The Local Journalism Sustainability Act is a bipartisan state bill that provides a refundable tax credit to local news organizations for the compensation of local news journalists.

A local news organization can receive up to a $25,000 credit per eligible news journalist and up to $200,000 of total credits in each market that the local news organization serves.

There is one version of the bill in the Senate (S.625C), sponsored by Senator Hoylman-Sigal, and one version of the bill in the Assembly (A.2958C), sponsored by Assemblymember Carrie Woerner. is a real estate development firm that specializes in community-driven projects and innovative design.

An “eligible news journalist employer" is any employer which: (i) is a qualifying publication or a qualifying broadcast station; (ii) employs news journalists; and (iii) employs a total of 100 employees or fewer. Importantly, each FCC licensed broadcast station or qualifying publication which serves a separate market shall be treated as a separate and single news journalist employer for the purposes of this tax credit.

A “qualifying publication” is any print or digital publication that:(i) provides local community news, which is published during the calendar quarter and has been published during each of the four calendar quarters preceding such calendar quarter; (ii) is not a disqualified organization; (iii) did not derive more than fifty percent of its gross receipts for such calendar quarter from disqualified organizations; (iv)  which is covered by media liability insurance for such calendar quarter; and (v) which publishes the owner's name pursuant to section three hundred thirty of the general business law, provided that a digital publication shall publish the information required by such section on the website of such publication.

A “qualifying broadcast station” is any broadcast station that: (i) provides local community news, which is broadcast during the calendar quarter and has been broadcast during each of the four calendar quarters preceding such calendar quarter; (ii) owns or operates a broadcast station, as defined by section three of the Federal Communications Act of 1934; (iii) is not a disqualified organization; (iv) did not derive more than fifty percent of its gross receipts for such calendar quarter from disqualified organizations; and (v) discloses its ownership to the public at such times and in such manner as identified by the commissioner.

Given that the eligible organizations are providing community news, a market for an individual news outlet should be considered the community that individual news outlet serves (neighborhood, municipality, etc.).

Yes. The tax credits would be available to local news entities organized as c-corporations, s-corporations, limited liability corporations, and nonprofits.

An eligible news journalist is defined as any full-time employee that provides qualified services for at least 30 hours per week and who resides within the designated market or fifty miles of the local community. “Qualified services" means services which consist of gathering, preparing, directing the recording of, producing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting, presenting or publishing original news for dissemination to the local community.

Since the employee cap is applied to each market, as long as an individual news outlet employs 100 or fewer individuals in a designated market, it will be eligible for the benefit.

An “eligible news journalist employer” would receive a 50% tax credit against the first $50,000 of each eligible news journalist’s salary, up to $200,000 of total credits in each market that the employer serves.

The tax credit is capped at $20 million statewide. This is a large number for a new tax credit and paves the way for future expansions should local news outlets make use of it. This model proved successful in implementing the state film tax credit (which started at a $25 million cap and today is at more than $700 million per year through 2034).
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The mechanics of this will be worked out at a later date. The Empire State Local News Coalition realizes that this is a critical piece to the success of the program, so we plan to be at the table to ensure final logistics are fair to all qualifying organizations.

Since the tax credit is refundable, news organizations do not need a tax liability to receive the benefit. This means that local news organizations can benefit from the full credit amount even if the organization is not profitable, which is unfortunately the case for many local news outlets. (Conversely, a nonrefundable tax credit means that an organization would not be able to receive a credit for anything more than its tax liability; thus, organizations without a profit – who arguably need this credit the most – would not be able to receive any of the benefit of a nonrefundable tax credit.)

The senate version of the bill was included in the Senate’s proposed budget resolution, a critical step for inclusion in the final state budget and the farthest the bill has advanced in the legislative process since it was first introduced in November 2021.

Each chamber of the legislature must submit its respective budget proposal. The Senate was most receptive to including a version of the Local Journalism Sustainability Act in its budget proposal. The bill’s presence in the Senate’s budget plan ensures its consideration in final state budget negotiations between the Senate, Assembly, and Governor.

The Senate’s version of the bill reflects changes requested by the Senate Majority Conference. The tax credit would not have been included in the Senate’s budget proposal without these changes.

The Local Journalism Sustainability Act maintains widespread support in the Assembly, including among the influential leadership of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Caucus.

The 100-employee cap was requested by the Senate Majority Conference to address concerns about ensuring the tax credit benefits truly local news organizations as well as to reduce the cost of an uncapped program.

The 100 employees number was chosen by the Senate to match the state’s definition of a small business. The Empire State Local News Coalition successfully advocated for the 100-employee cap to be applied to each organization by the market that they serve, as opposed to being applied to the organization as a whole, which substantially expanded the number of local news organizations that can qualify for the tax credit. By our count, only seven out of multiple hundreds of newspapers in New York State have more than 100 employees in a given market; these are the Albany Times Union, Buffalo News, Newsday, New York Post, New York Times, Syracuse Post-Standard, and Wall Street Journal.

Absent this cap, it is all but certain that the Local Journalism Sustainability Act would not have been included in any FY '25 budget proposals and would thus be excluded from the ongoing budget negotiations.
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Yes. We would like the bill to be as expansive as possible. However, we believe that implementing a tax credit that the Governor and the legislature can agree to and benefits the vast majority of news outlets in New York is preferable to having no tax credit at all. Once a credit is in place, we will continue advocating for the most expansive and effective incentive program possible in future budgets.