Suffolk's IDA contemplates another bad tax break, this time for Canon

In early 2013, Canon U.S.A. Inc. moved into new headquarters in Melville, on 52 acres of land once home to a pumpkin farm. The company known for cameras and copiers received about $100 million in government assistance, including $35 million in Suffolk County tax breaks, and said it expected to add 750 people to its 1,500-person staff over the next five to 10 years.

Instead, Canon's staff has shrunk — to a total of 1,081 employees. It's still adapting to a changing business model in the face of cellphone cameras and scanners. Its staff maintains a hybrid schedule, often leaving its expansive facility half-empty.

Yet, Canon officials now seek more money from Suffolk, this time wanting an additional $7 million in tax breaks, without threatening to move out of state or promising a single new job. And Suffolk's Industrial Development Agency has given its preliminary OK. It's yet another egregious precedent-setting move among a litany of egregious precedent-setting moves for IDAs across the region.

Canon officials said they hope to use the new money to improve the Melville complex's technology and conference facilities and to maintain workers' hybrid schedules. But when an IDA determines tax breaks, it uses what's called a “but for” test — the notion that “but for” the financial assistance, the company would move, lose jobs, or close. This time, the “but for” test rests on the notion that if Canon doesn't get the tax breaks, it could go fully remote, leaving its facility's future up in the air. But Canon has not expressed any plans to move or fire employees if it doesn't get county money. And it has no plans to grow its workforce if it does. So, why are county IDA officials so quick to say yes?

This isn't the first time a local IDA has considered or approved questionable projects or requests. Tax breaks have been given to self-storage facilities, warehouses, car dealers, and even a horse hospital near Belmont Park which ended up vacant four years later.

Now, we can add Canon to the list.

Suffolk IDA officials say the deal will retain Long Island jobs and anchor the company to Suffolk, arguing that if Canon goes fully remote, employees could leave the region. They also worried about ending up with a vacant building, like CA Technologies' empty headquarters in Islandia.

The way we work is changing. The focus of IDAs should be changing, too. IDAs like Suffolk's are rightly doing more with housing, for example, and the Town of Huntington fortuitously is working to rezone the Melville corridor for housing and other uses. Suffolk's IDA should consider the possibilities for a valuable property like Canon, should the company choose a remote work strategy, rather than reflexively fear for the property's future.

Come next year's vote, the IDA should stop thinking from the past, and start looking forward.