Talk about taxpayer ripoffs; check this out!
Money came, passenger service didn't
Sunday, October 17, 2004
By Mike McAndrew
Staff writer
A New York state senator said passenger trains would run daily between Syracuse and Binghamton when the state borrowed $3 million and gave it to the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad.
7 Rich "We're very excited to establish passenger rail service that connects Binghamton to the Amtrak system," Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, told a rail passenger association newsletter in June 2002 when he announced the $3 million grant. Records identify Libous as the grant's sponsor.
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Newspapers and industry newsletters quoted Libous that year saying that he expected daily passenger runs to begin by late 2003.
But two years after New York gave NYS&W the $3 million grant - and after Gov. George Pataki steered $5 million in other state grants to NYS&W - there is no regular passenger service to Binghamton. What's more, a NYS&W executive says the company has no plan to start it.
"I would say that it's in the possibility stage," said Nathan Fenno, NYS&W's vice president.
Passenger trains stopped running through Binghamton in 1970. NYS&W won't revive daily passenger service to Binghamton, Fenno said, unless taxpayers subsidize the operation.
NYS&W is owned by Walter G. Rich, who has a long history of contributing money to politicians and receiving tax money for his railroads.
Rich has hosted fund-raisers for Pataki and President George W. Bush at his Cooperstown mansion. Since 1999, Walter Rich and his railroad companies have contributed more than $102,000 to New York politicians, including $16,750 to Pataki and $10,550 to Libous.
Rich also owns OnTrack - a little-used passenger train that shuttles between Carousel Center and Syracuse University and which has received more than $8 million in state grants.
In 2002, five days before NYS&W submitted an application for the $3 million grant, Rich allowed Pataki to use one of his vintage trains for a whistle-stop tour between Binghamton and Syracuse as he campaigned for re-election.
Pataki and the three other Republican politicians on board did not pay Rich to use the train and did not declare it in their campaign filings.
A spokeswoman for the Republican State Committee said the train ride should have been disclosed as an in-kind contribution from Rich's wife.
"Due to a bookkeeping error, it was not reflected in the State Committee filing," said Karin Kennett, the Republicans' spokeswoman, in an e-mail. She said a $4,072 in-kind contribution would be declared on the next campaign report.
While Libous talked of passenger service between Binghamton and Syracuse, NYS&W spent the $3 million grant on another line - from Binghamton to Utica, Fenno said. In the grant application, the railroad talked of improving the tracks to Utica for freight trains and "expanded passenger service."
Fenno said NYS&W has no plans to revive passenger service between Binghamton and Utica, either.
NYS&W spent another $5 million in taxpayers' money fixing tracks between Binghamton and Syracuse, Fenno said. Pataki steered that money to the railroad in the state's 2001 budget. The company's freight trains can go faster now, Fenno said. He said the track improvements will help the region's economy.
Taxpayers are scheduled to be paying off the bonds for the $3 million loan through 2013.
Money came, passenger service didn't
Sunday, October 17, 2004
By Mike McAndrew
Staff writer
A New York state senator said passenger trains would run daily between Syracuse and Binghamton when the state borrowed $3 million and gave it to the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad.
7 Rich "We're very excited to establish passenger rail service that connects Binghamton to the Amtrak system," Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, told a rail passenger association newsletter in June 2002 when he announced the $3 million grant. Records identify Libous as the grant's sponsor.
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Newspapers and industry newsletters quoted Libous that year saying that he expected daily passenger runs to begin by late 2003.
But two years after New York gave NYS&W the $3 million grant - and after Gov. George Pataki steered $5 million in other state grants to NYS&W - there is no regular passenger service to Binghamton. What's more, a NYS&W executive says the company has no plan to start it.
"I would say that it's in the possibility stage," said Nathan Fenno, NYS&W's vice president.
Passenger trains stopped running through Binghamton in 1970. NYS&W won't revive daily passenger service to Binghamton, Fenno said, unless taxpayers subsidize the operation.
NYS&W is owned by Walter G. Rich, who has a long history of contributing money to politicians and receiving tax money for his railroads.
Rich has hosted fund-raisers for Pataki and President George W. Bush at his Cooperstown mansion. Since 1999, Walter Rich and his railroad companies have contributed more than $102,000 to New York politicians, including $16,750 to Pataki and $10,550 to Libous.
Rich also owns OnTrack - a little-used passenger train that shuttles between Carousel Center and Syracuse University and which has received more than $8 million in state grants.
In 2002, five days before NYS&W submitted an application for the $3 million grant, Rich allowed Pataki to use one of his vintage trains for a whistle-stop tour between Binghamton and Syracuse as he campaigned for re-election.
Pataki and the three other Republican politicians on board did not pay Rich to use the train and did not declare it in their campaign filings.
A spokeswoman for the Republican State Committee said the train ride should have been disclosed as an in-kind contribution from Rich's wife.
"Due to a bookkeeping error, it was not reflected in the State Committee filing," said Karin Kennett, the Republicans' spokeswoman, in an e-mail. She said a $4,072 in-kind contribution would be declared on the next campaign report.
While Libous talked of passenger service between Binghamton and Syracuse, NYS&W spent the $3 million grant on another line - from Binghamton to Utica, Fenno said. In the grant application, the railroad talked of improving the tracks to Utica for freight trains and "expanded passenger service."
Fenno said NYS&W has no plans to revive passenger service between Binghamton and Utica, either.
NYS&W spent another $5 million in taxpayers' money fixing tracks between Binghamton and Syracuse, Fenno said. Pataki steered that money to the railroad in the state's 2001 budget. The company's freight trains can go faster now, Fenno said. He said the track improvements will help the region's economy.
Taxpayers are scheduled to be paying off the bonds for the $3 million loan through 2013.
