ALBANY – Funding for Gov. Cuomo’s SolarCity project, which was supposed to be approved tomorrow, has been delayed for a week.
The state’s Public Authorities Control Board was set to vote Wednesday on awarding $485 million in additional funds for the Buffalo-area project to construct solar panels, normally a routine matter following legislative approval.
But the meeting was postponed after reporters asked whether the vote would go forward given a sweeping ongoing probe by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara into the project and other contracts awarded through “the Buffalo Billion,” one of Cuomo’s most ambitious economic development proposals to revitalize Western New York.
A Cuomo spokesman said the vote was re-scheduled for next week.
Among the entities being scrutinized by the feds are SUNY Polytechnic Institute and Fort Schuyler Management, a non-profit overseeing bids for the Buffalo Billion.
Fort Schuyler was named in an April 29 federal subpoena.
Cuomo had earlier ordered that all funding for SUNY Polytechnic undergo additional scrutiny by an investigator he appointed.
“Due to the ongoing legal matters related to the Buffalo Billion and Nano economic development programs, please be advised that all decisions to be made by the SUNY Polytechnic Institute and The Research Foundation for the State University of New York regarding the Buffalo Billion and Nano programs shall be subject to review and approval pursuant to guidelines to be established by Bart Schwartz, who is leading the current investigation on behalf of Governor Cuomo,” the governor’s counsel wrote in a May 2 memo.
The $485 million for SolarCity was slated for Fort Schuyler.



