The grotesque and gluttonous hypocrisy of Carl Paladino

By Michael J.W. Stickings

New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino isn't just a crazy Tea Party extremist, he's a grotesque and gluttonous hypocrite -- like so many of his plutocratic ilk:

For the last decade, anti-big government candidate Carl Paladino has pocketed millions of dollars in tax breaks by promising to jump-start economic revival in and around his native Buffalo.

Today it's clear that promise remains unfulfilled.

A Daily News probe found Paladino's companies netted $3 million in tax breaks through a program called the Empire Zones -- while producing a grand total of 25 new jobs.

To justify tax breaks in one instance, he sold a dozen vacant lots he owned to himself and claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in "real property investments." Seven years later, these "investments" remain what they were - vacant lots.

His Empire Zone investments consisted mostly of renovating his own buildings -- $19 million worth. He completed no new construction and brought no new businesses in any of his Empire Zone projects.

Instead, the Paladino companies such as the Ellicott Group mostly generate income through six big office buildings that collect millions of dollars in rent.

That's right, this anti-government (not just anti-big government) extremist who blames government for every ill (mainly because it takes money out of his pocket so that it can, you know, help and protect other people and otherwise make American society something other than an anarchic, Hobbesian dystopia) takes government handouts and tax breaks -- greedily, one imagines -- while doing next to nothing for the economy.

A measly 25 jobs, huh? What's that about the private sector being the answer to all our problems?

Paladino certainly isn't the answer to New York State's problems. He'd just make them a whole lot worse.