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MEMBER ITEM MADNESS
Pork or bacon. Earmarks. Member items. For lawmakers there are no sweeter words. Many of you may have heard about earmarks at the Congressional level, member items are essentially the same thing in New York. Like their Congressional counterparts, member items are local spending initiatives that are decided by state legislators – typically funding projects in their own districts. Last week both the Senate and Assembly released their member items list—well after the money was appropriated when the budget was passed in a last minute flurry of activity in early April. In Albany, the justification for the member item system is that state legislators offer a unique insight into local projects that deserve state support, but which may not catch the eye of the governor in developing the executive budget. Unlike the rest of the budget, spending on member items is not subject to any hearings or any meaningful public scrutiny prior to approval. There’s no competitive bidding for the services that are provided. In fact, taxpayers find out about the spending on these projects only after it has been approved Historically, $170 million is spent on legislative member items, split between the houses. Is this a good system? In most cases, the funding goes to local charities that are worthy and need the money. But the budget debate is how to fund unlimited state needs with limited amounts of money. The decisions on what to fund and what not, is supposed to be done in public with those deliberations determining those programs most important for the public’s best interests. Does it make sense for legislators to essentially control local funding of projects that they deem worthy? I think the answer is no. As I mentioned earlier, which member items get funded is determined outside the normal budget process. The decision is really left up to two people – the legislator requesting the money and the legislative leader who decides whether to fund it. So the process is too secretive, but it gets worse. How member items – your taxpayer dollars – are spent is decided almost entirely on political grounds. Legislators in the political majorities get more than the minorities; legislators with more clout get more than those who don’t; and those legislators who face tough re-election bids get more than those who seem to be in good shape for November. For example, the list of the most recent member items showed that each member of the Assembly Democratic majority got 4 times as much money as their Republican counterparts and the Senate Republican majority got 8 times as much money as Senate Democrats. The consideration is not about the public’s needs. What drive the decisions are the political needs of the partisan majorities. It is nakedly partisan and it’s not right. But the spoils system continues. So should your money be spent rewarding long-time political incumbents and bolstering the partisan interests of the legislators? No. If Albany is to change, one way for lawmakers to show a newfound interest in reform would be to promise to reform the member item system, and to change it to a system based on fairness, not politics. That’s all for now, I’ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week. |
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