WTEN: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports - NY Senate's slim Dem majority has 90 pct. of pork
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Associated Press - June 8, 2009 2:55 PM ET
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York Democrats who won a slim Senate majority last year on a promise of reform are taking 90% of a pork barrel fund to send back home to their districts.
That means 32 Democrats will control almost $77 million of the fund this year. The 30 Republicans in the chamber will dole out a little more than $8 million.
Democrats are quick to note this is simply a reversal of how Republicans divvied up the pork when they were in charge.
But Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group blasted the practice as using tax dollars for partisan political purposes. The Democrat-led Assembly has a similar practice.
A more equitable distribution of pork was 1 of the reforms Democrats promised last year.
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