For the last decade, anti-big government candidate Carl Paladino has pocketed millions of dollars in tax breaks by promising to jump-start economic revival in and around his native Buffalo.
Today it's clear that promise remains unfulfilled.
A Daily News probe found Paladino's companies netted $3 million in tax breaks through a program called the Empire Zones - while producing a grand total of 25 new jobs.
To justify tax breaks in one instance, he sold a dozen vacant lots he owned to himself and claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in "real property investments." Seven years later, these "investments" remain what they were - vacant lots.
His Empire Zone investments consisted mostly of renovating his own buildings - $19 million worth. He completed no new construction and brought no new businesses in any of his Empire Zone projects.
Instead, the Paladino companies such as the Ellicott Group mostly generate income through six big office buildings that collect millions of dollars in rent.