Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday said he would be open to “any additional checks and balances” on economic development while he also defended his office’s response to bid rigging charges leveled against former SUNY Polytechnic President Alain Kaloyeros following the guilty verdict in the case a day earlier.
But at the same time, Cuomo said there isn’t anything he would or could have done differently to prevent the corruption case from happening in the first place.
“I’m open to any additional checks and balances as long as they’re effective and get the job done,” Cuomo told reporters.
Kaloyeros, along with prominent upstate developers, were found guilty of rigging bids connected to the Buffalo Billion economic development program, an effort devised by Cuomo to boost the western New York economy.
Cuomo insisted the Kaloyeros case was a surprise, given his track record in state government that pre-dated the current administration.
“Mr. Kaloyeros was surprising to everyone because he was a 20-25 year state employee,” Cuomo said. “He pre-dated me. He had done great work under Gov. Pataki. The Albany regional turnaround, becoming the nano capital of the world, was really one of the great economic development projects in this state, in decades.”
The comments Friday were the most extensive to date Cuomo has given since the indictments, which had been part of the same case against Cuomo’s former close aide, Joe Percoco. The cases were separated, and Percoco earlier this year was convicted of bribery and fraud charges.