Mayor Bloomberg wants to reassure all New Yorkers that the earmarks scandal has been all overblown.
Indeed, says the mayor, the public can be “reasonably assured that 99.999 percent” of the hundreds of millions that the City Council has allocated to community groups since he took office has been legitimately spent.
Oh, really? Not to put too fine a point on it, but how exactly would he know?
After all, it’s not as if mayoral agencies have been doing such a great job of seeing that the funds – which they officially disburse – go where they’re intended.
As Councilman David Yasskey recently wrote on these pages, there’s an “unspoken bargain” in which the mayor gives the council “complete discretion” by routinely approving the earmarks that its members recommend in return for a green light on the rest of the budget.
(If that sounds like an abdication of responsibility in exchange for value, it is. Some might consider it bribe-receiving.)
According to Bloomberg, of the roughly $100 million a year in discretionary spending, the amount not open to question comes to $99,999,000 – leaving just $1,000 a year in questionable funding.
Uh, you might want to double-check your calculations, Mr. Mayor.
Fortunately, the US attorney’s office and city investigators aren’t taking Bloomberg at face value – they’re reportedly scrutinizing the council’s contracts with more than 100 nonprofits.
Indeed, aides to Brooklyn Councilman Kendall Stewart have been indicted for allegedly swiping $145,000 from a non-profit to which he’d allocated city funds.
But the earmarks scandal doesn’t just involve outright theft – as Yassky noted, grants also often go to groups with close ties to councilmembers.
Either way, one thing’s sure: Mayor Mike might want to re-do his math.