“This taxpayer grant was bought and sold by a crooked administration that couldn’t give a damn about the taxpayers of New York State.”
Cash grant payments to Crystal Run Healthcare should immediately cease to be distributed, and Governor Andrew Cuomo should return $400,000 in political donations received from Crystal Run doctors and executives, New York gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro today insisted.
Crystal Run Healthcare, a for-profit corporation, received a $25.4 million cash grant from New York State — and a direct line to now-convicted top Cuomo lieutenant Joseph Percoco — while donating massive amounts of money to Mr. Cuomo’s re-election campaign. Crystal Run, according to an exposé published today by The Albany Times Union, was the only for-profit healthcare company in New York State to receive such taxpayer funding. The company, which has already spent $6 million of the state grant on items including office furniture, had no need for the taxpayer funds. Indeed, it was already expanding its facilities when the controversial $25.4 million Cuomo Administration grant was awarded. The FBI and Orange County prosecutors are actively investigating the deal, it has been reported.
“I travel this state every day and see needs going unmet everywhere I go. Watching Andrew Cuomo give away the store to his friends and donors is more than a little infuriating,” Mr. Molinaro said. “Does he have any idea how hard everyday New Yorkers, like my own family, have to work to create $25.4 million in tax revenue; and he deals it away for personal benefit like so many cards in a deck. I’ll come right out and say it: This taxpayer grant was bought and sold by a crooked administration that couldn’t give a damn about the taxpayers of New York State. But help is on the way. The sleazy pay-to-play politics stop in January.”
Mr. Molinaro, whose 2019 Albany Accountability Act would outlaw cash grants to corporations and pay-to-play campaign donations, again called on Governor Cuomo to return the $400,000 in tainted donations, as at least one other elected official did with Crystal Run donations, and to halt all state payments to Crystal Run Healthcare, pending the outcome of the federal and Orange County investigations.
“Not another a dime of taxpayer money should go from the Cuomo Administration to Crystal Run while the FBI and Orange County are investigating this,” Mr. Molinaro, the Dutchess County Executive, said. “And, Governor Cuomo: You won’t have enough money in your campaign arsenal in November to explain away the dirty $400,000 you’re holding. Mark my words; New Yorkers have had enough.”
