YOU DON’T SAY: New York Governor’s donors did very well with healthcare grants.

The latest entry in this soap opera involves a healthcare operation which found itself in line for some very generous grants last year (courtesy of the state’s taxpayers) as they prepared to break ground on two new medical facilities. There’s one significant catch to the story however. Well before the grants had even been announced, the company seemed to be rather fat in the wallet and was already moving ahead with the aforementioned plans. (Albany Times Union)

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced $1.5 billion in grants last March to fund health care capital and infrastructure improvement projects, only eight of the 162 grants went to private businesses.

By far the biggest winner of the private firms was Crystal Run Healthcare LLP, a rapidly expanding company based in the Hudson Valley that seemed flush with cash even before $25.4 million in state subsidies arrived.

An April 2015 article based on an interview with the company’s CEO Hal Teitelbaum — published a month before applications for the $1.5 billion were first due — stated that Crystal Run was planning on imminently breaking ground on two 70,000-square-foot facilities.

As the local coverage indicates, recent shareholder reports showed that Crystal Run Healthcare had recorded significant profits and was sitting on a considerable pile of cash. In fact, they broke ground on one of the two facilities under discussion six months before the grants were even announced. There seems to be little or no question that they were moving ahead with these projects. With all of that information being publicly available, how is it that the company was handed a check for more than $25 million courtesy of the taxpayers?

You’ll be shocked, shocked at the answer.