Nick Muscavage

Albany Bureau

ALBANY -- State lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo control $2.4 billion in this year’s budget through opaque “lump sum pots” that are largely hidden from public view, a report Monday contended.

Citizens Union, a good-government group, has raised concerns in recent years about undesignated lump sums within the state's proposed $145 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts April 1.

“We are asking that there be some kind of line item identification of all these lump sums,” Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, said. He said it is important to know where these sums are going to, which lawmakers control them and what they’re being used for.

The state Legislature, governor and attorney general control nearly 80 lump sum pots, including 30 added during last year’s budget, the good-government group found in its report.

The pots give lawmakers discretion over spending, while also limiting transparency on how taxpayers’ money is being spent through vague descriptions, the group said.

Morris Peters, a spokesman for Cuomo's budget office, refuted the report.

“The budget includes the flexibility to react to needs that emerge during the fiscal year, and every dollar of spending must meet the statutory and program requirements established within appropriation language and be subject to a rigorous agency review process," he said in a statement. "The idea that we’d know exactly what the year will bring with no contingencies is simply unrealistic and a recipe for gridlock.”

Still, the use of money in the budget by lawmakers was a key piece in the corruption conviction of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan. Silver was convicted last year of steering state money to a doctor in exchange for referrals to a personal-injury law firmer that employed Silver.

The report found that Cuomo has the most control over the funds, having an influence of over as much as $2.2 billion. The Senate has the second most control with $815 million, followed by the Assembly with $686 million.

Last year’s budget gave the governor control of $2.4 billion in lump sum pots. Amidst criticism, Cuomo enacted reform language in the budget amendments, but they did not end up in the final bills.

“Unlike last year’s executive budget, there are no proposals for greater accountability or transparency of these funds as had been included in the governor’s budget legislation, either tied directly to appropriations” or in reform legislation, the report said.

Citizens Union said the state should include online disclosure of any state contracts under lump sum funds, identify all the undesignated funds in the budget and toughen conflict-of-interest laws.