Taxpayers in New York shelled out over $100 million under former Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo for bridge lights that ultimately sat in storage before being auctioned off for pennies on the dollar.
At least $108 million was spent on Cuomo’s “Harbor of Lights” project, which was supposed to install specialty LED lighting on several New York State bridges. The project was pitched as a way to boost tourism, but the lights ended up sitting unused in a warehouse for more than seven years until they were recently auctioned off for less than half a percent of the project’s overall cost.
“It is what it is,” Justin Driscoll, president and CEO of the New York Power Authority, the lead state agency on the project, recently told CBS 6 Albany.
Cuomo announced the project in October of 2016, with a scheduled completion date of February 2018, according to Politico. Although the state originally planned to spend up to $250 million, disputes and competing priorities led to the top contractor on the project being instructed to cancel an order for lighting from a company called Phillips in late 2017.
By that time, more than $100 million had already been spent, and the unused lights were relegated to a warehouse for storage. Storing the lights has cost at least $2.1 million, though taxpayers will not bear the expense, according to CBS 6 Albany.
When asked in 2021 about the status of the project, a spokesperson for Cuomo insisted that it was still underway, according to Politico.
“This project will drive tourism — helping to rebuild an incredibly important part of New York’s economy that was destroyed by this pandemic — and make New York an even more dynamic place to live and open a business,” the Cuomo spokesperson told the outlet at the time.
Ultimately, after years of collecting dust in storage, the lights were auctioned off in late June for just $383,000, or 0.35% of the project price tag, according to WRGB. Among the bidders was Zohran Mamdani — who recently defeated Cuomo in the Democratic New York City mayoral primary — and reportedly offered around $50 for the lights, Politico reported.
Current Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment regarding the auction, which occurred while she was in office.
Cuomo served as governor of New York from 2011 until August 2021, when he resigned after being accused of sexually harassing multiple women, though he has denied the claims. Notably, Cuomo’s administration severely underreported the number of nursing home deaths after forcing these facilities to admit COVID-19 patients.
The Cuomo campaign did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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