Free Republic

Gov. Kathy Hochul treated herself to nearly $1 billion worth of pork-barrel spending in this year’s state budget — allowing her to freely hand out cash as she runs for election against Republican challenger Lee Zeldin. Hochul and her Democratic allies in the Legislature added the $920 million worth of outlays to the $220.5 billion fiscal plan in an 11th-hour move in April that government watchdogs warn is wide open to abuse. “These slush funds are totally unaccountable. It’s not how public dollars should be doled out,” senior policy adviser Rachael Fauss of Reinvent Albany said Friday.

A New York economic development agency report meant to show the state's growth was illustrated with an 8-year-old photo showing construction cranes in South Africa.... The photo, showing seven towering heavy-lift cranes being used to build a stadium in Cape Town for the 2010 soccer World Cup, is a cropped version of one owned by Getty Images, available for licensing on its website for up to $575.... The gaffe comes as Gov. Andrew Cuomo's economic development programs face questions over their effectiveness. Cuomo, a Democrat, said the programs have brought hundreds of thousands of jobs to the state. Critics, though,...