ALBANY – New York is sitting on nearly $18 million in taxpayer cash meant for charities, including crucial donations meant for firefighters, veterans, food banks and cancer research, according to a shocking new state comptroller report.
The study released Friday reveals how Gov. Kathy Hochul’s bureaucracy has failed to distributed millions of dollars in “checkoffs” — charitable contribution that New Yorkers can opt to make while filling out their tax returns — with a chunk of the funds sitting idle for years.
“It is unacceptable this money is unspent,” State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli fumed in a statement. “The agencies responsible for managing these funds must ensure contributions are put to good use.”
The report found that some $2.3 million has remained untouched in the Volunteer Firefighting and Emergency Services Recruitment and Retention fund since 2023. Of that, roughly $300,000 in donations came from 2025 tax returns.
In another egregious example, the $1.1 million in the “Gifts for Food Banks” fund gathered cobwebs — having been completely untouched since 2024 — even as Hochul declared a state of emergency over food insecurity during the federal government shutdown last year.
Of the state’s top 10 charity funds with the highest balances at the end of the fiscal year ending in June, no disbursements had been made from seven of them in the 2026 fiscal year, the report said.
“These are donations … coming out of New Yorkers’ pockets at a time when economic realities are harsh, but they’re still giving generously,” noted state Sen. Jake Ashby (R-43rd District).
“So it’s despicable that the state, the level of incompetence, would not allow these funds to go where they needed it to.”
Ashby, an Afghanistan war veteran whose district spans Rensselaer County and parts of Washington and Albany counties upstate, was one of several lawmakers who prodded the state to finally cough up $1.7 million in donations meant for homeless veteran services over the last two years.
He was “grateful” that the state heeded his previous calls, but said it was still insulting that the Hochul administration was not a better caretaker of New Yorkers’ donations.
“I think it’s amazing that the citizens of this state, one of the highest tax states in the country, continue to give at the rate that they are on a tax form. And it’s insulting that those in their respective departments or positions of oversight would overlook this,” Ashby said.
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