Court rules against taxpayers in pork lawsuit

From Capital Tonight:

The state’s highest court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group of 50 taxpayers who challenged state government’s constitutional authority of doling out economic development grants and tax breaks to private companies.

In a 4-2 ruling handed down today by the state Court of Appeals, Judge Theodore Jones wrote there were no grounds for suit despite the questioning “the wisdom of policy choices.”

Judges Eugene Pigott and Robert Smith wrote separate dissents, taking a more word-for-word interpretation of the constitutional argument in the suit.

Wrote Pigott:

“Unconstitutional acts do not become constitutional by virtue of repetition, custom or passage of time. But that is what the majority opinion holds today. The arguments made by these defendants are precisely the kind of claims that sully taxpayers’ view of our State government. It is unfortunate that the majority gives credence to those arguments and, as a result, deprives these plaintiffs – 50 New York State taxpayers who are attempting to exercise their right to air their grievances – of an opportunity to conduct the most basic discovery to support their claims.”