The system for distributing “member item” funding in the state Legislature should be ripe for some change next year.

Before labeling such talk as naive, consider a few developments regarding member items, which are the state grants doled out by individual legislators for projects and agencies within their own districts.

This fall will mark the first election season since the member item system received a needed dose of sunshine. Long kept a secret unless an individual legislator wanted to announce it - say, perhaps, a few weeks before a contested election - those items are now all made public. It's much easier to find member items that are truly a waste of state taxpayer money.

Just as importantly, it's much easier to see how the money is divided up among legislators.

That's where the real abuse now takes place. The majority party - currently Republicans in the Senate and Democrats in the Assembly - horde most of that massive fund for themselves. So majority party legislators get to be Santa Claus each year, and that certainly helps keep them in office.

It's easy to see the inequity with the five state legislators representing parts of Cayuga County. The four minority party legislators this year are distributing a combined $711,000 throughout their districts. Compare that with the only majority party legislator, Sen. Michael Nozzolio, who is passing out $2,150,000.

The ideal solution seems obvious. Districts are divided so that they have an equal number of people. The same should be done with the member item funding.

Senate Republicans may not want to rule this idea out so quickly this year. There's a good chance Democrats could gain control of the Senate.

There's considerably less incentive for the Assembly to change things around, but if the Senate were to make a change, it would shine an intense spotlight on the Assembly clinging to a flawed system.