It's good to be the majority
Some of the stuff that goes on here will make your head explode.
There's a NYT story today about all the perks Republicans apparently enjoyed as the state Senate majority for the last 40something years.
There are lots of juicy tidbits in it. Some of them will just make you do a double- or triple-take as a taxpayer, whatever party you're aligned with:
+ The Democrats, now in charge of the Senate, say they're having a hard time figuring exactly how many people actually work for the body -- it could be as many as 1,500 people, but they're not sure.
+ There's a printing plant outside Albany that employs 75 people just to print things for the Senate. It apparently gave preferential treatment to the Republican majority (Republicans got multi-color brochures, Democrats got black-and-white).
+ There's a TV studio on Long Island that was set up so Republican Senators from that area could record cable TV shows. Tom Libous, an 11-term Republican from Binghamton, told NYT even he hadn't heard of it.
+ The Democrats had been getting about 30 parking spots near the Capitol. After becoming the majority, they found out the Republicans had been getting 800 parking spots.
+ After Joe Bruno caught criticism for using state aircraft, the Senate bought a "Brunomobile" -- a $50,000 customized van.
+ And oh, yeah: the Senate apparently has a budget of $100 million.
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Comments
(cue sad trombone noise)
... said BP on Feb 12, 2009 at 11:33 AM | link
Taxpayer... abuse... corrupt... bastards... must... not... have... aneurysm...
DAMMIT, WHY AREN'T THERE TERM LIMITS?!?!? WHY?!?!?!
... said Kim on Feb 12, 2009 at 11:35 AM | link
Interesting and not surprising.. I wonder 2 things: 1 what about the Assembly? I know that the Democrats have staffers that work on political campaigns for their members, and Im sure they have just as big and numerous boon doogles as the senate does, and more importantly: 2 what do you suppose now that the Democrats are in the majority are going to do about all this? For sure there will be 1500 people still working for the senate, may not be the same people but wont be any less, and it will budget out at 100 million, not any less... SO... what is the big deal? We as taxpayers are going to continue to fund these losers.. Democrat or Republican dont be fooled by "Change" there will not be any "Change" til the revolution.....
... said HrGreen on Feb 12, 2009 at 11:40 AM | link
HrGreen: I agree. However, maybe evolution is needed rather than revolution.
... said Curio on Feb 12, 2009 at 3:22 PM | link
So basically you're telling me that being a State Senator is awesome, because you get a whole bunch of fancy loot for free. And if some jerk complains about your abuse of power, you're punished with a $50,000 pimped out vehicle. I think I need to declare myself a candidate, just because I'm sick of filming my action figures in my living room, and I think the lighting in that private tv studio could really make the war scenes more believable.
... said Pantaloons on Feb 12, 2009 at 3:51 PM | link
Curio... I think evolution takes way too long, being a child of the 60's I remember those heady days of peace, love and the underlying theme that every one could make a difference. Sadly that never happened. There is no difference. There is little difference between the two parties: who is in charge has yet to make any impact or difference, I have seen decades of promises with the only difference is the size of the bite the government takes from our paychecks, and still that bunch of losers just keeps making the government bigger and bigger.. We have lost our way... Lost our sense of responsibility and elected a giant bunch of losers... losers who do nothing but try to line their pockets.. I could go on... but the only solution is revolution!
... said HRGREEN on Feb 12, 2009 at 5:10 PM | link
While the printers and tv studio, and especially the parking spot disparity do get my dander up, I'm a bit tired of the outrage over what is a pretty standard issue custom van. It cost less than the Caddy we tax payers provide to Rangel, and it's pretty much identical to the one used by Bill and Hillary.
That said, I say put it on ebay and be done with it.
... said Hank on Feb 13, 2009 at 11:34 AM | link