By Associated Press
Albany, NY – Top officials at the state Thruway Authority say they intentionally withheld documents from the Legislature during an investigation into a scandal involving Erie Canal shoreline development.
During an Assembly hearing in Albany Tuesday, Thruway Authority officials acknowledged that they withheld internal documents from the Assembly, with the guidance of the governor's office. That information came as the Assembly holds hearings on the scandal that steered development rights for one-thousand miles of canal shoreline to a Buffalo developer for $30,000.
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester says public authorities under Governor Pataki have become patronage mills and cash cows for the governor -- at taxpayers' expense.
Last month, the state attorney general and comptroller said the State Canal Corporation acted illegally when it steered an exclusive waterfront-development contract to Richard Hutchens of Buffalo. After the contract became public, the deal was rescinded.