“Follow the money,” the time-tested mantra for anyone looking to expose political and governmental corruption, is a difficult challenge when it comes to tracking billions in New York state discretionary funds.
A recent analysis of the proposed $145 billion state budget by the fiscal watchdog group Citizens Union identified $2.4 billion in 78 separate lump funds in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s spending plan. The good-government group’s report, titled “Spending in the Shadows: Discretionary Funding in the NYS Budget,” calls the handing out of these grants “opaque spending.” Even after the fact, it is unclear how the decisions were made to award this money. These include many clearly worthwhile expenditures – for economic development, community programs or emergency aid.
One local lawmaker, Assemblyman James Tedisco, R-Glenville, has jumped on Citizens Union’s findings by introducing legislation to require the executive branch or members of the state Senate and Assembly to detail how this money was ultimately spent. Brief descriptions of all projects would have to be posted on a single state website. They would include disclosure of political donations totaling up to $4,000 made in the previous five years from the entity receiving the funds. All this data would have to be available in easy-to-view, downloadable and crunchable format.
Mr. Tedisco is right on the money. The secretive way grant money is handed out is frequently cited as a root cause of corruption in state government. A dozen state legislators have been convicted in the past five years in federal corruption cases. Just making the process transparent would discourage questionable quid pro quo transactions involving taxpayers funds.
In pursuing criminal charges against former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, federal prosecutors were helped by a lawsuit brought years ago by the Times Union, which went to court to force disclosure of how legislative grants known as member items were spent. Mr. Silver was convicted in November of schemes involving member items, including $500,000 to a Manhattan physician, who sent clients to a law firm that, in turn, gave legal referral fees to Mr. Silver.
Unfortunately, because Mr. Tedisco is a member of the Assembly’s Republican minority, his bill normally wouldn’t get much attention from the Democratic leadership. No sponsor has yet to step forward in the Republican-controlled Senate.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, in a recent visit to Albany, put much of the blame for corruption on the rank-and-file legislators who do nothing to interfere with it, essentially “enabling” their leaders to do anything they can get away with.
All those convictions ought to be a wake-up call to lawmakers and their leaders. It can’t be business-as-usual any more. The enabling they ought to be doing right now is to help Mr. Tedisco’s bill become law.