State lawmakers spent $7 million on postage for bulk mailings to constituents between April 1 and September 30, 2016, according to data added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website.
State senators spent $3.8 million on “bulk rate postage,” while members of the Assembly spent $3.2 million on “bulk mail,” according to expenditure data released by each chamber. The figures do not include the additional cost of paper, printing equipment or personnel who design and produce the campaign-style mailings.
The data also show the state Assembly paid $1.6 million during the period for “printing equipment” to a company which manufactures the industrial printers used by the Assembly to print taxpayer-funded mail pieces. Since October 2015, the Assembly has paid Heidelberg USA a total of $2.6 million for printing equipment.
Taxpayers can examine nearly $2 billion in operational expenditures by the state Legislature since 2006 thanks to the SeeThroughNY Legislative Expenditures database.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank dedicated to promoting policies to make New York a better place to live, work and do business.
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