Emergency order spending goes unchecked

Tens of millions of your taxpayer dollars being spent without any real outside review.

It's a question of transparency that every single member of both parties in both houses of the state legislature wants fixed.

Normally the NYS Comptroller reviews state contracts - but there's a loophole. He doesn't have the authority to review state contracts that are entered into under an emergency order from the governor's office.

There's a bill on Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk right now, passed unanimously in the NYS Senate and Assembly that would make those contracts public.

Today we talked to NYS State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli about the bill. He says,

I don't think you can have accountability for taxpayer dollars in the spending if you don't have transparency. If there's a sense that no one's really going to look at the details, there might be a tendency to, you know, not give it as much careful consideration as one should. If a contract is let with all good intention and is reasonable, it should be able to stand up to scrutiny

The Governor vetoed the bill last year, but it’s been changed this year. This new bill is just calling for a contract summary to be posted online, not the complete contract.

We asked the Governor’s office for comment – a spokesperson told us the Governor is reviewing the legislation.

The bill has to be acted on by December 13th.