I had no illusions that much would change after Democrats recently took total control of Albany. There is not much difference between the parties when it comes to spending our money in rage-inducing ways. Still, I am not happy that my exceedingly low expectations again have been met.

The latest backhand across taxpayers’ faces came with the $90,000 patronage job handed to ex-Amherst supervisor Susan Grelick. She started Monday as counsel to the State Senate’s Local Government Committee.

If you were not aware that the State Senate had a Local Government Committee, you are not alone. Like other legislative committees, it does little, meets seldom and exists mainly as a way to pad legislators’ paychecks.

Grelick’s early Christmas gift comes on the heels of the $70,000 plum handed to “Baby Joe” Mesi. The ex-boxer will run the field office that Senate Democrats soon will open in Buffalo, the creation of which I know was high on everyone’s wish list.

The stated purpose of the office is to convey the party’s message, as if we did not get the gist of it with the $8 billion of new budget-filling taxes and fees we just got slammed with. The actual purpose of the office is to reward Mesi for his recent, failed State Senate run—and to keep him rested and well-fed for his next go-round.

Patronage is nothing new. But this is different in one way: It obliterates any speck of hope that anyone in Albany is interested in reform. Newly empowered Democrats had a chance to show us they could be different. They had an opportunity to, in a show of taxpayer empathy, turn away from the dessert tray. Instead, they helped themselves to more.

Democrats—who hold the governor’s office and run the Assembly—last November completed the trifecta by capturing the Senate by a one-seat majority. With victory comes the spoils of extra jobs and newly sprouted “field offices.”

Democrats say they are not—by handing out jobs to Mesi, Grelick and other loyal soldiers—doing anything that Republicans did not do when they held power. The rationale underlines the depth of their disdain and the scope of their cluelessness.

No one in the real world believes it is OK to waste our money just because somebody else did. We are desperate for someone in Albany to, just once, put our plight ahead of their perks.

For Democrats to hand out patronage jobs, weeks after adding an $8 billion brick to upstate’s load, borders on the criminal. These people—starting with new Senate boss Malcolm Smith (masmith@senate.state.ny.us)—should be ashamed of themselves. But shame is not a detectable emotion in the State Capitol. Albany’s control by the notorious “three men in a room”—the governor and the Senate and Assembly majority leaders—makes the 212-member State Legislature about as useful as an extra pinky finger. Yet the care and feeding of state lawmakers—18 of them from Western New York—annually costs us $228 million in salaries, staff and perks. The bill runs from each part-time legislator’s $79,500 base salary, to paychecks padded by “work” on useless committees, to a legion of gratuitous staff jobs— cases in point, Mesi and Grelick.

Jobs are disappearing, people are fleeing upstate as if it were on fire and the national recession is tightening the screws. These people in Albany act like nothing is wrong.

A reporter recently questioned Smith, the Senate majority leader, about plans by Democratic Senators for international trips at a time “when Rome is burning.”

“First of all, who says Rome is burning?” Smith cluelessly replied.

Perhaps Mr. Smith should come to Buffalo.

By Donn Esmonde

News Columnist, The Buffalo News double click on picture to enlarge