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February 4, 2009
Proposal by Paterson protested
Union members, legislators decry consolidation plan
Albany Times Union
By Casey Seiler, State editor
Union leaders, rank-and-file state workers and a delegation of Assembly Democrats held a news conference outside the Assembly chamber on Tuesday to speak out against the governor's proposal to fold the Department of Economic Development and the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation into the Empire State Development Corporation [ESDC].
The labor leaders and legislators said the move would dangerously limit public accountability and transparency.
State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, the closest thing our state has to a crusading reformer (sigh), unleashed the sarcasm:
"If you like the MTA and the Thruway Authority, you're going to love the new ESDC."
Local Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries used Bruce Ratner's $4 billion subsidy-sucking eminent-domain-abusing Atlantic Yards as the poster project for why these state agencies shouldn't be consolidated into a giant, murky, nearly all-powerful quasi-public corporation.
Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, D-Brooklyn, said his dealings with ESDC on the Atlantic Yards project had shown it to be "nontransparent and unaccountable."
Atlantic Yards Report, Jeffries: ESDC "nontransparent and unaccountable"
And that was before Jeffries got a chance to learn about the ESDC's obfuscation regarding developer Forest City Ratner's cessation of work at the Vanderbilt Yard.
Posted by lumi at February 4, 2009 5:10 AM