Bottom Line
Comptroller Lander found that de Blasio wasted $66 million on ferry operating costs due to bad decisions by his hand-picked officials in charge of the city's Economic Development Corp
The EDC reported spending $534 million to operate the ferries during the six and a half years that ended on Dec. 31, but auditors uncovered a total of at least $758.5 million in ferry related expenditures
The actual subsidy per ride has actually been near twice that amount
ranging from a low of $11.44 in fiscal 2019 to a high of $14.57 during fiscal 2020, when ridership plunged amid COVID-19-related lockdowns.
During fiscal 2021, the taxpayer subsidy was $12.88 per ride.
Lander's recommendations include seeking the recovery of what he called about $12 million in "overpayments" to San Francisco-based Hornblower Cruises, which has been paid nearly $830 million since 2015 and has a contract to operate the ferry system through September 2023.
In a response to the audit’s findings, the EDC said it wouldn’t seek any refunds from Hornclower because all the money the company got paid was "in accordance with" its contract.
EDC executive vice president and chief financial officer Fred D’Ascoli also said that under de Blasio, the nonprofit corporation was charged with implementing a massive and complex ferry system in less than three years despite being told by experts that a system of this scale would be impossible to deliver in this timeframe.
https://nypost.com/2022/07/06/ex-mayor-bill-de-blasio-cooked-books-to-hide-224m-in-nyc-ferry-outlays/
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