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Unshackle Upstate: Handcuffs Coming Off
Nov 11th - 10:33 am
What a difference a year makes.
That seems to be the message from Unshackle Upstate, a Rochester-based business group that’s spent the last five years lobbying for state-level reforms including a limit on local property tax increases, a more friendly business climate and reduced spending.
Now the group has released a “midterm” report assessing topics such as the SAGE commission, SUNY 2020 and natural gas development, also known as hydrofracking.
“When Unshackle Upstate was founded in 2006, the 2011 legislative session generated the type of results we had in mind,” said Andrew J. Rudnick, president and CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. “The property tax cap and a fiscally sound budget with no new or increased taxes and a reduction in spending are the outcomes taxpayers and employers have been fighting for. With the 2012 legislative session two short months away, Albany must focus on business and local government mandate relief and a continued effort to create private sector job growth.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has strong backing the business community, winning the first-ever endorsement from the Business Council, and later appointed the lobby’s president the head of the Empire State Development Corp. Cuomo, who has said he’s a “broke progressive,” closed a $10 billion budget deficit without raising taxes and is letting another surcharge on those making $200,000 or more a year to expire.
While that’s won plaudits from businesses (and the conservative New York Post editorial board), his traditional base seems to be growing a bit restless when it comes to taxing the wealthy.
Poloncarz’s Olive Branch
Nov 10th - 12:12 pm
Erie County-elect Mark Poloncarz just issued a statement praising the man he defeated, Republican Chris Collins, for his service and expressing hope that the two can collaborate to provide a smooth transition.
“This was a very hard-fought campaign and I wish (Collins) well in his return to the private sector,” Poloncarz said.
“A lot has been made of our disagreements over the course of this campaign and I believe our views on the issues provided a stark contrast for voters to choose between. However, we have always been in absolute agreement that the County Executive is here to serve the people of Erie County to the best of his or her ability.”
“In keeping with that spirit, I am confident that Chris Collins will do everything in his power to ensure a smooth transition for my administration and for the people of Erie County. I hope that includes the dutiful maintenance of relevant documents and records as well as his valuable insight into the ongoing and upcoming issues that will require my immediate attention.”
“I look forward to meeting with Mr. Collins and his staff in the coming days to begin that process. I hope to develop a good working relationship as we proceed forward. Regardless of who wins or loses a campaign, it is our responsibility to work together to ensure the people of Erie County always win.”
Poloncarz told me during a CapTon interview last night that he never receieved a concession call from Collins. As of noon today, the two still hadn’t spoken, according to Poloncarz spokesman Peter Anderson.
“I’ve been in email contact with Mark this morning; he’s doing some more media,” Anderson told me. “And so far, Chris has not called. That’s just how he is. He’s going to hold his breath until everyone goes away. We have been hoping for a smooth transition, but it looks like that’s not going to be the case.”
There was a report election night that Collins said he hadn’t spoken to Poloncarz for four years – a statement that really streched the boundaries of truth, considering the fact that the two debated several times during the campaign.
In addition, Poloncarz has served as county comptroller for the past four years, so the idea that the two never exchanged a word was pretty out there. Poloncarz told me he had indeed spoken to the country executive – regularly, in fact – and chalked the outgoing executive’s comments up to the fact that the relationship between the two of them grew “tense” in the final months of the campaign.
With Friends Like These…
Nov 9th - 1:00 pm
Between the self-congratulatory eight-minute video, the radio ad and several radio interviews, I think it’s fair to characterize what Gov. Andrew Cuomo is engaged in at the moment as a full-court press to convince New Yorkers that the 2 percent property tax cap he championed and successfully pushed through the Legislature has been a smashing success.
That’s despite a considerable amount of grumbling by local municipal and school district officials and business leaders about the lack of mandate relief that was promised by the administration to take the edge off the cap’s impact, but so far has not materialized. (The governor and his cabinet members have insisted mandate relief will be a big focus in the upcoming session, and the task force headed by Larry Schwartz is still working).
Local officials have not been shy about criticizing the cap, even as the governor casts it as more of a guideline that a requirement. The latest critic is Onondaga County Executiev Joanie Mahoney, a Republican who crossed party lines to endorse Cuomo in 2010 – and took no small amount of heat from members of her own party as a result.
“It’s the most over-simplified policy,” Mahoney told the Syracuse Post-Standard. “The only thing that I see good about it is that it’s going to force crisis. And that’s when people do something.”
The county executive has been critical of the cap before, but these are her strongest comments to date, I believe.
Lucky for Mahoney, Onondaga County has $79 million in reserve, and so she did not have to propose either major service cuts or layoffs in her 2012 budget. But other counties – including Rockland, Westchester, Nassau and Erie – were not so lucky.
From the same story:
As of last Monday, the state comptroller’s office said that 59 of 396 governments and taxing districts – about 15 percent – are planning to override the tax cap. With 10,000 taxing entities set to write and approve budgets before the end of the year, that ratio remains preliminary and inexact.
As we’ve noted as several occasions – both here on SOP and on CapTon, the real test will be when those school budgets start to come in, which won’t happen until the spring.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers has pitched a complete state takeover of the county share of Medicaid, phased in over several years, in hopes of providing some relief at the local level. But Cuomo shot that down, saying the state can’t afford it. So far, all the big ticket mandate relief items face big obstacles, including the unions, which have pledged to fight tooth and nail against creation of a sixth pension tier.
NYCF Declares Victory In Ledyard Clerk Race (Updated)
Nov 8th - 10:12 pm
New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms has issued a statement congratulating Rose Belforti on her re-election in a race that has implications far beyond the Finger Lakes municipality where it took place.
UPDATE: She won with 62 percent of the vote, according to YNN.
The Ledyard town clerk’s bid to return to office was cast as a crucial test of balancing the new same-sex marriage law against the right to religious freedom.
“Rose Belforti has faced unreasonable bigotry and harassment,” said the Rev. Jason McGuire, NYCF’s executive director. “Some gay activists would not be satisfied with Mrs. Belforti’s right to have her religious freedoms reasonably accommodated.”
“Despite all of this, the people of Ledyard have spoken and rejected religious discrimination. For the last ten years, Rose Belforti has stood up for the people of Ledyard and tonight they stood up for her,” McGuire concluded.”
In case you need a refresher: Belforti is the cheese-making clerk who, as a self-described Christian, considers homosexuality a sin, and therefore did not want to sign same-sex marriage licenses.
She arranged for a deputy to act in her stead – by appointment, only.
That led to a lawsuit from a local lesbian couple who did not appreciate the fact that they needed to wait to get a license after the gay marriage bill signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo became law in late July.
Belforti, who suffered considerable criticism as a result of her decision – including a boycott of her cheese and an on-line petition that calls for her resignation and/or firing – told the NYT: “This is about religious freedom. This is not about trashing gay people.”
Here’s a video of Belforti posted by the Courage Fund, which was set up to assist clerks who oppose gay marriage for religious reasons.
Blaming Siena
Nov 8th - 3:28 pm
ICYMI: Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy told me during a CapTon interview last night that the first Siena poll, which he deemed “flawed,” is to blame for the dead-heat contest between incumbent Republican Executive Chris Collins and his Democratic opponent, Comptroller Mark Poloncarz.
“A major point of contention with the first Siena poll was the city vote was equated to 25 percent of the total county that didn’t even happen in the year that Barack Obama won the presidency. So, it was a flawed survey and I believe that manufactured this campaign in what we see today and how close it is,” the chairman said.
“…The flawed poll certainly gave momentum to the other side and brought special interest donations from around New York State into this race. It changed the dynamic, showing that the race was closer than I believe it was at the time. And the money has funneled in from every labor union under the sun…I do not believe that the race was this close at that time. But right now, the only poll that matters is the one that’s going to hapen tomorrow when voters go to the polls and vote their conscience.”
Langworthy, a Collins ally, was careful not to accuse Siena of purposefully engineering (my word) the poll to assist the Democrats. He’s also not the only person to suggest poll No. 1 skewed the race somehow. Erie County Legislator Kevin Hardwick said something similar to The Capitol’s Chris Bragg, explaining:
“I really believe that was a bad poll, inasmuch as it seemed to predict a higher turnout than you’ll see in the city, but it in a sense becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because the poll awakened the Democratic base.”
Republicans took issue with the Oct. 10 Siena poll that showed Poloncarz trailing Collins by just three percentage points, insisting the Democrat-dominated city of Buffalo had been over-sampled. That poll put city voters at 25 percent of the total turnout, compared to 19 percent in this weekend’s survey, which showed both candidates at 48 percent.
Greenberg insisted during a CapTon interview (also last night) that nothing had changed in Siena’s approach to screen out likely voters.
Oddly, Collins himself is now claiming the 48-48 poll was helpful to him because it motivated his base.
“There was a period of time when my supporters would say, ‘You’ve done such a good job, how can this be?’” the county executive told the Buffalo News. “This has my supporters concerned enough so that they are more energized than ever before. These people do not want to go back to the dark days.”
Unions Hit The Airwaves To Hit Collins (Updated)
Nov 8th - 12:39 pm
This anti-Chris Collins ad running out in WNY was paid for by AFSCME, but is part of a larger independent expenditure by a coalition of organized labor unions in support of Mark Poloncarz.
Red Horse Strategies did this ad, and Doug Forand informs me the IE also includes mail, GOTV and radio. The unions are involved in this race in a very big way, which is a good thing for Poloncarz, because, as Siena’s Steve Greenberg has said since the 48-48 poll came out over the weekend, this contest is all coming down to turnout.
UPDATE: I’m told the buy for the TV ad alone is $100,000, plus another $100,000 for the radio spot, which you can listen to here:
The Buffalo News’ Bob McCarthy reported this morning that there’s “no indication” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown bothered to mobilize his operation on Poloncarz’s behalf – despite the fact that he endorsed his fellow Democrat (presumedly at Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s urging). Erie County Democratic Chairman Len Lenihan – no fan of Brown and on the outs with the Cuomo camp – told McCarthy: “I’m confident the mayor is doing what he can do.” He did not go into detail about what that effort might entail – if anything.
The enrollment breakdown in Erie County is as follows: 311,130 Democrats, 163,155 Republicans, 12,583 Conservatives, 3,021 WFP members, 27,293 Independence Party members and 102,336 blanks. The bulk of the Democrats are in the City of Buffalo, however, and the Republicans – in what is becoming a habit/strategy – didn’t field a slate in the city so as not to give urban voters any additional incentives to come to the polls.
Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy insisted to me during a CapTon interview last night that the party isn’t trying to surpress the Buffalo vote by not running any candidates within the city limits, but rather has difficulty finding qualified – and, perhaps more importantly – willing Republicans to run for office.
Here’s the AFSCME ad script:
“How bad is Erie’s job loss under Chris Collins? We’ve lost one job every two-and-a-half hours every single day of every month of every year since Collins took over. Over 13,000 jobs lost – 13,000 families who can’t pay their mortgage, 13,000 parents struggling to feed and clothe their kids, 13,000 dimmer futures. So, if Chris Collins won’t protect our jobs, why should we protect his?”
Uncomfortable In Buffalo
Nov 4th - 12:41 pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is navigating a bit of a political minefield out in WNY today, where he is scheduled to join Sen. Chuck Schumer within the hour at a rally to boost Democratic Erie County executive candidate Mark Poloncarz.
Buffalo-area Republicans are going to make an issue of the ongoing ballot-tampering case, which has gained national attention, but so far has not resulted in any arrests. “The governor will be asked about it,” a well-known WNY GOP operative who is not involved with Erie County Executive Chris Collins’ campaign told me yesterday. “No one is going to be able to shove this under the rug.”
CapCon’s Jimmy Vielkind, who is in Amherst for the Poloncarz rally today, Tweeted earlier that a “Republican source” (the same one I’ve been talking to, I suspect) informed him that ballot fraud banners will be present at today’s rally.
The operative, who is also involved with this Website, which seeks to link Cuomo to the ballot scandal. The logic behind that? “He’s the only one who can shut this down. Ballot tampering is a Republican and Democratic problem, but in this case it looks like it’s a Democratic campaign strategy.”
Some have dismissed the Buffalo mess as not a big deal, but the operative noted people initially said the same thing about the 2009 Troy scandal involving the Democratic and a primary for the Working Families Party line.
By January 2011, two Democrats – a city councilman and an elections commissioner – had been indicted, pleading not guilty to dozens of felony counts of second-degree forgery and second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. They’re still awaiting trial, and are among nine Democrats identified by the special prosecutor as part of the ballot-fraud probe.
And a second grand jury is now hearing testimony in the case.
Adding still more intrigue to today’s WNY doings is the ongoing dispute over Erie County Len Lenihan and widespread reports that he bucked an effort by the Cuomo camp to force him out. The supposed peace deal, which also reportedly included a job in the administration for former Assemblyman Sam Hoyy, was brokered by state Democratic Party Chairman Executive Director Charlie King, an on-again/off-again Cuomo frenemy (he’s currently on the inside).
Lenihan is going to be on hand at today’s rally, but it’s unclear how much of a part he’ll get to play. “Let’s see, it starts at 1 p.m., right?” King said to the Buffalo News’ Bob McCarthy. “I think he’s scheduled for 5 p.m.”
Also expected to be on hand is Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, a longtime Cuomo ally who was reportedly on the governor’s LG short-list, but lost out to then-Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy. Brown, assumedly at the Cuomo camp’s urging, decided to lay down his sword – at least for the day – and endorse Poloncarz.
Occupy Albany Digs In
Oct 27th - 12:16 pm
ICYMI: While other Occupy protestors around the country are struggling – getting ousted from their camp by tear-gas wielding cops in Oakland, CA; facing mass arrests in Atlanta, GA; infighting over money and unable to erect tents or structures as the weather turns colder in Zuccotti Park – the small but hearty band of Albany protestors are hunkering down, perhaps indefinitely.
Rob McGee, a 27-year-old Albany attorney and Peekskill native whose suit and clean-cut boyish good looks run counter to the dirty-hippe stereotype of the Occupy movement, raised the possibility during a CapTon interview last night that demonstrators could remain camped out in Academy Park through the winter and into the spring.
He also said that this group is talking a lot about what its ultimate goals might be, acknowledging the chief criticism of the protests to date has been that they lack a unified voice and list of demands.
“What our goals are now are obviously unclear, but we are determining what those goals are, as time goes on. If you go down to the park, you’ll find out, you’ll find a lot of people having conversations about what we need to do. I think in the coming six months, you’re going to find people…”
At this point, I broke in, rather incredulously, to ask whether McGee had ever slept outside in the dead of winter. He responded that he had not, but insisted he is “looking forward to doing so,” adding:
“We are in the process of working out our preparations, but a good sleeping bag and a nice pillow I think will do it.”
Not everyone down in Academy Park has such a cavalier attitude, however, and seem very aware – not to mention nervous – about the health risks of sleeping outside in the freezing cold and wet. They also have to be careful not to stray into the Lafayette Park side, where the governor has said State Police troopers will be enforcing the curfew, which apparently was changed from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. one week before Occupy Albany began.
McGee also told me – and I had heard this elsewhere as well, that discussions are ongoing between the city and the protestors about possibly getting a portible toilet installed down in the park. At the moment, the group is using the bathrooms on the Empire State Plaza concorse during the week (something a good number of homeless folks have been doing for awhile now), and also walking up the hill to Townsend Park where the Social Justice Center had its headquarters.
As CapCon’s Jimmy Vielkind reported today, the SJC is acting as Occupy Albany’s fiscal sponsor, and will open a bank account on behalf of the protestors. Because SJC is a nonprofit, contributions to Occupy Albany are tax deductible.
So far, the Albany demonstration hasn’t managed to collect nearly as much money (it has about $1,000 or so, according to Vielkind) as its downstate counterpart in Zuccotti Park, which has a pot of about $500,000. But, there’s a silver lining in that, since the NYC protestors are now fighting amongst themselves about what to do with all that cash.
Soares: Occupy Albany Arrests Could Light Uncontrollable Fuse
Oct 25th - 8:19 am
Albany County DA David Soares told Keith Olbermann he expressed concern over the weekend to law enforcement officials that mass arrests at Occupy Albany – along the lines of what the Cuomo administration sought – could spark a fuze “that we wouldn’t be able to control.”
“Therefore we decided to apply a different strategy, which was to engage the protestors, maintain open lines of communication and hope for the best,” Soares said during an appearance on “Countdown” last night.
“And thus far, the protest has been taking place in Albany, things have been fine and the relationship couldn’t be better.”
“…The local police department here, the Albany Police Department, has been working very aggressively at improving their relationships with the community. And they have,” the DA continued.
“And they were concerned that this directive would compromise all the efforts that they had been making in that regard…I told them we would decline to prosecute any of the cases, any of the arrests, based upon the fact that unless there were injuries to police officers or damages to property, then the people should be allowed to exercise their First Amendment right.”
Soares also said he had been worried that media coverage of police hauling grandparents off to jail would only serve to inflame protestors and those sympathetic with the 99% movement, turning a manageable situation into something that could quickly get out-of-control.
Olbermann didn’t ask the DA anything about Gov. Andrew Cuomo and to what degree he, or top members of his administration, had been involved in the discussions about how to handle Occupy Albany.
Remember: The relationship between Soares (who was originally elected on a drug law reform platform with assistance from the lefty WFP, which is very supportive of the Occupy Wall Street movement) and Cuomo have had a rocky relationship in the past.
It was Soares who started the initial investigations into the former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi’s pay-to-play pension fund scandal.
Cuomo, who was then AG, and the DA were supposed to collaborate on that effort, largely because the DA’s office didn’t have sufficient resources to mount a full-scale probe. But over time, it ended up being all Cuomo’s show, and he got all the credit for the guilty pleas and indictments.
Going back even further, Soares got caught up in the Troopergate scandal that really blew up when Cuomo issued a scathing report on the actions by his former political rival, ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, to use the State Police to gather dirt on his nemesis, then-Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno.
Cuomo For Poloncarz
Oct 20th - 2:35 pm
Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz’s campaign just announced that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has formally endorsed the WNY Democrat in his campaign to oust GOP Erie County Executive Chris Collins.
The endorsement is coming via press release – for the moment. But, according to the Poloncarz campaign, the governor will be making a trip west to hit the hustings with the candidate “in the coming days.” In the meantime, here’s his statement:
“Mark has done an outstanding job as Erie County Comptroller. He has rooted out waste and fraud and fought hard to protect the taxpayers of Erie County. He will make the tough decisions necessary to reform Erie County government.”
“His experience and commitment make him the clear choice to move Erie County into the future, and I look forward to working with him to strengthen the economy of Western New York and improve the quality of life for all the people of the county. I urge you to vote for Mark Poloncarz for Erie County Executive.”
This shouldn’t come as a big surprise. As I wrote last week, it would be very helpful for Cuomo to have Collins out of the way when 2014 rolls around. And since the Siena poll – rejected by the Collins camp – showed Poloncarz within striking distance, it stands to reason that the state’s most popular Democrat would at least lend his name to help his party out in a local race.
After all, he already did as much – more, actually, in the form of an in-person appearance at a fundraiser, for Democratic Suffolk County executive candidate Steve Bellone, who’s running for the office being vacated by another short-lived 2010 Cuomo rival, Democrat-turned-Republican Executive Steve Levy.
It will be interesting to see just how deeply involved Cuomo gets in the Poloncarz-Collins race. The state Democratic Party, which he controls, is already deeply involved. But, as the Buffalo News’ Bob McCarthy noted recently, Erie County Democratic politics is not easily navigated – as state Democratic Party Executive Director Charlie King knows all too well.
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