FOR RELEASE:

DiNapoli Releases Quarterly Spending For State Agencies

on WWW.OPENBOOKNEWYORK.COM

2,806 New State Contracts in September

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today released state agency spending for the second quarter of State Fiscal Year 2008-09 in the Open Book New York Web site (www.openbooknewyork.com). He also noted that the state entered into 2,806 new contracts in September 2008, totaling approximately $1.4 billion, with details on these contracts available in Open Book New York.

“Families have been watching every dime in their household budgets for months,” DiNapoli said. “The current economic crisis means now more than ever New York state needs to do the same. Open Book New York allows New Yorkers to monitor how government is spending their tax dollars.”

The largest contracts approved in September include (for specific questions on these contracts, contact the state agency directly):

• $127,929,071 contract between the New York State Thruway Authority and Cold Spring Construction Co. for pavement reconstruction and bridge rehabilitation construction projects in Onondaga and Cayuga counties;
• $123,585,000 contract between the Division of Budget and New York State Urban Development Corporation for debt service;
• $66,760,458 contract between the Office of General Services and American Rock Salt Co., LLC for rock salt;
• $48,234,109 contract between the New York State Thruway Authority and American Bridge Company for deck replacement and substructure repairs of South Grand Island Bridges in Erie County; and
• $34,030,953 grant between the Department of Transportation and New York City Commissioner of Finance for operational support for the NYC Traffic Management Center.

The quarterly spending information for state agencies includes contractual services, travel, equipment, grants, salaries and wages, employee benefits, supplies and more. Users can download an Excel spreadsheet or PDF file of second quarter agency spending or new September contracts. For new contracts, users click on search state contracts. Select (All State Agencies) and under the advanced search feature and enter the time frame of September 2008.

About Open Book New York
Open Book New York (www.openbooknewyork.com) is an easy-to-use Web site to give taxpayers unprecedented access to the financial information of state government. The Web site contains searchable databases of more than 60,000 state contracts and spending for more than 100 state agencies and public authorities, as well as spending for 3,100 local governments over 11 years. All the available information can be loaded as a PDF file or an Excel spreadsheet.

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