We welcome the increased scrutiny being put on state grant money, and we hope the additional oversight will put more pressure on state lawmakers to apply only for grants that benefit the public, not the lawmakers, themselves.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office is reviewing member item - or pork barrel - grants, looking for fraud or conflicts of interest, and many previously awarded grants are now being rejected, mostly for a lack of follow-up paperwork.

In years past, some state lawmakers have steered money to charitable groups that employed members of their family.

The annual grants - accounting for about $170 million in taxpayer money every year - are supposed to support projects benefiting the public, not the political interests of the members who get to disburse them.

And while many of the grants truly serve the public (helping to pay for municipal infrastructure or helping cash-strapped volunteer fire departments purchase new equipment) some of the money sits idle because required statements concerning potential conflicts of interest have never been filed.

And while some are certainly more guilty of this than others, we've seen area representatives make showy displays of the grants they've secured, posing with huge cardboard “checks” at staged events. The obvious statement being made is, “Look what I've done for you!”

But the people bringing the money home are simply doing what they were elected to do - they've successfully steered some of your tax dollars out of Albany and back into the local community.

Grants to help a local senior center or to build a new playground are wonderful things, but trying to use grants to secure more votes is unseemly, and trying to get grants to help friends or relatives must be prevented from happening in the first place.