A New York state senator has called the state’s $5.5 million in grants and subsidies to a weapons manufacturer “truly outrageous” in light of the Newtown, Conn. shooting massacre and wants the practice stopped.
Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, cited a recent report by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting and The New York World that nine states, including New York, have given tax breaks, subsidies and grants to the makers of semi-automatic rifles that have been used in multiple mass shootings, including the one on Newton that killed 20 children and six adults last month.
New York’s tax support went to Remington Arms, based in Ilion, since 2007.
In her letter to the head of the Empire State Development Corp, the state agency that administers the tax subsidies, Sen. Krueger, the ranking minority member on the N.Y. Senate’s Finance Committee, said:
“Among the products produced by Remington at the New York plant that received these benefits is the Bushmaster model used in the murders in Newtown. It is truly outrageous to think that New Yorkers’ tax dollars are being used to subsidize production of these weapons, which, when equipped with high capacity magazines, are instruments of mass killing.”
