from going to any company that sends jobs overseas or even out of state. The topic hits home in the mid-Hudson, where top employer IBM Corp. has confirmed at least one phasing out of local jobs in which the work is going to India.

''This bill does not bar outsourcing,'' Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, said Tuesday. ''This bill is an attempt to say, if the free market requires taking $80,000 jobs in New York and turning them into $10,000 jobs in (New) Delhi, please don't ask the New York state taxpayer to pay for it.''

Interesting. I hear more of these types of proposals as I make my way across the country. Most states and communities are very uneasy with the productivity argument--that is offshoring will result in more knowledge and highly skilled jobs in the U.S. Many are saying: "I'm from Missouri, show me!"

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