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This belongs to you. Take it back...
Pork 
Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 09:42:29 AM EST
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This morning's New York Sun is reporting that Governor Spitzer is doling out significant amounts of pork to Senate Democrats. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't like the look of this one bit.
Spitzer's Secret Senate Slush Fund
Governor Woos Albany Democrats With Offers of Capital Funding
Governor Spitzer is planning to funnel millions of dollars in borrowed state money to Senate Democrats, who have been secretly asked by the administration to submit their wish lists for local capital projects, according to lawmakers.
The move marks the governor's boldest effort to solidify his influence over the Democratic conference, whose support he is counting on in the short term to give him an edge during negotiations, and in the long term to play an instrumental role in pushing through his governing agenda.
For the past month, Senate Democrats have been submitting the paperwork for tens of millions of dollars in grants unbeknownst to most other lawmakers. There is no written agreement between Mr. Spitzer and the conference; the administration discussed the possibility of funding Senate Democratic projects with Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, who passed on the message to conference members at a private meeting.
...
For Senate Democrats, who have languished for years as beggars in Albany's pork hierarchy, the capital money would be remarkable reversal of fortune.
Sure, Senate Democrats have indeed been on the short end of the pork stick for decades, but making up for it by doling out even more borrowed money in the same opaque and purely partisan fashion as before doesn't look much like reform to me.
More on the flip...
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Sun Feb 18, 2007 at 09:22:06 AM EST
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Those are the words of Assemblyman Thomas Kirwan (R-Newburgh) when he learned from the Albany Times Union that former New York state Health Commissioner Antonia Novello, she of the $13,000 portrait, sent several substantial grants overseas to nations such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The funds came the HCRA, the "Health Care Reform Act", yet another pool of pork used for blatantly political purposes and doled out by the majority leadership in both chambers of the Legislature. In fact, the minority caucuses of the Senate and Assembly don't even get a cut of the money and former Senate Minority leader and now Lt. Governor David Paterson didn't even know the fund existed. Really. More from the TU:
State money was sent overseas
Former health commissioner directed $575,000 to agency for Haiti, Dominican Republic
Recently retired state Health Commissioner Antonia Novello sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in state taxpayer money to and the Dominican Republic for communicable disease control.
She also directed $1.5 million to a home for postpartum mothers at Kiryas Joel, a religious community of Hasidic Jews in Orange County whose members overwhelmingly supported her boss, former Gov. George Pataki, in his election campaigns.
And she steered more than $300,000 in public funds to Puerto Rico to create 60,500 videos on parenting tips. Novello also narrates the video.
These grants -- approved by Novello in 2002 when Pataki was running for re-election -- and others by the Legislature, came from a multimillion-dollar discretionary fund in the largely secretive Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) budget.
Using broad criteria, the money was provided without competitive bids from either the commissioner's, the Assembly's or the Senate's "HCRA priority pool" -- accounts created when HCRA was first crafted in 1996. The accounts grew over the years.
Much more on the flip...
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Fri Feb 09, 2007 at 11:14:23 AM EST
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(robinia rocks again - promoted by lipris)
I have been looking at how the Member Item database that we fought to gain access to reveals patterns of power and influence in Shelly's house. While I totally agree with recent posts by AM that the debt entered into by state Authorities is the real "big pig," the member item system is a part of how the current power structure is organized and kept disciplined.
Unlike the Senate, better than half of the more than 190 million in member items (looking at the three fiscal years we have available) is doled out to groups of Members. There are 169 different groupings! We can, however, look a little closer at the amounts each member has for his/her own discretionary use in the district. There are a lot of members, so, this pie graph from the Excel spreadsheet I have made is mostly conceptual:
Guess whose piece is that big blue chunk?
That represents over 22-and-a-half million bucks!
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Tue Jan 30, 2007 at 18:41:13 PM EST
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While we are talking about real money (my diary on the Pork-o-rama: the jackpot $1.5 BILLION pointed out by the NYT's Empire Zone), the Times Union brings us Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco list of "50 Secret Slush Funds" totaling some $3.4 billion.
Some of my favorites (from 2002) include:
Centers of Excellence and Empire Opportunity Fund $300,000,000
Gen*NY*sis, Transportation Capital Projects, and the Community Capital Assistance Program $150,000,000
Rebuilding the Empire State Through Opportunities in Regional Economices (RESTORE) NY $150,000,000
Centers of Excellence and Empire Opportunity Fund $120,000,000
Gen*NY*sis, Transportation Capital Projects, and the Community Capital Assistance Program $90,000,000
Rebuilding the Empire State Through Opportunities in Regional Economices (RESTORE) NY $90,000,000
Centers of Excellence and Empire Opportunity Fund $100,000,000
Gen*NY*sis, Transportation Capital Projects, and the Community Capital Assistance Program $100,000,000
Rebuilding the Empire State Through Opportunities in Regional Economies (RESTORE) NY $100,000,000
Seems like 2002 was a great year for Someone doing Something that needed a whole lot of taxpayer dollars, but what it is and for whom... your guess is as good as mine!
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Mon Jan 22, 2007 at 16:01:41 PM EST
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Not by the USDA, but by the NYAG.
Capitol Confidential is reporting that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is introducing a new procedure that will shed some badly needed light on just how "member items" are allocated in our state legislature.
Certified Pork
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is unveiling today a new procedure through which recipients of member items - a.k.a. legislative pork - will have to disclose "any potential conflict of interest and financial relationship with sponsoring members or their staff."
The certification will also have to include the "public purpose" that the money will be used for.
Here's all the legal language.
I'm particularly interested in the "any potential conflict of interest and financial relationship with sponsoring members or their staff" part. That should be interesting...
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Sun Jan 21, 2007 at 15:32:24 PM EST
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I have some maps and a new improved Senate Pork graph to share. I have put them in a PowerPoint presentation, and will email to "am" and "NYBri," as my attempt to upload to the TAPopedia told me that the .ppt file was too big for that system... Hopefully, they can put the ppt up for folks to download somewhere on the site...
I have been continuing to work on the Assembly member item data, too, but it is going much more slowly for me than the Senate work went. You see, in the Senate, the member items are just assigned to individual Senators-- pretty straight-forward. In the Assembly, there are various combinations of Members who are awarded member items-- as many groups of Assembly members as there are Assembly members, or maybe even more of the different groups. I don't know, because I am still sorting the data.
I know some folks have the idea that this represents great inequity in the distribution of funds in the Assembly. However, I am not sure at all that the Assembly distribution system is a ranking of members by political power and entitlement (although, it may be...). I want to look more closely at the groups of assembly members and their relationship to the committees, and the types of programs funded. This may be a bit of vestigial programatic funds distribution...
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Sat Jan 20, 2007 at 13:54:10 PM EST
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The NYT Empirezone blog has challenged us to see if we can find "anything interesting" in this list of Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) grants. They have even supplied the discretionary list spreadsheet to download.
While lots of attention has been paid to member items, as pointed out in their blog, those numbers pale in comparison to the amounts of money we are talking about here. And as the NYT reported last week New High in '06 on Borrowing for Pet Projects, unlike member items which are paid for out of the annual budget, the capital projects are financed with borrowed money that is repaid over many years. So this previously secret list, only now released since we have a new Governor, has committed the taxpayers of NY to a "state debt burden projected to cost $7 Billion annually by 2010"!!!!
I took a crack at this by just subtotaling the grants by their sponsoring Senators... needless to say, after Pataki's 3/4 of a BILLION, guess who comes in next? Then I ran a subtotal by County, so see where the combination of member and governor dollars go. Now, the Times article quotes Pataki's spokesperson as claiming these "investments are especially crucial to upstate communities" and Bruno's as "geared to create jobs and attract business". Well, interestingly, Westchester ranks 5th on the top list -- coincidental to being the ex-governor's hometown and the site of a fierce re-election battle for the Republican incumbent? And what about those jobs? How many are we supposed to be getting for this investment? Check out the lists below the break...
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Fri Jan 12, 2007 at 20:20:51 PM EST
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Noticed this letter to the Editor of the Syracuse Post-Standard today, and thought others here might also find it of interest:
Post-Standard Letter
Friday, January 12, 2007
This could be the year for member-item change
To the Editor:
With the imprimatur of the new governor, I believe that this is the year when we clean up the member-item system also known as "pork."
From my first days in Albany, it was evident that all constituents were not getting their fair share of state dollars through this secretive process. Millions of dollars were assigned without accountability. As a result, I introduced legislation to make the process organized, fair and open.
Every year I introduced legislation to change the member-item system. It received little support. This year, I have high hopes for a different outcome. My 2007 legislation proposes that:
Ö All state legislators receive equal dollars to distribute throughout their districts.
Ö There are specific standards.
Ö Legislators can't give out "pork" 60 days before elections to give themselves an unfair advantage over opponents.
I ask you to inform your state legislator in the Senate and Assembly that you support changes to the member-item system. For more information, please contact me at 914 941-1111, or galefs@assembly.state.ny.us.
Sandy Galef, Assemblywoman
Ossining
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Sat Jan 06, 2007 at 09:35:53 AM EST
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I've got a graph done of the member item totals by Senate District, using spreadsheets w/subtotals.... with just a couple of glitches that perhaps somebody out there can help me with. It is not yet ready for prime-time, but could be soon (also the basis we need for GIS map production).
So, here are the questions:
Is the 5K item marked "Ada L. White" supposed to be an addendum to "Ada L. Smith"? I assumed so...
Is the 91K "blanks" (no Senator listed sponsoring) really the total for Ruben Diaz, who otherwise has none? I assumed so....
Kruger-- on a majority form-- is listed at 493K; Carl Kruger also has 2 listings at 640,500 and 7,500 on minority forms (Liz Krueger has her own; this is not a misspelling...). This one was really a poser for me-- Kruger is endorsed by both parties? What? Can somebody explain this please.
Also--how can we upload jpgs here?
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Fri Jan 05, 2007 at 10:01:23 AM EST
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Attorney General Andrew Cuomo vows to investigate "member item" spending and makes quite a splash in newspapers around the state.
Cuomo to Review Spending on State Lawmakers' Pet Projects (NY Times)
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said Thursday that his office would review thousands of individual grants known as "member items," the spending Albany lawmakers doled out for pet projects last year, staking out a potentially vast new front in efforts to reform the ways of the state capital.
And moving to confront corruption in the upper echelons of state government, Mr. Cuomo also said he would promote the chief of his office's public integrity unit to special deputy attorney general, and promised a significant increase in the unit's staffing and resources.
In a brief but pointed speech here Thursday at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, Mr. Cuomo assailed the member-item spending as "a visible, graphic illustration" of the profligacy, secrecy and dysfunction that have characterized state government and dismayed voters in recent years.
Last month, federal prosecutors accused State Senator Efrain González Jr., a Bronx Democrat, of stealing more than $400,000 in state money appropriated for charities in his district and using it for personal expenses. Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican majority leader of the State Senate, is facing a federal investigation into some $500,000 in state grants he directed to Evident Technologies, a profit-making technology company in which a close friend of his was an investor.
Pork must pass a test (Albany Times Union)
Cuomo to review 6,000 member-item grants (The Journal News)
Attorney general says his office will review 6,000 member spending items to see if they meet legal test (Newsday)
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Thu Jan 04, 2007 at 14:18:13 PM EST
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Our new Attorney General is promising to pay special attention to a subject dear to many of our hearts. He's also said that he intends to recoup some of that money should he find cases of, ahem, abuse.
Let loose the hounds!
Cuomo to Feast on Pork
The death watch continues for the member item system that proliferated in the Pataki era, as Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said this morning he will review the roughly 6,000 items sponsored by legislators this year "and seek to recover any misspent funds."
"The taxpayers of New York must be assured that their hard-earned dollars are used for legitimate public purposes-period," Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.
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Tue Jan 02, 2007 at 19:41:21 PM EST
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Here are some early numbers and a web link from my toils in the data mine. I've been sorting by type and by group.... First up, those great champions of lower taxes, Chambers of Commerce. There are only those identified as "chambers" in these numbers; there are also many more member items for other apparent business leagues with slightly different type names, too, but, I left them aside for now. These numbers are not yet double-checked, and may grow as I continue to check for member items in odd departments.
For the Senate, 2005-2006, there were 44 member items to Chambers of Commerce. In the Assembly, from 2002-2006, there were 21-- about half as many in twice as much time, but, many of the downstate business orgs seemed to fall into that "non-chamber" business league category (not included in this count). Although some of the member items to Chambers were for specific economic development projects, many were listed as simply "for operating expenses." Some of the amounts were significant, but many were paltry 1-5K member items. Perhaps just about enough to send members to Albany to lobby for lower taxes for another year.
Another theme in the data that I am exploring is "the horse people." Read all about them in the Brunogate series, of course. Or, under "parks department" in the member item data from the Senate. 60K went to "Fingerlakes HBPA" thanks to the beneficence of Senator Nozzolio. Check out "about us" on their national web site-- you will laugh til you cry, I assure you. http://www.hbpa.org/...
"Horsemen have a habit of taking care of their own" -- indeed. Am still searching for the member item that will answer all my Brunogate questions, like "What did Jeanine Pirro know and when did she know it?" (she only bugs the ones she loves, I hear).
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Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 14:36:34 PM EST
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Pretty good deal if your name is Jared Abbruzzese. Get your buddy, who just happens to be the state Senate Majority Leader, to throw a nice chunk of public money at your for profit business and get a little action for yourself. Not bad, eh?
From the New York Times:
Bruno's Friend Was Given Stock Incentive, Document Says
While Joseph L. Bruno, the State Senate's majority leader, was helping to direct state assistance to an upstate technology company, the company was rewarding Mr. Bruno's friend Jared E. Abbruzzese with a stock incentive for his role in securing state aid, according to a company document.
Nice. More crony-licious goodness on the flip....
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Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 14:07:50 PM EST
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Nathaniel Brooks for the New York Times
Perhaps it's his coffee. Joe "Brunogate" Bruno spoke to the New York Times for today's edition and, man, is that guy grumpy! Oh, and his long time chief counsel hit the road Friday afternoon. The guy just can't seem to catch a break.
His Omnipresence May Show His Clout, but Now Bruno Is on the Defensive
But at what should be his crowning moment, Mr. Bruno finds himself on the defensive as never before. The F.B.I. is investigating his business ties, newspapers are exploring his financial relationships with people seeking help from the state, some Republicans are grumbling that he is tarnishing their troubled party, and for the first time, a member of his conference, Senator John J. Bonacic, a Hudson Valley Republican, is calling on Mr. Bruno to step down.
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"I have 33 votes in my conference, as I sit here, out of 34," he said.
And Mr. Bruno bristled at news reports that the federal government was investigating his decision to award a $500,000 member item grant - the type that goes to individual lawmakers' pet projects - to Evident Technologies, a company with a former director, Jared Abbruzzese, who had business dealings with Mr. Bruno. Mr. Bruno said that the state gave aid to Evident before he did, and that the money was intended to keep the company from moving out of state.
"It gets me a little bit excited, because they all want to moan and groan and point to Evident," he said in his office. "Evident is one of the most worthwhile projects to be funded that I have funded. Now the fact that a friend of mine, it turns out, that I had a financial relationship with - too damn bad. What am I, a second-class citizen? Is he a second-class citizen? We vetted that through the whole process, O.K.?"
"I'm getting crucified," he said. "And you know something? Tomorrow, if I had that situation to do over, I'd do exactly what I've done."
More on the flip....
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Tue Dec 26, 2006 at 17:40:17 PM EST
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Joseph Jerome runs the Sephardic Community Center (sometimes called the Sephardic Center). He is also a heavy donor to certain political campaigns.
What do I mean by heavy? Well, he gave $9,000 to Carl Kruger in 2005 and $6,250 to Martin Golden in 2006. He also threw $1,000 at the failing campaign of Noach Dear in 2004.
What do Kruger and Golden have in common, you might ask?
The answer: they both invested heavily in the Sephardic Community Center (Golden gave to the "Sephardic Center" -- they're both headquartered at 1901 Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn) with their member funds.
Kruger gave $155,000 since 2005, and Golden gave $40,000 since 2005.
So here we have the President of the Sephardic Community Center giving heavily to two political campaigns, who both give back to the Sephardic Community Center.
But don't worry. Move along. These are not the droids you're looking for.
[thx to am for the tip]
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Fri Dec 22, 2006 at 19:22:10 PM EST
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State Senate Republicans are apparently playing the Grinch for residents of District 35. Much of the pork "member Item" grants promised to organizations in the district by recently defeated state Senator Nick Spano, are being retracted as new Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins prepares to take office says Politics on the Hudson:
 Democratic state Senator-elect Andrea Stewart-Cousins is pressing her soon-to-be Republican colleagues to honor commitments made by her predecessor Nick Spano, whom she defeated last month.
In a press release issued yesterday, Stewart-Cousins said she was “shocked and outraged” to hear Senate Republicans are pulling member item, or “pork” funding for non-profits promised by Spano.
In a Dec. 18 Journal News story by political reporter Glenn Blain, Spano said some organizations already were being informed they would lose promised funds. One such organization to acknowledge its funding had been pulled is the SPCA of Westchester.
Spano, a 28-year state legislator, had a lot of pull in the Senate and often touted his ability to bring member item dollars to his district as one reason voters should choose him.
Wow. Can you say "sore losers"?
This illustrates one of my biggest problems with member item spending, the lack of any discernible standards or formal process for the "awarding" of such grants. Many supporters of the funded organizations will say that their programs are worthy of public funding for the good that they do and for many, many of these entities, I have to agree. They are indeed worthy, though I feel they should be funded from the general fund as opposed to this highly partisan "process" of legal bribery.
That said, either the SPCA of Westchester is worthy of state funding or it isn't and this should have nothing to do with who won their recent local state Senate race. Why are the SPCA and all these other organizations being forced to go without because the voters of the 35th District decided to change state Senators?
Stay tuned for a new albany project project, much in the vein of No Reform? No Raise! to be announced shortly.
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Sun Dec 17, 2006 at 22:56:36 PM EST
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While NYBri and Lipris are quite capable of representing themselves, In The Matter of iloveny v. et al NYbri and Lipris- Part of the problem?http://www.thealbany... I disagree with the allegations contained therein so strongly that I felt compelled to take on this case, pro bono.
The concepts of reform advocated by TAP and its band of merry bloggers, is based on non- partisan ideals, not bi-partisan horse trading. Reform, true reform, should not be based on politically efficacious compromise as suggested or as iloveny put it "real reform that would be agreeable to both sides.
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Fri Dec 15, 2006 at 23:16:57 PM EST
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The text files and pdfs for the Senate data are great but now that there are excel spread sheets with Assembly and Senate data, why are you not posting that information here -- one of the homes of the reform -- pork talk?
The new data is up at the link below.
http://ia331304.us.a...
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Thu Dec 14, 2006 at 00:40:56 AM EST
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Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this transaction? You be the Judge.
Among the thousands of member items listed in the Senate's Community Project Fund, labeled as Round 1 of '06/'07, is one that Senator Seward secured for purposes of replacing and improving sidewalks in a town in his sprawling 51st District.
This particular member item of $25,000 went to the Town of Oneonta, with the form showing Town Supervisor, Duncan Davie, under the "Program Contact Information" heading. This same Duncan Davie also serves as Senator Seward's Chief of Staff. Please express your opinion in the following poll:
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Wed Dec 13, 2006 at 11:15:46 AM EST
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From the NYT's Empire Zone:
More Trouble in Albany
Who?
press conference will be held today to announce the unsealing of charges against a New York State Senator who is accused of defrauding New York State citizens by abusing the state legislature's "member items" process. The charges allege that the State Senator directed member item funds through various not-for-profit organizations and ultimately stole more than $400,000. Three other alleged criminal associates of the State Senator are charged as participants in the scheme.
Whoa!
Who do you think it is? My guess? Marty Golden.
UPDATE: Capitol Confidential says the indictment will be unsealed at noon today.
UPDATE II: We have a Loser WINNER!
from Capitol Confidential:
 State Sen. Efrain Gonzales Jr., of the Bronx has been indicted in a case involving $400,000 in state grants he directed to a charity, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
Gonzales won re-elect on Nov. 7 with 97 percent of the vote, despite the fact that he had been indicted - and pleaded not guilty - to federal charges that he had used money from a non-profit to pay for personal expenses including Yankees tickets and college tuition.
So much for my guess...
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