Gov’s Caddy $hack
New York politicians don’t take a back seat to anyone when it comes to spending taxpayer money.
Gov. Cuomo and state lawmakers recently approved a $1 million grant to help Cadillac renovate a swanky office building in lower Manhattan, The Post has learned.
The luxury automaker spent $12.7 million to transform several floors at 30 Hudson St. in Soho ahead of the controversial September 2015 relocation of its headquarters from Detroit.
The company later unveiled a glitzy showroom — dubbed the Cadillac House — on the ground floor the following June.
Cuomo — a muscle-car enthusiast who owns a blue 1975 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray — attended the opening ceremony, saying, “Congratulations to Cadillac in New York style and performance.”
The construction subsidy was approved by the obscure Public Authorities Control Board, composed of members appointed by Cuomo and the state legislature.
The Jan. 24 vote to underwrite the “purchase and installation of furniture, fixtures and equipment” followed a brief presentation by an official from the Cuomo administration’s Empire State Development agency, which needs PACB approval for its spending.
None of the board members asked any questions before rubber-stamping the request, according to an online video recording of the meeting.
Government watchdogs said taxpayers were taken for a ride.
John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, called the government grant an “utter waste of state tax dollars on corporate welfare for a luxury car company that had already planned on moving to posh Soho.”
“With business handouts like this, the governor and legislature are flushing $2 billion of public funds down the toilet every year,” Kaehny said. “That’s money that could be spent on subways, roads, clean water and schools.”
The grant — approved a day after opening statements in the corruption trial of former top Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco — followed a gusher of political donations from the political action committee run by General Motors, Cadillac’s parent company.
The PAC has pumped $31,500 into Cuomo’s campaign coffers since he was elected, and divvied $155,000 among other lawmakers since 2010, records show.
State officials defended the grant, saying it will “create and retain” at least 55 new jobs and citing Cadillac’s 10-year lease in Soho.
“ESD operates in the real world, where we compete with other states for business every day,” agency spokesman Janson Conwall said.
“This project certainly would have happened elsewhere without ESD incentives, but we were able to bring Cadillac’s global headquarters, $13 million in private investment and dozens of new jobs to New York.”
Cadillac declined to comment.