Solar City is over
budget and behind schedule.
As usual.
Governot “Status”
Cuomo used $1 Billion of our tax dollars to bribe the company to
locate a solar manufacturing plant here and, in typical NY style,
the project has run into snag after snag after snag.
And we are getting stuck with the bill.
The Republic Steel
site had to be cleaned up of environmental toxins first. This
includes radioactive waste from the Cold War. And we, the
taxpayers, had to pick up the tab for that entire project while the
executives that knew that they were contaminating the soil, land,
and potentially water walked off with how many millions of dollars in
profits? (Not to mention Wall Street before the corporation went
belly up from mismanagement by the 1%.)
Then construction
began and that fell behind schedule as well. Right now to the tune
of over $50 million. (It will go much higher. The contingency line
for the project is over $200 million tight now.)
And now the Assembly
and Senate is holding up $485 million that Solar City needs to
complete the project. This includes money for the contingency line.
Evidently they are as skeptical about the whole project as the rest
of NY is.
And the executives
of the company say that they are committed to $5 million of their own
money to make sure the project is completed. Seriously? I may have
that number wrong. It may be billion. But if they have that type of
money, why are we bribing them to come here in the first place?
Meanwhile other
financial backers are pulling their money out of the project because
they lack the confidence that the project will pull a profit for
them.
And we are going to
be left holding the bag and the bill.
And what will we
have to show for it?
Look at the schools
that are short money that they need to hire teachers, upgrade
computers, buy books, and improve the condition of the buildings
where students are expected to learn. (For a real horror story, go
into Rochester and look at some of their schools. Buffalo has some
real bad schools as well. No arguments there.)
Look at the roads
and bridges that need repairs. And we don't have the money for them.
But municipalities have to come up with the money for car repairs if
a pothole causes damage to a car between May and October (or
November? I mix up the date.)
What about the
public libraries that need repair? In this economy people use the
public library more for help with going back to college, job
searches, and career work. One library near where I live has a
whole column of books dedicated to job retraining and searching.
Rather than digging through the whole collection, it's all right
there. Books on the SAT, ACT, GRE and other college exams ; books
for the various public exams, like police, fire fighter, EMT, and
other public services; and then all the different general career
books so that people can learn more about them before jumping into
preparation. But these books are getting dated and need updating.
The branch doesn't have the money for career books and general
collection materials. But people need the help that this collection
provides.
And then there are
the hospitals and public health clinics that we need. Some
communities are that poor that they can't afford the health care that
they need and the clinics close. This is especially true in the
south towns and rural areas. A 20 minute longer car or ambulance
ride is a life or death situation. (More likely death, sad to say.)
And yet we are
committing $1 billion to bribe corporations to come to NY and set up
shop and hopefully make that money back.
Pardon my scepticism, but I'll believe it when I see it.
All the companies
that I have seen come here have their headquarters out of state, so
guess where all the profits are going?
And most of the jobs
will require bachelor degrees or better. That cuts out a whole group
of people that could benefit from the jobs as well.
So here we are.
Same as always.
Or as my military
friends say, SNAFU.
Let the F stand for
whatever you want.
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