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Sheldon Silver
Budget Waiting Game
Jun 25th - 11:09 am
You might consider those early weekend plans. It’s shaping up to be a long day at the Capitol.
The Assembly and Senate came to a tentative agreement on the substance of all the remaining budget bills over the past 24 hours with the exception of revenues and the still-contentious SUNY overhaul plan, a legislative source confirms.
The question now remains: What will Gov. David Paterson do?
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson had a face-to-face yesterday afternoon, but the governor wasn’t around for that meeting. (He departed the Capital Region after his early-morning radio round-up and had yet to return as of shortly before 10 a.m. this morning).
A source confirmed Sampson spoke to the governor by phone yesterday. I have yet to confirm whether Silver also got a call, or placed one. In-person meetings are expected some time later today.
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The World According To Shelly Silver
Jun 24th - 5:46 pm
This video is just so chock-full of quintessential Silverisms that it almost needs no commentary whatsoever.
My favorite line: “We’ll have a budget deal when we have a budget deal and we’ll enact the budget when we have a budget deal. My members will be here as necessary to enact the budget.”
The speaker also continues to insist that “progress is being made,” and the reinstatement of the clothing sales tax – which he insists isn’t a tax increase, but rather “a temporary suspension of the sale tax exemption” – was the governor’s idea, not his.
In addition, Silver expressed optimism that the state will receive more than $1 billion worth of federal FMAP cash that has been in limbo for some time now, adding: “There’s a good chance we’re getting the money. If we don’t get the money, we’ll deal with it at that point. We’ll deal whatever shortfalls there are, if in fact there are shortfalls.”
However, the speaker and the governor appear to be at odds on this, too. A source in the Paterson administration tells NY1′s Erin Billups there’s no way that state will be getting all of the FMAP cash it had expected and is highly likely to receive nothing at all.
Silver: Deadline? What Deadline?
Jun 22nd - 2:59 pm
Well, leaders meeting No. 2 didn’t go so well.
Gov. David Paterson said he thinks the Democratic legislative leaders are being overly optimistic about how close they are to a budget deal (Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver put them at a “three” on the 1-to-10 doneness scale, with 1 being darn near over), and reiterated his June 28-or-else threat.
That didn’t sit well with Silver, who told NY1′s Erin Billups:
“First of all there is no deadline. The deadline was April 1st. Obviously we didn’t make that deadline. It’s the only deadline I know.”
But Silver also said in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t intend to have to pass yet another round of extender bills (the 13th, for those of you keeping count) come Monday.
The sticking point appear to be (surprise, surprise) education aid, which Paterson wants to cut by $1.3 billion and the Assembly Democrats want to restore – at least to some degree.
Another issue: Property tax relief. Paterson has floated a 3 percent cap on localities that would leave school disitricts alone, but the leaders aren’t thrilled about that idea, either.
If At First You Don’t Succeed…
Jun 22nd - 1:14 pm
The legislative leaders – Democrats AND Republicans, minus Senate Democratic Conference Leader, due to a scheduling snafu – and Gov. David Paterson met at noon today for a quickie closed-door confab and came away with…no deal.
Sadly, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s prediction that there would be a final agreement by yesterday or today is looking less and less likely. Scuttlebutt around the Capitol is that negotiations could drag on into July.
(That would be the second Glorious Fourth I spend working in Albany – last year we were all held hostage by the Senate coup).
Capital Tonight’s Kaitlyn Ross staked out the meeting, but she didn’t have to wait long. Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb summed it up thusly: “We said hello, and then we said goodbye.” However, there was one bright spot, since, as Newsday’s James T. Madore noted, the leaders managed to pronounce Kolb’s name right.
Silver said on a scale of one to 10 – with one being close to Planet Deal and 10 being, well, maybe Mars? – the leaders and Paterson are at “about three, maybe two.”
The fivesome – with Sampson this time – is now settled into leaders meeting No. 2. Perhaps this one will be more fruitful.
‘The Kiss’
Jun 22nd - 8:11 am
GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio released a new Web ad this morning that seeks to undercut AG Andrew Cuomo’s pledge to clean up the Capitol by portraying him as thisclose to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
The ad splices footage from Cuomo’s gubernatorial announcement speech during which he said things like “we’re tired of seeing New Yorkers victimized by government corruption in Albany” with a clip of him leaning over to kiss Silver on the cheek at an undated state Democratic Party event. (Also on the dais is former state Democratic Party Chairwoman June O’Neill).
The moment is reminiscent of the infamous McCain-Bush “hug” (from the president’s 2004 re-election campaign) that the Democrats employed ad nauseum during the 2008 campaign.
The video also features the interview Assemblyman/Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Vito Lopez gave to NY1 during the Democratic convention in Rye during which he went far off the Cuomo script by saying the AG is a “product of Albany.”
The tagline: “Andrew Cuomo: 29 years as a product of Albany, $29 to break the cycle.” This is a fundraising tool Lazio has been employing of late in campaign Web ads.
Silver: Tax All Tobacco
Jun 18th - 2:17 pm
Yesterday, Liz sat down with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in his Capitol office for an interview that aired Thursday on Capital Tonight.
They discussed the progress being made toward a budget deal, which Silver predicts will be finalized and on its way to the governor’s desk for signing by Monday or Tuesday.
One of the big questions that still remains is whether the state can come up with the cash to restore some of the proposed cuts to education.
Silver says the legislature will take the governor’s cigarette tax proposal one step further to generate some new revenue.
“Well, a cigarette tax was always a part of the governor’s proposal. So, there will be an agreement on that, I believe, and some other tobaccos that go along with it that were not part of the governor’s proposal, but would be additional revenue: cigars and chewing tobacco, things of that nature.”
Cuomo: Put Property Tax Cap In Budget Extender
Jun 18th - 11:00 am
AG Andrew Cuomo subtly upped the ante on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, calling for Gov. David Paterson to put a property tax cap into a budget extender and force lawmakers to go on the record about where they stand on the issue.
“I’d like to see them put a property tax cap on the table,” the Democratic gubernatorial candidate told the Post’s Fred Dicker on Talk 1300 this morning.”
Asked by Dicker if the cap should be in an extender or a stand-alone bill, Cuomo replied:
“Well, under the governor’s device, it’s the same thing. The governor could say: I want the property tax cap passed. They’re going to say is – the they – well, we don’t want it. We don’t want it? Let’s put it in the extender and define who the ‘we’ is.”
“(Senate Minority Leader) Dean Skelos, are you for or against the property tax cap?…I want to get the individuals on line. And well the Assembly’s against it. Who in the Assembly?…Is Assemblyman Morelle for or against it? Is Assemblyman Hoyt for or against it? Is Assemblyman Cahill for or against it?”
“Forget the Assembly what does that mean the Assembly? When you go into vote it doesn’t say Assembly, it has a name. And that’s my point. The individual’s name and the individual’s position. That’s what this device is doing and that works. “
Silver: The End Is In Sight
Jun 17th - 3:46 pm
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says he believes we’ll see a budget – signed, sealed and delivered – by Monday or Tuesday. He says the finishing touches are being put on some of the more controversial portions of the state spending plan and a final version will soon make its way to the printer.
“I think they are being finalized as we speak. Things are going fairly well, and I’m hopeful that we can have a printed bill sometime this evening. I think we may probably not vote until tomorrow. It’s all part of the larger budget, so I think we can have completed two big pieces of the budget by tomorrow… I’m hopeful we can complete a budget by Monday or Tuesday.”
Source: After Extender No. 11, Budget Will Be 70% Complete
Jun 14th - 2:45 pm
Assuming all goes according to plan and the latest budget extender passes this afternoon without a hitch, the 2010-2011 budget will be almost two-thirds of the way done – all through an unprecedented piecemeal fashion and without a single conference committee.
That’s according to a legislative source who spoke to CapTon’s Kaitlyn Ross following a three-way leaders meeting earlier today between Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson and Gov. David Paterson.
Silver and Sampson informed reporters that the meeting was held to discuss the remainder of the budget itself – not the next round of extenders, which Paterson told DN Capitol Bureau Chief Ken Lovett over the weekend might not include the hot-button issue of education cuts.
Sampson insisted to Ross that Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. would vote “yes,” this afternoon. But Ross reports she just her the exact opposite from the Bronx Democrat.
Just to clear things up once and for all, to the extent that’s possible with Diaz Sr., I called him myself.
“They know more than I do,” the senator told me when I informed him the leadership believes he’ll be voting “yes.
“…I’m voting no, Liz. I am voting no. I am not here to negotiate. I am not that type. I said it last week when I took the Senate floor. I said it: This is the last time I’m voting for cuts. I said that. That’s what I meant.”
The State Of The State Of Emergency
Jun 13th - 4:46 pm
At today’s Puerto Rican Day Parade, Gov. David Paterson downplayed the possibility that there will be a government shutdown, insisting a sufficient number of senators will vote “yes” and pass his latest budget extender bill tomorrow afternoon.
“I don’t know the future, but I do believe that there are enough legislators in Albany who don’t want to subject the public to the type of suffering a government shutdown would cause,” Paterson told reporters, including NY1′s Erin Billups, who was on parade duty.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has made it clear the measure will pass without a fuss in his house.
The Senate Republicans have also indicated a willingness to provide votes to make up the difference if any renegade Democrats – namely, Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. or Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. – decide to make good on their threats to vote “no.”
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