Nassau County Democrats and Republicans are at loggerheads over funding important capital projects because Democrats want a piece of the action when it comes to doling out slush funds for individual district goodies.
The Democrats have a point that it is partisan and unfair to say that Republican legislators in the majority can get access to a slush fund to dole out thousands here and thousands there to their favorite groups within their districts. Some of them may be wasteful, but some of them may be worthy, such as fire departments and important nonprofits.
But the bottom line is that legislators love these earmarks because they’re able to write that check to the organization and take bows for bringing home the bacon.
Unfortunately, along with the good, a great deal of unnecessary junk gets thrown in. These earmarks are one of the reasons incumbents are re-elected overwhelmingly. They use our taxpayer dollars to be the heroes to all these different organizations.
So Republicans want to keep theirs and shut the Democrats out, while the Dems want a piece of the action. But wouldn’t it be nice if some brave soul from either party stepped up and said, “Enough!”? Let’s get rid of these slush funds once and for all.
If we have an important program that needs an allocation, let’s put it in the overall budget and vote up or down on its merits.
Good luck getting that done because, ultimately, legislators from both parties have one thing in common: getting re-elected.