GOSHEN – State Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall), chairman of the Senate Investigations Committee, is anti-IDAs, Orange County Industrial Development Agency CEO Bill Fioravanti charged Thursday.
His remarks come after Skoufis’ committee released a report saying the new Orange County IDA board has done little to improve the financial incentives policy of the former board, which was ousted.
Fioravanti said Skoufis wants to “demonize” the IDA for his own political gain.
“He’s looking for salacious headlines and he uses disinformation; he mixes facts with fiction in order to try to malign us, but things like this report that came out from his investigative committee, I think are validating for us,” the IDA chief said. “If you look at the facts that are in that report, it shows that we have been doing everything right, and the reason he opened this investigation, it shows we are doing everything right as are our fellow IDAs around the state.”
Skoufis says the Orange County IDA granted financial incentives to Goshen-based Milmar despite the company’s sending conflicting messages about its need for that economic boost.
