ALBANY -- Lawmakers are showering $147 million in pork-barrel spending on 10,000 programs, agencies and charities back home this election year.
The grants that lawmakers prefer to call member items or Community Project Funds are doled out based on the political clout of a lawmaker.
The result is taxpayers statewide pay to support gun clubs and abortion-rights groups, clubs and charities — whose funding never gets a public vote — in addition to the health and social service programs that depend on the annual funds.
For example, members of the Assembly's Democratic majority get more grant money to disperse than the Republicans and the more veteran Assembly members get more than less senior Democrats. The same advantage is true for more veteran Republicans in the Senate's GOP majority.
Democratic Gov. David Paterson also has $30 million in pork spending. Paterson hasn't yet decided where his discretionary spending will go, said budget spokesman Jeffrey Gordon. Paterson's grants also will be made public.
The traditional pork-barrel spending was spared from the reductions that faced most other areas of the state budget adopted last month. The $121.6 billion budget filled a $5.2 billion deficit.
A newspaper's lawsuit and calls for reform by voters and good-government groups forced public disclosure of the data on the grants — including which lawmaker requested the spending.
Good-government groups have long criticized the practice as a way for incumbents to buy votes, contributing to a better than 90 percent re-election rate despite the public's low regard for the Legislature as a whole.
Political leaders in the conference may also direct more pork to lawmakers facing tough re-election contests.
"The most glaring unfairness of the whole system is that it's doled out based on political considerations, not by population or something that's fair," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
"The second thing is to just dump it like this isn't fair to the public at all," he said. He said the data could be provided in a database that the public could immediately search and sort.
"They are just trying to make it harder for people to know what they are doing," Horner said.
Lawmakers consider the grants a way to fund critical programs, often in health and education, by those who know best where the money is needed.
"Individual legislators have a real awareness of the needs of their communities and under" community project funds, Silver said. "It is important that funds flow to programs like meals on wheels and services for domestic violence victims."
The Legislature's grants include cash for American Legion halls, such as $25,000 for an American Legion Post in Glens Falls provided through Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno.
Bruno, of Rensselaer County, directed or helped direct 139 grants worth more than $4.5 million to his district and around the state. They include $95,000 to build a town pool in East Greenbush, $50,000 for the Rensselaer County Jail and $75,000 for the Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York based in Albany. He also sent $50,000 to the Hendrick Hudson Fish & Game Club in Wynantskill and $30,000 to the Mechanicville Fire Department.
Silver spent more than $10 million on his own — not including the money he directed with other members of his conference. Silver directed $705,000 to the United Jewish Council of the East side and $368,000 to various schools.
Sometimes the pork goes to areas in which lawmakers act on legislation in committees, and to industries that are major campaign contributors.
For example, Assembly Labor Committee Chairwoman Susan John, a New York City Democrat, directed $300,000 to the New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health Inc. to develop information about workplace hazards.
NYCOSH is a tax-exempt educational foundation affiliated with members of the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union. She collects thousands of dollars in campaign donations from unions.
And there are old standbys, like the $5,000 in money from taxpayers statewide that went to buy equipment and pay for umpires for the Van Nest Little League in the Bronx, thanks to Democratic Sen. Jeffrey Klein.
Similarly, the East Meredith Fish, Game and Gun Club in Delaware County received $5,000 for building repairs through Republican Sen. John Bonacic. And $2,500 went to the NARAL Pro-Choice New York, part of the national abortion rights organization, for research and education through Democratic Sen. Craig Johnson of Nassau County.
The projects were posted Friday on the Internet at www.assembly.state.ny.us and www.senate.state.ny.us
The result is taxpayers statewide pay to support gun clubs and abortion-rights groups, clubs and charities — whose funding never gets a public vote — in addition to the health and social service programs that depend on the annual funds.
For example, members of the Assembly's Democratic majority get more grant money to disperse than the Republicans and the more veteran Assembly members get more than less senior Democrats. The same advantage is true for more veteran Republicans in the Senate's GOP majority.
Democratic Gov. David Paterson also has $30 million in pork spending. Paterson hasn't yet decided where his discretionary spending will go, said budget spokesman Jeffrey Gordon. Paterson's grants also will be made public.
The traditional pork-barrel spending was spared from the reductions that faced most other areas of the state budget adopted last month. The $121.6 billion budget filled a $5.2 billion deficit.
A newspaper's lawsuit and calls for reform by voters and good-government groups forced public disclosure of the data on the grants — including which lawmaker requested the spending.
Good-government groups have long criticized the practice as a way for incumbents to buy votes, contributing to a better than 90 percent re-election rate despite the public's low regard for the Legislature as a whole.
Political leaders in the conference may also direct more pork to lawmakers facing tough re-election contests.
"The most glaring unfairness of the whole system is that it's doled out based on political considerations, not by population or something that's fair," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
"The second thing is to just dump it like this isn't fair to the public at all," he said. He said the data could be provided in a database that the public could immediately search and sort.
"They are just trying to make it harder for people to know what they are doing," Horner said.
Lawmakers consider the grants a way to fund critical programs, often in health and education, by those who know best where the money is needed.
"Individual legislators have a real awareness of the needs of their communities and under" community project funds, Silver said. "It is important that funds flow to programs like meals on wheels and services for domestic violence victims."
The Legislature's grants include cash for American Legion halls, such as $25,000 for an American Legion Post in Glens Falls provided through Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno.
Bruno, of Rensselaer County, directed or helped direct 139 grants worth more than $4.5 million to his district and around the state. They include $95,000 to build a town pool in East Greenbush, $50,000 for the Rensselaer County Jail and $75,000 for the Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York based in Albany. He also sent $50,000 to the Hendrick Hudson Fish & Game Club in Wynantskill and $30,000 to the Mechanicville Fire Department.
Silver spent more than $10 million on his own — not including the money he directed with other members of his conference. Silver directed $705,000 to the United Jewish Council of the East side and $368,000 to various schools.
Sometimes the pork goes to areas in which lawmakers act on legislation in committees, and to industries that are major campaign contributors.
For example, Assembly Labor Committee Chairwoman Susan John, a New York City Democrat, directed $300,000 to the New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health Inc. to develop information about workplace hazards.
NYCOSH is a tax-exempt educational foundation affiliated with members of the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union. She collects thousands of dollars in campaign donations from unions.
And there are old standbys, like the $5,000 in money from taxpayers statewide that went to buy equipment and pay for umpires for the Van Nest Little League in the Bronx, thanks to Democratic Sen. Jeffrey Klein.
Similarly, the East Meredith Fish, Game and Gun Club in Delaware County received $5,000 for building repairs through Republican Sen. John Bonacic. And $2,500 went to the NARAL Pro-Choice New York, part of the national abortion rights organization, for research and education through Democratic Sen. Craig Johnson of Nassau County.
The projects were posted Friday on the Internet at www.assembly.state.ny.us and www.senate.state.ny.us
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