Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The rent is too damn high


From the NY Post:

Data obtained by The Post found that 19 of the 27 senators representing parts of New York City — 70 percent — submitted rental bills that exceeded their $40,000 annual allotment for 2011-12.

Among the budget busters was Democrat Jeff Klein of The Bronx, one of the new co-leaders of the Senate. He spent $49,821, although his spokesman said he moved in October 2011 to a cheaper office — which is still over the limit on a yearly basis.

Malcolm Smith of Queens, who spent $50,000 on a Jamaica Avenue office, is one of the five members of Klein’s Independent Democratic Conference, which formed an unprecedented power-sharing coalition this year with the Senate GOP.

Republican Martin Golden of Brooklyn was also among the transgressors, billing taxpayers $48,000 for his district office in Bay Ridge — the same amount Senate Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman and deputy Democratic leader Michael Gianaris of Queens paid for his district office in Astoria.

And Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) paid $49,723 for his district office at 38-50 Bell Blvd. He insisted the Senate Republicans negotiated his lease — claiming he didn’t even know he was over the limit.

Even imprisoned ex-Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) and indicted former Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Queens) got in on the fun, despite having represented lower-rent neighborhoods, spending $45,000 and $47,452, respectively.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some places are more expensive than others..............

Anonymous said...

"YOU" voted for em.

Anonymous said...

its always been pretty dumb to budget the same for NYC as bumblefark upstate.

Same issue with superstrom sandy. FEMA caps the limit on what they can give regardless of where in the nation you live. So if your $30,000 double-wide in Missouri gets totaled, or your modest $500k house in rockaway, you get the same check to rebuild with.

But its ok that we pay more in taxes, right?


Great system.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe an office on Jamaica Avenue would cost so much - it's not midtown Manhattan.

georgetheatheist said...

So? Now what? They're 10G's over their allotment. This gets paid back from their salaries?

Anonymous said...

is not taxpayer $$$$$ waste by NYC/NYS politician's grand ?

Joe Moretti said...

So let's see, out of all the Jamaica politicians, almost all of them have been involved in some kind of questionable ethics or corruption scandal: Congressman Gregory Meeks, Councilman Ruben Wills, disgraced former Senator Shirley Huntley, Assemblymember William Scarborough and now add Senator Malcolm to Jamaica's Rogue Galleries. In the meantime the quality of life in Jamaica suffers over and over again due to some of the poorest leadership around. Certainly time for a major change to get individuals in who actually care about the community and do everything they can to help improve our community instead of looking out for their own best interests, that is not a civil servant but egotistical pols who look out only for themselves. Ever think about working for Wall Street, you should all do well there.