I know I need to blog about this, but I’ve been too stupified to try.

Yet it needs to be said, by as many people and in as many places as possible. So here goes.

First. Fourteen million dollars of Fast Ferry money is missing. That’s $14 million of New York State taxpayer money unaccounted for, and if you think anyone at any level of our government is going to chase it down and get it back to us, you’re smoking something.

[State Assemblyman] Joseph Errigo, R-Conesus, Livingston County, said he does not necessarily fault [state Comptroller Alan] Hevesi or [Attorney General/now governor-elect Eliot] Spitzer for not documenting the fate of the state aid, though he is “disappointed with that aspect of it.”

As for the agencies that provided the money, Errigo said, “The state lost out on $14 million, and you’d think they’d be interested in recouping all or part of that money.

“My conclusion is that they’re, I guess, embarrassed, and they don’t want this investigation to go further.”

(The article is thorough and documents all kinds of intriguing shenanigans. Enjoy it now, as the Democrat & Chronicle has a tendency to throw things behind their firewall & charge for them after awhile.)

(And for further context bear in mind that Hevesi, newly re-elected to his post in a landslide, exudes a strong smell himself & it ain’t roses. The public has spoken, all right.)

Okay. So that gives you a taste of how carefully our politicians watch our money.

Ready?

Now Rochester’s mayor wants to spend a quarter of a million on an option on Midtown Plaza. That’s an option to buy. If the city decides it doesn’t want the plaza after all, the money is gone for good.

“So?” you say. “Maybe the city will decide it wants to buy?”

You’re not from from around here, are you. Midtown Plaza is a mall in downtown Rochester. Well, it was a mall. Now it’s a hunk of deserted retail and office space.

Nobody wants it, because nobody can figure out how to make money from it.

Oh whoa, wait, I forget! The city can figure out how to make money from it!!! Of course!!!

Really, I am so disgusted I could spit.

It’s like they’re deliberately trying to accumulate worthless overpriced junk. The “fast ferry,” which still sits in dry dock because nobody else is a big enough sucker to buy it. Renaissance Square, the performing arts center cum bus station that nobody wants and for which we’ll be paying some undisclosed amount to keep solvent until it’s knocked down for a parking lot or something some day. And now Midtown.

If it wasn’t my money they’re wasting I’d find this hilarious.

UPDATE: Welcome, 2Blowhards readers, and thanks Michael for the link :-)