YAWN !!! STRETCH.... YAWN SOME MORE !!!
NO, THIS IS MOMENTOUS — According to a press release fresh off today’s wire, Brooklyn State Senator Martin J. Golden (R-C-I), a member of the New York State Regional Economic Development Council for the City of New York, issued a statement today following the announcement of grants awarded to support key initiatives in Southwest Brooklyn
STRETCH.... YAWN !!! STRETCH SOME MORE....
Here’s Marty Golden in his own words ( or somebody on his staff trying very hard to sound like him): “As a member of the Regional Economic Development Council for the City of New York, I commend New York State’s investment in Kings County (sic). Today, we are furthering efforts to create a more business and environmentally friendly community for people to live, work and raise a family (yeah, let’s give that a “sic” too).... Across the board, these grants will go a long way in supporting projects for the arts, education and for our natural resources (yep, sic again). We must continue to develop Brooklyn, and New York City, so to put more people to work and keep our economy growing (just too much sicness in one place). I look forward to further opportunities in 2014 to build upon these accomplishments ( OMG, I think I’m beginning to feel sic)....”
( Oh dear, oh dear ! Where to begin, where to begin ! No, wait, let’s go on and show what Golden or the Golden staff member actually is talking about. )
These are the projects in Southwest Brooklyn which were highlighted by Golden or some member of his staff as having been included in the Round Three funding of the Regional Economic Development Council Program ( See “Golden: New York State Regional Economic Development Council Awards Grants to Support Brooklyn Projects” posted by Martin J. Golden, 12/12/13, New York State Senator Martin Golden’s webpage [http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/golden-new-york-state-regional-economic-development-council-awards-grants-support-broo]; oddly, the identical material was attributed to John Quaglione www.nysenate.gov on the blog, Open States [http://openstates.org/ny/legislators/NYL000019/]):
*Brooklyn Arts Council, $100,000
Creative Coalitions Initiative to create an arts infrastructure and economic development
*Lutheran Family Health Centers, $179,618
The Sunset Park/AmeriCorps Program to provide job-readiness and adult education
*SUNY Downstate Technology Center, $125,000
Brooklyn Biotech Certified Business Incubator to assist start-up businesses
*Marine Park Golf Course, $502,900
Rainwater harvesting and reuse system to reduce storm water runoff into Jamaica Bay
*NYU Polytechnic, $125,000
New York State Certified Incubator Proposal to assist start-up businesses
Seriously, unless my math is wrong, that’s just over a million bucks.... That would hardly seem to be enough to rate this shout out from our Brooklyn Republican State Senator or some member of his staff: “Across the board, these grants will go a long way in supporting projects for the arts, education and for our natural resources.” Seriously — “... a long way in supporting projects for the arts, education and for our natural resources...” !
What’s more important — SHOW OF HANDS — Does anybody know somebody in Golden’s district directly benefiting from any of these grants ?
Once again — SHOW OF HANDS — Who thinks this is real Democrat-style boondoggling and that it all really rates the title >>> “A GOLDEN FLEECE ” ?
None of this will do any good for State Senator Golden in a primary against Russ Gallo or anybody else.
ReplyDeleteUPDATE & BACKFILL: THE "WHAT THESE GRANTS ARE REALLY ABOUT" EDITION
ReplyDeleteAccording to E.J. McMahon, "...[S]tripped of the glitzy new wrapping, the $716 million in projects announced [earlier this week] comprised a familiar-sounding mix of industrial development bond (IRB) allocations, state-financed infrastructure projects, tourism promotion subsidies and plain old pork-barrel grants— the sort of thing that Albany has been doling out piecemeal for decades now...." ( See "“The envelope, please …” by E.J. McMahon, 12/12/13, The Torch [http://www.nytorch.com/?p=8129]). McMahon goes on to say, "All of this stuff is supposed to help create new jobs. But ... the latest data from the state Labor Department don’t seem to bear this out. During the latest 12-month period, New York State has created new private sector payroll jobs at a slower rate than the nation as a whole, and upstate private employment has grown at less than half the national average."
If you look at E.J. McMahon's stats, things are at best only slightly better in Marty Golden's patch in Brooklyn --- but that's not very good either.
In New York State Regional Economic Development Grants account for almost three–quarters of a billion dollars in money for programs, so why is the fact that State Senator Golden claims the he has lined up just over a million dollars for programs both inside and outside his district supposed to be a big deal ?
ReplyDeleteIs this all that Golden can get for the folks in Brooklyn with all of his seniority and his position of influence in the New York Senate Republican Leadership ? Maybe there is a lot of other stuff that Marty Golden gets that he would rather not brag about.