Albany Steers Nearly $100 Million in 2026 Pork Barrel Spending

Albany steered $97.2 million to 206 local projects during the first half of 2026 in the newest batch of state discretionary grants, according to records the Empire Center obtained under the state Freedom of Information Law. The new tranche is the latest addition to the pork-barrel grant database the Empire Center has tracked, bringing the running total of projects on record to more than 14,500.

The governor and state legislators hand-picked recipients for $54.7 million of the total. Authority for most of these grants comes from the State and Municipal Facilities Program (SAM), a discretionary capital fund created in 2013 that lets lawmakers and the governor each direct money to recipients of their choosing with little public review. Assembly members directed $42.2 million across 135 grants in this release, while senators directed $12.5 million across 39 grants. The remaining $42.5 million came through a separate pot, the Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program (HECap), for 32 college and university projects.

None of this money has been disbursed yet. These are newly authorized grants, not completed payments.

The largest awards were a three-way tie at $5 million apiece: Fordham University, for renovation of the Quinn Library in the Bronx; Rochester General College of Health Careers, for its Innovation and Learning Center in Monroe County; and Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center, for replacement of the chiller system serving its Washington Heights campus. The Columbia award comes as the university continues to navigate a high-profile standoff with the federal government over research funding.

New York City agencies are designated to receive $2.35 million for surveillance-related purchases: $2 million to the NYPD for emergency vehicles and security cameras for its 49th and 80th precincts, and $350,000 to the New York City Housing Authority for CCTV cameras at the Rutgers Houses. The grants arrive as NYCHA tenants are suing to block what they describe as an expansion of NYPD surveillance in public housing. Suffolk County will receive $200,000 for license plate readers.

The New York City Board of Education was again the most frequent recipient in the list, collecting $6.8 million across 29 separate grants — mostly for air conditioning, bathroom renovations, playgrounds, and technology upgrades at individual schools.

By geography, agencies and organizations in New York County (Manhattan) will receive the most money — $18.7 million across 16 grants — followed by Kings County (Brooklyn), which received the most grants of any county at 39, totaling $11.5 million, and Westchester County, which received $11 million across 25 grants.

Where the Higher-Ed Money Really Goes

$16.9 million (40 percent) of this release’s $42.5 million in higher-education capital grants went towards building maintenance and athletic amenities at private colleges. Basic HVAC and mechanical-system work alone accounted for $11.6 million across seven grants, while another $5.3 million funded recreational facilities: turf fields, an ice rink, a gymnasium, and a lacrosse complex.

The single biggest of these was a $5 million grant to Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center to replace a chiller system, followed by $3.3 million to Barnard College for HVAC replacement at three dormitories. On the recreational side, Siena University alone collected three separate grants worth $2.075 million for athletic facilities — two turf fields and a lacrosse complex — while Hamilton College received $1.975 million to renovate an ice rink and Manhattan University got $1.1 million for its gymnasium and parking lot. All of it was channeled through the Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program (HECap), a board-run fund that operates with even less public scrutiny than the legislature’s own SAM grants.

Some of the other notable large projects include:

• $3 million to Hobart and William Smith Colleges for a new science building and renovation of three adjacent science buildings (Ontario County).
• $2.5 million to CUNY’s Dominican Cultural Institute for restoration of its building at 373 West 207th Street in Manhattan.
• $2 million to Imagine Foundation, Inc. for acquisition, construction, and furnishing of a building in Brooklyn — the largest single grant to a community nonprofit outside higher education in this release.
• $2 million grant to the Town of Cheektowaga for replacement of sewer infrastructure at its Harlem Road Pump Station which has been at the center of residents’ and business owners’ complaints about chronic flooding. Town officials have separately pursued a multi-million-dollar engineering plan to address the problem.
• $2 million to the City of Kingston for engineering and construction to raise the city’s levee, as Kingston continues to contend with a rising Hudson River.

The dataset also includes numerous smaller grants to private and nonprofit organizations. Some notable examples:

• $250,000 combined — two separate $125,000 grants, drawn from two different funds (SAM and the Community Capital Assistance Program) — to Rethink Food USA, Inc. for the identical purchase of “two zero emission vehicles and two zero emission trailers” at the same Bronx shopping center, an apparent case of the same purchase being funded twice.
• $250,000 to CUNY Queens College for “restoration of art sculptures around the campus.”

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.