Assemblyman Christopher S. Friend (R,C,I-Big Flats) is going on the offensive regarding highly-questionable spending in the state budget that passed in the early morning hours of April 1. It has been recently discovered that the state allocated nearly $25,000 for the defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). ACORN shut down five years ago after several scandalous videos showcasing possible criminal behavior were published by video journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.

“ACORN isn’t just a hard-line leftist institution that shuttered after a series of scandals, it also hasn’t existed in five years, which goes to show Albany will send you money even if you aren’t entitled to it,” Friend said. “The only people not getting money are the people paying for the government to operate and subsidizing checks for defunct organizations. Instead of writing and sending checks to organizations that have no need for them, we should be cutting taxes for New Yorkers and alleviating the tax burden on our small businesses. If this isn’t an example of government overspending, I’m not sure what is. This should serve as a wake-up call to state taxpayers.”