“In any business every dollar spent is accounted for, yet New York State falls woefully short in practicing what it preaches in regard to accounting for its economic development spending. My Assembly Minority and Majority colleagues support rules to improve transparency, and I am calling on the Legislature to move forward and pass reform legislation which will increase transparency and accountability in economic development spending. The governor’s state-directed economic development programs, in practice and results, have not matched the governor’s own rhetoric on the subject.

“I co-sponsor a bill which would require all large lump-sum economic development spending programs to outline, in detail, how the funds will be spent in order to be transparent and accountable for the results or lack thereof. The appropriations should then be debated and voted upon by the legislature, so as to determine if there are potential conflicts of interest and impose strong oversight.”