ALBANY - Senate and Assembly members will direct $750 million in pork-barrel spending for construction projects to recipients including colleges, downtown renewal programs and ethnic museums in their districts this election year.

Despite the $5 billion deficit and the prospect of $20 billion in deficits in the next three years, lawmakers contend the spending - usually announced with much fanfare in their districts - is essential for boosting the economy.

Among the projects Assembly members and senators found money for was $2 million for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center; $3.4 million split between a Buffalo hotel and a Syracuse hotel; and $500,000 for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

“What's wrong with this is the public has no way to evaluate what the benefits are,” said Elizabeth Lynam of the Citizens Budget Commission, an independent fiscal watchdog of government. “They tend to be for narrow constituent bands, yet they are being funded from taxpayer-paid coffers.”

The Senate's Republican majority detailed nearly $218 million in spending, none of which will go to Democrats trying to take over the majority this fall.

Democratic Gov. David Paterson is expected to give Democratic senators some of his share of the $1.2 billion in capital spending approved in April.

The Assembly released details of their $243 million share in April.

The Senate's list of grants was released Tuesday evening. The Assembly released an Internet link on April 9 in one of several press releases issued on the day the state budget was passed.

Paterson hasn't yet released his list.

“Making smart investments to New York's economy and capital infrastructure is a vital component of keeping our state vibrant and competitive in the global marketplace,” said Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who has represented his district based in Rensselaer County since 1976.

Fiscal critics and good-government groups have long criticized such discretionary spending directed by individual lawmakers.

They say the projects chosen behind closed doors are funded based more on political need and a lawmaker's seniority than the need of communities.

The projects include more than $35 million for five State University of New York projects and several grants worth millions of dollars each for New York City museums and ethnic programs.

Among the spending:

• The Senate majority is providing more than $7 million to colleges, an airport and for development of a county industrial park in the district served by Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. That includes $4 million to his alma mater, Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs.

• The Senate also provided more than $35 million to Long Island projects, including waterfront development; a medical school building at Hofstra University; and for a high-tech “innovation center.” Long Island has long been a Senate Republicans' stronghold.

• The Assembly's grants include $15 million to the Queens Museum of Art, $10 million to the Coney Island Boardwalk, $2 million to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and $25 million for the University at Rochester's Clinical and Translational Sciences Building. The Assembly Democrats' strength is in New York City and upstate's biggest cities.

• The Assembly provided $2 million to WNYC National Public Radio in New York City and $750,000 for Millennium High School in Manhattan, an innovative public school that allows for less formal learning in small groups rather than traditional classrooms.