News Brief
March 25, 2005
As a result of scandals exposing the corruption of certain
public authorities, such as the Canal Corporation under the New
York State Thruway Authority, State Comptroller Alan Hevesi has
been ferreting out the extent of quasi-government agencies in
New York State. In a report issued last year he counted 640 state
and local public authorities in the state. No full list exists
and the full number of authorities may be incomplete. He likened
the agencies to a “secret government” that runs the
New York State Thruway, Erie Canal, the Port of New York, the
Great Sacandaga Lake (a reservoir), bridges, tunnels, airports,
sewer and water systems, solid waste disposal facilities, stadiums,
public housing, and other public works. Voter approval is required
for public borrowing, but the state gets around this restriction
by using authorities. The comptroller’s report dated the
beginning of public authorities to the 1920s, but he missed the
eminently effective and efficient public authority established
before World War I by the Legislature to design and build the
Catskill Aqueduct, one of the world’s greatest public works,
to harvest for New York City the water flowing into the river
systems of the Catskill Mountains. The aqueduct’s completion
spelled the end of many river bottom towns and villages, as the
water raised behind the dams constructed over several decades.
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