It appears there will not be any extra oversight in New York State for economic development. Good government and fiscal watchdog groups say it's disappointing news.

The analysis by the Center for an Urban Future and Citizens Budget Commission looked at 144 library and cultural organization projects managed by the department over fiscal years 2010 to 2014.

The from-scratch price of new department-managed library and cultural buildings was more than $900 per square feet, which is double the cost of new private-sector office space in our city.

Those are two examples of a city-supervised construction process which a new study describes as “broken.” The report, a collaboration between the Center for an Urban Future and the Citizens Budget Commission, examines 144 cultural projects completed between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, and supervised by the New York City Department of Design and Construction. The authors find an array of bureaucratic hurdles resulting in cost overruns and long delays.

Excessive layers of reviews and approvals dragged out the design and construction of cultural infrastructure, according to the report, conducted in partnership with the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan nonprofit group.

New York has a Citizens budget commission, a privately funded nonpartisan watchdog that has been in operation for over 80 years. While they have no official authority, they play an important role by asking objective and critical questions about budget trends.

City & State’s Ashley Hupfl reached out to Dave Friedfel, director of state studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, to clarify some of the details about the budget extender.

State and local economic development agencies in New York give away billions of dollars in subsidies to businesses every year but do little to assess what taxpayers are getting for their money.

For almost two years, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been arguing that Albany should allow New York City to levy a new tax on home sales above $2 million. Carol Kellermann weighs in.

THE OBSERVATION DECK
Editorial: More bang for N.Y.’s buck
By Jay Jochnowitz, Editorial page editor on March 28, 2017 at 12:01 AM
Our opinion: With New York spending billions on economic development for uncertain gains, the state should develop a program that better demands and measures success.

Both state and local economic development agencies have ramped up spending on subsidy programs since Cuomo took office. The total last fiscal year hit a record $8.6 billion, according to a calculation by the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan group that tracks state spending. And Cuomo has proposed a major boost for the coming fiscal year.

Budget watchdogs have expressed concern that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “mansion tax” proposal, which would impose levies on real estate transactions above $2 million, may be misguided or even unnecessary

State lawmakers hashing out a $152 billion budget are contending with a possible complication as Congress weighs a proposal that would shift some health-care costs from New York’s counties to its state government.