Opinion

Giving away your dollars

Once again our City Council is proving — with your tax dollars — that even a good cause can start to look ugly when it looks to political connections for funding.

The latest example is Brooklyn Councilmember Laurie Cumbo’s $1.4 million taxpayer-financed gift to the Museum of Contemporary Arts. Her donations will be matched by another $1.4 million in the mayor’s executive budget, for a grand total of $2.8 million for this museum.

That’s a nice chunk of change.

One other relevant point: Cumbo is the founder of this museum.

We don’t suggest that any of this is illegal. But that’s the smelly part, at least with regard to council member items. This is money that the council’s politicians take from taxpayers and ladle out to their pet projects and causes without even a vote.

That makes it even worse than the federal earmarks that cause such a scandal in Washington. And when Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) was using his official stationery to solicit funds for the center named after him, he was at least trying to get it from private corporations and foundations, not taxpayers.

The worthiness of the cause being supported is irrelevant. In fact, we think by participating in a process so open to abuse, non-profits risk their good names. Remember, member items were part of William Rapfogel’s scam at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

So we’re with Mayor de Blasio on this. End member items. And let these worthy causes raise money the old-fashioned way — either by persuading private benefactors to contribute, or, when taxpayer dollars are involved, by holding an up or down legislative vote.