Recent headlines announcing the arrests of crooked politicians are reviving calls for reform in Albany. I know that many of my constituents are angered by the behavior of some legislators who have little regard for the important trust voters placed in them to carry out the duties of their office honorably.
There are many places and ways we can instill reform in Albany and a good place to start is with taxpayer money. It’s as old as New York state government itself – political pork – but it has been wreaking havoc on voters and taxpayers for entirely too long.
Member items are specially-earmarked dollars used by the governor, Senate and Assembly to finance special projects in districts at home. In and of itself, it’s not such a terrible thing; but, unfortunately, it invites abuse and misuse of taxpayer money. Sadly, these funds have been divided unevenly among the majority parties of each house for special projects. In these cases, member items intended to revitalize communities have now become tools to, in essence, buy votes. The bureaucrats in Albany, for a while, turned away from this practice, but unfortunately, it’s creeping its way back in; yet, I know, we still can turn it around.
It’s as simple as this: taxpayer money shouldn’t be used as a political tool.
Reforming member items needs to start by evening out the playing field; no one legislator should get more or less because of their party affiliation. Our legislators reflect the makeup of their districts, so, ultimately, this practice is a condemnation of the political beliefs of folks in those communities. This will also give our rural upstate communities a fair shot against the interests of large downstate cities, which receive a lot of attention from Albany.
Secondly, we need more oversight on how this money is spent. We’ve seen it before, state taxpayer money funneled into dummy-charitable fronts that ended up in the pockets of crooked politicians. We need to make sure these funds are being spent on real needs and real projects.
There is a lot that needs to be done to get Albany back on track and, yes, it seems daunting; but, step by step, we can change things here and make our government more responsive and honest for the people.
If you have any additional questions or comments about reforming Albany, please e-mail me at butlerm@assembly.state.ny.us or call my Herkimer office at (315) 866-1632 or my Johnstown office at (518) 762-6486.