County's top Democrat questions state-funded mailers

Oct. 1—NIAGARA FALLS — In a piece of mail sent to voters in late August, 145th District Assemblyman Angelo Morinello told recipients that he's "fighting to cut taxes."

Less prominent in the mailer's message: The source of the funding used to create and distribute it.

That would be state taxpayers themselves.

Morinello's not the only state lawmaker to use funds from the state budget to deliver "special legislative messages" to voters in his district.

In fact, the practice has become a time-honored tradition for both Republican and Democratic party members, with Assembly and Senate representatives on both sides of the political aisle dipping into the state's coffers for years to mail informational flyers to constituents under the guise of better informing them about what they do and what state services and resources are available to them.

The practice is legal, provided lawmakers follow the rules. In the Assembly, the guidelines allow members to send out mailers 30 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general election. Under the rules, all mailers must be documented and kept on file in the respective assembly offices and can only be delivered to residents within the districts of the assembly members who mail them out.

While Morinello's mailers — six in all dating back to July — complied with state Assembly delivery rules, the head of Niagara County's Democratic Party questions whether they fit with the true purpose of the Assembly's postage and mailing privileges.

Niagara County Party Chairman Chris Borgatti — whose committee has endorsed Morinello's opponent in this year's Assembly race, Niagara Falls businessman Doug Mooradian — argues that the incumbent Republican exploited a "loophole" in the system by creating and distributing mailers to voters in the district that do more to promote Morinello himself than the services his office offers to constituents.

"It is hard to see a difference between taxpayer-funded mailers and an actual political campaign mailer by looking at them," Borgatti said. "The biggest difference is the one thing you can't see. It's who foots the bill for them."

Morinello said he's simply operating under long-established rules, the same ones that have allotted representatives from both major political parties — Republican and Democrat — state funds for the creation and distribution of pieces of print mail that offer updates on happenings within the district and in Albany.

"It is to inform your constituents as to what is occurring," he said.

Morinello dismissed Borgatti's criticism as pure politics, contending that he has worked hard on behalf of taxpayers in the district and his mailers were all designed to inform constituents about his work in the district and in Albany, not to promote his reelection campaign.

While Borgatti may not agree with their tone or their message, Morinello said all of his mailers were pre-approved before they were delivered by representatives of the majority party in the Assembly which, he stressed, is currently controlled by Borgatti's own party, the Democrats.

"Every single elected official gets a mail allocation," Morinello said. "The majority has to review each and every piece. If they feel it is not informational and it is political they will reject it. His party reviews them all, approves them all. They have to approve them and they will reject them if they deem them political purposes. There can be nothing political in them."

"Just because Chris Borgatti creates an issue doesn't mean it's accurate," Morinello added.

In addition to the cutting costs mailer that identifies "affordability" as "priority number one," Morinello's flyers highlighted educational spending and support for efforts to help military veterans and small business owners. One mailer showed Morinello pictured with various uniformed representatives from local law enforcement, including Niagara County Sheriff Micheal Filicetti, that outlines his public safety plan while suggesting he is "standing with those who protect us."

Borgatti estimates, based on his own party's expenses for printing and distributing mailers, that Morinello's six flyers may have cost taxpayers as much as $60,000. If they are purely informational, Borgatti questioned why some households in Morinello's district received multiple copies of the same mailer addressed to individual voters in those homes. Normally, Borgatti noted, state representatives distribute mailers quarterly and he said they should be used to inform residents not for political purposes.

Morinello also said he would support efforts to change or abolish mailing privileges for state lawmakers, provided Democrats agreed to do the same.

"My honest answer to save taxpayers money is this — cut it out for everybody," Morinello said. "But if it's available, I would be foolish not to utilize it to communicate with my constituents."