Fun With Funding
sbr’s article about the Jazz Festival reminded me that I’d made much the same observation last year. Included is a handy visual to make clear what’s going on. I’ve re-posted it below for old time’s sake:
This is actually quite a clever, if sneaky, way of getting you and I to contribute to Alesi’s campaign twice. Here’s how it works:
1) We pay taxes
2) They go into a slush fund, out of which, Alesi gets $3.9 M (for 2005-2006, which is the latest I could find from The Albany Project’s very handy pork spreadsheet)
3) Alesi gets to look like a hero for funnelling some of that ca$h to various high-PR value interest groups (like the Jazz festival), and gets his name on things
4) The interest groups kick back money directly to Alesi’s campaign fund
And this diagram is just talking about the Jazz festival. Multiply this by many other interest groups, and that kind of money (and free PR) starts to add up. Robach does the same. Nozollio has been doing the same as well. Just standard operating procedure to keep the NY State Senate in GOP control.
It’s pay-to-play, and it’s a dishonest way of supporting the “incumbant protection racket”. It’s clever, but unfair that our tax dollars goes to support Alesi.
Related posts:
On January 1st 2007 - the first (and almost the last) thing Eliot Spitzer did was to change the way politicos operated in regards to gifts, advertisements, etc:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E2D9163FF936A15752C0A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=
According to the law:
§ 1-m. Prohibition of gifts. No individual or entity required to be listed on a statement of registration pursuant to this article shall offer or give a gift to any public official as defined within this article, unless under the circumstances it is not reasonable to infer that the gift was intended to influence such public official. No individual or entity required to be listed on a statement of registration pursuant to this article shall offer or give a gift to the spouse or unemancipated child of any public official as defined within this article under circumstances where it is reasonable to infer that the gift was intended to influence such public official. No spouse or unemancipated child of an individual required to be listed on a statement of registration pursuant to this article shall offer or give a gift to a public official under circumstances where it is reasonable to infer that the gift was intended to influence such public official. This section shall not apply to gifts to officers, members or directors of boards, commissions, councils, public authorities or public benefit corporations who receive no compensation or are compensated on a per diem basis, unless the person listed on the statement of registration appears or has matters pending before the board, commission or council on which the recipient sits.
and this:
§ 1-b. Short title. This article shall be known and may be cited as the “Lobbying act”.
§ 1-c. Definitions. As used in this article unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) The term “lobbyist” shall mean every person or organization retained, employed or designated by any client to engage in lobbying. The term “lobbyist” shall not include any officer, director, trustee, employee, counsel or agent of the state, or any municipality or subdivision thereof of New York when discharging their official duties; except those officers, directors, trustees, employees, counsels, or agents of colleges, as defined by section two of the education law.
(b) The term “client” shall mean every person or organization who retains, employs or designates any person or organization to carry on lobbying activities on behalf of such client.
(c) The term “lobbying” or “lobbying activities” shall mean any attempt to influence:
“Attempt to influence” means any activity intended to support, oppose, modify, delay, expedite or otherwise affect any of the actions specified in § 1-c(c).
Courtesy of nyintegrity dot org
This one’s interesting too:
http://www.jazz901.org/ in their logo states:
“A public service of the Greece Central School District”
and on the same page…
Become a member of Jazz90.1
Because Jazz90.1 is Member Supported Public Radio, we rely on YOUR support to keep us going. Please become a member now and show your support for Jazz90.1!
Goal: $50,000 | Raised So Far: $20,687 | Left To Goal: $29,313
How much is paid in school taxes? Talk about blurring the effin lines!
Jimbo,
The Jazz station in Greece is a different situation. It’s my understanding that Greece School District is owner of the station and provides the facility, but contributes nothing to cover salaries or operating expenses. The station is organized as a non-profit with its own independent board of directors. So, they do kinda sorta have it both ways, and to my knowledge there’s nothing underhanded about it. The station is an asset to the community.
I believe one staffer (station manager) does double duty and also teaches a broadcasting class, for which I assume he gets two paychecks, one from the station and one from the school.
The more interesting “blur” is the one that never came off. The radio station’s studios and adjoining TV studio are the infamous “secret studios” built in the GCSD capital improvement project, intended for town-run public access TV but never used for that purpose. The long tug of war over cable TV in Greece began when the town tried to move the TV operation into that studio.
State Sen. Tom Libous pulled similar nonsense with the Empire State Games in Binghamton last summer:
http://www.newyorksportswriters.org/blog/blog-2008-03-26.shtml
[...] SBR points out the that the jazz festival gives donations to our top local elected officials. BTP reminds us we have been there [...]
[...] weeks ago, our longtime commenter Jiminy Bizbo responded to this post about the you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours program funding/campaign donation [...]
[...] Assembly Members and State Senators to spend as they wish. It might go to pet projects, to reward campaign donors for support, or to enhance the representative’s chances for re-election. Assembly Speaker Sheldon [...]
You’ve illustrated a very real problem but insulted everyone’s intelligence and committed a public disservice by suggesting that this is only a Republican phenomena, the Democrats are just as guilty. The answer is not more ineffective campaign finance reform, the answer is a return to a limited government that protects our inalienable rights.