New York’s school children are asked by teachers to show how they arrived at their answer in math class because it is entirely possible to arrive at the right answer using the wrong logic.

In the wake of the latest corruption scandal to rock New York’s government, it’s time for the state to show its work on economic development projects.

To recap, Joseph Percoco, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s former executive deputy secretary, and Alain Kaloyeros, president of the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, are among nine who face charges, according to a criminal complaint by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. As the leader of SUNY Polytechnic, Kaloyeros was instrumental to Cuomo’s efforts to bring high-tech jobs to upstate New York. According to the federal complaint, Percoco took more than $315,000 in bribes from 2012 through 2016 to Syracuse-based COR Development and Competitive Power Ventures, an energy company with state business. Todd Howe, a consultant for the two companies and former Cuomo associate, set up bank accounts and a shell company to funnel bribes, including payments to Percoco’s wife, the complaint said. The document also names two executives at COR Development as well as Buffalo developer Louis Ciminelli, whose company LPCiminelli stood to make millions off Cuomo’s efforts to revitalize the upstate economy. Prosecutors allege that Ciminelli conspired with Kaloyeros and executives at COR to rig project bidding to ensure Ciminelli and COR won lucrative state contracts.

We would like to think Gov. Andrew Cuomo has found the right answer with the Athenex project in Dunkirk and Jamestown’s designation as a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative community, but the portrait painted by Bharara makes one wonder. Athenex fell from the sky like manna from heaven. It would seem to stand on its merits – Chautauqua County needs the type of jobs Athenex can bring while Dunkirk desperately needs the tax base and influx of money that employees of Athenex will spend in Dunkirk businesses. Given that the project was shifted under the purview of Howard Zemsky just a couple of weeks before Bharara’s bombshell, should Chautauqua County be worried that the corruption scandal reaches its way to Athenex?

And, what of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative? The DRI, too, would seem to stand on its merits. Jamestown needs an influx of money to kick-start development of buildings that have been vacant for far too long. Is there a quid pro quo in the way the DRI is being set up? A state-designated planning firm will receive $300,000 off the top to put together a plan to spend the $10 million of state money.But, were decisions about DRI communities made on the up-and-up? Does the state have favored contractors or developers with whom it wants to work on DRI-related projects? There are 10 DRI awards, after all. How much of this work is going to people with the right connections?

This latest set of charges calls into question projects throughout the state. Many are projects of vital importance to small cities like Jamestown and Dunkirk who need the state as a development partner. Now is the time for openness with the public about how these decisions are made. New York is spending a lot of money in Chautauqua County.

We deserve to know a similar corruption scandal isn’t coming our way in a couple of years.