Check to have links open new windows.

Your tax dollars at play, courtesy of Elmer Pataki (via the New York Post):

The recently suspended head of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp. has landed another highly paid job with the Pataki administration, officials said yesterday. Robert Ryan, suspended in February from his $144,311-a-year state post and escorted from his office after the Roosevelt Island board of directors accused him of awarding tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized salary bonuses, is now a $110,000-a-year assistant secretary of state.

Ryan, 47, held the title of "campaign manager" in Gov. Pataki's first gubernatorial campaign in 1994. Now he will be responsible for trying to get New York City to conform to the state fire code, said a spokesman for Secretary of State Randy Daniels, a potential GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2006. Official payroll records show Ryan, who first landed a high-paying state job at the Empire State Development Corp. in 1995, was put on the state Health Department payroll - and not on the Department of State's payroll - Sept. 3 as a "health pro."

Ryan, a close political ally of Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long, was investigated by the state Inspector General's Office at the request of the Roosevelt Island board after his suspension, but no charges were brought.

A spokesman for Pataki would not comment on the hiring of Ryan.

A spokesman for Daniels confirmed the hiring but said Ryan "does not have a formal job description."

Ryan was hired despite a Pataki-ordered hiring freeze.

I'm not sure which part of this I find more disgusting, the fact that he was hired despite the hiring freeze or that, for $110,000/year, he does not have a formal job description.