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Nick Reisman
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Posts by Nick Reisman
Cuomo: Changes May Be Needed For JCOPE
May 21st - 11:41 am
While it’s too early to determine if the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has sprung a leak, tweaks to last year’s ethics overhaul might be needed when it comes to the watchdog’s investigatory process, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Susan Arbetter this morning.
“To the extent that we need to make some tweaks to the law … then that’s something that needs to be entertained,” Cuomo said.
The commission has started preliminary process to a possible investigation of Deputy Senate Majority Leader Tom Libous, R-Binghamton, after Mayor Matt Ryan, who initially considered running against the GOP lawmaker, filed an ethics complaint.
The complaint was based on the testimony of disbarred attorney Anthony Mangone, a former aide to ex-Sen. Nick Spano, who claimed in an unrelated corruption trial of Zehy Jereis and Sandy Annabi that Libous had used his political clout to arrange for a job for his son at a law firm in Westchester County.
JCOPE so far has not held a vote on whether to begin a formal investigation of Libous, who has previously refuted the allegation.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos last week said he was alarmed that the letter had been “leaked” to the press and added that changes needed to be made to the process.
While Cuomo disagreed that the letter to Libous had been leaked, he seemed to agree with Skelos that changes might need to be made. Skelos also did not rule out a investigation of the JCOPE over the leak.
“It’s murky. To the extent that we have to do some fine-tuning… I think that’s to be expected with something like this.”
In an interview on The Capitol Pressroom, the governor said that while he was pleased with the newly created commission’s work so far, he didn’t want it to morph into an entity that conducts politically motivated investigations. The predecessor of JCOPE, the Commission on Public Integrity, was rocked with charges that it was used for political purposes.
“We do not want a vehicle that will be used for politics,” Cuomo said in the interview. “We don’t want a vehicle that is leaking information.”
CSEA Hits Back Against Dicker Column
May 21st - 10:43 am
The Civil Service Employees Association is refuting the allegation made by a source in today’s Fred Dicker column that claimed the state’s largest public-employees union was holding up a bill that would overhaul the state’s treatment of the developmentally disabled.
Dicker quoted an unnamed official privy to the negotiations who said the union wanted to scuttle the deal unless the Cuomo administration brokers a compromise on providing bonuses to some state employees still receiving state-funded health insurance.
Allegations floated by unnamed sources in the Cuomo administration published in this morning’s Inside Albany column in the New York Post claiming that CSEA is attempting to undermine the proposed Justice Center legislation by tying it to unrelated issues are total fiction. Any claim that there is linkage is nonsense.
The Justice Center legislation has become the centerpiece legislation for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s post-budget agenda. The Republican-led Senate passed the bill last week as is, but it faces an uncertain future in the Democratic-controlled Assembly.
Speaker Sheldon Silver says he backs the bill’s broader framework, but adds that unspecified changes have to be made to the legislation.
Cuomo had hinted he expected pushback from labor groups on the bill, but added that he provided carve outs for those workers within the disability care field who would face disciplinary charges.
Grisanti Mails Soft-Toned Bio To New Voters
May 18th - 11:57 am
In a mailer that’s circulating in his newly drawn western New York district, Sen. Mark Grisanti touts his life story with black-and-white family photos and a soft-toned biography meant to define him early on to fresh constituents.
The mailer uses the word “values” a lot, noting his family ties to Buffalo and gives him credit for the suburban-upstate friendly legislation like the tax cap and UB2020.
“Sometimes we think we know our elected officials. But there’s a story Mark has that maybe you haven’t heard,” the ad copy reads. Born in Buffalo, Mark was raised with Western New York values – integrity, honesty and standing up for everyday families looking to build a better life for themselves.”
The themes and images of the mailer line up with a television ad that is running six months ahead of Election Day.
The mailer also runs counter to the incident from earlier this year in which Grisanti got into a highly publicized scuffle at an Indian-run casino in Niagara Falls.
Grisanti, who narrowly defeated Sen. Antoine Thompson in 2010, is in one of the more high-profile Senate races this year, one that Democrats believe they can flip in order to regain control of the chamber.
The district was redrawn by his Republican colleagues in order to maximize GOP votes, but still leans heavily Democratic.
Still, as Bob McCarthy noted in The Buffalo News, the field on the Democratic side to replace Grisanti is muddled at best, with former County Legislator Chuck Swanick backed by officials in Albany, but not garnering support from the county committee.
With no set candidate to oppose him, an early advertising campaign like this one allows Grisanti to set the temperament of the campaign in the spring.
Nevertheless, the district is a major battleground for Senate Republicans who hope to keep and expand their 32-member majority. Grisanti is not expected to have much trouble fundraising this year.
The Politics Of Minimum Wage, Part II (Updated)
May 18th - 10:16 am
As noted earlier, the effort to increase the state’s minimum wage $1.25 has unsurprisingly morphed into a campaign issue for Senate Democratic candidates eager to take on an issue that polls phenomenally well.
And in something of a twist, the issue has been used to attack incumbent lawmakers in both parties.
The measure backed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, passed his chamber this week largely along party lines.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos has called the bill a “job killer” but left the door ajar by saying his conference would not allow a vote on Silver’s legislation when asked if he was completely ruling out a minimum wage increase.
Democrat Andrew Gounardes, a Brooklyn lawyer, was out of the gate with a conventional attack on Republican Sen. Martin Golden, a seat the opposition party has long eyed as ripe for flipping.
“Let’s be clear: Senator Golden and his Republican colleagues are sitting on their hands while New Yorks’s lowest paid workers are struggling just to feed their kids and afford healthcare,” Gounardes said in a statement. “This is a modest increase. At $8.50 an hour, a minimum wage worker in Brooklyn can still barely pay the rent.”
Turning things on their head is Albany County Democrat Shawn Morse, who is launching an aggressive primary against Deputy Senate Minority Leader Neil Breslin.
Morse charged in a statement that Breslin hasn’t done enough to pursue the issue beyond press releases and statements in support of the bill.
Senate Democrats are quick to point to the hearings they’ve held on raising the minimum wage and their early push for the bill.
Should Morse win but the Democrats fail to gain the majority, he may be surprised to see just how powerful a freshman minority lawmaker is (there has been not-so-quiet talk around the Capitol of Morse joining the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference).
Here’s Morse’s statement, which serves the twin purpose of attacking complacent incumbency and the Democratic minority conference:
“The Assembly did the right thing by voting to increase the minimum wage this week,” continued Morse. “But where are the Senate Democrats? They’ve relegated themselves to the backbench, making statements and sending out press releases because they can’t actually get things done. That is the direct consequence of their failures. I’m running to help build a new Democratic majority that stands by our Democratic values and delivers for the working families of the Capital Region.”
Update: Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy hits back at Morse, noting their efforts to pass an increase. Also, Murphy refers to Morse’s “Senate Republican allies.” Yikes! Will all be forgiven if Morse becomes a senator in January?
From the statement:
“The only thing left to do is have a vote on a two-house bill, which requires Senate Republicans to bring an agreed-upon bill to the floor. Rather than attacking fellow Democrats leading the fight in the Senate, Mr. Morse should urge his Senate Republican allies to get to the negotiating table as soon as possible, and provide hope to the 1.1 million New Yorkers currently earning New York’s poverty wage.”
A Job For Duffman
May 17th - 3:29 pm
Being the lieutenant governor of New York is not the most glamorous of jobs.
Past governors have feuded with their number twos (Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo, Mario Cuomo and Al DelBello, George Pataki and Betsy McCaughey) or at the very least remain indifferent, but the bromance between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy appears publicly strong.
Duffy is an outlier: So far, he seems to actually enjoy the job.
Today, Duffy led the news conference today on overruling New York City’s fingerprinting of food stamp recipients.
The optics of Duffy leading the news conference worked well: He’s an upstate resident and former police chief in Rochester. The law enforcement bona fides work as a shield against any crticism that the move to end fingerprinting is somehow “soft” on crime.
Cuomo couldn’t attend, ostensibly because he was attending the funeral for labor leader Ed Malloy, though he did phone in to the news conference explaining that he “had a family matter that kept me downstate” on Thursday (Mary Kennedy, the estranged wife of the governor’s former brother-in-law Robert Kennedy, Jr., was found dead after committing suicide).
Duffy joined the ticket in 2010 as something of a surprise. Conventional wisdom was that Cuomo would pick a minority or a woman, and some Democrats were quietly distressed by the idea of an all-white party ticket that year (Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was the lone woman running for statewide office).
But Duffy’s value for the governor is that he is a western New Yorker who can connect with voters in an area of the state in which the Cuomo campaign was vulnerable against Republican and Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino.
Duffy is also endlessly loyal (he famously gushed that watching Cuomo govern was like “watching Picasso paint”) and despite a tendency toward speaking at length in off-the-cuff moments, he is relentessly on-message.
Cuomo And Senate Democrats In Alignment On Foodstamp Fingerprinting
May 17th - 2:21 pm
There’s very little love lost between Senate Democrats and the Cuomo administration.
Democratic lawmakers in private grumble they were sold out by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on redistricting.
Cuomo, meanwhile, has worked well with the 32-member Republican majority and has not been full-throated committing to campaigning for Democratic lawmakers in the chamber.
But today, the minority conference and Cuomo found a rare moment of alignment on the issue of banning fingerprinting for foodstamps in New York City.
Democratic lawmakers were quick to praise the move, which Cuomo had pledged to do back in January during his second State of the State address (and unlike other pledges — campaign finance reform and a call for independent redistricting — Cuomo actually spoke the words about fingerprinting, rather than leaving it in the official statement).
The praise of Cuomo’s move was quick to come in.
From Sen. Liz Krueger:
“Requiring New Yorkers to submit their fingerprints has stigmatized the food stamp program and prevented vital federal money from flowing into our state and putting food on the tables of seniors, families, and children. I applaud Gov. Cuomo’s decisive action to finally end what was always an irrational and costly policy.”
From Sen. Dan Squadron:
Today, Governor Cuomo demonstrated great leadership by ending the counterproductive practice of finger-imaging food stamp recipients.
Simply put, finger-imaging has deterred too many New Yorkers from accessing the food they need. It makes no sense for children to go to bed hungry while we waste local tax dollars on a senseless program that puts food farther out of reach.
Public Advocate (and potential mayoral candidate) Bill de Blasio also praised the move, as did several hunger advocacy groups.
Of course, the decision to end fingerprinting puts Cuomo at odds with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose freeze and thaw relationship has been closely watched.
HRA Commissioner Robert Doar issued a statement, noting the policy clamps down on fraud.
“We’ve found that finger imaging identifies potential duplicate payments and prevents fraud, which saved more than $35 million over the last decade in a program that now provides services for 1.8 million New Yorkers annually. We remain committed to doing everything we can, consistent with state and federal regulations, to protect the integrity of the food stamp program.”
Cuomo To Attend Malloy’s Wake
May 17th - 11:27 am
Gov. Andrew Cuomo will not be in Albany after all, opting to attend the wake of longtime New York City labor leader Edward Malloy who died at the age of 77 this week.
The wake is at 2 p.m. at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
Malloy, a member of the steamfitters union, served as president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York from 1992 to late 2008 when he was replaced by Gary La Barbera.
The schedule update does not indicate the wake is closed to the press, but Cuomo typically does not do question and answer sessions with reporters after attending memorial services.
Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy is in Albany to announce the administration was moving to end the fingerprinting requirement for foodstamps in New York City. That news conference is at noon.
Cuomo Administration Proposes Executive Pay Regulations
May 16th - 4:26 pm
The Cuomo administration today announced a new set of regulations designed to limit executive compensation at non-profits and for-profit groups receiving state funds, with total compensation capped at $199,000.
The regulations, the result of an executive order issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this year, does provide an escape hatch by allowing a provider to keep compensation below the top 25 percent in the field. Another way of lifting the cap would require the approval of an organization’s board of directors, plus two independent directors and be subject to a review of comparability data in order to receive the waiver.
The proposed guidelines would take effect Jan. 1, but include a rolling phase-in of reporting requirements and enforcement actions as the organizations operate under the new system.
Hospitals, health-care networks and other Medicaid recipients are most likely to be impacted by the regulations.
The regulations stipulate that at least 75 percent of a provider’s operating expenses go toward services provided and not administrative overhead.
At a presentation unveiling the regulations, top Cuomo aide Larry Schwartz stressed that the regulations were aimed at a “few bad apples.”
Still, the regulations target a set of non-profit organizations that pay their administrative staff exorbitant salaries while benefiting from state dollars.
“We want the money to go to services,” Schwartz said. “We want the money to go to people. We don’t want it to go to bad actors.”
Schwartz also said the regulations were not meant to address criminal wrongdoing in the non-profit world.
Non-profit organizations that apply to the new regulations would have to annually report the public dollars it has received and the compensation of its highest-paid employees, plus their administrative expenses.
Cuomo: There’s Always A Reason Not To Do Something
May 16th - 1:32 pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters in Syracuse today that he thought there’s “plenty of time” remaining in the legislative session to approve his overhaul of the state’s procedures for caring for the developmentally disabled.
The Republican-led Senate unanimously approved the legislation, which creates a Center for Justice to handle abuse cases, but Democrats in the Assembly are yet do so. Speaker Sheldon Silver said on Tuesday he approves the bill’s broader framework, but indicated some unspecified changes will have to be made to the legislation.
“In Albany there’s always a reason not to do something, right? And for every reform there’s change and change brings about opposition,” Cuomo said. “Have I heard a good reason not to do this? No. And if I somebody has a good reason, I’d like to hear it and we’ll address it. But in my opinion, we have seven weeks left, it’s plenty of time.”
In a separate statement, Cuomo praised the Senate for approving the bill as is. The measure is in some respects similar to the expansion of the DNA database, which Silver sought some changes to in order to please his Democratic conference.
The bill has been criticized some advocates, including Michael Carey, a well-known proponent of tightening reporting requirements whose son died under state-supervised care.
Cuomo has made the Justice Center legislation the centerpiece of his post-budget legislation before the end of the legislative session, which wraps on June 21.
“This is one more task before they go home,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo also declared victory with his tax cap after school districts across the state overwhelming approved their spending plans save for scattered districts. Few were able to override the cap and many stayed within the defined ceiling.
Cuomo trotted out the old chestnut that the “cap isn’t really a cap” because of the supermajority override provision.
The tax cap was approved last year and was linked to rent control laws for New York City.
Cuomo also said the cap on increases of 2 percent, but most districts were able to raise their levies higher because of a complex formula built into the legislation.
He said the main benefit of the cap was starting a conversation about fiscal austerity on the local level.
“A school district can raise above the 2 percent and a lot of them didn’t want to have that conversation,” the governor said. “We changed the culture, we changed the dialogue to maybe we have to find some economies of scale. Maybe we have to reduce spending and maybe the answer isn’t find more money from the taxpayer.”
Asked about the ongoing problems of the New York Racing Association’s leadership, Cuomo said the corporation needs to rebuild its tattered reputation.
The NYRA investigation is an ongoing investigation, but there’s no doubt that NYRA has been a long troubled agencies. There have been problems at NYRA that go back decades. It doesn’t have the public’s trust and it hasn’t earned the public trust and that’s what we have to change.
Skelos Doesn’t Rule Out JCOPE Investigation
May 16th - 12:45 pm
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos told reporters today that an inquiry in to how a letter informing his top legislative deputy that an allegation of misconduct was made against him became public is “something I’m thinking about” and reiterating his accusation that someone within the ethics watchdog committed a crime.
“That’s something I’m thinking about,” Skelos said when asked if he wanted an investigation. “I don’t know how you would really find who committed the crime, but I think we have to look at and see if there’s anything that has to be done to tighten up the process.”
The Joint Commission on Public Ethics, a newly formed ethics watchdog, sent a letter to Deputy Senate Majority Leader Tom Libous informing him of a possible investigation stemming from a complaint filed by Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan.
The outgoing mayor, a Democrat, seized on the news that Anthony Mangone, a disbarred attorney and former aide to ex-Sen. Nick Spano suggested in a separate federal corruption case that Libous has sought a job at a politically connected law firm in Westchester County, abusing the power of his own office along the way.
Skelos said Ryan’s allegation was “a political allegation.” Ryan considered running against Libous this fall, but ultimately opted not to.
Libous has stridently denied the claim.
In Syracuse earlier today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo cast the letter as simply part of the process JCOPE uses in the lead up to a more formal inquiry.
“Now the process is underway and whatever they come up with it is what it is,” Cuomo said.
But Skelos says that process needs to change, noting that anyone can seemingly trigger a letter when making an allegation.
“I think we have to look at the ethics law, see if we can tighten it up a little bit, but again for the first political accusation made you have a misdemeanor crime being committed by someone who violated the confidentiality,” he said.
Skelos added that he doesn’t believe the governor’s office was involved in pushing for an investigation of Libous.
“I don’t believe the governor’s office was involved, but I think it also indicates for example a number of individuals could send a letter making an accusation about me, making an accusation about the governor and all of those people would be entitled to a letter saying this accusation has been made,” he said.
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