FEDS TO HUNT MUCK IN ALBANY PIG TROUGH

A follow up article. This is not their personal slush fund. It is time to bring all of this to an end.

FEDS TO HUNT MUCK IN ALBANY PIG TROUGH By KATI CORNELL

December 12, 2006 — The feds are vowing to look into state lawmakers’ practice of doling out cash for pork-barrel projects from a $200 million slush fund, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia told The Post yesterday.

“The federal government has a responsibility here,” Garcia told The Post’s editorial board. “When we smell something, we’ll follow it.”

The closer scrutiny – with an eye toward possible prosecutions, Garcia said – comes on the heels of a lawsuit by media organizations that forced Senate and Assembly leaders to disclose detailed data about so-called “member item” grants.

The grants are part of the routine pork-barrel annual spending – a process that takes place largely behind closed doors and with little oversight.

The Legislature has recently appropriated $200 million in member items annually, with $85 million going to the Assembly, $85 million to the Senate and $30 million to Gov. Pataki.

“You have this pool of nearly $200 million a year. Where there is that type of stream of money, it’s going to create opportunities [for corruption],” Garcia said.

Garcia, a Manhattan U.S. Attorney for approximately 11/2 years, has vowed to make combating public corruption a top priority.

Garcia declined to comment on which individual lawmakers are potential targets, but said investigators are sifting through the newly available data.

“You have got to look in your back yard. We start looking close to home and I think that’s the correct way to do things,” Garcia said, adding that following the money trail gives his office a long reach.

“New York is a banking center, the center for all types of businesses, so with jurisdiction we’re not limited,” he said.

In launching a probe, prosecutors are faced with the task of sorting out criminal activity from legal, if ethically questionable, grants.

“Until I know differently, I assume the vast majority of public servants are looking to serve the public,” Garcia said. “I’m sure there are a lot of great projects on that list.”

Review of member-item expenditures show Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver doled out almost $7.5 million in pork-barrel cash this year alone.

Records show Silver directed six grants totaling $1 million to a charity and its affiliates headed by the husband of Silver’s chief of staff, Judy Rapfogel.

Silver has also sent grants to at least two groups represented by a lobbyist who used to be a top aide.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno directed $500,000 in state funding to a private company linked to a businessman who is under investigation for providing him with free air travel.

Garcia stopped short of calling corruption in Albany an endemic problem, but said, “We’ve seen some problems. It certainly raises issues that you want to work harder.”

The prosecutor cited the recent arrest of Queens Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, who was charged with racketeering in October for allegedly lining his pockets with more than $2 million in illegal cash.

In August, the feds nabbed Bronx state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. for allegedly using a charity he founded as his personal piggy bank.