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Michael Bloomberg
Bloomberg Disses Buffalo
Mar 16th - 11:32 am
Mayor Bloomberg exacerbated the upstate-downstate divide this morning by taking a swipe at Buffalo, suggesting the Western NY city’s problems are nothing compared to what he faces in the Big Apple, despite its chronic hemorraging of both population and jobs.
“Our city’s problems are problems of success,” the mayor said during a speech this morning.
“We don’t have enough classrooms. We don’t have enough roads. We don’t have enough housing. If you go to other cities, they don’t have those problems.”
“There’s an awful lot of free space up in Buffalo, New York, if you want to go there. I don’t think you do.”
“Buffalo would love to have our problems, and one of the challenges in this country is how we help a city like Buffalo. But New York is on the other edge of that. We don’t have enough of the things that people want, and in other cities, they don’t have things that people want. That really is the difference.”
Um, yeah. Did the mayor learn nothing from his predecessor, Ed Koch?
I’m sure that’s going to sit real well with Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, not to mention all those Queen City residents for whom WNY pride isn’t merely a passing fancy, but a near-fanatical religion – particularly when it comes to sports teams and local delicacies like wings and beef on weck.
This kind of talk is what should lead observers to take Bloomberg at his word when he says he has no presidential aspirations. Buffalo has a lot more in common with the Midwest than with NYC. If the mayor can’t play well in WNY, there’s no way he’d fly in the rust belt, no matter how many billions he spends.
UPDATE: NY1 political director Bob Hardt reminds me that Brown, a former senator, is a Queens – not Queen City – native himself.
Q Poll: Bloomberg Sinks To New Low
Mar 16th - 8:43 am
Today’s Q poll finds Mayor Bloomberg’s approval rating has sunk to its lowest point in eight years with voters disapproving of the job he’s doing, 51-39. That’s not far off from his last low point of 51-37 percent disapproval in late November 2003.
Only Bloomberg’s fellow Manhattanites approve of his performance, 55-34. Adding insult to injury for the mayor, all the other citywide elected officials – and likely 2013 mayoral contenders – have scored their highest approval ratings ever. They are as follows:
- 44-16 for Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
- 54-16 for Comptroller John Liu.
- 55-25 for Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
“Is it the snow, the third-term blahs, the weekends away, the presidential chatter? Whatever the explanation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s once-upon-a-time stretch of 70-plus job approval numbers has gone south,” said Q pollster Mickey Carroll.
Meanwhile, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who just this week brushed off talk of him moving on to become director of the FBI, has a 67-20 approval rating. Bloomberg’s hand-picked NYC schools chancellor, Cathie Black, is still struggling to improve her standing with city residents. Most disapprove of her performance, 17-49, with 34 percent undecided.
Bloomberg can take solace in the fact that even if New Yorkers don’t like the way he’s handling himself on the job, they do believe he’s entitled to some privacy. A whopping 72 percent say it’s no one’s business where the mayor spends his weekends or vacations. This is down slightly from the 80 percent who said as much in a February Q poll.
The media should not follow the mayor and report on his time-off activity, most voters say (79-17). But when Bloomberg leaves the city, 84 percent believe he should have to say who he’s leaving in charge.
Haggerty Trial Set For 6/1 (Updated)
Mar 15th - 10:33 am
NY1′s Josh Robin tells us that the judge has set a June 1st start date for the trial against Republican political operative John Haggerty, who is charged with setting up a sham company that was paid more than a million dollars for ballot security on Election Day, 2009.
The money came from Mayor Bloomberg’s checkbook, but was funneled through the state Independence Party.
Haggerty’s attorney, former state AG Dennis Vacco, tried to have the case dismissed. But today, the judge denied that request and set up deadlines for defense to file motions, and for the prosecution to respond.
Considering the political nature of the case, the judge also issued a gag order to both sides, barring them from talking to the press.
UPDATE: Here’s the order from Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel that allows the case against Haggerty to go forward. “Defendant is not Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor,” wrote the judge.
Zweibel accused the Queens GOP consultant of concocting an “elaborate scheme” to “enrich himself at Mayor Bloomberg’s expense and got caught” when the press started to investigate where the mayor’s $1.1 million contribution to the Indy Party actually went.
Make That 70
Mar 8th - 4:55 pm
Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr. has signaled his support for extending the so-called millionaire’s tax as a means to “erase” the governor’s proposed $1.5 billion in education aid.
“The financial crunch we are weathering in the wake of the recent recession was not caused by public school students and teachers,” Farrell wrote in a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
“It would be wrong to make them pay for it while offering wealthy New Yorkers what amounts to a tax break. As part of your team, working together to craft a budget that protects all New Yorkers during hard times, I hope that we can continue this discussion as we near the end of the budget process.”
Farrell penned his letter to the speaker on March 3, but a copy of it just appeared on his Assembly Web page today.
The veteran Harlem lawmaker and former Manhattan Democratic chairman chose to go his own route rather than add his name to the letter circulated by his Queens colleague, Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Cathy Nolan, and signed by 68 fellow Democratic legislators.
Farrell is a longtime Silver ally, so this isn’t a big surprise. The speaker recently made it clear last that he plans to include the millionaire’s tax extension in the Assembly’s one-house budget due next week even as he acknowledged it’s unlikely to pass muster with either the Senate GOP or the governor.
It has been noted by several of my colleagues that the speaker isn’t the one who needs convincing in this case. Best guess: This is a show of solidarity, and not so much a lobbying effort.
This Week’s LIFO Ad Score: ERN, 2; UFT, 1
Mar 8th - 4:30 pm
Here’s ad No. 2 from Education Reform Now, which, like the first spot, calls for an end to the last in, first out rule governing public school teacher layoffs.
This ad, which features parents talking about the “fresh” and “innovative” teachers in their childrens’ schools, will run in NYC and Albany markets. This is the second six-figure ad buy the group has made in the past two days.
This is actually ERN’s third LIFO-related ad. The first came in early February. So far, the UFT has launched just one ad this week, and that targets Mayor Bloomberg.
“Ending LIFO is our number one priority, and we’re going to do what it takes to eliminate this destructive law,” said Joe Williams of Education Reform Now. “We cannot build a better education system if we’re not able to keep the best teachers in the classroom.”
The script for the second ERN ad appears after the jump.
LIFO Ad War Joined
Mar 8th - 11:10 am
Education Reform Now has hit the airwaves with a new TV ad that backs Mayor Bloomberg’s push to repeal the last in, first out rule on public school teacher layoffs, arguing in favor of a merit-based evaluation system.
This spot, which is running in NYC and Albany markets, counters the UFT’s new ad campaign that insists Bloomberg is unfairly targeting unionized teachers and unnecessarily pushing for layoffs in spite of the city’s $3 billlion surplus.
New York City is going to be forced to send thousands of pink slips to the wrong teachers if the state doesn’t act soon,” said Joe Williams of Education Reform Now.
“We’ve got to be allowed to protect our best classroom teachers, regardless of seniority, and the state should act quickly to inject some common sense into the layoff process.”
ERN is a pro-charter school group that was heavily involved in the Race to the Top push to lift the charter school cap.
This is at least its second LIFO-related ad. Teachers unions and their allies note that ERN is financed by wealthy hedge funders who met with Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the run-up to his gubernatorial run last year.
Cuomo is a charter school supporter, but he has stopped short of siding with Bloomberg and his allies in the LIFO war. The governor angered the mayor by introducing his own teacher evaluation bill, which doesn’t repeal LIFO, shortly after the GOP-controlled Senate passed the bill the mayor championed. The two have since calmed their public rhetoric and are talking about talking on this contentious topic.
Here’s the ERN ad script:
Narrator: 1.1 million New York City school children. A $10 billion Albany budget shortfall. How do we protect our kids? By guaranteeing we have the best teachers in the classroom.”
“That means changing Albany’s outdated law so we can keep teachers based on merit, not seniority. And continuing Mike Bloomberg’s education reforms: recruiting top-notch teachers, raising graduation rates, demanding results. Because if we want great schools for our kids, we must keep great teachers in the classroom.”
UFT Wants Bloomberg To ‘Listen to Us’
Mar 8th - 6:00 am
The UFT has launched another TV ad attacking Mayor Bloomberg, this time over his threat to lay off public school teachers in spit of the fact that the city is sitting on an unexpected budget surplus of approximately $3 billion.
The ad features Harlem resident and parent Candace Frazer, who tells viewers: “Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t listen to parents like me because we tell him: Stop talking about teacher layoffs. Losing 5,000 teachers will make classes even more overcrowded.”
Frazer also says the mayor “doesn’t listen to the facts” because the surplus negates the need for the layoffs of some 4,600 that he’s been threateningif the state doesn’t restore the city’s education aid. (The Bloomberg administration says the money is needed to plug next year’s $4.6 billion budget hole.
“I don’t know what Mayor Blomoberg’s agenda is,” Frazer concludes. “But he should stop playing politics with our kids, and start listening to us.”
The 30-second spot produced by Shorr, Johnson and Magnus Strategic Media, will hit the iarwaves tomorrow and run through Monday, March 14 on local broadcast stations as well as cable television networks in the New York metropolitan area.
The ad will run during some of television’s most popular shows, including: NY1’s “Inside City Hall,” “Conan,” “Daily Show,” “Iron Chef,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Jeopardy!,” “CNN,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Iron Chef,” and various morning and evening news broadcasts.
This is the second anti-Bloomberg ad in less than a month that the UFT has aired. The first invoked the Christmas blizzard clean-up debacle and hit the mayor over his push to repeal LIFO.
De Blasio Proposes Alternatives To Teacher Layoffs
Mar 7th - 9:45 am
NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio was on Good Day New York this morning calling on the Mayor to cut the budget from other areas, and not teachers.
“I’m really worried. The last thing we should be cutting is teachers. We could cut technology consultants, $24 million was spent this year. We can also cut teacher recruiters which could save us hundreds of thousands of dollars,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio went on to admit that he believes Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to layoff thousands of teachers is just a ploy to help push through a bill on Last In, First Out.
Public Advocate: Save Teachers, Cut Other Services: MyFoxNY.com
NYSUT Official Accuses Bloomberg Of ‘Temper Tantrum’
Mar 3rd - 12:28 pm
NYSUT Director of Legislation Steve Allinger went after Mayor Bloomberg during a CapTon interview last night accusing him of having a “temper tantrum” over his inability (thus far) to get his way on last in, first out.
Allinger noted Bloomberg was on board for the Race to the Top push that included a union-approved agreement to create a teacher evaluation system (still in the process of being hammered out) and has also decried Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s education spending cuts.
“This appears to be just a huge distraction and throwing sand in the air,” Allinger said of Bloomberg’s push to repeal LIFO.
“The fact of the matter is our the United Federation of Teachers worked out new agreements just last year to expedite teacher disciplinary prodecures and he wanted those. So, this, you know, this seems like a temper tantrum to us and taking the focus off fighting to get fair funding and stave off devastating cuts in programs to kids.”
I asked Allinger whether NYSUT and/or the UFT had cut some sort of deal with the governor whereby they would back down from their opposition to his cuts in exchange for signing off on his statewide plan to create a teacher evaluation system – a plan that does not, according to Bloomberg, repeal LIFO.
“That would be unethical,” he replied.
“We’re not trading due process and fairness and 100 years of labor law protection and selling out our schools. We need adequate funding to provide the education to meet the highly qualified standards that have been set by the state.”
Bloomberg Admin: Cuomo’s Bill Won’t End LIFO
Mar 2nd - 4:40 pm
The Bloomberg administration just released a memo from Deputy Education Chancellor John White, outlining how Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed teacher evaluation bill won’t change the current last in, first out layoff requirement that the mayor has been pushing to change.
Bloomberg was infuriated by the governor’s abrupt announcement about his bill, which came on the heels of the Senate’s 33-27 passage of Sen. John Flanagan’s legislation to repeal LIFO.
Aides to the mayor called the governor’s bill – which can be read here – a “scam” and accused the Cuomo administration of trying to buy off the teachers unions in exchange for an end to their opposition to his education spending cuts.
The Bloomberg administration was particularly angered by the fact that the governor’s office didn’t consult the mayor on his bill or give him a heads-up.
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