Brooklyn Democrat Vito Lopez emerges Assembly's top hog in handing out pork dollars

• All Sections

BY Glenn Blain AND Robert Gearty
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Friday, May 15th 2009, 4:00 AM

Brooklyn Democrat Vito Lopez was the Assembly's most generous pork giver this year.

Lopez doled out $3.2 million in member items, topping all other individual Assembly members - even Speaker Sheldon Silver, a spending analysis shows.

"That is surprising," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group, which analyzed the Assembly spending.

Lopez declined to comment. His spokesman, Jonathan Harkavy, said the totals were skewed by two large allocations: $2.1 million for a statewide neighborhood preservation program and $742,000 to the city Housing Authority for a tenant security program.

Those programs are usually funded through normal budget appropriations, but the fiscal crisis forced the Assembly to use member items to keep the programs running, Harkavy said.

Lopez's pork also included four grants totaling $155,000 to the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which he founded.

Silver (D-Manhattan) allocated more than $8 million in grants, but much of that was done jointly with other lawmakers. Acting alone, Silver distributed $2.6 million, the research group said.

Among the grants was $1 million to the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. The council's CEO, William Rapfogel, is married to Silver's chief of staff.

Silver has defended member item funding, saying it supports much-needed programs.

Read more: "Brooklyn Democrat Vito Lopez emerges Assembly's top hog in handing out pork dollars" - http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/05/15/2009-05-15_bklyns_lopez_top_hog_in_pork_spending.html#ixzz0FaCbcjZC&A