NY wastes so much money it needs $80 MILLION to a fix a staircase

Everything that is wrong with New York state government can be summed up by the staircase leading up to the Capitol in Albany.

There are 77 steps, built in 1897. They are crumbling.

Gov. Kathy “Congestion Pricing” Hochul and her administration say the cost to fix them is $80 million in taxpayer money.

That’s $1,038,961 per step.

Like so much of Albany’s spending, the cost of doing things just keeps going up for reasons that are unclear.

In 2014, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration commissioned a study that determined fixing the stairs would cost $17 million.

That number jumped to $41 million under Hochul, then almost doubled in this year’s budget.

Why the increase? No one’s saying.

In true Albany fashion, the project is being planned in complete secrecy.

The repairs were originally estimated to cost $14 million in 2014 and then $41 million in 2022. Hans Pennink

“Governor Hochul is committed to investing in the City of Albany and making our State’s Capitol a place all New Yorkers are proud of,” a Hochul spokesmouth told The Post in a statement. “By law, we cannot comment further while the procurement process is ongoing.”

Seriously? I’m not aware of any statute that forbids overtaxed citizens from learning how public officials rob them blind.

As part of her State of the State address, Hochul announced a proposal to shovel $400 million into many deteriorating state buildings and institutions in the collapsing capital city.

That’s a huge figure, but considering how out of control spending is, expect it to keep going up.

On Tuesday, Governor Tax and Spend proposed a massive $252 billion state budget stuffed with enough pork to terrify a pig, and designed to help Hochul’s 2026 re-election chances.

No wonder so many New Yorkers are stampeding for the exits.

At least they’ll have a nice staircase to run down. Maybe.