{"id":88909,"date":"2020-10-14T01:37:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T22:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/de-blasio-scandal-donor-lands-nyc-school-bus-company-bailout\/"},"modified":"2020-10-14T01:37:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T22:37:18","slug":"de-blasio-scandal-donor-lands-nyc-school-bus-company-bailout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/de-blasio-scandal-donor-lands-nyc-school-bus-company-bailout\/","title":{"rendered":"#De Blasio scandal donor lands NYC school bus company bailout"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#De Blasio scandal donor lands NYC school bus company bailout<\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

\n No kids? No problem!<\/p>\n

The Department of Education is bailing out a school bus company owned by a major donor in one of Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s biggest campaign finance scandals, agreeing to take over the firm for an undisclosed price.<\/p>\n

Under the deal announced by City Hall on Tuesday, the DOE will take ownership of Reliant Transportation\u2019s fleet of 1,000 school buses, other vehicles and related functions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis move raises all sorts of questions, including, how can the city afford it in the face of huge budget shortfalls?\u201d said Leonie Haimson, a longtime parent advocate who heads the nonprofit Class Size Matters. \u201cWhy are they adding more city employees while threatening to lay off thousands of others?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd,\u201d she added, \u201cwhy move to acquire this company now, when we have no idea how long school buildings will remain open and whether any busing will actually be needed?\u201d<\/p>\n

Reliant\u2019s current employees will all be offered new positions after the takeover at the city-established nonprofit formed to operate Reliant\u2019s former business.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit \u2014 New York City School Bus Umbrella Services, Inc. \u2014 will also be responsible for Reliant\u2019s pension obligations, which a source in August pegged at $150 million.<\/p>\n

Officials described the deal as \u201ctentative\u201d and refused to provide additional details as they spun the purchase as \u201ca long-term investment in school bus transportation that will provide greater stability, flexibility, and oversight in school bus service in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing everything we can to guarantee safe, fast, and reliable bus service for the students who need it most,\u201d de Blasio claimed in a statement. \u201cThis agreement delivers on that promise and makes a lasting investment in our school communities for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reliant\u2019s parent company is partially owned by\u00a0Alex Lodde, <\/span>a key donor to de Blasio\u2019s failed 2014 effort to bankroll a Democratic majority in the state Senate, who was its longtime chief executive and remains on the firm\u2019s board of directors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lodde gave $100,000 to an upstate Democratic county party in de Blasio\u2019s effort to skirt campaign finance laws, which resulted in a probe and scalding report from state regulators.<\/p>\n

The DOE\u2019s purchase comes less than four months after City Hall hired a consulting firm to study a possible DOE takeover of its privately run school bus system. The contract, potentially worth $800,000, was let through the city\u2019s secretive Economic Development Corporation.<\/p>\n

Officials were not able to immedia<\/a>tely say if the consultants had wrapp<\/a>ed up their work yet.<\/p>\n

The school bus buyout comes just after The Post revealed that the DOE recently inked new deals with bus companies that would pay them $106 million for the two months they stood idle during the springtime after the coronavirus pandemic outbreak forced officials to shut down in-person learning.<\/p>\n

Reliant\u2019s parent company, MV Transportation, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#De Blasio scandal donor lands NYC school bus company bailout” No kids? No problem! The Department of Education is bailing out a school bus company owned by a major donor in one of Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s biggest campaign finance scandals, agreeing to take over the firm for an undisclosed price. Under the deal announced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/bill-de-blasio-6.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[75555,5042,69348,70643,75722],"class_list":["post-88909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-10-13-20","tag-bill-de-blasio","tag-city-hall","tag-department-of-education","tag-school-bus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}