Monday, May 05, 2008

And The Biggest Pigs In Albany Are.....

Ah its Monday morning and what do I feel like for breakfast? How about some bacon? If you go up to Albany, there is plenty of it and certain members in the Senate are extremely well adept at spending that pork. Can you guess who the winner of that contest is? If you guessed Joe Bruno, you'd be correct.

From The Daily Politics:

1) Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, $4.211 million (about $1 million more than Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver plans to personally allocate in this fiscal year).

2) Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos, $3.740 million (from Long Island, leader-in-waiting).

3) Sen. Tom Libous, $3.497 million (a Binghamton-area senator once considered a contender for Bruno's leadership post).

4) Sen. Owen Johnson, $3.276 million (chairs the Finance Committee).

5) Sen. Joe Robach, $2.550 million (a Rochester-area Democrat-turned-Republican who is one of the Senate minority's top targets this fall).

6) Sen. Thomas Morahan, $2.464 million (a Hudson Valley lawmaker who is the Senate's liaison to the executive branch).

7) Sen. Dale Volker, $2.446 million (a Western NY veteran lawmaker who recently said he thought someone connected to the State Police was spying on him during the Spitzer administration).

8) Sen. Serphin Maltese, $2.441 million (of Queens, the Democrats' top priority to oust).

9) Sen. Frank Padavan, $2.438 million (also from Queens, also in the crosshairs).

10) Sen. Cathy Young, $2.322 million (Western NY senator elected in a 2005 special election to fill the seat of the late Sen. Patricia McGee).


Oh yeah, they are all Republicans. That of course comes with being in the leadership. There is no equal sharing or fair play when it comes to spending in the State Senate. Now for those that cry out that the Democrats do it too, well, you'd be correct, though as you can see in the excel sheet, it isn't quite as bad (per member that is). The bottom line is, like everything in Albany, it must be reformed.