NY's only statewide political program
Michael Bloomberg
Piling On DiNapoli (Updatedx2)
Feb 13th - 3:14 pm
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli sustained a double whammy today over his aggressive opposition to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed creation of a sixth pension tier that includes a 401(k)-style option for new public employees.
State Business Council Heather Briccetti released a statement proclaiming herself and her members “surprised and disappointed” by DiNapoli’s “attacks on pension reform,” adding:
“When given an honest presentation of the facts there should be little dispute that a Tier VI plan is needed in New York. Pension costs are exploding at all levels of government across the state and we are rapidly approaching a tipping point.”
“Taxpayers are already struggling under the burden of existing pension obligations, and the Tier VI proposal will avoid this in future years without taking benefits away from anyone currently in the pension system.”
(Recall that the Business Council is a member of the pro-Cuomo Committee to Save NY, which has been holding events around the state to call for pension reform and also has said it may spend millions of dollars on another ad campaign to push back against the anti-reform effort paid for by organized labor).
Also today, Mayor Bloomberg, who is very supportive of Cuomo’s pension reform proposal (although he has had differences with the governor on other policy matters), expressed disbelief this afternoon that the comptroller isn’t on board.
“It is virtually impossible to argue that we can continue to do what we’re doing; it is certainly not sustainable whatsoever,” the mayor said during his Q-and-A with reporters.
“…I don’t know of anybody in the private sector that either hasn’t or isn’t contemplating switching from a defined benefit to a defined contribution plan. No company can possibly survive – particularly since our national government…both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue have been unable, and unwilling, to focus on reducing real cost.”
‘Why Do Some Politicians Go After Teachers?’
Feb 13th - 6:25 am
The UFT is out with an ad that continues the latest trend: Shooting the message, but avoiding the messenger.
The 30-second spot, which features a number of real-life educators lauding their students’ achievements and a cameo by UFT President Mike Mulgrew, does not address any specific woes. Instead, it laments “some politicians,” who shall remain nameless, and their propensity to “go after teachers.”
It’s well-known that the UFT is locked in battle with the Bloomberg administration over the creation of a teacher evaluation system, leading Gov. Andrew Cuomo to threaten to force the issue in the 2012-13 budget, and is also none too pleased – along with its fellow unions – with the Tier 6 proposal Cuomo has proposed.
Yet this ad makes no mention of any of that, despite the fact that Thursday is the deadline set by the governor to automatically amend his executive budget to unilaterally impose teacher-evaluation requirements statewide.
The ad starts airing today on broadcast stations and cable television networks in the New York area. In addition to running on NY1, it will appear during the Today Show, Good Morning America, Morning Joe, Top Chef, Project Runway, Jeopardy , David Letterman, the Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, Conan, and Rangers and Knicks games,
The broadcast buy is designed to reach more than 8 million broadcast and cable TV viewers multiple times, according to the UFT. The spot was produced by Shorr, Johnson and Magnus Strategic Media.
Bloomberg: It Was The Ads!
Feb 8th - 5:27 pm
Mayor Michael Bloomberg blamed the advertising campaign from teachers unions for a Quinnipiac University poll that shows voters trust him less when it comes to dealing with public education.
He told reporters earlier today that he “could spend some money” to reverse public opinion (he has before), but largely shrugged off the criticism.
“Well, you know, somebody goes and runs a bunch of ads everyday on television, you can create exactly that poll,” Bloomberg said. “I guess I could spend some money and reverse the poll. The press would love it because it pays. A lot of this stuff is how you ask the question, but the point is the public agreed with the individual policies.”
The survey comes as Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers engage in a high-profile spat over criteria for a teacher evaluation plan.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew was quick to crow about the poll’s results.
“I want to thank millions of public school parents and other New Yorkers who have given their teachers such a vote of confidence,” he said in a statement. “Despite years of ugly rhetoric about teachers and their union from the Mayor and his allies, New Yorkers come down overwhelmingly on the side of those who go into schools every day and work hard to make children’s lives better.”
As he alluded, there was some good news for Bloomberg in the survey, which showed voters liked his idea to provide merit pay for teachers who do well.
Team Of Rivals (Updated)
Feb 3rd - 1:05 pm
Here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: A sneak peak of the anti-illegal guns ad recorded by Mayor Bloomberg and his Boston counterpart, Mayor Menino, that will air during the big game this Sunday. (H/T to City&State’s Chris Bragg).
The two mayors are rocking the necktie-football jersey look and showing some love for their respective home team quarterbacks – Tom Brady for Menino, Eli Manning for Bloomberg. The spot, made by Bloomberg’s go-to firm, KnickerbockerSKD, will cost several thousand dollars to air instead of the usual millions for Super Bowl ad time, because it will be shown regionally.
The ad is an outgrowth of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns organization that Bloomberg funds and also co-chairs along with Menino. It should be noted that not everyone thinks this ad is such a hot idea.
Like many of their fellow Massachusetts and New York elected officials, the two mayors also placed a friendly wager on the outcome of the game. Blomoberg is jetting to Indianapolis for the big day. No word (or at least none that I could find) on where Menino will be watching.
UPDATE: A (New York) reader reminds me that Bloomberg, who’s originally from Medford, MA, used to cheer for at least one Boston team – the Red Sox – and took a lot of heat for that during his first mayoral campaign in 2001. By 2003, the mayor had wised up and traded his Sox cap for Yankee pinstripes.
Also, in the interest of fairness, WNYC’s blog, The Empire, posted the ad before Bragg did. Sorry, Chris.
A New Twist On The Mayoral Super Bowl Bet Tradition
Jan 30th - 3:00 pm
Boston Mayor Tom Menino and NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg have announced their friendly wager on the upcoming Patriots vs. Giants Superbowl, and they’ve added a new twist to this long-standing tradition.
Usually, the executives of a team’s home city and state (or, in the case of the Giants and Pats, home cities and regions? I haven’t seen anything from NJ Gov. Chris Christie yet….), wager local delicacies – there was cheesecake, salsa, cheese curds and root beer riding on the Giants vs. Packers game, for example. The food often gets donated to a local food pantry or shelter.
Another favorite is to make the executive of the losing city and/or state do something silly and/or publicly shameful.
Last year, Bloomberg lost his bet with Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl on the AFC Championship game between the Jets and the Steelers and had to hang a “Terrible Towel” on the outer wall of the New York Public Library’s main branch in midtown Manhattan. Bloomberg also had to post video proof of his towel-hanging escapade.
This time around, Menino and Bloomberg have decided to let some lucky family from one of their respective cities benefit from their bet. The losing mayor has to provide a whirlwind getaway weekend to a family from the winning mayor’s hometown.
If the Giants win, one NYC family will win a Super Tour of Boston, including:
Bloomberg Gets A Bit Snippy On UFT Negotiations
Jan 24th - 2:39 pm
Part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s shtick is to snap at reporters and as we prepare to finally bid farewell to the mayor, it’s become a (sort of) charming tic.
Our NY1 colleague Zack Fink learned about the legendary Bloombergian snippiness today when he asked about the status of negotiations on the teacher evaluations with the United Federation of Teachers.
It’s a contentious and complex issue that has already produced a tough TV campaign from the UFT.
In Albany yesterday to discuss state aid to city schools, Chancellor Dennis Walcott indicated the two sides had a lot of work left to do.
“The major issue of disagreement is that the UFT wants an outside arbitrator to hear appeals of teachers who receive a rating of ineffective for,” Walcott said. “This would add a new burdensome procedural layer that is a major departure from the current appeals process which will cause months of delay.”
But today Bloomberg, in Albany to testify for the so-called “Tin Cup Day”, didn’t really want to discuss the status of the negotiations and got a bit haughty when Zack presented the evidence that they were still not going all that well.
“I don’t know that, how do you know that? Any negotiations we’ve had with the UFT we certainly would not talk about. I just don’t know why you assume things all the time,” Bloomberg said.
Asked about the ad the UFT is running, Bloomberg claimed he hasn’t seen it.
Here’s some of the Q and A, which also includes the mayor’s thoughts on the pension overhaul.
Bloomberg, Business Leaders Release Ad To Influence GOP Debate On Immigration
Jan 16th - 1:52 pm
The Partnership for a New American Economy, an organization formed in June 2010 by Mayor Bloomberg and business leaders – including News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch – to push for immigration reform, has released a 60-second ad that will air in the next GOP presidential contest state, South Carolina, in hopes of pushing the topic to the forefront in tonight’s debate.
The ad, entitled “No Debate,” shows the major Republican candidates – Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman (who dropped out of the race this morning), Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum – all calling for reforms to the nation’s immigration system that essentially would link green cards with job creation.
“Visa reform for high-skilled immigrants is a no-cost way to create jobs and a unifying issue in the 2012 presidential election,” said John Feinblatt, a top Bloomberg advisor who serves as spokesperson for the Partnership.
“At a time when the media and the candidates themselves are focused on emphasizing areas of disagreement, the Partnership is highlighting an area of agreement – that our country must do everything possible to attract and retain these high-skilled job creators from around the world.”
The ad begins airing on the day of the first GOP presidential candidate debate in South Carolina and runs throughout the week on broadcast television and in online publications. The primary is this coming Saturday, and is being seen as the last chance Romney’s opponents have to stop – or at least slow – his march to the GOP nomination.
The Bloomberg-Silver Team Up
Jan 12th - 3:48 pm
Once upon a time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to get all sorts of things past in Albany like congestion pricing and a West Side stadium for the Jets.
Each time he was thwarted by the Legislature and blame was heaped on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
But, oh, how politics works!
Bloomberg finished up his State of the City address this afternoon and certainly the lede tomorrow will be his calls for a minimum wage increase, just as Silver pushed for on Jan. 3 before Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address.
Silver released this statement in response:
“I applaud and thank Mayor Bloomberg for joining our call to increase the minimum wage. As I have said, it is wrong to expect anyone – let alone working families – to be able to afford the cost of living today and invest in their future on a salary of $7.25 an hour. Increasing the minimum wage would benefit more than 14 percent of our workforce. Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to helping the more than 1.2 million low wage workers in New York climb the ladder of financial security is welcome news.”
As Liz noted earlier, this comes after the relationships between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the two men have each become strained for different reasons.
Silver said in his speech that he wanted to fix the broken “ladder” to economic stability and equality for working New Yorkers.
Interestingly, Bloomberg employed a similar metaphor today: “But there’s one thing that in all fairness hasn’t gone up: the ability of those at the bottom of the economic ladder to pay for those essential needs.”
Update: Assembly spokesman Mike Whyland points out that for all the past Silver-Bloomberg contretemps, the two have come closer over the years over issues like microstamping for bullets, the bill to expand livery cab service outside of Manhattan along with other policy goals. That’s fair enough, but the minimum wage bill is easily the most significant legislation they have every agreed on.
Update X2: Bloomberg spokesman Mark Botnick also calls to point out that Bloomberg and Silver also worked closely on similarly significant issues like the charter schools issue and both times for mayoral control. So color me educated.
Livery Cabs, Bike Lanes And Ed Koch
Jan 12th - 2:21 pm
…a winning combination.
Here’s one of two videos featured in Mayor Bloomberg’s State of the City address. It features cameos by several administration aides, the Irish step dance troupe that received a standing ovation for their pre-speech performance this afternoon, and New York City Mayor-for-Life Ed Koch.
Bloomberg Sides With Silver On Minimum Wage Hike
Jan 12th - 1:40 pm
Mayor Bloomberg, who reportedly was taken by surprise by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State announcements on eradicating the fingerprint requirement for foodstamps and building the nation’s largest convention center/casino at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens, is getting his revenge this afternoon.
In the State of the City address he is delivering right now in the Morris High School campus in the Bronx, Bloomberg sides with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver – going so far as to mention the Manhattan Democrat by name – in the speaker’s call to raise the minimum wage in New York.
“The minimum wage is another way to help those who can only find jobs with entry-level wages by incentivize and reward work,” Bloomberg says, according to a copy of his prepared remarks (which appears below). “Like the EITC, it helps those who are trying to help themselves. But setting the minimum wage is also a balancing act – setting it high enough so people can get by on it without having a negative economic impact.”
“Right now, I believe, we are slightly out of balance. The genius of the free market is not always perfect. Two of our neighbors – Connecticut and Massachusetts – have raised their minimum wage above the Federal standard to address higher costs of living.”
“And so while we would prefer the Federal government to act to keep us competitive, this year, we will join Speaker Shelly Silver in pushing for a responsible raise in the minimum wage. Our city just cannot afford to wait for Washington. Not when it comes to illegal guns, not when it comes to climate change, not when it comes to creating jobs and not when it comes to raising the minimum wage.”
To see Bloomberg siding with Silver – the man who helped kill two of his pet projects, the West Side stadium and congestion pricing – is pretty significant, although their relationship has improved, policy-wise, in recent years.
Neither Silver nor Bloomberg has gotten along terribly well lately with Cuomo, who has taken more of an interest in NYC affairs than his immediate predecessors. The institutional tension between the NYC mayor and the governor has escalated since Cuomo took office last January, a development due in part to the stark differences in style and political ideology. In short, Cuomo embraces political wheeling and dealing, while Bloomberg disdains politicking, even as he engages in it.
Silver reportedly struck a nerve (at least with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos) by outlining a detailed agenda – including the minimum wage hike – during his remarks before Cuomo’s State of the State. His relationship with Cuomo became even more strained this week over teacher performance evaluations.
UPDATE: It should be noted that Bloomberg gave Cuomo a shout-out for the passage of same-sex marriage, while also crediting his own policy advisor, John Feinblatt, whose wedding to partner Jonathan Mintz, Bloomberg officiated at Gracie. He also said he wants to work with the governor on pension reform. Also worth mentioning: There’s nary a word in the prepared speech about Aqueduct and the nation’s biggest convention center.
Take Capital Tonight and the State of Politics blog with you everywhere you go with our iPhone app! The mobile application features our blog posts, interviews, and a report news tool to send us your political news tips.