Here in New York, we've been roiled over the last month and a half by repeated revelations of huge amounts of public money paid out at the sole discretion of an individual elected official. Over $350 million in the New York City budget is controlled by individual City Council members, state legislators' member control items totaling almost $140 million, and over $1 billion in the state budget is controlled by the Governor and legislative leaders for discretionary "capital projects."
Elected officials like to call these amounts "discretionary funds." Here at Common Cause/New York, like other members of the public and the press, we call them what they are: slush funds. Why do we even have these slush funds at all?
A federal investigation into the allocation of the City Council's slush funds "discretionary funds" has already resulted in the indictments of two City Council aides. As a result, the City Council, lead by Speaker Christine Quinn, and the Mayor have announced reforms to bring add transparency and accountability to the process. (It is worth noting that this newfound accountability focuses on the of the community groups who receive the money, not the elected officials who parcel it out.) We will always support changes which make any government activity more transparent and require disclosure of conflicts of interest. So, the recently announced requirement that community groups which receive these slush funds from City Council Members must be qualified as nonprofit organizations, have their business requirements (like tax forms) up to date, and have to have the actual capability to provide the services they receive funds for, are positive changes.
Other changes are good ideas, like providing an online list of who receives funds from each Council Member, the amount received and what is supposed to be accomplished with the money. on the City website and Other proposals, including information about any conflict of interest which the Council Members may have with the groups that they are giving tax dollars to (is the Council Member's wife or brother and employee of the organization?), is also a good idea. And there's no question that when this disclosure system is in place in New York City, it will provide much more relevant information than what a citizen are able to can obtain about slush funds at the state level.
But disclosing who gives and who gets slush fund money and for what, doesn't get to the heart of the issue: why are public dollars given out at the sole discretion - the whim, really, - of elected officials? And why, if these tax dollars are being used to provide essential services or for the "creation or retention" of jobs, is something this important left to an individual to decide on his or her own, and not provided directly by government agencies responsible for these things as part of a larger plan?
If you, like we, believe that public money shouldn't be doled out at the whim of individual elected officials, if you think there shouldn't be any more slush funds at the City or the State level, you CAN do something about it!
Call the Governor and your state legislators
Governor Paterson's Office 518-474-8390
NYS Senate Switchboard 518-455- 2800
NYS Assembly Switchboard 518-455- 4100
Call the Mayor and your City Council Member
Mayor Bloomberg 212-NEW-YORK
City Council switchboard 212-788-7100
Don't know who your legislators are?
In NYC: Find out easily at www.cmap.info
Outside NYC:
Assembly - www.assembly.state.ny.us/mem/
Senate - www.senate.state.ny.us/ , then click on Senators on the top Left and search by Zip Code
Shouldn't these tax dollars be given out in accordance with a plan that tries to address each community's local needs and budget priorities?
To learn about your community's local needs and budget priorities, you can read the "Community District Needs" and "Community District Profile" statements. These documents are prepared by your local Community District members and are available through the NYC Dept. of City Planning website. Visit at www.nyc.gov/planning and click on "Map and Bookstore."
Want to find out who is giving money to politicians' campaigns and how much money is being spent to lobby on a particular issue?
Project Sunlight is an excellent website run by the State of New York. It allows you to track campaign donations and lobbying expenditures and tie them to specific bills before the Legislature and to specific legislators. http://www.sunlightny.org. There is nothing comparable to it in any other state. Now, if the underlying data were better - i.e., better disclosures of information about campaign contributions, the website would be even more useful! For information on campaign dollars given to NYC officials, visit http://www.nyccfb.info/ and click on "Public."
How does New York stack up against other states for its campaign finance disclosures?
Check out www.campaigndisclsoure.org for lots of interesting information.
