Bill de Blasio Calls for Banning 'Member Items'; Albanese Pounces Back On Primary Rival

Seizing on the crippling Republican Party's nominating process, in wake of Tuesday's arrests, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is now calling for the “outright ban of the controversial spending system” beginning with the Fiscal Year 2014 budget cycle. 

“Time after time, the discretionary funding system has led to bribery, political blackmail and a boatload of big legal bills paid for by taxpayers,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio on the steps of City Hall. “New York doesn’t need an appropriations process that aids and abets corruption and political gamesmanship in order to invest in our city’s priorities and worthwhile projects. We can do better.” 

“A finance system based on political relationships instead of objective standards of fairness, a system where funds can be disbursed with little oversight or accountability – this is no way to run a railroad,” said de Blasio. “Attempts at reforming this flawed system have not prevented corruption, and the only reasonable next step is to ban this broken process – completely and immediately.” 

De Blasio, who served 8 years in City hall as a council member   stressed that there were a number of ways New York City can continue to fund projects without the member item system – from the traditional budget process, to basing expenditures on objective formulas and standards, to ensuring more public participation in spending decisions. 

Democratic Mayoral candidate and former City Councilman Sal Albanese rebuffed Mr. de Blasio taking the lead of reforming the discretionary funds by banning 'member items'. "In his latest act of political theater, Broadway Bill de Blasio finally came around to a position that real reformers have held for decades: we must ban member items. Better late than never, Bill," said Mr. Albanese in a statement released minutes after  Mr. de Blasio's press conference. "As a Council Member and as a candidate for Mayor, I have long called for the elimination of "member items," a gentler term for control-by-Speaker. When reports surfaced in February that Council Members feared Speaker Quinn would withhold member items out of retribution."

"I again demanded that we ban them. Mr. de Blasio, on the other hand, never saw the wisdom in banning member items when a scandal broke out two doors down from his office in 2009. And when Speaker Quinn's abuse of the system became clear last month, he continued to push for spineless reforms that would accomplish nothing. Today's statements demonstrate that voters simply don't know what they'll get from a candidate like Bill," Mr. Albanese added.