ALBANY - Fiscal crisis be damned, lame-duck Gov. Paterson is on a multimillion-dollar spending spree.
Paterson has quietly doled out nearly $17 million in pork-barrel spending, including $5 million to promote the 2014 Super Bowl at the new Meadowlands Stadium - in New Jersey.
State budget director Robert Megna approved the spending spree Nov. 30, just after Paterson ripped lawmakers for failing to close a $315 million budget gap.
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The governor's pork spending, first reported in the Times Union in Albany, prompted the state's largest public employees union to call on Paterson to rescind the nearly 900 pink slips he's planning on sending out.
Elizabeth Lynam, of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission, said Paterson "has lost the moral high ground by spending this money on member items."
I don't think Paterson ever had the high moral ground, but it just another case of politicians actually having the money to handle an economic crisis but choosing to use it on something other than saving jobs.
This is OUTRAGEOUS! What is wrong with these stupid polititians?
ReplyDeleteAnd Cuomo will be doing the same thing -arguing that state workers have to be laid off and have their pensions cut in the same year that Wall Street is up 70% and corporations have their most profitable quarter ever.
ReplyDeleteIt is outrageous. But par for the course in a system where money talks.