Cathy Wakeman's Dryden Town Talk talks about events this coming Saturday. The Dryden Music Boosters will be having their biggest fundraiser of the year, Jazz Night, at 7:00pm Saturday in the Dryden High gym. It combines student music with food and door prizes for $7.00. The middle and high school Jazz Ensembles will perform, as will Dryden Voices and beyondmeasure.
She also notes a demonstration of a portable skate park, to be held from 10:00am to 1:00pm on Saturday at Montgomery Park in the Village of Dryden, sponsored by the Town.
In the print edition, the Monitor notes the arrest of a Dryden man for charges stemming from a domestic incident, and the arrest of a Locke man for DWI on Route 13 at George Road.
I'm delighted to see the Journal's editorial join the call for more disclosure of the legislature and governor's discretionary spending borrowing. They point to the Empire Center list of "certified state expenditures for 'member items'", which required a Freedom of Information request to gather. They include "22,980 spending items that add up to about $479 million" but, as the Journal notes:
Without full transparency in the system - meaning public access to all records involving spending requests and program goals, an accounting of activity for every legislative office, and the details of any decision-making process - there's no way for the public to know if its $200 million sliver is being spent wisely. Short of tracking every press release and ribbon cutting, that is.
For now, it looks like this system might be coming to an end:
Pataki vetoed the $200 million fund from the 2006-07 state budget approved by the Legislature on March 31. Lawmakers, who just returned to Albany after the Easter/Passover break, are now deciding which of Pataki's $3 billion worth of vetoes they feel safe enough politically to override in this first election year since calls for reform tossed a few incumbents out in 2004.
Political safety is, of course, defined by you.
I'm also happy to see in this morning's New York Times that Senate Democrats feel the way the Journal does:
Seeking to shine a light on taxpayer financing of such items as cheese museums and private hunting clubs, Senate Democrats said on Tuesday that they would vote against $325 million worth of secretive "pork barrel" spending unless it was disclosed to the public....
"This is the public's money," said the Senate minority leader, David A. Paterson, a candidate for lieutenant governor. "The public has a right to know where it's going."
The Senate minority only has power at veto-override time, but that time is here, and hopefully they'll use it.
Posted by simon at April 26, 2006 9:37 AM in Ithaca Journal , politics (state) , recreation , schools (Dryden)