Shortchanging Everyone

Two lefty groups charge that Gov. Cuomo’s “economic development” handouts “shortchange” minorities. But they miss the big picture: In fact, almost everyone loses on these deals. In a new study, the Fiscal Policy Institute and Make the Road NY blast Cuomo for funneling subsidies disproportionately to mostly white areas via his 10 Regional Economic Development Councils, leaving just crumbs for minority-heavy regions.

Since 2011, the state has shelled out $5.4 billion for 6,300 projects. Yet New York City, where minorities are 67.8 percent of the population, got just $55 per resident; the Mohawk Valley, just 12.5 percent nonwhite, got $1,074, nearly 20 times as much.

The groups say that’s proof minority areas haven’t gotten their “fair share.”

One of their mistakes is relatively minor: Economic-development aid is (in theory) targeted at areas whose economies need help. And though upstate may have fewer blacks and Hispanics, its economy has been far worse than Gotham’s.

More important is that this “help” doesn’t

help. As the report notes, the councils expect the $5.4 billion to gin up just 220,000 jobs, a whopping $25,000 each. But these projects almost never meet their employment promises; the true per-job cost is far higher. There’s way too little bang for the buck.

It’s no mystery why: For one thing, much of the REDC aid is just disguised pork, like the $3 million that went to Legoland in Goshen or the $500,000 for the Sing Sing Prison Museum or $834,000 for a National Comedy Center in Jamestown.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg; Cuomo actually has handed out at least $10

billion in economic-development aid, as The Post’s recent Andy Land series reported. And all that has created a lot more corruption than jobs.

Which is why it’s not just minorities being cheated. Sure, fatcats like Cuomo donor Lou Ciminelli, whose firm worked a rigged bidding process to win the contract to build a $750 million solar-panel factory in Buffalo, may benefit. But everyone else loses.

Which means that Cuomo deserves all the scorn he gets.