That was quick.
Last week, The Post decried a $50 million taxpayer-paid slush fund set up for City Council members.
This week, we’re finding out where some of this cash is going. It ain’t pretty.
Crain’s is reporting that more than $1.31 million is headed to a powerful, politically connected Bronx nonprofit called the Hispanic Federation. To put that in perspective, this is more than a four-fold jump over what the same group got last year. And $833,333 of it will come from a fund controlled by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Here’s where it gets really smelly:
The Hispanic Federation employs a lobbying firm called MirRam that also served as Mark-Viverito’s political consultant. And MirRam’s co-founder, Luis Miranda, founded the Hispanic Federation — which retains his firm for $8,500 a month.
In 2012, The Post reported the Hispanic Federation had received $24 million in taxpayer funds since 1998. And between 1998 and 2008, the federation in turn paid MirRam and another firm tied to Miranda $681,644.
Now MirRam has lobbied its client, Speaker Mark-Viverito, to hand $1.31 million in new taxpayer money to a group that pays it handsomely in return.
The real crime here is that, so far as we know, none of this is illegal. We’re not saying the federation, which funds other Bronx nonprofits, never does any good work.
But when taxpayer dollars are steered to politically connected groups through a process that doesn’t even require a council vote, someone should cry foul.
Which is why we’re delighted Mayor de Blasio is echoing The Post’s call for the only real reform: ending the council’s slush fund by banning member items altogether.