A new report has found that New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) was the highest-spending state politician in a recent six-month period.
Skelos spent $477,558 during the six-month period that ended last March, according to SeeThroughNY. Overall, the state legislature spent more than $102 million during the same six-month period. The data includes senate and assembly member and staff wages, but does not account for benefit costs, which can exceed 30 percent of an employee's annual wages, according to a SeeThroughNY press release.
The report found that the highest-spending member of the assembly from October to March was Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), chairman of the assembly health committee, at $437,762.
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Since October 2007, the earliest reporting period available on SeeThroughNY's legislative expenditure database, Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester) has led all members of the upper house with office expenditures of $5.3 million. Skelos wasn’t far behind at $5.2 million.
In the Assembly, Gottfried's office topped the list, having spent over $4.8 million during the same period.
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The expenditure information, which goes back to 2007, can be sorted by reporting period, expenditure type, and member name.
A full ranking of all members is available by clicking here.
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