State Senate spending to be presented in easy to read form

State Sen. Mary Lou Rath, R,C,I- 61st District, said legislation has been introduced in the Senate that would provide a line-by-line accounting in the state budget of every dollar to be spent by the governor, Legislature, judiciary and all state agencies and authorities.

“The public deserves to know how state funds are spent,” said Rath, who represents the Village of Kenmore and the Town of Tonawanda.

“The current system allows for pots of money to be listed in a lump sum,” Rath said. “But just because ‘That’s the way it’s done’ doesn’t mean it’s the way it should be. This new measure will unravel lump-sum spending and display each and every expenditure in a way that is clear and easily understandable.”

The Senate’s budget reform plan would take effect with the 2007-08 state budget.

Over the past 10 years, the State Division of the Budget has moved more and more funding away from line items and into lump-sum appropriations, which allows for flexibility and discretion in spending the funds and limits oversight of the spending. The Division of the Budget already lines out state spending in its internal documents but does not include that information as part of the state budget that is enacted into law.

The state budget includes billions of dollars in lump sums in agency spending, submitted by the governor, that target areas such as environment, education, higher education, health care, human services, public protection, capital projects and economic development.