424 Search Results for buffalo billion

Jul 28

2015

State relents on Buffalo Billion records

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I interrupt the state’s incessant stonewalling of my efforts to use public records to track the Buffalo Billion program to report some progress. Cuomo administration officials, for more than a year, refused to release documents related to the selection of LPCiminelli to develop SolarCity’s sprawling plant in South Buffalo. The SUNY Research Foundation and the Fort Schuyler Management Corp. went to great lengths to thwart my efforts to obtain records under the state Freedom of Information Law, as I documented in December. Alain Kaloyeros and his associates at Fort Schuyler wouldn’t budge when the state Committee on Open Government issued[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jun 22

2015

Shenanigans beset Buffalo Billion

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Editors note: A version of the following story published this past weekend in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Albany Times Union, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, and Poughkeepsie Journal. The accompanying video was co-produced with WGRZ.  Editorials calling for greater transparency in the program were subsequently published by the Democrat & Chronicle and Times Union. The Buffalo Billion program championed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a bold and costly experiment in economic development that is beset by secrecy and politics, and banking on a company with a history of losing money. The program — hailed in Buffalo but resented across much of the rest of New[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 24

2015

Cuomo still stonewalling on Buffalo Billion

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The Cuomo administration has redoubled its efforts to suppress the release of documents that disclose how it is selecting developers and spending money on the Buffalo Billion program. The Fort Schuyler Management Corp., charged with managing the program, is still refusing to release information sought by Investigative Post despite a legal opinion recently issued by the State Committee on Open Government that concluded the agency is subject to the Freedom of Information Law. “In my opinion, it is cut and dried,” said Robert Freeman, the committee’s executive director. “It is, in essence, a governmental agency, that it is required to[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jan 20

2015

Heaney radio interview on Buffalo Billion

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Jim Heaney’s story on state efforts to suppress documents detailing how the Buffalo Billion is being spent continues to generate interest across the state. He was interviewed Monday by Mark Piersma and Frank Elias on their “Talk of the Town” show on WUTQ 100.7 FM in Utica.

Posted 9 years ago

Jan 13

2015

Heaney talks Buffalo Billion potential and problems

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Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney discusses the Buffalo Billion, including state efforts to suppress documents, with talk radio host John Gomez of Long Island News Radio, 103.9 FM. Interview was conducted Tuesday afternoon and starts at 1:51 of the audio file below.

Posted 9 years ago

Dec 30

2014

Heaney talks Buffalo Billion with Fred Dicker

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Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney discusses his story on suppression of state documents with New York Post political columnist Fred Dicker. Interview aired Friday, Dec. 26, on Talk 1300 in Albany. Interview starts at 18:15 and runs through 55:51.

Posted 9 years ago

Dec 22

2014

Suppression of Buffalo Billion spending records

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants everyone to know he’s spending $1 billion to revitalize the Western New York economy. But the bureaucrats he’s charged with managing the Buffalo Billion are refusing to account for how they are spending $855 million earmarked for the program’s big-ticket projects. Three developers, all significant contributors to Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign, have been selected to build and equip facilities that will house companies recruited to set up shop in Buffalo. But the state-affiliated non-profit corporation managing that work has refused to release contracts and other documents to Investigative Post that detail, among other things, how the contractors[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Dec 16

2013

Moody’s cautious on Buffalo Billion investment

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An analysis by the influential rating service on the clean energy project recently announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo concludes: “The long-term impact to the region may be limited … The clean technology industry is relatively volatile … and its ability to jumpstart a struggling post-industrial economy is untested.” A report from State of Politics.

Posted 10 years ago