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The New York Power Authority is currently in the process of quietly selling off assets to recover a portion of the huge amount of money it spent on extravagant bridge lighting at the request of former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
While Cuomo’s grand vision for elaborate lighting on bridges might have seemed impressive to him, the rest of New York’s government did not share his enthusiasm for the costly project. The plan was eventually scrapped after a series of scandals led to Cuomo’s resignation as governor.
Cuomo had exerted his influence to pressure the Power Authority into funding this costly “investment,” which has also resulted in hefty annual storage expenses of around $300,000. Altogether, the bill for the bridge-lighting project has now reached a staggering $108 million.
And now it’s belatedly auctioning off the lights, hoping it can at least recover a few pennies on the dollar.
Stuck covering the loss (as they must also pay for many of the impossible green-energy schemes Cuomo mandated in pursuit of his national ambitions) are the Power Authority’s long-suffering customers.
This was hardly the only Cuomo vanity project; he “gave” (you paid) New York a $15 million “film hub” that the state wound up selling off for $1; a $90 million lightbulb factory that never opened; $30 million in Andrew-designed tunnel-tile mosaics, plans for a pointless $2 billion AirTrain and so much more.
His host of “AndyLand” projects burned at least $10 billion in taxpayer money.
Remarkably, the ex-gov is not the very worst candidate for mayor this year, but that’s still no reason for anyone to hail him as the city’s savior.