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David Paterson
Silver Doesn’t Know From Shutdowns, Doesn’t Want To
Jun 10th - 11:35 am
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said this morning that a government shutdown would be “totally unacceptable” and irresponsible for lawmakers to even consider.
What’s more, he admitted he has no idea what a shutdown might entail – and doesn’t care to learn.
“I don’t know what happens in a government shutdown,” Silver told Fred Dicker on Talk 1300.
“I would suspect the governor doesn’t know. Senator Sampson doesn’t know. Senator Skelos doesn’t know and we don’t wan’t to find out.”
Silver suggested that if the state would be wading into very dangerous waters if it gets into a “scrip” situation, essentially asking banks to accept its IOUS and endangering its credit rating in the process.
The speaker said he asked the governor to start holding public leaders meetings “six or eight weeks ago,” and also suggested that Paterson start putting agreed-on cuts into his budget extenders.
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Skelos: Paterson Is Being ‘Hysterical’
Jun 10th - 11:22 am
Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos told me after his private meeting with Gov. David Paterson that he and the governor have “always been very fond of each other,” but there the Long Island Republican was displaying very little love on the radio this morning.
Following an interview with Talk 1300 WGDJ-AM, Skelos slammed the governor, accusing him of being “being hysterical rather than being constructive in trying to get a budget done.”
Here’s the exchange between Skelos and NY1′s Erin Billups:
I guess Paterson’s efforts this morning to let the Senate Democrats off the hook and blame Skelos and his GOP conference if a shutdown does occur didn’t sit well with the minority leader.
Diaz Sr. Will ‘Embrace’ Paterson, Vote ‘No’ On Extenders
Jun 10th - 11:14 am
I just got off the phone with Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., who is heading back to the Bronx this morning to prepare for “Abrazo Boricua,” an event he’s hosting in celebration of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Gov. David Paterson, with whom Diaz Sr. is at odds over the budget extenders, is scheduled to attend.
A Spanish-speaking reader noted the irony of this get-together, given the definition of “Abrazo Boricua” is “Puerto Rican embrace,” adding: “I wonder if the two will actually embrace each other tonight.”
I put that question to the senator, who replied:
“I will embrace the governor tonight even though he called me a thug.”
(Paterson begs to differ on that, insisting he never actually named names when he spoke of thuggery and blackmail at yesterday’s leaders meeting).
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Will He Or Won’t He?
Jun 10th - 9:52 am
Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. is now keeping his cards fairly close to his vest as to whether he’ll be voting “yes” or “no” on the next round of extenders, preferring, in his usual way, to keep everyone guessing as to whether he’ll wreck havoc on state government.
Here’s what he had to say on the matter last night on “Capital Tonight”:
“I haven’t seen it what I have said, Liz, if it contains anything near the kinds of cuts, that we, basically, unilaterally he proposed and we accepted this past Monday that I will not repeat that on behalf of the state of New York and the people of New York.”
“We can’t run our government piecemeal fashion. We can’t do that again. And if it’s present again in the budget extender, then the governor will have pushed the button on shutting government down.”
Which isn’t “yes,” and isn’t “no,” either, when you read closely.
He goes on to slam the “unelected governor,” saying the Legislature is giving him more power than President Obama by allowing him to continuously force lawmakers into the position of choosing between approving his cuts and shutting down the government.
Anatomy Of A Shutdown: Chaos
Jun 10th - 8:38 am
Multiple reports today about nascent preparations underway for a possible government shutdown are vague about what, exactly, that would entail, which stands to reason, since these are unchartered waters.
Gov. David Paterson, who is engaging in a radio blitz this morning, said he’s not sure how a shutdown would work, but he is clear about one thing: It would be a chaotic mess.
“What a government shutdown really means nobody really knows,” the governor told the DN’s Errol Louis on his 1600 AM WWRL morning show.
“…You don’t have money to pay for emergency services. You don’t have money to pay for police and firefighters…Therefore there’s a question of the legality of whether they should come to work.”
“That’s a completely chaotic situation. It’s like a strike of every major employee. I don’t think anybody wants to be put in that position.”
Paterson noted the political fallout from a shutdown would likely be considerable – and also not something he needs to be particularly concerned with, since he’s not running this fall.
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You Always Hurt The Party You Love
Jun 9th - 4:42 pm
Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos confirmed that he did indeed meet with Gov. David Paterson this afternoon after that rather tense leaders meeting and pledged his conference would provide votes for the next round of budget extenders, provided the governor incorporates some proposed GOP spending cuts.
I spoke with the Long Island Republican soon after he returned to his third floor office suite at the Capitol. He told me he had initiated the meeting with Paterson after hearing Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson say he would be able to hold his 32-member conference together to vote “yes” next week.
“Certainly the fact that we have not been voting for the extenders, I think that message came across very clearly that this is not the way to govern,” Skelos said.
“I did go down to see the governor, and I told him that we would come up with a substantial amount of recommendations and cuts to the mental hygiene and human services extender that he is considering for week.”
“…He was delighted,” the minority leader continued. “And, you know, hopefully he’ll accept them all, and I think if he puts them in, there would be potentially substantial Republican support for that extender next week.”
Skelos Blames Silver
Jun 9th - 4:07 pm
Here’s quintessential Albany finger-pointing moment in which Senate Minority Leader Dean Shelos, while being grilled by reporters about whether he really is willing to risk a government shutdown, seeks to blame Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for the Capitol’s dsysfunction, noting he’s the longest-serving legislative leader still in office.
It sounds to me like Skelos is trying to undercut Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson’s argument that he and his conference can’t be blamed for the mess in Albany because they’ve only been in power since January 2009, while the GOP ruled the chamber for more than four decades prior to that.
It’s a little bit of a tortured argument. See what you think:
“Everybody’s assuming that we are automatically going to shut down government,” Skelos said.
“If government is shut down next week it’s because Senator Sampson, who I have a tremendous amount of respect for, Shelly Silver, and Senator Sampson likes to look back, you know, 20 years.”
“Remember the one constant, the one constant in the last 14 years has been Shelly Silver, right? It’s been Shelly Silver. You’ve had different governors, you’ve had different majority leaders. The one constant has been Shelly Silver.”
“The point is everybody’s assuming that we’re going to vote against the extender next week when we haven’t even seen the extender. But we’re getting some movement from the governor now, at least saying that he would include those $400 million in additional Medicaid cuts that we proposed. That’s a positive.”
Paterson: ‘I’m Taking The Bull By The Horns’
Jun 9th - 1:22 pm
Here’s a brief video of Gov. David Paterson – post leaders meeting – defending his controverisal use of budget extenders to push his spending cuts through the Legislature, compliments of Capital Tonight’s own Kaitlyn Ross.
Paterson says he’s “taking the bull by the horns” because he can’t get the Assembly and the Senate to play ball, adding: “I’m just playing the hand that I’m dealt; I’m not going out of my way to shut down state government.”
“It’s time to act,” the governor said. “And I didn’t criticize all of Senator Skelos’ issues with the process, but we are where we are.”
“But his solution is so outrageous that he’s going to put our state into unchartered waters because of a few irresponsible and reckless senators on the other side of the aisle… I think it’s political opportunism and it’s dangerous.”
Paterson was referring to Skelos’ insistence that his conference will continue to vote in a block against the extenders, even though two Democrats – Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. and Ruben Diaz Sr. – have said they won’t vote “yes” any longer, essentially leaving the majority without sufficient support to pass anything and threatening a shutdown.
Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson (or, perhaps, Simpson? as per Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb) insisted after the meeting that he’ll have no trouble getting the 32 votes he needs.
Leaders Meeting Video Highlights
Jun 9th - 1:02 pm
Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb and Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos give the governor hell for not sharing the latest budget outlook agreed upon by the majority conferences, Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson seems to forget Leader Kolb’s name, and Gov. Paterson challenges Skelos to vote for his next extender, which he claims has no taxes and includes cuts to medicaid.
Enjoy:
Lazio Slams Cuomo For ‘Albany-Speak’
Jun 7th - 4:48 pm
GOP gubernatorial designee Rick Lazio took some time out from campaigning in Rochester today to take a swipe at AG Andrew Cuomo for semi-panning Gov. David Paterson’s creative use of budget extenders as “intriguing” but not optimal, YNN’s Mark Gruba reports.
Lazio, who has a history of defending Gov. David Paterson (perhaps because his poll number are so low that he would have made a much easier general election opponent), said the governor needs to “be decisive and show leadership,” adding:
“I don’t know if Andrew Cuomo has an inkling of what leadership is all about. He continues to equivocate.”
“The latest I heard is that he is talking about it being intriguing, and that’s Albany speak. And he knows a lot about Albany intrigue.”
“What I would say is yes, we need to complete these reductions,” Lazio continued. “I don’t know that David Paterson has another option than laying it on the table, right now, and saying to the Legislature: Listen, this is what I have come up with, if you have a better plan to save the same amount of money, then act like adults, come to the table, and support those reductions.”
Meanwhile, 13WHAM News reports that Lazio, who was joined by his LG pick, Chautauqua County Executive Greg Edwards, declined to criticize Cuomo’s running mate, Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy, even though the GOP duo was stumping on Duffy’s home turf.
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