NY-20: Tedisco's $21,000 Morning Drive

by: robert.harding

Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 08:35:46 AM EST

Now, I will preface this by saying that all of this is legal. Tedisco can, just like any other state legislator, submit vouchers for travel and get reimbursed for it. But considering he lives only 20 minutes from Albany, the ethics of these charges could be questioned.

From the DCCC:

Now that Albany politician Jim Tedisco has formally launched his congressional campaign in New York's 20th Congressional District, Tedisco owes voters an explanation as to why he billed them $21,343 in oil and gas receipts for his taxpayer funded vehicle, despite just a 20-minute car ride away to the state capitol from his Schenectady home in the 21st Congressional District.  

"Albany politician Jim Tedisco talks tough about cutting government spending, but that hasn't stopped him from billing taxpayers over $21,000 in oil and gas receipts for his taxpayer funded vehicle, despite his 20-minute car ride to the state capital," said Jennifer Crider, Communications Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "During these tough economic times, the very last thing Upstate New York's middle class families need is a sneaky Albany politician like Jim Tedisco sticking them with a $21,000 bill so he can keep living high on the hog. Tedisco needs to stop this hypocrisy and immediately come clean by reimbursing taxpayers $21,000."

Of course, there is a lot of hypocrisy with what Tedisco has said in the past and his actions in getting the taxpayers to pay for his travels. The $21,000 he was reimbursed was over an eight-year period, but that is still a lot of money every year that he was getting reimbursed (and taking advantage of another perk that state legislators get) for driving 17 miles to work.  

New York State Legislature Travel Expenditures

by: robert.harding

Mon May 05, 2008 at 14:31:43 PM EDT

I filed a Freedom of Information request to obtain the New York State Legislature's travel expenditures for 2007. The exact request I filed was for "per diem payments, taxi fares, mileage, train tickets and any other expenses incurred for travel to Albany."

Via a spreadsheet, you can see all the recipients of these travel expenditures and how much they were reimbursed. Total, New York state legislators received $3,267,903.94 in travel expenditures for 2007.

Here is a preview. These are the top five recipients of travel expenditures.

Legislator		Total Expenditures
Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper (D)		$36,452.25
Sen. Efrain Gonzalez (D)		$34,268.20
Sen. William Stachowski (D)		$32,893.44
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D)		$30,353.31
Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak (D)		$30,274.47

Don't let that preview fool you. This applies to both parties and the amount of money involved is significant. In the large scheme of things, $3 million is a very small fraction of the budget, but it is $3 million nonetheless.

The significance of this is the fact that the state legislators, earlier this year, were trying to justify a pay raise. Future arguments in favor of a legislative pay raise will be made - they seem to be made every year. What these expenditures show us is that the legislators do not have it that bad. On top of their $79,500 salary per year, they get reimbursed for travel to Albany (some more than others). In Silver's case, for example, that means the taxpayers paid him nearly $110,000 last year. That doesn't include any leadership bonuses he received.

Our legislators are taken care of when they are in Albany and when they must travel to Albany.

Again, to see the full spreadsheet, click here.