The Syracuse Post-Standard

Charles Gargano must be thankful that this week is finally ending: The Atlantic Yards blunder, Shelly Silver's barbs, and, now, from the other end of the state, The Syracuse Post-Standard uncovering a scheme whereby poor upstate towns sold tax breaks to developers for a fee.

State Senator Liz Krueger says Gargano and other appointees to the Empire State Development Corporation, which is in charge of the Empire Zone tax break program, "either lack the most basic understanding of the very laws they are charged with implementing, or worse, they simply do not care."

Over the past several weeks, The Post-Standard has painted a bleak picture of the Empire Zone program: "None of the 10 businesses that claimed the biggest property tax refunds for 2003 created more than 20 jobs," the paper reports. The whole investigative series can be found here.  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman

Did I miss the part of the stories about David Paterson repaying $4,500 for a ride on a casino devloper's private jet that said he would be using campaign funds to pay for the flight?

That's what the Syracuse Post-Standard reported yesterday.

This seems of a piece with the incomplete candor I wrote about last week, and reminds me a bit of the Times story a while back reporting that Paterson was demoting Senator Ada Smith after a scuffle -- which was followed by a rowback that reported he was actually just changing her title, leaving her with her stipend and her car.

The Syracuse Post-Standard has an interesting glimpse today at how Albany works, through Governor Pataki's announcement of a $2.5 million hurricane-relief grant to the Red Cross: "The $2.5 million was readily available partly as a result of Albany lobbying by a politically connected firm hired by the Red Cross."  read more »

Here's a really astonishing story coming out of the Republicans' loss of three State Senate seats last year: It appears that the Senate Republicans are taking it out on the losers' constituents, from Syracuse to the Bronx.

The Syracuse Post-Standard reported today that, before the election, Nancy Larraine-Hoffmann promised grants to various groups, things like a local waterline extension in the town of Sennett.

She lost, and suddenly the grants -- which had already been promised in writing -- evaporated.

Now we're told the same thing is happening in East Harlem, where Jose M. Serrano beat Republican Olga Mendez.  read more »

"From the minute I got into office, I've been getting phone calls to my staff from different local organizations who are very concerned about grants that they were promised by Olga Mendez. Suddenly they're not getting them," Serrano told us.

"I really would rather hold harmless any of these groups that were looking to get support from the State Senator," he said. "It's pretty cynical."