Member items ripe targets in budget crisis

[Swimmy]

Member items ripe targets in budget crisis

Is it me or does anyone else find it unsettling that Albany has millions of unspent cash, but our taxes are constantly rising, along with "authority" rate increases like the thruway tolls?

I have an idea, refund it to US in a no strings attached refund check!

[frankcor]

How about giving it back to the people who earned it in the first place?

[neveramazed]

I agree with you swimmy, give it back as a no strings attached refund, but more importantly after the refund... STOP TAKING IT at such an alarming rate.

Here is a good site that sheds a little light on member items.
www.sunlightny.org/snl1/app/index.jsp

[frankcor]

On what planet is Attorney General Cuomo's website helpful? Reading a list of 94 member items for Oneida County ranging from $90K for athletic facilities for the Sherrill city park to $1000 for cadet uniforms at RFA just makes my eyes glaze over.

What I want to know is what percent of the money that the people of Oneida County send to Albany actually ends up coming back to Oneida County? So far, Operation Sunlight don't feed the bulldog. I wonder how much it cost us?

[neveramazed]

On what planet is it helpful? Geez I don't know, I've never been to any other planet (I guess NYS could be considered a different world from the rest of Earth ;D). Given we are discovering new planets all the time maybe there is one... somewhere.

Operation sunlight may not be the end all be all, but it is a start. Given the state of NYS politics, it's nice to see something that starts to show a money trail. If you read the FAQs they are looking for comments and suggestions for the next phase(s) of the project since this is the initial phase 1.

We have never before been given any insight into member items being returned save for what the press releases wanted us to know. Now you can see that yes there are paltry amounts returned for parks and playgrounds, PTAs, and the like.

What is more interesting is to search on member name and not county and then you can see all the things someone like Mrs. Destito attaches her name to that go well outside of her district (20 out of 44 of her member items were for oneida county).

I even like being able to search the lobbyists and see who is giving money to certain campaigns. Like the $400 given by the OIN to Roanne.

Yeah, it doesn't show what we pay out compared to what comes back but there are nuggets there to be found. It's a start, and it sure is better than nothing (or just google).

[frankcor]

You're right, neveramazed, it is a good start. I must have been in a real bad mood when I went there to check it out. I never would have guessed that Roseann was so adept at bringing home the pork to other districts.

It is true that you have to go along to get along.