In June 2004, Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D-Corona) secured a $125,000 grant to create the Corona-Elmhurst Center for Economic Development, an organization designed to be the clearinghouse for ACCION, NY, a micro-loan organization established to help seed business in low-income areas, as well as other local banks.

The agency was an apparent success; in November 2005 the group was awarded $250,000 in a federal appropriations bill earmark from Sen. Chuck Schumer and U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Jackson Heights). “This federal funding is a shot in the arm for the economy in the Corona-Elmhurst district and will help fledgling businesses mature into vibrant enterprises,” Schumer said at the time. “The Corona-Elmhurst Center for Economic Development is instrumental in revitalizing the community’s economy, and, with this money, it will lead the charge in training and financing local businesses.”

An article in the Daily News this week, however, attempted to paint the Assemblyman’s relationship with the agency in a negative light. The agency reduced its operations in 2006 when its executive director fell ill, and by 2007 the funds previously earmarked for the agency were frozen pending a restructuring of the organization, according to a statement issued Thursday by Peralta.

“For over three years, the Corona-Elmhurst Center for Economic Development served hundreds of Queens families and helped scores of local businesses succeed,” Peralta wrote in a statement. “It received funding from my office, from the State Senate and from the federal government.”

Peralta was not available to speak in a phone interview for this story on Thursday.

The Daily News reporter had attempted to link Peralta’s campaign office, his mother and the owner of the building that housed the center through a series of unrelated data, which Peralta’s spokesman said seemed to be designed to confuse the reader.

Peralta’s campaign office is located in the building and received in-kind donations on Peralta’s Campaign Finance statements from his mother for the rent on the office. Peralta was unavailable to answer questions about any relationship his campaign or his family may have had with the Corona-Elmhurst Center for Economic Development, which is a registered non-profit, but did not have any tax filings on record through a popular non-profit public record clearinghouse, guidestar.org.

A spokesman from Peralta’s campaign said he would attempt to find out the details of the agency’s non-profit IRS filings, but was unable to get them by press time.

Peralta, meanwhile, labels the entire story as a hit piece generated by Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-Corona), whom Peralta is challenging in a primary for the Democratic line in next year’s State Senate race.

“Neither me nor anyone in my family has any financial connection to the Center,” Peralta’s statement read. “This is all part of Hiram Monserrate’s dirty bag of tricks to confuse his constituents… He shamefully wants to change the subject and obscure the fact that he is an abuser and unfit to hold office.”

Coincidentally, Monserrate had earmarked $47,500 in funding for the current year budget for the Audubon Partnership for Economic Development, which is attempting to get the Corona-Elmhurst agency back on its feet, noting that the funding “will cover the cost of remodeling…in order to serve the community in the greatest capacity.”

Reach Editor Brian M. Rafferty at brafferty@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 122.