Due to the abysmal inefficiency of Gov. Cuomo’s START-UP NY program and a progress report that’s now a month overdue, Assemblyman Karl Brabenec (R,C,I-Deerpark) has written to economic development CEO Howard Zemsky to suspend taxpayer-funded payments to START-UP NY until it can be determined that the program is viable in creating jobs. The governor’s cornerstone economic development program created an embarrassing 76 jobs in its first year, costing taxpayers an exorbitant $593,421 per job. A progress report was promised on April 1, 2016 but has yet to be released.

“I’ve seen lemonade stands run by children and mall kiosks that have created more jobs than this joke of a program,” Brabenec said. “Was Gov. Cuomo taking investment advice from Curt Schilling and Lehman brothers when he cooked up this colossal failure? What are we supposed to tell the small-business owners who have grinded and scrapped for profits for years while the governor’s donors go tax free for a decade? The governor and his cronies handpicking businesses to receive tax immunity for ten years is the definition of patronage, cronyism and everything that is wrong in Albany.”

Despite the first year’s shockingly low job numbers, Gov. Cuomo and Assembly Majority did not hesitate to dump over $66 million more into the program for advertising and the governor’s political junkets to Cuba and China in the 2016-17 Enacted State Budget.

“Last year, a press release accompanying this illuminating report said the advertising had generated ‘no tangible results’ and ‘when government spends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to send a message that New York is a place to visit and open for business, it should have clear objectives and show the public actual results’.”

“It is a grave mistake to continue to fund a program when there is quantifiable proof that it simply is not working” Brabenec wrote. “I am encouraging your office to suspend payments to this initiative until a report is delivered and it can be determined that the taxpayer-funded program is worth continuing.”