December 02, 2008
Not so fast, Joe
Former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno seems to think he pulled a fast one on taxpayers with his one big concession to "openness" in government.
Today's New York Times profile of the ex-leader (here) highlights the irony that Bruno, who had to be sued before he would release details of pork-barrel expenditures during his last term, is now "preaching the virtues of smaller, leaner, more accountable government" in his new role as chief executive of an infotech and software consulting firm. And it recounts the following:
Mr. Bruno, for example, was the first Senate leader to require the release of every internal expenditure made by the Senate.
But those reports are published only every six months, in a book format that makes it extremely difficult to examine the spending in any systematic way. (Asked about it, Mr. Bruno joked, "You noticed that, huh?") Well, here at the Empire Center, we sure noticed. To penetrate the Legislature's deliberate opacity, we translated all the Senate and Assembly expenditure reports into searchable databases at www.SeeThroughNY.net.
Memo to Times reporter Nick Confessore: you'll find those reports at this page.
Memo to former Senator Bruno: nice try.
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