(The Center Square) \u2014 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic lawmakers steered nearly $100 million in pork barrel spending to handpicked pet projects and initiatives in the first six months of 2026, according to a report released Monday by a fiscal watchdog group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The analysis by the Empire Center for Public Policy, released Monday, found that Hochul and legislative leaders distributed more than $96.2 million in non-competitive grants to 206 projects in local governments and quasi-governmental agencies between January and June 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The center’s report, which was based on a public records request, said more than $54.7 million of the new spending came from a state “slush fund” that allows lawmakers and the governor to handpick grant recipients.<\/p>\n
The State and Municipal Facilities Program, created in 2013, allows the governor and lawmakers to direct state Dormitory Authority borrowing to local pet projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Assembly members directed $42.2 million to 135 pet projects through grants, while senators directed $12.5 million to 39 pet projects through grants, according to the center’s analysis. The remaining $42.5 million came from the Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program, for 32 college and university projects, the report’s authors said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The New York City Board of Education was the recipient of the largest number of grants during this period, receiving $6.8 million for 29 projects, the report noted<\/p>\n
The largest individual awards went to Fordham University, for renovation of the Quinn Library in the Bronx; Rochester General College of Health Careers, for its Innovation and Learning Center in Monroe County; and Columbia University\u2019s Irving Medical Center, for replacement of the chiller system serving its Washington Heights campus. Each was awarded $5 million, according to the report’s authors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The money for Columbia comes as the elite New York City university continues to fight with the Trump administration over funding for research and development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Siena University alone collected three grants worth $2 million for athletic facilities \u2014 two turf fields and a lacrosse complex \u2014 while Hamilton College received $1.9million to renovate an ice rink and Manhattan University got $1.1 million for its gymnasium and parking lot, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pork barrel spending comes as New York state faces a 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2014 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic lawmakers steered nearly $100 million in pork…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1412,9,11,10,49,51,50,1411],"class_list":["post-346910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-accountability","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-new_york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346910","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=346910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}