Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Member Items By The Numbers

A Compilation Of State Senate And Assembly Member Item Grants

Click HERE to access member item grant expenditures.

"The New York State Senate and Assembly took great pains to withhold from the public a detailed accounting of how it allocates hundreds of millions of dollars a year in discretionary grants aka “member items.” After being forced to disclose this information by the courts, our State representatives released the data in formats that were designed to limit the ability of the general public to examine, analyze and draw conclusions about their spending choices.

This spread sheet is an attempt to thwart their efforts. The data has been converted and restructured to fit a readily accessible software program. The new format allows users to search and manage data to suit their own needs. Features such as automatically generated value sub-totals should facilitate data analysis. We hope the spread sheet will be used by regular citizens interested in learning their elected representative’s commitments and priorities. It should also be of use to professionals that might want to investigate patterns in the types of organizations and individuals that receive discretionary grants."
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Read more about what's happening in Albany -- and what's not -- at the Brennan Center's blog, ReformNY.

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