To the Editor:

I am angry at NY tax dollars given away to special interests recently: $1.3 million to rehab part of the former Hackett’s Hardware for a local businessman to make into a retail store. A brewery in Canton receives a $610,000 award. The village of Potsdam secures a $1.3 million grant on behalf of a local businessman to rehabilitate the former Scanlon Auto Parts store building. The cherry on top is NY State legislators, the highest paid in the country, voting themselves a $32,000 raise.

All this money comes from us, the citizens, taxed from the fruits of our labor. It forces tax payers into becoming unwilling shareholders investing in a business without consent. Government is not supposed to fund private business with its citizen’s money. It shows favoritism to those who are adept in writing grant applications. It’s immoral to invest citizens' tax dollars to a few chosen businesses to obtain capital. Let them get their own private investors, or take a loan from a bank. Let them take the risk, not NY tax payers.

Just when was it the government’s obligation to subsidize any private business? Did we elect our leaders for their business acumen? To serve as our proxy financial advisors to invest our tax dollars on behalf of others? This is not my idea of being fiscally responsible spending our tax dollars. This is corporatism. It puts the financial risk on the citizens, rewarding the few contractors lucky enough to be chosen.

State officials often say such grants will create jobs and tax revenue to pay the investment back. How can they know for sure? What if the business the state invested our money in fails? The politicians suffer no loss. They will just put it on New York's ever increasing state debt, according to my online search, is currently about 160.65 billion. By the fiscal year of 2027, it’s projected to increase to 202.65 billion. That is a huge debt bubble that when it bursts, will destroy state pensions and other essential services NY citizens depend on.

All NY grants, regardless of their purpose and noble sounding names, are pork projects to appease a few at the expense of many. They come and go, never to be heard from again. The money invested is lost or pocketed by a few on white elephant projects that never pan out. A review by an independent and impartial accounting firm should be made to reveal how many of these grants truly made a return on the tax dollars invested.

Ron Shirtz
Rensselaer Falls