BINGHAMTON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – Senator Fred Akshar and local community leaders gathered today to call on State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to conduct a comprehensive audit of several state grant programs.
Akshar has identified over a dozen local projects totaling over $6 million worth of unpaid commitments through the State and Municipal Facilities Program that were already approved in previous state budgets.
Local projects still waiting to receive reimbursement include funding for the Greater Good Grocery Store, Broome roadway improvements, the Discovery Center, Mirabito Stadium and several more.
According to Akshar, each of these projects were awarded funding passed in the previous state budget under a Republican Senate Majority, and since the Democrats took over the majority in 2019, allocation for the projects has stopped.
Akshar said today, “One signature, and we’ve worked for two years to get that one signature, and apparently, the majority leader, the secretary of the finance committee, Chairwoman Liz Krueger don’t think that this grocery store is important to the people of not only the state of New York but to the people of the Northside of Binghamton.”
He mentioned that more than 350 projects from the Democratic Majority have passed this year without issue.
According to Akshar, the only reason these outstanding projects have not received funding is solely due to the fact that they were approved under a Republican Majority.
Executive Director of the Greater Good Grocery Store Joe Sellepack didn’t expect a small grocery store in a food desert to become a political lightning rod.
“When you think about the budget for launching this store, $150,000 doesn’t seem like an awful a lot of money, but we had to secure a bridge loan in order to access that $150,000 cause we were told that it was going to be up to a year before the money comes through from the state of New York; however, it’s two years in and we still haven’t seen any of the money.”
Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo’s office confirmed that this issue has been presented to her by colleagues and various local organizations.
She encourages other organizations who were given false promises from the state to come forward.