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Report charts excess in IDAs, other state authorities
Dec 28, 2010 7:31 am
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Retiring Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) has completed a final report on excesses in the state's authorities legislation."]
[/caption]The Assembly Corporations Committee Monday released its final report of 2010 on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions that recommends consolidating hundreds of unnecessary or duplicative authorities, including county Industrial Development authorities, according to a piece in this morning's Mid Hudson News Network blog. The committee, headed by outgoing Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester County, said authorities should stop giving away public funds with the public getting nothing in return. “You’ve got to find ways to make sure that when the public gives money to a private company, a corporation, that the public gets benefits back,” he said. “There’s no reason, for example, when ESDC puts literally billions into a project or a large corporation, that it shouldn’t get an equity interest in that project just like a private bank would get.” Brodsky pointed to the nearly $4 billion given to the new Yankee Stadium project to what he said is one of the wealthiest corporations in the world with almost no job creation. "The success of the authority reform effort is by no means assured," he added. "Vested interests, both within and without the network of public authorities are already seeking to weaken the new legal reforms, and to minimize enforcement of the law. It would be unfortunate and unnecessary if this were to occur." For the full Brodsky report on public authorities in New York State, click HERE.
[/caption]The Assembly Corporations Committee Monday released its final report of 2010 on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions that recommends consolidating hundreds of unnecessary or duplicative authorities, including county Industrial Development authorities, according to a piece in this morning's Mid Hudson News Network blog. The committee, headed by outgoing Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester County, said authorities should stop giving away public funds with the public getting nothing in return. “You’ve got to find ways to make sure that when the public gives money to a private company, a corporation, that the public gets benefits back,” he said. “There’s no reason, for example, when ESDC puts literally billions into a project or a large corporation, that it shouldn’t get an equity interest in that project just like a private bank would get.” Brodsky pointed to the nearly $4 billion given to the new Yankee Stadium project to what he said is one of the wealthiest corporations in the world with almost no job creation. "The success of the authority reform effort is by no means assured," he added. "Vested interests, both within and without the network of public authorities are already seeking to weaken the new legal reforms, and to minimize enforcement of the law. It would be unfortunate and unnecessary if this were to occur." For the full Brodsky report on public authorities in New York State, click HERE.