Opinion

Quinn’s pork-barrel polka

City Council Speaker Chris Quinn, who presumes to the mayoralty, has just laid $350,000 in council pork on colleague Larry Seabrook — the Bronx Democrat under federal indictment for gross misuse of previous pork disbursements.

That is to say, for funneling $1.2 million in city funds from 2002 to 2009 to multiple fake non-profits he secretly controlled, while directing the bulk of the cash to salaries for his girlfriend and relatives.

He’s also the dude who billed city taxpayers $177 for a bagel and a Snapple.

He has no shame.

Which brings us back to Speaker Quinn — a serial aider-and-abetter of council chiselers and cheats. Such as:

* Ex-Councilman Miguel Martinez (D-Manhattan) pleaded guilty in 2009 to stealing $106,000 in pork money meant for the Washington Heights Art Center, while taking a $40,000 kickback through another nonprofit on whose board his sister sat. He got five years in prison.

* Ex-state Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) is currently under federal indictment for member-item ripoffs dating back to his council days. After procuring $300,000 for his Latino Initiative for Better Resources and Empowerment, Monserrate allegedly spirited $109,000 to illegally fund a failed 2006 Senate campaign.

* Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx) is reportedly the target of a Department of Investigation probe after directing funds to SBCC Management, a nonprofit run by her nephew. He was convicted of embezzling $200,000 — some of which went to the campaign of Arroyo’s daughter, Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo.

And so on and so on.

Scratch a councilmember, and you’re almost sure to find pork-barrel abuse. (And the same goes for the state Legislature.)

Why is such corruption endemic?

Because council (and legislative) leaders — to say nothing of mayors and governors — not only condone it, they encourage it: The judicious application of pork fat is a fail-safe tool for keeping lawmakers in line.

But enough’s enough.

Not only is the parceling out of taxpayer-funded bribes to lawmakers as a control device corrosive of democracy itself, the pork gives incumbent legislators near-insuperable advantages over electoral challengers.

Quinn’s $350,000 cash transfusion to Seabrook is — at best — a campaign contribution. If he chooses to spend it on $177 bagels and his girlfriend — well, he’s already done that, hasn’t he?

Then Quinn refilled his cash drawer.

Seabrook’s the miscreant, for sure.

But Quinn’s his enabler.

Should such obvious moral myopia be rewarded with the mayoralty?

Is Christine Quinn fit for the job?