What could be more vital to the well-being of our great state than an ornamental clock as a streetscape enhancement in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn? Nothing that I can think of. And at a mere $12,000, I don’t see how any taxpayer could object.

But the point is, how do these little pork-barrel or “member item” projects get chosen? We never know, since there is no debate and no discussion by our state legislators, at least not in public.

I have been persuing the list of this year’s projects, and I see many that are worthy:

• 
  $5,000 for “dance therapy” for the senior citizens of Long Beach.
  
• 
  $10,000 for the American Maple Museum, in Croghan, near Watertown.
  
• 
  $3,000 to aid victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens in Staten Island.
  

You probably think I’m joking about that last one, but I’m not. It’s absolutely true. If you get bonked over the head by a foreigner in Staten Island and that foreigner is here legally, you’re out of luck.

I just wish we could be privy to the decision-making process, that’s all. I don’t doubt the wisdom of any of the allocations.

You can persuse the projects for yourself – one list on the Assembly’s Web site, one on the Senate’s.