Freakish 'Control'

ASSEMBLY Speaker Sheldon Silver last week opted not to use his vote on the Public Authorities Control Board to shelve the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. But the fact remains that he could have - after all, he shelved two major Manhattan development projcts in the last 18 months. It's time to rethink the PACB - an obscure, but incredibly powerful, state board.

The PACB has three voting members - one each appointed by the governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader. It's supposed to vet projects funded by state authorities to make sure they're financially sound. (Authorities are quasi-governmental agencies that have the power to levy user fees; most have the ability to borrow funds by issuing debt.) Instead, it's just another forum for political horse-trading.

The law chartering the PACB clearly states: "The board may approve applications only upon its determination that, with relation to any proposed project, there are commitments of funds sufficient to finance the acquisition and construction of such project."

In other words, the PACB is, by law, only supposed to consider the financing of projects. Instead, though, politicians - with Silver only the most notorious - use it to hold big projects hostage to their own parochial concerns.