| Uncle Joe's gang dropped a major pork bomb yesterday, springing $218 million dollar worth of capital projects on an unsuspecting Dem minority and shunning every single proposal submitted by Democrats. What did Uncle Joe decide to spend your money on this year? Well, for starters he graciously decided to give GE, yes General Electric, $3 million dollars of your money. Really. He also deemed his own alma mater worthy of some of your hard earned cash. From the Times Union:
Senate serves up pork
The Senate on Tuesday unveiled $218 million in capital projects, providing funds for private companies, local authorities and previously undisclosed big-ticket expenses such as a music center at Skidmore College and a semiconductor plant in Saratoga County.
The items, some of which were labeled by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer as "a horrendous thing to look at ... dripping with fat," include $4 million for Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's alma mater, Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, and $6 million for a semiconductor training center at Hudson Valley Community College, also in Bruno's district.
The Skidmore project is supposed to be the subject of a news conference Friday involving the Arthur Zankel Music Center, a campus concert facility now under construction, with Bruno speaking, a Skidmore spokesman said. No one would provide details Tuesday.
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The projects amount to about $218 million of the $350 million the Senate can spend at its discretion. None of the projects are for Democrats' programs, said Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, who complained the list was dropped on the Senate minority by surprise and passed in three seconds without many members knowing what happened.
"What's the process? What's the review? Why?" she asked.
A spokesman for the Senate GOP did not return a call.
The remaining funds likely will be the subject of another resolution later this session, a Senate aide said. In a news release, Bruno called the grants "smart investments" but did not spell out what the money is being used for.
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The Senate set up money for several private companies. GE would get $3 million for a digital medical X-ray equipment manufacturing plant, a project at the Rensselaer Technology Park touted by Bruno. The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Buffalo would get a total of $1.7 million.
"No one would provide details" and ""did not spell out what the money is being used for." Nice.
The Times has more:
While state analysts are forecasting lean times, lawmakers are bankrolling what some see as a bumper crop of pork.
Late Tuesday, the Senate approved $350 million worth of capital projects. At the direction of Senate Republicans, the state will be spending $5 million to pay for buses at private or parochial schools, $1 million to finance an archival depository at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan and $500,000 for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
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"The problem with these types of allocations is it's hard to know if they have any benefit," said Elizabeth Lynam, deputy research director for the Citizens Budget Commission. "How does anyone know whether these organizations have merit? Some may, some may not. There just isn't a lot of scrutiny of this part of the budget."
"The budget is already in need of cutting, and they continue to spend on the capital side without much restraint," she added. "They get the benefit of cutting ribbons now and paying for it later."
Edmund J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy, which advocates lower spending, said, "They're spending scarce capital funding on political wants when there are billions of real infrastructure needs and commitments that won't be covered by the current highway, bridge and mass transit plans."
Once again, as they do every other year, GOP Senators are embarking on their ritual stroll around their districts spending your money and cutting ribbons. It's quite the spectacle...
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