In high-quality TV ads popping up in living rooms across the country, Gov. Cuomo is telling the world that New York State is “Open for Business.”
But exactly how he’s spending the public’s money to broadcast that message is closed to public scrutiny.
Way back on July 9, 2013, the Gannett News Service formally requested details on the campaign — including what the ads cost, where they aired and how much is being spent in each state — under the state’s Freedom of Information Law.
A full year later, Gannett is still waiting to receive information the public is clearly entitled to know.
The most recent postponement came in a June 26 letter from the agency responsible, the Empire State Development Corp. The only explanation: “ESD continues to gather and review documents.”
The wait has been long enough that the state’s own Freedom of Information expert, Bob Freeman of the Committee on Open Government, was moved to say: “I would conjecture that the kind of records requested can be located relatively promptly, and that a delay of as much as a year is inconsistent with law.”
It’s even more inconsistent with Cuomo’s words from 2010 — as printed on page 10 of his campaign book, “Clean Up Albany” — when he pledged “to make the state government the most transparent and accountable in history.”
That might be one of the most-quoted statements Cuomo has ever made — because it comes up in all the stories about his administration delaying or denying requests for public information.
It took six months, for example, for the Associated Press to pry loose a complete list of questions that were asked of the governor during an online chat in 2012.
Transportation advocates have been asking for more than two years to see the state’s plan to finance the new $3.9 billion Tappan Zee Bridge.
That plan, if it exists, has yet to see the light of day — even though construction is well under way, and even though the Cuomo administration is moving forward this week with a controversial plan to borrow $500 million from a clean water loan fund to pay bridge-related costs.
But the lack of information about the TV ads is especially troubling given that many of them are airing on New York stations in an election year.
Cuomo does not appear in the ads (which would be against state law) and insists that they are solely designed for the legitimate purpose of encouraging businesses to locate or expand in New York.
But the spots promote the idea that the state’s business climate has gotten dramatically friendlier in recent years, and that the state’s economy is surging.
Republicans sharply dispute both points — and call the ads an abuse of public funds to indirectly boost the governor’s public image.
Recent versions of the ads say, for example, that New York is No. 2 in job creation since the Great Recession — a claim Cuomo peppers into many of his speeches, including one on Tuesday at General Electric’s research and development center near Schenectady.
That figure is based on the raw total of jobs that New York has gained — which is large because the state has the third-biggest population in the country. But on the rate of job growth — which is the more revealing measure — New York falls below the national average.
Not mentioned in the ads is that New York continues to rank at or near the bottom of many independent analyses of its business climate — a fact that Cuomo brought up a lot when he was running for governor four years ago, and that Astorino is bringing up a lot now.
So how much are taxpayers spending to deliver an arguably misleading statistic into the homes of New York voters?
So far, the state has dribbled out only partial information — that, as of March, it had spent $15.2 million on the campaign, about $6.3 million of that on New York-based stations.
So how many times have the spots aired on in-state TVs? Approximately how many viewers have seen them? How much was spent on filming the ads versus buying the air time?
And will this public spending continue — or will Cuomo call a halt, at least on New York stations, until after Election Day?
The public has a right to know.
whammond@nydailynews.com
