(The Center Square) \u2014 New York State lawmakers steered tens of millions of dollars in pork barrel spending to pet projects last year, according to a new report by a fiscal watchdog.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The analysis by the Empire Center for Public Policy, released Monday, found that Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders distributed more than $83 million in non-competitive grants to nearly 300 projects in local governments and quasi-governmental agencies between April and December 2025.<\/p>\n
The report’s authors said more than $72 million of the new spending came from a state “slush fund” that allows lawmakers and the governor to handpick grant recipients.<\/p>\n
“The so-called pork-barrel grants are not awarded on a competitive or transparent basis, and most get disbursed outside the normal budget process, meaning state lawmakers never vote on the individual recipients,” they wrote.<\/p>\n
The grants are distributed from the State and Municipal Facilities Program, a fund created in 2013 that allows the\u00a0governor and lawmakers to direct money borrowed by the state Dormitory Authority to local pet projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year, New York County \u2014 which includes the five boroughs of Manhattan \u2014 received the largest grant amount, or about $17 million for 30 grants, according to the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That includes $2.3 million for the New York City Housing Authority for the “CCTV security cameras and related equipment” and $2.2 million to Pace University for a health lab secured by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, according to the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rockland County received 24 grants totaling more than $5.7 million, while Suffolk County received 19 grants totaling more than $2.9 million. Nassau County got $5.4 million, or 20 grants, from the program.<\/p>\n
The largest grant during this period was a $3 million award to Brooklyn Public Library for the \u201cpurchase and installation of an HVAC system and renovations to the Flatlands Branch\u201d. This comes in the face of a $380 million system-wide maintenance backlog that the Brooklyn library system reported in 2024.<\/p>\n
The New York City Board of Education was the recipient of the largest number of grants during this period, receiving $5.5 million for 23 projects, the report noted. Those projects include a $650,000 grant for rooftop renovation at The Parkside School; a $500,000 grant for renovation of Athletic Field at Bayside High School; and a $500,000 grant for renovation of culinary and Activities of Daily Living rooms at PS 177Q, according to the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among other top agencies, the Brooklyn Public Library received a total of $4.4 million for five grants, while the New York City Parks and Recreation received $3.1 million for nine grants.<\/p>\n
The pork barrel spending comes as New York state faces a growing structural budget deficit, with the Division of the Budget projecting a cumulative three-year gap of $34.3 billion through fiscal year 2029.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The budget gaps are being driven largely by rising Medicaid costs, expenses for services for asylum seekers, and sluggish revenue growth, according to a recent report by New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapolil, who said the deficit threatens to reduce state reserves by $7.5 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2014 New York State lawmakers steered tens of millions of dollars in pork barrel spending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1412,9,24,55,54,1411,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-188387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-accountability","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-new_york","14":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}