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ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo wants the death penalty — for pork.
As lawmakers prepare to pass the third consecutive state budget with no new pork-barrel spending, Cuomo said yesterday he doesn’t believe legislative “member items” should ever return.
“I would like them to be over in terms of any new ones,” Cuomo said on Albany’s Talk 1300 AM radio.
As attorney general, Cuomo scrutinized the traditional $200 million in annual member items — and his investigations helped lead to the indictment of former Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. (D-Bronx), among others.
Legislative sources groused that hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development grants being sprinkled around the state by Cuomo’s administration amount to Cuomo-controlled pork.
But Cuomo says those grants are awarded through a “competitive process based on need,” while pork is doled out at individual legislators’ discretion.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who pushed for member items this year, said he could live without them — as long as lawmakers have real input into state spending and “needs in their districts [are] funded in the ordinary course of business.”
“There doesn’t have to be member items if that dialogue can take place among members of the administration and members of the Legislature,” said Silver (D-Manhattan).
“He [Cuomo] is indicating that that is something he’ll take very seriously.”
Cuomo said lawmakers “should have input and be able to help their districts . . . I want their advice and I want their input.”
The previous day, Cuomo, Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-LI) announced an agreement on a $132.6 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins Sunday.
Lawmakers expect to complete passage of budget bills by tomorrow.
Mayor Bloomberg called the budget great for the city, citing a cost-saving pension overhaul that was actually approved two weeks ago and a planned state takeover of growth in the city’s costly Medicaid program starting next year.
He also praised state leaders for rejecting efforts to block public disclosure of teacher evaluations.