Buffalo, NY (WBEN) State GOP lawmakers are upset with a provision in the budget that allows for $10 million in taxpayer dollars to be used for legal defense funding. One lawmaker says this is aimed at helping one Democrat.
"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And that's absolutely what we're seeing in Albany right now, under one party Democrat rule," contends State Senator George Borrello. He says this part of the budget benefits one person only. "This is just a absolutely shameless waste of taxpayer dollars, so that Tish James, who has been accused of something that has nothing to do with her official job as Attorney General, of mortgage fraud and identity fraud, and now we're going to have the taxpayers, thanks to Democrats in Albany, support that." He adds Democrats didn't have the courage to put that up in a bill instead of making it part of the budget.
Borrello says while that money would be available to any lawmaker of either party, "if it were somebody besides the Attorney General, the Attorney General gets to decide whether or not that money would be allocated. So they could make this very partisan in the event that someone else tried to tap into that fund. So this is definitely a Democrat slush fund."
State Senator Patrick Gallivan agrees with Borrello in his objection. "I think the biggest thing is that this authorizes public monies to pay for legal services for wrongdoing, that for defense of allegations against an individual that was not done in connection with their work. And so essentially, it's private actions being defended by public dollars, and it's just not appropriate," says Gallivan.
Gallivan says State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli can reject this provision in the budget. "We, of course, are calling on the Comptroller to not allow for any of this funding to go out there for public defense of private actions," adds Gallivan. "I'm hoping he looks at all the circumstances, including the specific circumstances, what the AG is being accused of," adds Borrello.
