{"id":5009,"date":"2009-06-19T07:55:31","date_gmt":"2009-06-19T12:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/?p=5009"},"modified":"2009-06-19T08:12:30","modified_gmt":"2009-06-19T13:12:30","slug":"discretion_is_the_better_part_of_valor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/06\/discretion_is_the_better_part_of_valor.html","title":{"rendered":"Discretion Is The Better Part Of Valor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just try to read this without feeling any sarcasm or bitterness. It’s impossible. But really, who cares anymore? It’s all a game anyway<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Over the past fiscal year, which ends June 30, the Council spent $48.5 million on discretionary Council spending, according to spokeswoman Maria Alvarado. <\/p>\n

But the city had a $5 billion budget surplus during that fiscal year, compared with a $5 billion revenue shortfall this time around. <\/p>\n

The funds are disbursed by Council members to several thousand nonprofit and charitable groups that defenders say will help a wide variety of needy constituency groups. <\/p>\n

But it also lets Council members — most of whom are running for third terms because they and Mayor Bloomberg lifted the prior two-term limit — boast they’ve brought home the bacon.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then there’s this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Following the discovery last year of a City Council slush fund that stashed dough for fake groups to later spend on pet projects, a rigorous review process was put in place. As a result, Bloomberg’s office yanked $10,000 slated for the Davidson center earlier this year, citing “poor performance on past contracts.” <\/p>\n

But that didn’t stop Councilmembers Maria Baez and Joel Rivera. Both of the Bronx Democrats earmarked a combined $85,000 for the group in the budget, according to the lengthy list of grants.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just try to read this without feeling any sarcasm or bitterness. It’s impossible. But really, who cares anymore? It’s all a game anyway: Over the past fiscal year, which ends June 30, the Council spent $48.5 million on discretionary Council spending, according to spokeswoman Maria Alvarado. But the city had a $5 billion budget surplus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,55,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-follow_the_money","category-thats_an_outrage","category-the_big_shrug"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5009"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5013,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009\/revisions\/5013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}