The following is via the NY Daily News:
In the aftermath of the murder of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, state Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind trumpeted a $1 million grant to install 150 security cameras in Borough Park and Midwood, Brooklyn.
But what they touted as a safety boost turns out to be a case study in slush fund spending, backdoor borrowing, poor planning and irresponsible handling of taxpayer money. In other words, it’s a classic Albany boondoggle.
At a press conference in May, Hikind, Skelos and other pols promised a surveillance network for Leiby’s mostly Orthodox Jewish area.
Featured at the event was one of the state-of-the-art cameras supposedly to be used and a map with red dots marking where the devices would be placed. Skelos committed the $1 million.
Turns out neither Hikind nor anyone else had determined how much 150 cameras would cost, or who would install, maintain and operate them.
Eager to please a Republican-friendly community, Skelos okayed the outlay without a proposal in hand, tapping a GOP-controlled slush fund.
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