I’ll Take ‘Pork Barrel’ for $400,000

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/opinion/15fri4.html?_r=1&oref=login

Published: December 15, 2006

This is what happens when governments hide their money under a rock: On the eve of what is supposed to be a new day in Albany, another New York state senator has been indicted, this time charged with diverting to his own pocket more than $400,000 in state money that he earmarked for charities in his district.

State Senator Efrain González Jr., a Democrat from the Bronx, has told reporters that he is innocent of charges that he routed the funds to such things on the prosecutor’s list as his cigar company, his daughter’s college tuition, jewelry, home renovations and Yankee tickets. Mr. González is scheduled for arraignment today and is said to be looking forward to his day in court.

But this $400,000 is just part of the notorious member-item scheme, which allows legislative leaders to parcel out $170 million a year with little or no public record or oversight. The problems with the member-item system have become so obvious that even the very leaders who spent years hiding this money have now been forced by the courts to make the details public.

What details they are. Some were quirky — like a yurt in Suffolk County and a cage for mountain lions in Watertown. Others highlighted how politics work in the state. For example, the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, who got to parcel out most of the $85 million claimed by his chamber each year, steered $500,000 to Evident Technologies.

The company’s former co-chairman, Jared Abbruzzese, is under investigation by the State Lobbying Commission for providing private flights at no cost to Mr. Bruno, whose office said that the state funds were meant to attract high-tech companies upstate.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who commanded about $7 million a year of his chamber’s member-item funds, funneled a lot to Jewish and Chinese groups, both important in his district on the Lower East Side. Even if Mr. González is not convicted and not thrown out of the Legislature, the system itself is a scandal.

When there are millions of dollars being spread around and nobody is really watching, it “created risk,” as Michael Garcia, the United States attorney for Manhattan put it. This is public money, and the public deserves to know how it is spent, why and whether it is worth it.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/December06/gonzalezs2indictmentpr.pdf