Dan Halloran, you saucy minx. The disgraced city council pagan was arrested last week for allegedly taking bribes to get State Senator Malcolm Smith on the Republican mayoral ticket, but don't worry, his office explicitly told us this: Halloran's district will still be one of eight in the city offering constituents the chance to decide how to spend $1 million in discretionary funds, a process known as participatory budgeting.
The truthiness of that statement is borderline delusional. Halloran's office sent out a vague 73-word press release yesterday congratulating the winning projects, despite the fact that Halloran has about as much say in what gets funded as I do in what you eat for lunch. According to the Post, the responsibility of doling out Halloran's funds have been assumed by Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Queens council delegation. “He doesn’t have any fund-making decisions,” Jamie McShane, Quinn’s spokesman, told the tabloid. “He was stripped.” Though 1170 concerned residents dutifully cast their ballots, their recommendations are non-binding, sort of like when people vote for president in Russia: It's fun and feels important, but has no real bearing on the outcome.
Among the projects that may or may not get funded are the restoration of the Poppenhusen Institute, kayak and canoe launches, and hilariously, police cameras. In the release, Halloran thanked his staff and said "we all learned a great deal."
Yes, Dan, we did. And possibly the most important lesson was one that allegedly came from Halloran himself: "You can't do anything without the fucking money."
