New Albany budget's 'facilities' program: Pork, mystery meat . . . or both?

There’s plenty of “pork” in the 2015-16 state budget, according one fiscal watchdog.

The budget, adopted Wednesday, includes $1.1 billion in a “State and Municipal Facilities” program, according to the Empire Center. It allocates $385 million in new appropriations and reauthorizes $746 million in money that was approved in previous years but not yet spent. All of it will be borrowed money.

And what’s it for? “Just about anything, at this point,” E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center said in a blog post.

McMahon noted that money for the fund was added after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo presented his original budget and that leaders “have said virtually nothing about the program.”