piggybankstny-300x235-4581502New York’s State Senate spent almost $45 million during the six-month period ending last September, according to the latest data available at SeeThroughNY, where the Empire Center for Public Policy maintains public records dating back to 2007.

The Assembly has not yet posted its expenditure data for the same period, which ended more than five months ago.

Ranked by office expenditures, the highest-spending senator for the most recent period was Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) at $512,119. The second highest was John Flanagan (R-Suffolk) at $490,674, and third was George Maziarz (R-Newfane) at $471,841. The highest-spending senator in the Independent Democratic Conference was Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) at $442,679, which was 7th overall, and the highest-spending senator in the Democratic conference was Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn) at $384,588, which was 23rd overall.

Charts ranking senate spending can be downloaded here.

The data from this most recent period show:

  • The office of Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) spent the most money on travel, at $15,567.
  • The office of Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) spent the most money on mail, at $78,040.
  • Senators spent more than $138,000 on travel in the three months after the legislative session ended. For the entire period, senators spent more than $500,000 on their travel.
  • The state Senate spent more than $10,000 on bottled water.

While the data includes wages for senators and staff, it does not account for benefit costs, which can exceed thirty percent of an employee’s annual wages. Expenditures include mail, travel, maintenance and operations, operational expenses, and staff. 

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