Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Announces Actions On Member Items

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today announced that the Office of Attorney General will initiate a formal review of the approximately 6,000 legislative member items which will be contracted this year and seek to recover any misspent funds. The review will ensure they meet the constitutional standard of fulfilling a legal public purpose. Cuomo also laid out a four-prong review which he proposed should be applied to future member items to ensure the legality of the grants and legal use of taxpayer dollars.

“The taxpayers of New York must be assured that their hard-earned dollars are used for legitimate public purposes-period,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Without this guarantee, the public trust in our state government will continue to erode. It is time to restore this breach and we will not rest until we return our state government to one of the highest integrity.”

In a statement he delivered at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, the Attorney General laid out a comprehensive agenda of three action items that the Office will undertake to help bring accountability and transparency to the system in which taxpayer dollars are awarded throughout the state.
The Attorney General announced he will: