NY News Articles

‘Public’ Board Shapes City in Private Albany Huddles Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 10/30/2006 Author: Rachel Nielson This article from City Limits takes a look at New York’s Public Authorities Control Board, “a little-known government body that’s been giving its yes or no to the financing behind giant public projects across the state for years. But just recently it’s gotten a lot more attention in New York City because it’s the PACB – widely considered lacking in transparency and accountability – that will in essence make the final decision about the controversial Atlantic Yards development that could transform Brooklyn.”

A Magnifying Glass on Public Authorities Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 07/12/2010 Author: Stephen Ceasar

Accommodating the Rights of Bondholders and State Public Purposes Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 04/28/1977 Author: New York Times

Charges Fly About Battery Park Authority As Thompson Plugs Into New Role Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 04/26/2010 Author: Chris Bragg, City Hall News Bill Thompson was appointed by the governor to chair the Battery Park City Authority after the former chair, Charles Urstadt, called for the authority to be disbanded, and amid scandals relating to excessive and wasteful spending by authority staff. Urstadt claimed that the authority’s budget of $30 million could be cut in half, and that much of the waste is due to patronage. While he supports a city plan to take over control of Battery Park City, Thompson, on the other hand, believes that the authority should continue its maintenance role and hold off on selling the land to the city.

Counsel’s Corner: The Importance of Being Earnest: Nonprofit Board of Directors Accountability After Sarbanes-Oxley Category: ALL Sub-category: News Articles Author: Gary Masline

Fiscal Collapse of U.D.C. Was Result of 3 Wrong Moves, Panel Concludes Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 05/27/1976 Author: Linda Greenhouse Summarizing the 1976 report of the Moreland Act Commission on the Urban Development Corporation and Other State Financing Agencies, this article concludes: “The financial collapse 15 months ago of the Urban Development Corporation–the first wave in the fiscal crisis that later engulfed the state–was the combined result of overly optimistic assumptions, a lack of management controls and twin mandates for the giant development agency that were contradictory and impossible to meet.”

Fool Me Twice, Barron’s Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 08/21/1989 Author: Bleiberg, Robert M

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Empire State Report 9: 14-16 Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Author: Herman, Ray

GLC Symposium agenda: Assessing the Fourth Branch of Government (March 2005) Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Video of the GLC symposium, Assessing the Fourth Branch of Government: The Benefits and Challenges of Public Authorities in New York State (Mar. 4, 2005), is available here.

Goodbye, Slum Razing; Hello, Grand Hyatt (NYT) Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 07/15/1979 Author: Joseph P. Fried Created in 1968 to build low income housing, the Urban Development Corporation by 1979 had become an economic development enterprise. This article takes a look at the authority’s evolution.

Hevesi, Spitzer, Silver, Brodsky Issue Sweeping Public Authority Reform Proposal Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 02/17/2005 Author: New York State Comptroller This press release from former comptroller Alan Hevesi, former attorney general (and later governor) Eliot Spitzer, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Assemblyman Richard Brodsky announced the introduction of a bill that would later become the Public Authorities Accountability Act of 2005. The press release includes a summary of the bill, official statements, and links to the bill and the bill memo.

Local Government and Waste, Rockefeller Institute Bulletin Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Author: Liebschutz, Sarah F.

Managing Public Authorities: Issues of Debt and Accountability, Empire State Report 12: 18-27 Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Author: Leigland, James

Mystery at the Toll Booth, Empire State Report: 33-36 Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Author: Hickerson, Matthew

N.Y. Goes Nowhere on Range of Issues Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 07/07/2008 Author: Ted Phillips The article from the Bond Buyer discusses the legislature’s failure to pass IDA and public authorities reforms in 2008.

Observations on Debt, the Budget and Infinity Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 04/14/2011 Author: Kenneth W. Bond, Esq.

Public Authorities Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 04/12/2004 Author: Glenn Pasanen and Gail Robinson This 2004 article takes a look at the problems with New York’s public authorities, like nepotism, accruing excessive debts, unaccountability, and the refusal to follow standard government practices. Calling public authorities the “Enrons of state government,” the article gives a good overview of the purposes of public authorities, their appeal to government officials, and possible reform strategies. Although written before passage of the Public Authorities Accountability Act of 2004, much of the information in the article remains relevant.

Reforming Public Authorities Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 06/19/2006 Author: Brill, Jo, Alan Hevesi, Robert Lamb, Blair Horner

Shadow Government Debt hits $52 Billion, Times Union (Albany), Aug. 11, 2010,, at A3 Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Author: Casey Seiler

State Cancels Deal to Develop Erie Canal, N.Y. Times Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 05/11/2004 Author: Michael Cooper

The Big Goals of the U.D.C. Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 03/02/1975 Author: Alan K. Campbell (NYT) In the wake of the U.D.C.’s near financial collapse in 1975, this article was intended to remind the public of “the task for which the agency was originally created: to provide housing, particularly for low-income families, increase job opportunities and upgrade blighted and deteriorating areas throughout the state.”

The Cold Facts of Officialdom, Albany-Style, The New York Times, Mar. 20, 2004 Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 03/20/2004 Author: Dan Barry This satirical article concerns the whereabouts of the New York State Overcoat Development Corporation. As self-confessed public authorities dorks, we nearly fell out of our chairs laughing.

The Phantom of New York Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 11/01/2004 Author: Christopher Swope This article from Governing magazine leads off with the statements that “Quasi-governmental authorities spend billions of dollars of Empire STate taxpayers’ money every year. They don’t have to answer many questions about it.”

The Public Authority Accountability Act Five Years On: A Challenge to the Future of New York’s Economic and Community Development Efforts Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 02/01/2011 Author: Wade Beltramo “The fifth anniversary of the enactment of the Public Authorities Accountability Act (the “PAAA”) has come and passed. Like most pieces of sweeping legislation, the PAAA (amended in 2009 by the Public Authorities Reform Act (“PARA”)) is achieving some of its goals but is also resulting in some detrimental consequences, both foreseen and unforeseen.”

The Public Authority: How It Works, Empire State Report 1 (March-April): 21-25 Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Author: Hardy, John

The Rapid Rise and Fall of UDC, Empire State Report Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 11/30/1974 Author: Timothy B. Clark

The Secret Lives of Quasi-Public Agencies Category: ALL Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 06/01/2010 Author: Phineas Baxandall In this commentary from the Infrastructurist blog, Phineas Baxandall, a senior analyst at U.S. PIRG, says that states need to improve transparency in spending and make public authorities more public. Privatization, despite its allures, is not the way to go.

The Sky Line: Battery Park City, New Yorker, pp. 69-77 Category: NY Sub-category: News Articles Publication Date: 08/20/1990 Author: Gill, Brendan An entire column about Battery Park City.