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Archive for December, 2011
Meet Governor Cuomo
Dec 28th - 1:45 pm
If you don’t have plans for New Year’s Day, you could put your name in a raffle to meet Governor Andrew Cuomo. His office just announced that they are going to open the Executive Mansion on January 1st between 1pm and 3pm to residents of the state.
Here’s the details from the press release:
All adults over the age of 16 wishing to attend must have a ticket. Individuals that receive a ticket will be allowed to bring one guest and any minor children from their household. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets are required and space is limited. New Yorkers wishing to attend should visit the Governor’s homepage to register: www.governor.ny.gov
You can sign up anytime between now and tomorrow (Thursday) at 9pm.
NFIB Lays Out Legislative Agenda
Dec 28th - 1:14 pm
The New York chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business just released their legislative agenda for 2012 – but not before taking another victory lap for the success of business interests this year.
“For many of New York’s small business owners and taxpayers, 2011 was the year that Albany finally listened. State leaders listened to the calls for reigning in state spending, capping runaway property taxes and finally addressing the New York’s growing energy crunch.
The 2011 State Budget, property tax cap and the Power NY Act were all significant legislative priorities for NFIB/New York and I applaud the Governor and legislative leaders for taking bold, bipartisan action during these trying economic times,” State Director Mike Durant said in a press release.
As for 2012, NFIB/NY is focusing on what you’d expect. They call for responsible state spending and also ask for the legislature to pass pension reform and provide mandate relief to localities. And they voice support for hydrofracking as a way to reduce energy costs and spur the economy.
It’s all part of their 3 “solutions” to help the economy:
- Embrace the “Let NY Work” agenda. “Let NY Work” is a coalition of business, school and municipal groups that have advanced six measures designed to ease the state mandated burdens faced by schools, municipalities and taxpayers. These measures include making the pension system more affordable; establishing minimum health insurance contribution levels for employees and retirees and reducing the costs of construction on public/private projects
- Allowing the safe extraction of natural gas utilizing the hydraulic fracturing method will create needed jobs, reduce energy costs, boost small businesses, train a workforce and generate state and local revenue. How many economic development plans do that? 2012 needs to be the year the state issues permits and allows hydrofracking.
- Efforts to enhance the viability of New York for economic investment and development can only be heightened and sustained through comprehensive regulatory/mandate relief on businesses. Reforms are necessary in workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, wick’s and scaffold law to name a few. Regulatory/Mandate relief will maintain the progress the economic development councils are making, and make New York more attractive on it’s own for future economic development.
Tax Change Countdown Clock
Dec 28th - 1:00 pm
Governor Cuomo’s office has just released a new countdown clock to the new year – that they have dubbed the countdown to lower taxes for New Yorkers.
The tax code restructuring that was rushed through the legislature earlier this month does indeed lower taxes for most New Yorkers. But, Cuomo has been called a flip-flopper in some papers because the plan raises taxes on millionaires to a level that is higher than it would have been if the legislature took no action.
Cuomo, and legislative leaders, have insisted that this is a tax cut for all. And, most all New Yorkers will be paying less in taxes next year compared to what they paid this year.
Here’s the breakdown again on who will see a tax cut.
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Gillibrand: $120K By Saturday
Dec 28th - 10:20 am
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wants to raise $120,000 before the Dec. 31 deadline set by the Federal Elections Commission, she wrote today in an email to supporters.
Gillibrand, who is running for a full six-year term in 2012, warns that she needs to flex her fundraising muscle now to show her likely opponents she means business.
“My potential opponents will be announcing their plans early next year,” Gillibrand wrote. “That means it’s critical that we show how strong we are and make these challengers think twice about entering the race.”
Gillibrand is considered a prodigious fund-raiser within the party and easily outspent her last Republican opponent, former Rep. Joe DioGuardi.
She faces potentially deep-pocketed Republicans next year in former hedge-fund manager Harry Wilson and businessman Marc Cenedella.
So far the only declared Republican candidate is Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos.
The full appeal from Gillibrand is after the jump.
More >
Here And Now
Dec 28th - 8:07 am
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is still in the North County, presumably enjoying a little R-and-R, with no public schedule.
Sen. Jeff Klein says the IDC “may be active” in the 2012 primary and general elections in hopes of boosting its four-person membership. He also won’t rule out backing the GOP to retain the majority if the outcome next November is close.
Chemung County is savoring a hydrofracking boom without the hydrofracking as workers flock to the area to work across the border in rural Pennsylvania.
LATFOR members are starting to give select state lawmakers sneak peaks at how their districts might change, but haven’t started to re-draw the congressional lines yet, according to Assemblyman Jack McEneny.
Take heed NY: Connecticut is in the market for a special master to settle its redistricting dispute.
The state continues to pay a troubled Brooklyn group home operator $20 million in Medicaid money annually, despite its numerous financial problems and citations for bad care.
NYC Councilman Larry Seabrook will be allowed to distribute $350,000 in member item funds next year even though he was charged with – and now faces a retrial for – misusing member item cash for personal use.
Occupy Albany organizers will hold a press conference this afternoon to announce their legal strategy.
Cuomo has undertaken a “methodical and thought-out process” of reviewing clemency and pardon requests. Ex-Gov. David Paterson recalls anguishing over these decisions, and says there are places he can’t go anymore after declining appeals.
Binghamton University cannot – for now – cull deer on its campus.
The Mandate Relief Task Force had until March 31 to submit its final report to the governor, but quietly did so this month. The document doesn’t address full state takeover of Medicaid or the Wicks Law – two big ticket items.
Lady Gaga will be Bloomberg’s guest at the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop.
Bloomberg is not a fan of gambling, but will back Cuomo’s potential plan to have a casino in NYC – provided the city gets a share of the revenue.
The Wadsworth Center, the third largest public health lab after the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health, is under review after retirements and budget cuts have reduced its research capabilities.
Extras
Dec 27th - 8:43 pm
Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson is retiring, making the Democrats’ task of holding the Senate all the more difficult.
Hillary Clinton tops the Gallup poll list of most admired woman for a record 16th time, while President Obama is the most admired man for the fourth year in a row.
Obama nominated a Democrat and a Republican to the Fed Board in hopes that the package deal would make these appointees more palatable to the Senate.
Nelson Rockefeller’s limo is out of storage and on display, but we’re not entirely sure why.
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his father paid an undisclosed price for One Bethesda Center, an office and retail complex in Montgomery County, marking their third acquisition in the Washington area.
Come Jan. 1, you’ll have to give more road space to tow trucks.
A staff revolt is brewing at the NYT.
Mayor Bloomberg insists he and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are like two peas in an technocratic, socially liberal, fiscally rational pod.
Cuomo’s office won’t comment on whether he’ll be granting any clemencies or pardons – AKA the “power nobody wants” – this holiday season.
Embattled NYC Comptroller John Liu continues business as usual.
Despite a rocky start, Bloomberg had a pretty good 2011.
New Yorkers are living longer than most people anywhere else in the country, according to Bloomberg, who believes his administration’s policies had something to do with that.
AIG has received final approval to pay a $450 million class-action settlement to a group of other insurers related to its alleged underreporting of workers compensation premiums.
Little-known NYC Democratic mayoral candidate Tom Allon plans to create a third party line to ensure he will be a candidate in the general election in 2013.
Former Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV doesn’t really think Bloomberg’s going to prison in 2012, but he’s still mad at the mayor for forcing a term limits change through the NYC Council that facilitated his re-election in 2009.
Dan Collins would like to see a “little more love” from Cuomo in 2012.
Bloomberg’s open to a casino in NYC, but only if the city gets a share of the revenue it generates.
David Grandeau filed a formal complaint against former PIC Executive Director-turned-JCOPE advisor Barry Ginsburg.
AG Eric Schneiderman announced a $553 million multi-state settlement with seven tech corporations alleged to have illegally conspired to artificially inflate prices for LCD screens used in TVs, computer monitors, and laptops. New Yorkers may receive upwards of $11 million in restitution.
Espada: Maybe JCOPE Should Investigate Cuomo
Dec 27th - 5:48 pm
In a classic example of grabbing the lion’s tail, former Sen. Pedro Espada released a statement late this afternoon to not only blast the Legislative Ethics Commission, but also called on Albany’s new ethics panel to investigate Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Espada was responding to a report from the Legislative Ethics Commission that said the former pol broke the law when he his uncle, Juan Feliciano Jr., for an $80,000-a-year job as “special assistant.”
Espada then makes a pivot to call for the new Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate Cuomo. As AG, Cuomo charged Espada last year with pocketing $14 million in public money from his Soundview Health Clinics (The Espada statement was released by Soundview).
Espada alleges that Cuomo uses state property for private fund-raising, closes community health care centers for “personal political vendettas” (I’m assuming Espada is talking about his own health care network. Just a hunch I have) and makes an allusion to the Committee to Save New York.
The statement doesn’t refute any of the substantive claims made by the ethics commission and the swipes at Cuomo don’t seem to make much sense. The CSNY stuff has raised eyebrows, but Cuomo has kept the committee at arm’s length.
Here’s the statement:
“The report generated and released by the Legislative Ethics Commission is false from beginning to end. It is indicative of the work created by a group recently deemed unnecessary and a waste of resources by legislative leaders and is particularly disheartening during time in which so many New Yorkers face real issues such as joblessness, a depressed economy and a need for delivery of vital services,” said Mr. Espada, former Senate President Pro Tempore and Majority Leader.
“It is my hope that the new Joint Commission on Public Ethics will take up real ethics violations such as the use of state owned assets by Governor Cuomo for private fundraisers, the closing of Community Health Centers due to personal political vendettas and the use of money from interest groups who do business with the State to fund television ads explicitly pushing the Governor’s agenda,” noted Mr. Espada
In Year-End Assessment, GOP Touts Bench
Dec 27th - 4:01 pm
With the major exception of one upset election, it was not a banner year for the New York State Republican Party.
In an off-year cycle with no state offices up for grabs, Republicans lost county executive races in Erie and Suffolk. A seat in western New York, once firmly in Republican hands, went Democratic.
The Erie County executive race was especially bruising for the GOP, since incumbent Chris Collins was considered a possible statewide candidate.
Oh, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has adopted much of the Republicans’ fiscally conservative agenda and has cornered the market when it comes to support from the state’s business interests.
His approval rating is sky-high.
The big exception, of course, was Republican Bob Turner reversing the circumstances and winning a special election in Brooklyn, facing the hapless David Weprin.
In their year-end assessment, the party that hasn’t held a statewide office since 2006 insisted they were grooming talent.
A strong pro-growth NYGOP is a strong pro-growth force for less government spending, lower taxes and creating more jobs and repairing the infrastructure in New York. At the same time we have continued to build the Republican bench for future legislative, congressional and statewide races. With strong established, and promising new, major office holders, the NYGOP has created a substantial foundation for not just the Party’s future but for New York’s future.
Among their dividends:
Republicans poured millions into Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s effort to dislodge a Democratic supermajority on the Board of Legislators.
Marc Molinaro won the Dutchess County executive post.
And Maggie Brooks was elected to an unprecedented third term as Monroe County executive.
All have been touted as future faces of a party.
SED: Schools Aren’t Making Grade For Cash (Updated)
Dec 27th - 1:06 pm
State Education Department Chancellor John King today warned that millions of dollars in federal funding will be left on the table because districts aren’t meeting benchmark requirements.
King said in a statement that “most” districts that receive School Improvement Grants have failed to make modifications to teacher and principal evaluation systems, which put the money in jeopardy.
The deadline for the funding is Saturday.
“These funds are targeted to help troubled schools,” King said. “The last thing the students need is to lose resources because the adults who run those schools won’t fulfill their responsibilities. The clock is ticking. When the ball drops at midnight on New Year’s Eve, the money drops off the table, and it will be difficult to get it back. We’ll take action to suspend SIG funds on January 1.
“These districts and their local unions have known about this deadline. Now they all have to get moving and agree on revised evaluations. Losing these funds should not be an option.”
The districts receiving SIG funding are New York City, Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, Albany, Schenectady, Roosevelt, Poughkeepsie and Greenburgh 11. So far, only Rochester and Syracuse have submitted the necessary materials for review, King said.
Update: The state United Teachers union disagrees — strongly. In a statement issued late this afternoon, NYSUT says the state Education Department is balking at asking the federal government for an extension to file the required information in order to receive the grant money.
The US Department of Education recognizes the challenges in getting the evaluation system right and has offered states waivers to provide the necessary additional time to complete this complex work. At least 14 states have received these waivers. SED’s refusal to support local school districts with a waiver request is especially disappointing given the fact that in July, SED sought and was granted a federal waiver on its own behalf to give the agency more time to meet Race to the Top deadlines.
Espada’s Family Ties
Dec 27th - 8:58 am
Here’s the Dec. 9 notice posted without announcement or fanfare on the Website of the Legislative Ethics Commission alleging that former Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. violated the law by hiring his uncle, Juan Feliciano Jr., as an $80,000-a-year “special assistant” and then lying about their family connection.
The TU reported on the allegation this morning – the latest in a string of charges lodged against Espada, who has repeatedly insisted he has never done anything wrong.
This latest accusation could lead to another criminal charge against the former Bronx Democrat who was bounced from office in 2010, thanks to a successful primary challenge by Sen. Gustavo Rivera.
As the TU notes, the Public Officers Law clearly states elected officials may not “articipate in any decision to hire, promote, discipline or discharge a relative for any compensated position at, for or within any state agency, public authority or the Legislature.”
A “relative” is defined as “any person living in the same household as the individual and any person who is a direct descendant of that individual’s grandparents or the spouse of such descendant.”
The Ethics Commission lays out the family connection between Feliciano and Espada, and it is not the first investigative entity to do so. Then-AG Andrew Cuomo made the same allegation in a lawsuit he brought against Espada in April 2010.
The commission says Espada did not cooperate with its probe, which will be its last now that its investigatory responsibilities have been usurped by JCOPE.
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