Assemblyman Patrick Burke is speaking out against a recent expansion given to Tesla's South Buffalo gigafactory.
Earlier this week, the state granted Tesla until the end of the year to fulfill its jobs requirement of hiring 1,460 workers. It's the second time the company has been given such an extension with Tesla pointing to the negative effects from the ongoing pandemic.
Burke says people are tired of repeated issues at the site and Tesla should look to return some of the $950 million in state funding it received for the factory.
"The whole project has been mired in corruption and scandal and excuses and excuses," said Burke. "We're tired of it. It's reasonable to say, well the pandemic affected this, but when you've got so many ugly things on the other end of that, that's when people are like, it doesn't pass the sniff test anymore."
Spectrum News has reached out to Tesla for comment.
If the hiring quota isn't met, the state could impose a $41.3 million penalty. Tesla is set to submit a formal jobs report to Empire State Development by May 31.