Wow, very cool. Jim Ostrowski filed the Lawsuit today in Albany… We signed on to this because it is the right thing to do. When there is a Law and it is written in the NY State Constitution that the government is not allowed to give money to businesses but continues to do so in a way to circumvent the process, it is time to bring it to a halt. Way to go Jim.

NY group challenges government grants to business — Newsday.com

By CAROLYN THOMPSON

BUFFALO, N.Y.

A group of New York taxpayers is suing the state over its practice of giving away money to private firms in the name of economic development.

A lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in Albany Monday contends New Yorks constitution prohibits officials from giving state funds to private organizations and makes no exceptions for economic incentives.

“For some time, it has been the practice of the state to openly, notoriously and proudly give away state funds for `economic development and other unauthorized purposes such as promotion of agriculture,” wrote Buffalo attorney James Ostrowski, who filed the suit on behalf of 46 people.

The group asks a judge to bar Gov. David Paterson and other state officials from the practice and to require companies that have received grants in the last four months to pay them back with interest.

A spokesman for the governor, Erroll Cockfield, said the office had not been served the lawsuit and declined comment.

The lawsuit also names as defendants several corporations that have received grants, including American Axle, Delphi Harrison and the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp.

“Predictably,” wrote Ostrowski, founder of the watchdog group Free New York, “the results of the flagrant disregard of the constitutional ban on gifts to private firms are precisely the set of evils the original ban was designed to prevent: high taxes, enormous debt, a rising deficit, economic stagnation and a state government dominated by special interest groups and oblivious to `the interest of the people as a whole.”

Paterson has projected the state will face $26.2 billion in budget deficits over the next three years. He has frozen most hiring and ordered agencies to cut spending by 7 percent. Thats on top of a 3.35 percent spending cut he ordered in the spring.

The governor also has called lawmakers back for a special session later this month and is asking them to approve $600 million in additional cuts.