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As the fallout around Molinaro’s epic flip-flop on using American Rescue Plan funds to renovate the Dutchess Stadium continues, newly uncovered data show that Molinaro has accepted nearly $60,000 in campaign contributions specifically from contractors who have previously received over $1 million in contracts for Dutchess Stadium renovations.
This raises the question of whether Molinaro tried to use federal pandemic relief funds to further enrich his longtime political donors, who could benefit from the stadium upgrades. It wouldn’t be a surprise considering Molinaro’s very clear pattern of engaging in pay-to-play politics.
Until last week, Molinaro was dead set on spending nearly $12M of American Rescue Plan funds on player and VIP updates of Dutchess Stadium instead of pandemic recovery.
His decision to fund the stadium was rushed through the Dutchess County Legislature even though the U.S. Treasury-issued guidelines for the spending of American Rescue Plan funding noted, “Large capital expenditures intended for general economic development or to aid the travel, tourism and hospitality industries — such as convention centers and stadiums — are, on balance, generally not reasonably proportional to addressing the negative economic impacts of the pandemic.”
But as Molinaro faced damaging coverage in the New York Times and Highlands Current around his reckless spending, he backtracked spending millions of federal COVID relief funds on the stadium renovation to protect his hide.
DCCC Spokesperson Abel Iraola:
“Did pay-to-play politician Marc Molinaro try to use federal pandemic relief funds to get more lucrative county contracts for his longtime political donors? Molinaro is as corrupt as they come, and he owes upstate New Yorkers answers about why he tried to steer public health emergency funding to a baseball stadium.”
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