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Staten Island Needs $37M to Recover From Sandy, State Told

By Nicholas Rizzi | July 23, 2014 10:00am
 Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis called on the NYS Empire State Development Corporation to spend $37 million on programs to help small businesses damaged by Hurricane Sandy.
Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis called on the NYS Empire State Development Corporation to spend $37 million on programs to help small businesses damaged by Hurricane Sandy.
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Nicole Malliotakis

NEW DORP BEACH — A Staten Island assemblywoman has asked the state to spend the same amount of money it used on its "New York is Back" tourism campaign to help her borough recover.

Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis joined residents and small business owners damaged by Hurricane Sandy to call on the NYS Empire State Development Corporation to spend $37 million to help recovery.

"I understand that tourism is important to some regions affected by Hurricanes Sandy, Irene and Lee such as Long Island and Catskills, but here in Staten Island victims of Super Storm Sandy are still struggling to recover nearly two years later," she said in a statement.

"We need the Empire State Development Corporation to use recovery money to help business owners get back on their feet."

Malliotakis said that small businesses on Staten Island have not received any money in federal aid and were only offered loans that require personal property as collateral, which many have been denied.

She asked the governor to create a grant program for businesses in areas destroyed by the storm.

"Our restaurant is our livelihood. We’ve poured our heart and soul into this place, and it was all destroyed in one night," said Barbara Nejeidi, owner of DiSara's on Roma Avenue.

"We were told that the government would be there to help us but it seems like all it did was throw obstacles in our way. And when we found out the state chose to use the money this way, it was like adding insult to injury."

Barbara Brancaccio, a spokeswoman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Office of Storm and Recovery, said the state has already allocated more than $800 million to Staten Island for storm recovery and called Malliotakis' advocacy "misguided."

"Ms. Malliotakis knows full well that small businesses and local economies in storm-effected communities in Long Island and Upstate NY rely on tourism, therefore NY State used specifically designated federal funds to invest in marketing so that local economies could recover from Sandy, Irene and Lee," Brancaccio said in a statement.

"Her advocacy is myopic and misguided and should be directed to the City’s Build It Back Program, which is responsible for getting money to home owners and small businesses in her district.”

Aside from the local government, Malliotakis also called on the federal government to "cut the red tape" and make it easier for residents to get the aid they need.

"President Obama stood just a few blocks away from here in 2012 and promised to cut the red tape, but we still see residents and local government jumping through hoops to satisfy convoluted federal regulations to spending aid," Malliotakis said.