Senate Democrats helped pull the covers back on Albany's hush money, which is why - and may be the only reason why - The Citizen is able to publish our local lawmakers' line-item spending for the past fiscal year in today's edition.

When asked to override Gov. George Pataki's budget vetoes last month, those Democrats (who are like the best small children: Seen but not heard from) finally had leverage in the Republican-controlled Senate. Although they compromised on their initial demand, those Democrats have forced our state lawmakers to disclose their member-item expenditures, which has also been termed “pork.”

But before you hail the Democrats as Albany's only true reformers, know this: If those same Democrats held a majority and the bulk of member-item allocations, they may have been shielding their spending just like their Senate Republican counterparts.

In addition, remember that members of their own party who do hold a majority - Assembly Democrats - were not the driving force for this disclosure.

What you can finally see for yourself, at least with Cayuga County's state representatives, is the colossal gap in member-item money between the have-lots and the have-littles.

Sen. Michael Nozzolio, a member of the Senate Republican majority, distributed $1.63 million in discretionary gifts to his constituents in 2005-06. Democratic Sen. David Valesky had just $345,000.

The same disparity exists in the Assembly, where Cayuga County's Republicans get far less than their counterparts across the aisle in the Democratic majority.

To the majority go the spoils? Indeed. And the allocations of these funds can be controlled by Senate Republican Leader Joseph Bruno and Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, so not only must you be in the majority, you need to play nice with your party bosses.

Seeing this type of disparity may prompt some constituents to consider voting for a member of the majority party, regardless of their politics, to ensure that Cayuga County collect as much of the pork as possible. Fortunately, most majority-party candidates don't run on a pork platform; Democratic candidate for Assembly Bob Bergan specifically avoided touting that he would be able to bring back more money to Cayuga County than incumbent Gary Finch during the 2004 Assembly 123rd District race, a classy decision by Bergan.

(If you're wondering why it may be so tough to defeat an incumbent, just imagine challenging an incumbent in the majority party who has been sprinkling $10,000 checks throughout their district prior to the election.)

Voters shouldn't be lured into voting for the candidate with the bigger barrel of pork spending, because that only fuels the fiscal irresponsibility in state government. Instead of your state representative offering sending you a rebate check in the fall, why not ask your lawmaker to cut the astronomical levels of discretionary spending and, thereby, reduce your crippling state taxes?

It's disappointing that it took a threat by Senate Democrats for your elected state lawmakers to publicly disclose how they are spending your tax dollars.

Had there not been an attempted override of the governor's veto, these outrageous member-item expenditures would likely have remained another of Albany's dirty little secrets.