A group based in New York has gone to the city’s Court of Appeals as part of its fight against the grants awarded to businesses by the government, in an attempt to stave of an economic depression. The group, which has allied itself with the controversial Tea Party movement is pushing for the money given in corporate aid – believed to constitute billions – to be returned to the New York taxpayer.

The crux of their legal argument is that the constitution of New York specifically prevents governments from supporting private institutions with the use of public money, with desperate economic circumstances not mitigating this. If the appeal is successful, they are asking for all of the money paid out by the US Government to be returned by the companies who received it.

The hearing at the Court of Appeals is the last available option open to the 50-strong group, after the previous attempt to sue the state of New York and a number of private companies, including Global Foundries and IBM was rejected by the trial judge. The purpose of the hearing is to attempt to get the case reinstated for trial.

The constitutional provision that the group have based their case on states that:

“the money of the state shall not be given or loaned to or in aid of any private corporation or association, or private undertaking; nor shall the credit of the state be given or loaned to or in aid of any individual, or public or private corporation or association or private undertaking.”

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2011 at 8:06 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.