ALBANY – The state’s Authorities Budget Office annual report on public authorities, released on Monday, continued its criticism of the Orange County Partnership’s financial operations maintaining the agency is a public authority and must comply with the statutory transparency requirements of a local authority. The Partnership disputes that assertion and continues to fight the state agency’s overreach of its authority in State Supreme Court, said Partnership attorney Richard Golden.
The state report said after the Partnership’s “prolonged period of defiance… and rounds of litigation” State Supreme Court ordered it to file the required governance and financial reports.
Golden maintains the county group is a private entity and does not receive any public funding.
“In the meantime, the ABO’s censure of the Partnership goes beyond what it’s powers are and we were able to get an injunction from the court to stop the ABO from any future enforcement of anything against the Partnership while this litigation is ongoing,” he said.
The report by the state office said state law and a Supreme Court ruling determined the Partnership “remains a local authority” as it was created by Orange County and the county’s Industrial Development Agency and “has remained sponsored by and affiliated with these and other municipalities’ IDAs and other public entities between 1985 and 2019.”
