Letter to the Editor: NYS spending

To the editor,

How did Gov. Hochul, as Governor and candidate, squander $2 Million on speech consultants?  How did $250 Million of our taxes end up in a slush fund?  How was that money supposed to be used?

 All New Yorkers agree that misuse of public funds is a sin and a crime. So why has no elected official in the Democratic Party or Working Families Party complained of this waste of hard-working New Yorkers’ earnings?  Underpaid to jack up profits, overtaxed by the government, and struggling to get by, their work is the ultimate source of everyone’s income.

A few days after the April 14 NY Times report, Joe Angelino and Matt Slater, who are Republican members of the Assembly’s Committee on Oversight, Analysis, and Investigations, called on their committee to investigate the matter.  I have thanked them, though I am registered Democratic.  Ordinary expressions of gratitude to anyone who does the right thing is most helpful in the midst of a divisive atmosphere.  And we should all encourage Committee Chairman Clyde Vanel to proceed against the Democratic Party’s code of silence on this matter.

The investigation should start with Speechgate, extend into all slush funds, and end in legislation that requires, for all funds, a clearly designated use, open competitive bidding for all contracts, oversight by the Comptroller’s office, pre-approval for their release, and strict accounting of their use. Most of all, we need to safeguard funds from misuse in the Governor’s office, where every Governor freely takes and doles out as they like.

Tim Lillard

Newfield, NY

We will have representative democracy when anyone can propose law, everyone can vote on everything, and legislators act in accord with their districts.