Posted on 07/07/2022 3:16:55 PM PDT by lowbridge
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio used accounting gimmicks to hide nearly $225 million he poured into the city’s costly ferry system — and forced taxpayers to shell out as much as $14.57 for each ride as overwhelmingly wealthy passengers paid just $2.75 a piece.
Those are the key findings of a blistering audit released Wednesday by city Comptroller Brad Lander.
In addition, de Blasio wasted $66 million — including $34 million in “questionable vessel acquisition costs” — as a result of bad decisions by his hand-picked officials in charge of the city’s Economic Development Corp., the 50-page report said.
Although the EDC reported spending $534 million to operate the ferries during the six and a half years that ended on Dec. 31, auditors uncovered a total of at least $758.5 million in ferry-related expenditures — a difference of $224.5 million, Lander said.
The undisclosed expenses — which included payments to various vendors and personnel costs — comprised $181 million in capital spending and $43.5 million in operating expenses, “obfuscating the actual cost of the NYC Ferry system,” according to the audit.
“If you just magically put your capital expenses below the line, you don’t have to show them — even though effectively it’s the same total set of costs in the system,” Lander said during a news conference at the NYC Ferry terminal in Manhattan’s Financial District.
“When ‘hide the ball’ is played with any amount — and certainly with nearly a quarter of a billion dollars — you can’t have confidence that your city’s telling the truth or providing the information that you need.”
Lander said uncovering the budgetary shenanigans meant that the money-losing ferry system was operating far deeper in the red than previously acknowledged by the EDC,
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
and yet, still no-word on the ~$BILLION his dyke partner MISPLACED...
Another democRAT criminal..... I’m shocked.....SHOCKED I TELL YA!!.../sarc
Yup. Same time they lock hunter up. 🤔😜
The shipyard I workat is finishing up final touches on the last of three Staten Island Ferries. I hope they get it delivered in a hurry before the yard gets stuck with it because of Hizzonner’s fund shuffling and corruption.
Those stupid, stupid New Yorkers threw a crap fit over Trump’s ascendancy, and leaned as far left as they possibly could. They sneered and snarked, made nasty billboards and bus stop signs, and painted the street in front of Trump Tower to spite him. Mrs Mayor lost $6 billion and they looked the other way. Crime escalated — ho hum. Then they elected another worthless poser instead of a proven crime fighter.
Now they’re finding out what their tantrums have cost them, with no relief in sight, a crashing economy and danger all around them.
Tough luck, losers. No sympathy from me.
Pardon me, that $6 billion figure I posted just above was an exaggeration. ‘Twas a mere 8.5 tenths of a billion.
Arrest the low life and put him Attica for the rest of his life.
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