The legislative session in Albany adjourned Wednesday night without action on key ethics reforms, despite ongoing corruption trials over the Cuomo administration’s economic development programs.
The measures, approved in the state Senate, would restore the State Comptroller’s oversight of economic development contracts, and create a public website that lists all taxpayer funded projects, their status, and the number of jobs that are expected to be created. But they are stalled in the Democratic led State Assembly, where Cuomo allies say they prefer to reach an agreement with the governor first. Cuomo has a different bill that would create a new inspector general in his own office.
Blair Horner, with the New York Public Interest Research Group, says the lack of agreement is disappointing.
“New Yorkers have every right to be angry,” Horner said.
The second of two corruption trials involving former Cuomo associates continues in federal district court. The former head of SUNY Polytechnic, Alain Kaloyeros, and three developers from Buffalo and Syracuse, are accused of running a bid rigging scheme to illegally gain over half a billion dollars in state contracts.
