A healthy debate is now raging in Washington, D.C., over the use of congressional “earmarks” to spend pork barrel money out of federal budget appropriations. Conservatives and liberals alike agree that the practice is wasteful and should be eliminated or severely curtailed. The fight against earmarking may end inconclusively this year, but at least it’s happening and it’s out in the open.

Too bad the same can’t be said about New York. Our state legislators are no less fond of arbitrarily targeting taxpayers’ money to organizations and individuals who can help hold onto their offices. But in Albany, the pork barrel process is shrouded in more secrecy than ever.

Unlike their counterparts in Congress, state legislators won’t disclose how or why they are spending much of their pork money, or who is sponsoring any of the thousands of individual pork barrel grants handed out every year as “member items.”

One of the Legislature’s biggest pork barrel pots is a $200 million lump sum divvied up by the governor, the Senate majority leader and the Assembly speaker. Although the Big Three treat this money as a closely guarded secret, the Empire Center for Public Policy recently used the state Freedom of Information Law to obtain and publicize complete lists of member items for 2003 through 2005.

The lists total 1,154 pages and include 22,980 grants that come to just over $479 million. When we posted these files on our Web site, www.empirecenter.org, traffic to the site jumped tenfold overnight. Tens of thousands of copies of the files have now been downloaded by interested citizens all over New York.

Much of the money flows in small amounts to Little Leagues, senior citizens centers and other community nonprofit groups. But there were also larger items targeted to advocacy groups whose support is coveted by legislators seeking re-election. For example, the Senate and Assembly gave more than two dozen grants totaling more than $400,000 to NARAL, which exists to promote abortion rights.

Hundreds of thousands also flowed to politically active organized labor groups.

Gov. George Patakihas generally been the Legislature’s chief enabler and partner in dividing up the spoils of political power. But the 2006-07 member-item appropriation was one of several pork barrel money pots vetoed by the governor last week.

Individual pork barrel items are normally buried in much bigger bills. But if legislative leaders decide to try to override Pataki, they will be subject to rare up-or-down votes in isolation.

In that case, Central New Yorkers will have an opportunity to hold their representatives accountable for the secretive and excessive spending.

About the Author

E.J. McMahon

Edmund J. McMahon is Empire Center's founder and a senior fellow.

Read more by E.J. McMahon

You may also like

Hochul Tells It Like It Is

Presenting her budget this week in Albany, Gov. Kathy Hochul delivered more than just a financial plan. She gave the state a refreshing dose of fiscal honesty. “The truth is,” Hochul said, “we can’t spend like there’s no tomorrow, because tom Read More

Putting Hochul to the test: Will the governor use her budget powers to protect New York’s fiscal future?

“We will not be raising income taxes this year,” Gov. Hochul declared in January at the opening of New York’s 2023 legislative session. Read More

What Gov. Hochul must do to prevent a coming fiscal crash

The pandemic and its fiscal aftermath have given rise — temporarily — to a state budget trend unique in New York’s history. Read More

Bear market spells big trouble for NY state and city budgets

Wall Street generates an outsized share of New York’s tax revenue, so the recent drop in stock prices should worry both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams. Read More

Calling Tax Cut “Theft,” Cuomo Continues to Push For Federal Bucks With Phony Math

The results of this week’s Georgia Senate runoffs, assuring Democrats will soon control both houses of Congress, as well as the White House, had to come as a huge relief to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Read More

Students Need Reforms, Not HEROES

Families and businesses are watching their bottom lines and stretching each dollar. But House Democrats are pushing a plan to prevent America’s schools from doing the same thing. Read More

Washington shouldn’t fund NY’s “normal” budgets

With the coronavirus lockdown continuing to erode tax revenues, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has turned up the volume on his demands for a federal bailout of the New York state budget. In a weekend briefing, the governor repeated his estimate that the Empire State will need help closing a deficit of $10 billion to $15 billion. “I don’t have any funding to do what I normally do,” he said. Read More

Cuomo’s Plate Spinning

Governor Cuomo’s license plate design contest was a PR ploy masking a nickel-and-dime revenue raiser. Read More