New York spent $354 million on ads to promote tourism and economic development between 2011 and August 2017, records show.
The ads have been omnipresent since Gov. Andrew Cuomo took office in 2011 and have touted New York's "Open for Business" campaign, upstate tourism and the underperforming Start-Up NY program.
The spending by Empire State Development also included $3.5 million between May and July 2017 to promote New York's new free SUNY tuition program, the records show.
The ad spending, obtained by the USA Today Network through a Freedom of Information request filed in August, has come under increased criticism in recent years as questions have been raised over whether the taxpayer-funded spending is producing results.
Is it worth taxpayers' money?
The state report that explains the spending points to the ads' success in promoting tourism and New York's economic-development programs.
Tourism, in particular, has grown since 2011, but while the unemployment rate has dropped, the upstate economy is still struggling, data has shown.
"In Governor Cuomo's first year, as part of his efforts to return the competence and function of state government, he revitalized the state's once robust business development and tourism efforts," the ESD report said. "Business development efforts use advertising to generate growth from existing and new businesses within the state and to attract new businesses from outside the state."
The release of the eight-page report comes just days after Reclaim NY, a conservative watchdog group, sued the state agency over refusal to release specifics about the advertising.
The group filed a series of FOIL requests in July.
“No administration may spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars on glitzy promotions without basic public disclosure of how and why those dollars were used,” Brandon Muir, the group's executive director, said in a statement Jan 2.
Where did it go?
Since 2011, the state Legislature and Cuomo have allocated at least $50 million a year for the ad campaign.
Overall, $354 million has been spent out of $423 million that has been designated, the report said. The spending also included $37 million from the federal government after Superstorm Sandy in the New York City area.
The state report showed $18.7 million went to the ad firms BBDO and Campbell Ewald for "administrative and creative services," and another $15 million went to marketing expenses for the "Open for Business" initiative.
Nearly $29 million went to production costs, and $14 million to events and sponsorships.
As for the ads themselves, $233 million was spent on national and in-state ads; $19 million for digital ads; and $9 million for print ads.
Cuomo has been knocked for the spending, particularly during his re-election bid in 2014.
Between 2013 and 2015, the state spent $53 million to promote the Start-Up NY program, which provides tax-free zones to new and expanding businesses. But during the ad campaign, the program produced just $1.7 million in private investment.
The Democratic governor, who is seeking a third term in November and is a potential presidential candidate in 2020, doesn't appear in any of the ads.
Across the nation
The television ads have appeared both in New York and nationally, the records show.
For example, $50 million was spent on summer tourism ads since 2012 -- with 53 percent out of state and 47 percent in state.
"Summer tourism campaigns are equally focused on in-state and out-of-state residents because summer vacations tend to be longer than at other times of the year and more people travel," the report said.
A 2015 audit from Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli questioned whether New York taxpayers were getting their money's worth from the ads.
The audit reviewed $211 million during the first three years of the ad campaign, finding it produced "no tangible results."
In June, a series by the USA Today Network in New York found the state spends $8 billion a year on economic incentives, such as tax breaks for businesses, but often times the programs did not have specific benchmarks or job-creation goals.
This year's response
The spending will face additional scrutiny this year as the state faces a $4.4 billion budget gap for the fiscal year that starts April 1.
Already, some Republicans are calling for a greater review of the economic-development programs and their effectiveness -- including the ads.
"We must conduct a top-to-bottom review of the state's overall economic development strategy," Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, R-Suffolk County, said in a statement Jan. 2. He said Start-up NY; "the tens of millions of dollars the executive spends on advertising;" and "the lack of accountability for major deals and projects that fail miserably when it comes to creating jobs" should be addressed.
"All of it," he added. "There can be no sacred cows."