New York, NY – Support is growing among City Council members to relinquish the power of discretionary funding allocations to districts from the speaker, a power that has traditionally been viewed as one of the speaker’s most powerful weapons in swaying votes.
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The NEW YORK POST (http://bit.ly/1aLeY2H) reports that 30 of the 51 current council lawmakers are floating proposals limiting the speaker’s power.
New proposals call for a more equitable distribution of funding based on more scientific parameters, such as population, geographic district size, and financial needs.
City Council member Liz Crowley (D-Queens) said, “Right now, too much politics goes into who gets how much money for discretionary funds. It needs to be equitable, it needs to be fair and it certainly needs to be transparent.”
Some, however, are cautioning against such a move, saying it would weaken the overall strength of the governing body.
“If you weaken the office of the speaker or the power of the speaker, you will enable the mayor and the executive office to pick off individual members of the council to get certain legislative proposals or policies enacted,” said Eric Ulrich (R-Queens).