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May 3, 2009
Times Editorial On “The Ever-Deepening Pension Mess”: You Heard It Here First
Noticing New York
This item is primarily concerned with corruption in the New York State pension system, where politicians send pension funds to investment firms and receive kickbacks in return. Noticing New York suggests additional oversight for the pension system, but points out that any committee added for the purpose of reform need to be structured properly. For example, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) board failed in its responsibility to review the proposed Atlantic Yards project:
For the sake of using this as another opportunity to take a pot shot at the project we think is above all others most deserving of criticism, consider for example the abdication of responsibility by the Empire State Development Corporation’s board for the Atlantic Yards project. Not only was the board’s initial approval quick and cursory for an extraordinarily monumental set of propositions, but the project has since been allowed to migrate substantially from what was originally touted. That migration has been entirely the responsibility merely of staff. We would not therefore deem Atlantic Yards an “approved” project. That lack of valid approval for what is currently proposed raises issues akin to the need for the altered Atlantic Yards project to go back to the Public Authorities Board before legally valid financing can ever proceed.
Posted by steve at May 3, 2009 6:12 AM