Five weeks ago, the New York Post broke a story that millions of tax dollars were officially earmarked by the City Council to nonexistent accounts so that they could be allocated later to legitimate nonprofit organizations. The idea was that since all funding is required to be made at the beginning of a fiscal year, and many groups don’t know how much they’ll need six, eight, or ten months in advance, some system needed to be created to make that money available.

There’s not much new. Different kinds of phony allocations have been used for decades for the same purpose. It is becoming clear that there was never any intent to deceive, or to send money to groups that don’t meet whatever set of official criteria is in place for such “member items.”

Of course, the widening investigation has turned up a number of these earmarks that have at least the appearance of favoritism or conflict of interest, and two City Council staffers have been arrested for stealing some of this money. But that’s not the real problem, and until we identify and fully address the real problem, what we’re seeing now will reappear again and again.

The real problem is

A NY Post article, printed two days ago, exposed the fact millions of our tax dollars have been set aside in phony accounts for later, quiet if not private, use. Since then, Speaker Christine Quinn has been on something of a hot seat.

We still don't know all the facts. What we appear to know so far is the following:

1. The law requires the City Council to allocate all funds at the beginning of the fiscal year.

2. Often, expenditures must be made during the fiscal year that were unanticipated at the beginning of that year.

3. Since at least 1988, the Council has set aside some money to provide for unanticipated costs. Recently, at least, that money was officially allocated to phony accounts.

4. The Speaker claims that she ordered this practice stopped and didn't know until very recently that her order was ignored.

It appears that no laws were broken. But the Speaker has been