Keep your hand on your wallet: The Legislature is back in session, and lawmakers are addicted to doling out taxpayer cash to their pet causes — while wiping away their fingerprints.

As the Empire Center for Public Policy noted last week, the state Senate and Assembly managed to funnel $52 million to “hand-picked recipients” — via 1,782 pork-barrel projects — in the waning hours of the normal legislative session.

Among the eyebrow-raisers:

•  $500,000 for a solar-powered carousel in Buffalo (bringing its cumulative state subsidy to date to over $1 million).
•  Another $500,000 for “military base retention and research efforts” went to Clinton County (which has no military bases).
•  $21,000 for the Saratoga Automobile Museum. (That’s right: a car museum.)
•  $15,000 for the Sea Cliff Chamber Players, a music ensemble on Long Island.

Who’s to blame? That’s a secret: None of the public documents name the lawmakers requesting the grants. Nor, mostly, even a reason.

And the state doesn’t even have the cash for these gifts. Instead, it has to borrow, saddling taxpayers of the future.

OK, some grants (say, for libraries or schools) might be justifiable. But then, why not funnel it through the regular budget, rather than in a shadowy process with no debate or vote on individual items?

This time, the outrage totaled $52 million — on top of $385 million in secret pork in the state budget back in April.

A special session may have fewer risks of another porkapalooza — but beware.

©2017 New York Post