Conflicts of interests in Finger Lakes Region Economic Development Council.

In the rush of the holiday seasons you might have missed the announcement of the winners of New York States regional  economic development hunger games.  If you did notice then you know our region did well getting $80.7 million in aid for our area. Unfortunately this is only part of the story.  What seems to have escaped notice by the press are the numerous conflicts of interest present in this award.

For 5 years now Cuomo has made different regions compete for economic development money. The state is divided up into 10 regions each with their own economic development council composed of the political and economic leaders of the area.  This group then chooses projects to include in their bid for funds and the state then chooses what to fund. 

This process was put in place by Cuomo to make economic development more effective through the magic of competition.  It is hard to tell weather competition is working in economic development it seems conflicts of interests abound.  In the Finger lakes region alone 8 of the 33 awards announced have a direct connection to board members.