Senate Democrats Aim To Expose State Budget ‘Slush Funds’
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
ALBANY – Governor Pataki and legislative leaders quietly make deals every year to spend more than $1 billion in “slush funds” without public disclosure of how its spent, Democratic senators said yesterday.
A bill being introduced by the Senate Democrats would change that.
Each year, Mr. Pataki, the Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, and the Democratic Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, reach “memorandums of understanding” on money earmarked for the pet projects of lawmakers and the governor. But most state lawmakers and the public are not allowed to see exactly where that “slush fund” money is being allocated in the budget, the Senate minority leader, David Paterson, said.
“If you have three men making a secret deal, signing off on it and they still won’t give you a copy, that should send a red flag,” a state senator, Liz Krueger, said. “People here have to know what is in these MOUs. … New York State is the only state in the nation that uses this model for their budgets.”
The bill sponsored by Ms. Krueger would make the MOUs public and re quire they be made available on an official Web site.
In January, the state Democratic comptroller, Alan Hevesi, made a similar proposal, saying no details are disclosed when lawmakers vote on the lump-sum appropriations in the budget.
A spokesman for Mr. Pataki’s budget office, Michael Marr, said the information, including details of where the money is later spent, is available to those who request it from the governor’s office.
“You’d think that Senator Paterson would know that the real secret in Albany is that the Legislature has exempted itself from the FOIL [Freedom of Information] law,” he said. “Rather than leveling baseless charges at the executive, Senator Paterson should focus his efforts on making the legislature equally accountable under the state’s FOIL law.”
Mr. Bruno, whose party holds a 35-27 majority in the chamber, accused Mr. Paterson of political grandstanding over a non-issue.
“I don’t have a clue as to what Sen. Paterson is talking about,” Mr. Bruno said. “Every dollar that is spent is a matter of record.”
