"Years ago, when the Republicans were the majority of the Senate, earmarks were distributed mostly to special projects on Long Island and upstate NY - while the Democratic majority Assembly sent most of their money to NYC and the surrounding suburbs.
Now that the majority of both chambers are controlled by New York City Democrats.....upstate might see a little less of the $cha-ching$ that they used to get."
A friend recently sent me an article from the Albany Times Union that shows how much Upstate is losing in the "Pork Barrel Spending" game.
Excerpts from the article:
"For decades, upstate New York has been the well-kept beneficiary of the Republican-controlled state Senate's power and pork-barrel spending.
But in the first year under a Democratic Senate majority, a Times Union analysis of combined Senate and Assembly spending has found upstate will lose nearly $26 million in discretionary legislative grants, with nearly all of the pork headed to New York City.
In the months since Democrats took control of the Senate, upstate's once-considerable political clout has faded as its predominantly Republican legislators endured significant cuts to staff and resources as the minority party.
Upstate pork spending is down 36.1 percent after the Republicans lost the majority, while downstate spending is up 33.9 percent. Democratic districts in New York City pushed the city's share up 72 percent. Westchester County is the big winner with a 168 percent increase as two pork-starved Democratic districts benefited from the change in power.
Long Island, with its Republican senators, is down 65.8 percent."
"Find out how much member item funding your community is slated to receive by using our interactive Pork Map at http://www.timesunion.com/data/pork. This feature allows you to search for member items geographically, or by individual legislator in either the state Senate or Assembly.
Share your opinion on the distribution of member items at http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol.
Source: Member item figures from New York State Assembly and Senate, legislators' totals provided by the New York Public Interest Research Group"
Included in this article were links to related stories and data.
Senate/Assembly Pork,another helpful tool to use when looking up member items (pork).
Pork Distribution Maps:
Senate Pork Power Rankings.
Ok....done with the pork part....now onto the buying votes part.
Remember I told you about that unbiased, non-political, untainted "real stuff" blog? In the interest of sharing different views and opinions, I encourage you to read it. Here is the link.
The latest blog is an opinion about Bob Ament, which is all fine and good, as everyone is entitled to their opinion, and there are some things that I agree with and some I don't.
One of the things that I don't agree with, is this one statement from the author:
"This is the same Joe Morelle who made public his support for seniors in Irondequoit."
Joe Morelle did no such thing.
He made public his support for the move to King$ Pork.
He made public his $125,000 donation for the move to King$ Pork.
That grant could have been used at Pinegrove as well, but Joe only offered it if the majority of votes were "yes" to the move.
The majority of votes were "no" and that grant went "bye-bye", even though he told a resident that it could be used at Pinegrove.
That is not supporting seniors, that is buying votes and supporting King$ Pork.
I did not agree with it then, and I certainly am not going to twist it into some positive spin now.
If he really cared about the seniors at Pinegrove, he would have offered that grant before......or given the grant no matter what the vote results were - to help the seniors.
Using OUR tax money to buy yes votes for a move to a leased facility is not going to win my admiration.
I absolutely go into conniptions when a Republican does this......why should it be any different for someone who shares the same political party as I do?
If anything, I hold Democrats to a HIGHER standard BECAUSE I'm a Democrat, and BECAUSE "we" point out every single instance that a Republican does this and how WRONG it is!
If it's wrong......it's wrong.....no matter who does it.
Quite frankly I am insulted that Mr. Morelle would think me stupid enough to believe that his generous offer at the February press conference was anything other than what I said it was.
Buying votes with our tax money.
(I was born in the morning, Joe....but not THAT morning.)
I don't think Morelle is a "senior hater" and I don't think he had a terrible upbringing.....he is a nice guy, with great parents, a great wife and great kids.....as a fellow human, I'm sure he is A-okay.
As a politician.....I'm not always going to agree with what he says or does....ESPECIALLY that whole "I'll give you money if you vote yes to the move." crap.
So let's not fool ourselves into thinking that Mr. Morelle "supports" seniors in Irondequoit. When looking at his grant allocations over the past 5 years.....as far as money to support Irondequoit Seniors are concerned....there's not much to be impressed over.
Having your name on a glossy political mailer supporting a lease at King$ Pork, utilizing phone banks to support a lease at King$ Pork, and holding a press conference to offer a $125,000 grant ONLY if the voters support the lease at King$ Pork does not equal "support" for seniors in Irondequoit.
"This is the same Joe Morelle who made public his support for seniors in Irondequoit."
That is one opinion that I can never agree with.
To be fair....when searching their database for Morelle's 2009 - 2010 pork spending, it did show a $25,000 gift to Lifespan to provide in-state transportation to seniors with mobility issues....and it's for all seniors in Monroe County, not just Irondequoit's seniors.
