The truism that money follows power remains at work in the state Senate, where Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein has reported office expenditures of $5.7 million over the past six years, according to an analysis released Tuesday.

As head of the four-member IDC, Klein has for the past year provided the Republican minority with enough votes to maintain power in the Senate through a coalition agreement.

All together, the Legislature spent $102 million during the most recent reporting period, according to an analysis by the Empire Center, a state budget watchdog group.

The center took the data, released twice a year by the Senate and Assembly, and ranked the amount of money that goes to individual lawmaker’s budgets — one way to measure their importance through key chairmanships, or the possibility that they could shift allegiance in the closely divided chamber.

While Klein received large allocations every year — before launching the IDC, he was a deputy leader of the Democratic conference — Republican leader Dean Skelos got the largest amount, $477, 588, during the most recent reporting period, which ended on March 31.

He was followed by Assembly Democrat Richard Gottfried, the longtime head of the chamber’sHealth Committee, who had a budget of $437,762.

“We ranked the members’ offices,” the Empire Center’s Tim Hoefer said, explaining how they compiled the expenditures in a way that showed whose purview the money came under.

He said the legislative reports can be confusing in their raw form for several reasons — including timing. They are based on the two six-month chapters of the fiscal year, but legislators serve based on a calendar year.

“It’s just a crazy way to report this,” Hoefer said.

Adding to the confusion is the reality that leaders’ allocations can include money for staffers who perform work for their entire conference.

Other top Senate budgets went to GOP members John Flanagan ($428,5033), Charles Fuschillo ($409,469), George Maziarz ($408,587), John DeFrancisco ($404,754), Kenneth Lavalle ($404,387) and Greg Ball ($404,345).

Some head key committees — DeFrancisco, for example, heads Finance — while Lavalle and others are long-serving members.

A former Assemblyman, Ball was initially opposed in his primary by the GOP establishment.

Gottfried’s Assembly health committee is one of the largest and most influential, and had expenditures of $4.8 million since 2007.

Spokesmen for both Skelos and Klein noted that the members of the Majority Coalition have reduced spending in the chamber since Republicans wrested control from Democrats in 2011.

Republican spokesman Scott Reif noted that the annual Senate budget fell from $99 million in fiscal year 2009-10 to $83 million during the most recent year, 2012-13.

© 2013 Albany Times Union