Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Line By Line By Line Item

Albany's Member Spending By The Numbers

The Empire Center For New York State Policy, a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy research, has compiled a comprehensive list of member item spending by the NYS Legislature for fiscal years 2003 to 2005.

To download one or more of the annual lists, click on the following links: 2003 (439 pages, 1.4 MB) 2004 (375 pages, 1.1 MB) 2005 (340 pages, 1.0 MB).

We would republish the lists of line by line member item spending in their entirety, but with what amounts to 1,154 pages, listing 22,980 individual grants totaling just over $479 million, we fear a blog overload!

Do you think there's a member item grant available for community-minded blogs?

In related news, The Empire Center has created what it calls a Spend-O-Meter (no relation to The Community Alliance's now infamous Murray-Mail-Meter) to "let New York taxpayers see just how fast the state is tearing through their money."

Calibrated to the state budget's "all funds" spending total of $112.5 billion for the 2006-07 fiscal year, the "Spend-O-Meter" spins at the following rates, according to the Empire Center:

$3,566.18 per second
$213,970.70 per minute
$12,838,242.01 per hour
$308,117,808.22 per day
$2,162,750,000 per week
$9,371,916,666.67 per month

Wow! That last number looks like the amount due on the property tax bill of the average Long Island homeowner.

Hey folks, it's only money. If the State doesn't spend it, then Gary DelaRobber and his cronies at the Nassau County PBA -- where tax dollars flow like coffee at the donut shop -- surely will!
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Click HERE to read, Taxing and Spending in the Empire State: Overview of the 2006-07 Executive Budget.

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