NEW YORK CITY-A highly critical report by local advocacy group Good Jobs New York claims that Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have far too much latitude in allocating $8 billion in “Liberty Bond” funding earmarked for rebuilding Lower Manhattan.

According to GJNY, the private activity bonds to be issued by the state and city will be divvied out on a 50/50 basis by Pataki and Bloomberg, with much of the funding going to commercial real estate projects. The report criticizes what it says is a lack of accountability that allows the governor and the mayor to allocate the bonds without any public comment and with no cost/benefit or other analyses.

“There's absolutely no requirement for allocation of these bonds to be transparent or allow for public input,” Good Jobs director Bettina Damiani tells GlobeSt.com. “That's a concern, because the two people who are going to be allocating these bonds are the Governor and the Mayor. They've got to open up this process; $8 billion in bonds is a lot of money.” Traditionally, private activity bonds are used to finance transportation facilities, public works facilities, rental housing and utilities.