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May 16, 2007
Citing Waste, Albany Seeks to Rein in Public Authorities
The NY Times
By Nicholas Confessore
If you want to know how Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards plan even sees the light of day, consider this quote from NY Assemblyman Richard Brodsky in an article about possible reform of NY State's bloated quasi-governmental public authorities.
“Many authorities have become Soviet-style bureaucracies, cash cows and patronage mills for the political class and completely removed from control of democratic institutions,” said Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat who has been a voluble critic of public authorities.
Why bother with public authorities and why do the politically connected class love them?
Armed with the power to issue tax-free debt, the authorities were designed to perform some of the duties of public agencies with the nimbleness of private corporations. But that strength, critics say, has also been a weakness: Public authorities face neither the accountability of elected officials nor the market pressures of truly private enterprises.
Here's an observation that relates to a recent article on Atlantic Yards Report that charted the history of the Urban Development Corporation, rechristened under the Pataki administration in 1995 as the Empire State Development Corporation and now the state sponsor of the Atlantic Yards Project:
The authorities also have a tendency to evolve well beyond their original mission, albeit usually at the behest of governors and lawmakers.
“You have not so much mission creep as mission gallop,” said Edmund J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative group.
NoLandGrab: The lingering question is whether any of Spitzer's "reforms" can really make a difference, or do they just change public perception of these quasi-governmental public-private institutions?
Posted by lumi at May 16, 2007 9:34 AM