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Yassky Looks for Budget Reforms
April 29th, 2008

Each day, another council members is cloaked in scandal.

One member, Maria Baez, attempted to dole out her discretionary funding to a supposedly nonexistent tenant organization in her former apartment building, while another, Larry Seabrook, earmarked nearly $1 million to an African American chamber of commerce group which shared his district office’s address.

It seems a plethora of members can barely escape the city’s budget probe — sparked by a Post story early this month that revealed the city council stashed its discretionary funding in phantom groups.

Speaker Christine Quinn immediately followed up with several reforms, which many of her members oppose.

But now, city comptroller candidate and councilmember, David Yassky is putting forth several ideas in an op-ed in today’s Post. He is calling for audits of every council grantee before they are delivered checks, reviews by the Conflicts of Interest Board into council nepotism (several members have been caught giving their discretionary funds to groups runs by family members or aides) and a searchable database with every nonprofit application.

Some of these ideas were proposed or endorsed by Quinn earlier this month.

With Mayor Michael Bloomberg expected to deliver his executive budget on Thursday, Yassky is calling for a fresh start free of political favors and allusive budget practices. “In my six years on the council, I’ve often felt that there’s an unspoken bargain between Mayor Bloomberg and the council: We get complete discretion to allocate some $100 million worth of “earmarks in return, the rest of the mayor’s $59 billion budget sails through without significant changes,” Yassky stated.

“This year, let’s scrutinize every line,” he added.

For his full piece, visit here.

By Courtney Gross on April 29, 2008, 12:53 pm
In category: Gotham City
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