Ken LaValle is #1 at Wasting Taxpayer Millions on Mailers
By Mike Connery on 05/11/2010 @ 05:07 PM
Ken LaValle is #1. At least when it comes to spending taxpayer money on legislative mailers. That's according to a recent report conducted by Gannett's Albany bureau, and his opponent, Democrat Regina Calcaterra, is calling him out on it.
“While New York has been careening out of fiscal control, lawmakers have been wastefully spending millions of taxpayer dollars on legislative mailers telling us how great they are – a practice that must be reined in immediately,” she said in a statement.
She added, “It shouldn’t take a investigative report by one of the country’s biggest newspaper companies to uncover how much lawmakers spend on constituent mail.”
Behind the paywall at Newsday, there's more from Calcaterra on LaValle's spending habits and how we can efficiently reform the system for legislative mailings to take advantage of 21st Century communications channels:
"The amount that the money LaValle spent on the mailers could have:
- Paid a full-year salary for between three and five teachers in Eastern Long Island Schools;
- Paid the salaries of five state troopers;
- Or paid a full year of tuition for 71 students at SUNY Stony Brook Southampton.
"It shouldn't take a investigative report by one of the country's biggest newspaper companies to uncover how much lawmakers spend on constituent mail," said Calcaterra, who is running in New York's First Senatorial District. "Every piece of mail from a New York State legislator should contain a line that clearly identifies the exact cost of the mailer to the taxpayer.
"But even that's not enough," she said. "Email, websites and social networking can clearly eliminate much, if not most, of the ridiculous cost both parties have racked up in constituent mailing. The budget for franking privileges should be cut to a fraction of what it is today. This abuse must stop now."
The Calcaterra campaign is holding the grand opening of their campaign office this weekend, followed by door knocking in the district. If you are in Suffolk County, stop in and help her out.
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