×

The Post-Star of Glens Falls on state corruption, June 15

After listening to the evidence in the Joseph Percoco corruption trial earlier this year, it was obvious that Albany’s “pay to play” culture is alive and well.

Percoco, who has close personal ties to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and ran his re-election campaign in 2014, was found guilty of three corruption-related charges for soliciting and accepting more than $300,000 in bribes from executives of two companies looking to do business with the state.

We suspect we will hear even more about these shady business dealings next month, when the former head of SUNY Polytechnic and two other businessmen go on trial for the alleged rigging of over $1 billion in state economic development contracts.

Yes, you just read $1 billion.

This could be big-time corruption.

While it is absurd to think anyone can change the corrupt culture in state government overnight, the state Assembly has its fingertips on two pieces of legislation that won’t necessarily end corruption but will make it easier to flush out.

The Database for Deals, co-sponsored by local Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner among others, would list all taxpayer subsidies received by corporations, including the type of subsidy, jobs created or retained and the cost per job to taxpayers. This is the type of data tracking that any private company hoping to make a profit would conduct.

Currently, the state spends $4 billion — yes, we said billion again — in economic development, yet there is no way of accounting for which programs are working and which are not, at least not easily. This bill provides the transparency needed.

The good-government group Reinvent Albany conducted an analysis that concluded the average cost to create jobs in these economic development programs varied wildly from project to project. It also pointed out that the governor’s signature projects were costing as much as $500,000 a job.

That’s incredibly poor use of economic development resources that ultimately comes from our taxes.

Unfortunately, the bill is being held up in committee and time is short before the Assembly leaves for the summer.

On Wednesday, local Assemblyman Dan Stec joined three of his Republican colleagues in also supporting the bill.

The other bill is the Procurement Integrity Act introduced at the request of Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. It restores the comptroller’s authority to review contracts before they are executed for SUNY/CUNY construction and services.

Reinvent Albany concluded this independent oversight is the only way to guarantee basic fairness to state vendors.

And consider this: Over the first two months of 2018, the Comptroller’s Office stopped 334 contracts and transactions valued at $920 million due to errors, improprieties and lack of documentation.

That’s some sloppy work by the state.

Both of these bills have already passed the state Senate by near unanimous margins, with the Database for Deals passing, 62-0, while the Procurement Integrity Act passed, 60-2.

What is especially curious is that Gov. Cuomo has not shown any support for either bill. We’ll let you be the judge of that.

We thought this statement from Reclaim New York Initiative Executive Director Brandon Muir was especially appropriate:

“Albany cronies have been lining their pockets with taxpayer dollars for years. Government insiders continue to abuse loopholes in the state law to get rich — at the expense of New Yorkers. But this corruption can be stopped with common sense reforms.”

These bills should get a vote immediately in the Assembly, and Gov. Cuomo should sprint to the chamber to sign them into law.

This is a pragmatic first step in fighting Albany corruption and ineptitude, and obviously there are plenty of both.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.75/week.

Subscribe Today