Cuomo’s Going After Fat In Pork
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- April
- 29
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo also spoke at Reform Day today, saying that among his watchdog efforts is a movement to weed out unscrupulous member items obtained by state lawmakers.
Last year, Cuomo instituted a certification process for every state grant that lawmakers secure for their districts, such as money for Little Leagues, churches and other non-profit groups.
The $200 million a year in member items have been under scrutiny in recent years and criticized for widespread fraud.
Yet Cuomo said his certification process is apparently having positive results. He said that of the 6,500 members items passed last year, 2,700 have not yet been presented to his office, suggesting that some fear his review process.
“I think we brought review and scrutiny to the program that hasn’t existed before,” Cuomo later told reporters. “And I think people are looking at those certifications and thinking twice before they sign them—as they should.”
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 3:23 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
