Take the Taxpayers' Money and Run

Governor George Pataki's (R-NY) administration has a program designed to put people to work. But companies are working a con on New York taxpayers instead.

The administration shells out millions to companies promising to hire new workers. But, guess what -- lots of them don't.

The Syracuse Post-Standard used Freedom of Information Act requests to get their hands on documents concerning the governor's Empire State Development Corp. The records show how much New York spent, what happened with the money and the jobs, and how little was collected in fines.

Reporters found the state had spent $195 million on 500 companies in recent years. The paper reported:

"[C]ompanies with active grants and loans fell short of their combined targets by at least 6,000 jobs. In all, 47 percent of the companies missed their targets."

In fact, a quarter of the companies that took the money -- actually cut jobs.

(Syracuse Post-Standard -- HT: IRE)