Senate last week quietly passed a handful of spending measures that steered $56 million to 1,675 pet projects across the state, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy.

The measures did not identify the individual lawmaker that requested the money and they provided few details about how the funds are to be used, according to the Empire Center’s report.

“Taxpayers never had an opportunity to so much as see where this money is going, let alone weigh in on it, before lawmakers voted to send $56 million out the door,” said Empire Center Executive Director Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center.

The spending included money for dozens of capital projects across the state, including $600,000 to construct a solar powered carousel along Buffalo’s waterfront that’s intended to “celebrate the history of carousel manufacturing in Western New York.”

There’s also $24 million in so-called bullet aid, which lawmakers hand out to schools, libraries and other educational interests.

Among the biggest allocations were $3.5 million for renovations to the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, $3 million for capital projects at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center; $2 million for work at the Bronx Children’s Museum.

Lawmakers also steered $500,000 to the city’s Cops and Kids Boxing Program at the Brownsville Boxing Center; $300,000 to the Long Island Rail Road for station improvements; $250,000 to the New York Shakespeare Festival; $100,000 to the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance of New York and $75,000 for Southampton Hospital’s Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center.

The NYPD will get $100,000 to purchase a new tow truck in Queens and the city Parks Department will receive $100,000 for a mobile fitness van to be used in Queens.

“These grants reflect political priorities, not the public interest,” Hoefer said.

Assembly and Senate officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Traditional pork barrel spending — known as legislative member items — was banished from the state’s budget after Gov. Cuomo took office in 2011 but lawmakers have found other ways to fund pet projects.

Among the biggest avenues for pork-barrel funding is the State and Municipal Facilities Program, which is administered by the Dormitory Authority. Legislative leaders and Cuomo have used the program to fund more than $1 billion in projects in recent years.

© 2016 New York Daily News