While the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has advocated for drastic cuts to the federal budget and workplaces, two Democratic lawmakers in New York are introducing legislation today to audit the so-called Buffalo Billion project.
The state of New York spent nearly $1 billion ($959 million) to build an industrial plant near Buffalo that Musk’s company, Tesla, reportedly leases for $1 per year. (The plant is currently producing chargers and related components for Tesla vehicles and trucks.)
Note: The bill is called “New York Determining Obligations and Guaranteeing Enforcement (DOGE) in Government Contracting Act.”
In a statement, New York State Senator Brad Hoylman – Sigal, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and State Assemblyman Micah Lasher said, “It is the height of hypocrisy that Elon Musk, the man who is dismantling federal agencies and doing enormous damage on the basis of wildly unsubstantiated claims of waste, fraud, and abuse, is the beneficiary of one of the biggest, shadiest subsidy deals of all time.”
The Wall Street Journal published an article in July 2023 titled “New York State Built Elon Musk a $1 Billion Factory.” ‘It Was a Bad Deal,'” with the subhead, “The new Tesla facility in Buffalo was supposed to house a massive solar-panel operation, but the project hasn’t turned out as planned.”
According to the article, a conservative think tank characterized the investment as “the single biggest economic development boondoggle” in US history.
According to the New York Times, Hoylman – Sigal and Lasher’s legislation suggests that New York should not renew its lease agreement with Tesla “if a review shows taxpayers got snookered in the original investment.”
