In case there was any doubt that the June coup was only about pork and power, an article in today's Daily News makes it completely clear. The June coup wasn't an ethical stand by Republicans; it was a power-grab by a disaffected minority that handed control to a corrupt Bronx machine politician in exchange for pork and power.
Senate Republicans added 98 new taxpayer-funded positions, bringing the total to 420, and granted raises to a host of others, Dems charge. In addition, Republicans created the new office of GOP Minority Policy Development, which has four people and costs $260,000, Senate records show.
Senate Republicans are on pace to spend $17.5 million, a jump of about $3.5 million from the $14 million that was available before the botched takeover.
Let's not forget that the ethics law "passed" by the Senate Republicans was a meaningless gesture of half-hearted reform. And let's also not forget that the day of the coup was the same day that the Senate was to vote on earmarks and Malcolm Smith put forward a plan denying Pedro Espada the allocations for his infamous Soundview health facility. Of course after Pedro came back to the Democratic fold, those earmarks magically found their way back into the member items.
Our state is run by a cabal of greedy individuals looking to pay back their friends, employ their family, and line their own pockets. The continued abuse of member items and the length to which the Senate Republicans went to snatch back power from the elected majority goes to show how important that pork spending is to New York Senators. We've lost any notion of a meritocracy, where money is handed out to projects and people that have earned the support of government. We need a new system where member items are split between both parties equally and closely scrutinized to avoid throwbacks to campaign contributors. We also need a fair system for creating Senate jobs, to avoid situations just |
