Tag: economic development

Mar 29

2017

Lackadasical vetting of subsidy seekers

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This is the third part of a series that began Sunday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » Craig Bernier had only been bagging grain at Harbor Point Minerals in Utica for a few months when the company started sending him inside its silos to “walk down” the grain to help it flow to the bottom. Bernier, 24, was claustrophobic and hated being in the dark, closed structure, but Harbor Point told him he would have to go back in, his father said. “He told his mother, ‘I don’t want to go to[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Mar 28

2017

Heaney talks subsidies with ‘Pressroom

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Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom interviews Jim Heaney on the “State of Subsidies” series being published this week by Investigative Post and select newspapers across the state. They were joined partway through the interview by E.J. McMahon, research director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, and Ron Deutsch, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute.

Posted 7 years ago

Mar 27

2017

Corning masters the subsidy game

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This is the second part of a series that runs through Thursday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » Rita McCarthy could finally relax. After months of speculation and negotiation, strategy sessions and late night phone calls, Corning Inc. announced in the spring of 2013 that it would expand its factory in Erwin, New York, where McCarthy serves as town supervisor. Corning is the largest employer in Steuben County, within the economically struggling region of western New York that stretches along the Pennsylvania border, known as the Southern Tier. Assuaging McCarthy’s fears that it would[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Mar 26

2017

State of Subsidies

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This is the first part of a series that runs through Thursday. The full lineup of stories, columns and radio interviews can be found here » Gov. Andrew Cuomo has sunk a lot of taxpayer money – $25 billion by his estimate – into recharging upstate’s moribund economy. The governor has increased spending on subsidy programs to record levels, launched bold policy initiatives and crisscrossed upstate to announced projects he has frequently described as “game-changers.” “Economic success is shared all across the state. It’s not just New York City that’s doing well, it’s the entire state,” the governor declared in his[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jan 9

2017

Heaney weighs in on Buffalo Billion II

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WGRZ News Anchor Maryalice Demler interviewed Editor Jim Heaney hours after Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a broad outline of a $500 million extension of his Buffalo Billion program. You can catch Heaney’s comments in the video below or in the slightly revised text that follows. Heaney also provided analysis to WBFO. What do you find striking in the governor’s proposal? It’s very short on spending details. There’s no talk of reforms to avoid the corruption we’ve seen so far in the programs. But more than that, a lot of the spending has little or nothing to do with economic development. I[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Nov 15

2016

Second Buffalo Billion deal benefits Ciminelli

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U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says the way LPCiminelli won the contract to build the SolarCity factory in Buffalo was criminal. The deal-making behind another Buffalo Billion project that LPCiminelli had previously landed, to build space for biotech company Albany Molecular Research Inc., bears some striking similarities to the way the company won the SolarCity work, Investigative Post has found. In both cases, for example, lobbyist Todd Howe worked for LPCiminelli and the state-affiliated economic development agency that managed Buffalo Billion projects and chose which companies would win contracts. Howe has pled guilty to federal corruption charges and is cooperating with[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Nov 9

2016

Tainted contract nets LPCiminelli $20 million

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Federal prosecutors say top executives at LPCiminelli went to great lengths to ensure they would win the lucrative contract to build a factory for SolarCity at Riverbend. Just how lucrative? State officials refuse to say how much the company is being paid. But Investigative Post has calculated, based on interviews and public records, that LPCiminelli’s fee for the project works out to between $20 million and $22 million. That’s one of the largest developer fees paid out in the region in recent years, because of the sheer size of the project, according to construction industry sources. Three LPCiminelli executives, including[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Oct 11

2016

‘Billion mastermind Kaloyeros resigns

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The fall from grace is just about complete for Alain Kaloyeros. The so-called “nano-tech guru” who Gov. Andrew Cuomo has praised as a “near genius” has resigned as CEO of SUNY Polytechnic Institute. His success building a nano-technology sector in the Albany area prompted Cuomo to put Kaloyeros in charge of his initiative to revitalize the upstate economy through a series a big-ticket projects in Buffalo, Dunkirk, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica. But reporting by Investigative Post into the awarding of a lucrative contract to LPCiminelli to build a factory for SolarCity triggered investigations by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and State Attorney General Eric[...]

Posted 8 years ago
Investigative Post

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