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Opinions/Editorials Title: Mr. Paladino and the System Carl Paladino, the Republican nominee for governor of New York, portrays himself as a business-hardened outsider who would reform Albany’s corrupt and bloated bureaucracy and drive out the pay-to-play special interests. “I’m just a regular guy from Buffalo,” he says. A look at his record as a developer shows that he has been an eager recipient of just the sort of government largess he so bitterly condemns and a generous contributor to politicians who can best do him favors. His flourishing real estate business was stoked with tax breaks, multimillion-dollar state leases and government land giveaways. At the same time, he used his partnerships and corporations to donate nearly $500,000 to scores of elected officials, judges and candidates since 1999 — a bit more than most regular guys from Buffalo. Mr. Paladino is the largest landowner in Buffalo, and building his empire required many local zoning variances and municipal permissions. Buffalo’s politicians, who received generous donations from him for years, were happy to help. Though he was an owner of several downtown parking lots, he won a seat on the city’s parking board, resigning in 1994 amid charges of conflicts of interest. He still serves on the board of the nonprofit corporation that manages parking lots for the city. Mr. Paladino’s money trail and cozy relations are worth remembering when reading on his Web site this admonition to the Legislature: “Don’t let contributors and lobbyists influence your votes.” Or when he criticizes his opponent, Andrew Cuomo, for relying on “special interests” and raising “Albany insider money.” Or judging his vow to clean up the “rotten ruling class.” Mr. Paladino has a thriving private-sector development business, including the construction of more than 150 Rite-Aid drugstores in western and upstate New York. But a large portion of his holdings are older buildings renovated under the state’s Empire Zone program. The zones are intended to improve distressed urban areas and stimulate employment but have become better known for their mismanagement and for rewarding cronies with tax breaks. (The program is now closed to new participants.) He won $3 million in tax reductions for his renovations, but, as The Daily News recently reported, only 25 jobs were directly created. His campaign has said that that does not count the jobs indirectly produced by his tenants, but a large number of those tenants were state agencies, which have paid him tens of millions of dollars in rent over the years. Many of Mr. Paladino’s investments have been a boon for downtown Buffalo, Niagara Falls and other areas. Much of that could not have been done without the sort of assistance from taxpayers that he decries. The state’s economic development arm bought a long-vacant office tower in Niagara Falls for $1 million then sold it to Mr. Paladino for $10 in 2002. He renovated it, and it now contains apartments, offices and a hotel. The same goes for a vacant department store building in downtown Buffalo that Mr. Paladino bought for $1 from the city and then restored. Albany could use more politicians with business experience and sound business sense. But when a candidate who has benefited this way vows to kill off the state Department of Economic Development, it is difficult to take his promises seriously. He accuses the Legislature of being “bought by union campaign contributions,” but he never mentions the huge donations that he and other business leaders have made. After years of greasing Albany’s gears — and accepting its gifts — it is ludicrous for him to claim to be anything but an insider.
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