Following a press conference in Albany today held by Assembly Minority Leader Brian M. Kolb (R,C-Canandaigua), Assemblyman Dave McDonough (R,C,I-Merrick) and his Assembly Minority colleagues have introduced legislation that would mandate reporting and transparency requirements for taxpayer spending on economic development programs. The governor’s keystone economic development programs, START-UP NY and the Buffalo Billion, have been riddled with issues and late job reports since their inception.

“The governor’s cornerstone economic development initiatives have caused more problems than they have solved,” McDonough said. “There is little transparency regarding how the executive chooses to spend billions in taxpayer money and that is unacceptable. START-UP NY created a whopping 76 jobs the first year, costing taxpayers over $593,000 per job. That money could have benefited the hardworking middle-class families of New York instead of funding the governor’s political junkets and lies about how well our state’s economy is doing. This is the taxpayers’ money and they should know how it is being used every step of the way.”

New York State was ranked dead last in economic outlook for the second year in a row and sixth time in the past eight years by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and a job report for START-UP NY is now over two months late.