On Wednesday, our City Council treated us to another of its annual spectacles: All the little piggies coming together to approve $50 million in taxpayer money to promote themselves as they please.
Back in the days when Christine Quinn was speaker, she decided which members got how much, based largely on loyalty. Under the new rules, each member gets the same amount, with more dollars going to those with more poverty in their districts.
Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito declares this a reform. But we’re with Bill de Blasio here: The best reform is to eliminate member items altogether. Scott Stringer, our new city comptroller, has said the same.
Of course, no one has been more consistently opposed to member items and the inevitable corruption it breeds than The New York Post.
Whether it’s in Albany or City Hall, allowing pols to dole out public funds to specific groups without any vote is a breach of the most fundamental responsibility of a democratic legislature.
And our news pages have more than borne out our warnings, filled as they are with stories about elected officials sent to prison for funneling these public dollars to non-profit groups that they themselves control.
It doesn’t matter that some worthy groups receive money along the way. If their funding serves a public purpose, a bill to that effect should go before the legislature where the merits can be argued.
The truth is that member items constitute a legalized slush fund that gives pols millions in taxpayer cash that they then use to buy loyalty, community support and votes. It doesn’t need reform. It needs complete abolition.