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New York’s pork barrel not equally shared

May 7, 2008

Live in Sen. Joseph Bruno’s Albany-area district, and the Republican majority leader will have $4.2 million to spend on your community agencies and hometown projects this fiscal year.

But live in Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ Westchester County district and she’ll have just $300,000 to allocate for your projects.

Spending lists produced by the state Legislature in recent days show one of the ongoing issues in Albany politics: While lawmakers represent about the same number of people, what they get for so-called member items is widely disparate.

While some reform groups and legislators say the pork-barrel spending by the state Legislature has undergone greater oversight and increased scrutiny in recent years, the issue of how money is distributed remains largely unchanged.

Last year, then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer reached a compromise with the Legislature to give additional aid to members of the minority party — Republicans in the Assembly and Democrats in the Senate.

But they still get a pittance compared with the majority members.

Each Assembly Democrat will receive an average of $541,102 in the 2008-09 state budget, compared with just a quarter of that for an Assembly Republican — roughly $121,000, according to a review by the New York  Public Interest Research Group.

In the state Senate, the disparity is even greater: Each Senate Republican gets an average of eight times what a Democratic colleague receives, or $2.3 million compared with $296,251.

The difference creates a have and have-not system, shortchanging constituents who happen to elect a member of the minority party, critics say.

“Decisions still get made behind closed doors and, as far as we can figure, based on political needs, not the merits of the projects,” said Russ Haven, the research group’s counsel. “And that shortchanges the minority parties in each house.”

In each annual state budget, lawmakers set aside about $200 million for member items — $85 million for each chamber and $30 million for the governor.

Nonprofit groups and local governments apply to their legislators for assistance, and the money is allocated behind closed doors as part of the budget process, going to Little Leagues, health care groups, community organizations and other beneficiaries.

The system has been wrought with scandal and controversy. In the past year alone, two Democratic lawmakers in New York City have faced criminal charges alleging that they misappropriated member-item money.

Since state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began reviewing each member item last year, he said, his office has rejected more than 1,000 member-item grants because of a variety of problems.

The allocation process has been improved some since last year, when the Legislature was required to insert each project into the budget.

Among the Legislature’s largest beneficiaries, according to a review by the research group and Gannett News Service, are majority members in leadership positions or those likely to face tough re-election fights in November.

For instance, Bruno, a Republican from Brunswick, Rensselaer County, receives the most of any legislator — $4.2 million, a 38 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.

Bruno’s two deputies — and potential successors — Sen. Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, Nassau County, and Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, were second and third, receiving $3.7 million and $3.5 million, respectively. Skelos’ member items are a 70 percent increase over the previous fiscal year; Libous’ total is a 52 percent increase. Theirs are the two largest gains among Senate Republicans.

Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, who faces a competitive re-election campaign in November, ranked fifth with $2.6 million in member-item funding.

Robach’s biggest item is $100,000 for the Frederick Douglass Resource Center in Rochester.

Robach said he recognized that in hard times, state legislators should scale back spending. He added, “At the same time, when there are pools of money created for economic development, education or things that are needed in my district, I’m going to do everything I can to deliver money for worthwhile projects.”

Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, who’ll probably face a tough re-election fight herself, ripped the funding system.

“We all represent the same number of constituents, more or less, and there’s really no excuse for inequitable distributions of the resources,” she said.

In the Assembly, Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, has the largest share of member items, totaling $3 million.

Assemblywoman Susan John, D-Rochester, ranked fifth. But her money wasn’t as locally targeted as that of some other members. She’s chairwoman of the Assembly Labor Committee, and most of the $2.1 million she was allocated went to workplace initiatives across the state.

Silver defended the member-item spending, saying the money often fills funding gaps in the budgets of state agencies.Source:  Democrat and Chronicle

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