ALBANY, N.Y. -- In an obscure ground floor conference room at the State Capitol, the state's public authorities control board quietly voted Wednesday to approve $485 million in taxpayer money for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's controversial Buffalo Billion project.
The board is controlled by state leaders, including Cuomo, who defended both the procedural vote and the Buffalo Billion program earlier this week.
"These economic development programs in upstate New York are vitally important, and have worked extraordinarily well," said Cuomo, D-New York. "Well, there are questions about what one or two people did. All right, let's find out what those one or two people did."
The Buffalo Billion is currently under investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. At issue is whether bid rigging and improper lobbying took place surrounding the program. Former Cuomo aide Joe Percoco is at the center of that probe.
Some had suggested suspending the vote until questions about the program can be sorted out.
"Let's put the pause and hold button, whether it's a week or 10 days to make sure that all the questions that were raised the other day in the briefing get answered," said Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua.
The state's top two legislative leaders agreed with Cuomo that the money should be approved despite swirling questions.
"I believe that we can have between and amongst the comptroller, the attorney general, the executive, the Senate, the Assembly, there are a lot of mechanisms for oversight which should take place, but I don't think that should be an excuse for not moving ahead," said Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, R-Smithtown.
"I think there is a general belief that it's a worthwhile project. There are a series of questions we put forward and we are just waiting to get those answers back," said Assembly Majority Leader Carl Heastie, D-Bronx.
In short, if there were any questions about temporarily suspending taxpayer commitment to the Buffalo Billion, they were put to rest Wednesday with the control board's vote.