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Charter School Bundlers Help Favored Candidates With Donor Math
Overlapping structure of non-profits and PACs fuel education reform support for legislative candidates
By Chris Bragg
At a small Spanish restaurant in midtown, then-Assembly Member José Peralta was peppered with questions by a group of about a dozen hedge fund managers. What was his battle plan to defeat recently expelled State Sen. Hiram Monserrate, whom Peralta was taking on in a special election? What were his specific positions on the issues surrounding charter schools, the hedge funders’ pet cause?Peralta’s answers apparently left a good ...
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Progress In Reservation Tobacco Tax Fight May Go Up In Smoke Again
Paterson continues to negotiate with tribes unilaterally, while lawmakers fume
By Andrew J. Hawkins
The debate over taxes on Indian tobacco products has sparked a larger fight between the Legislature and the governor over the expansion of executive power. On July 21, Gov. David Paterson vetoed a chapter amendment submitted by the Legislature that would require all cigarettes sold to Indian nations to bear a tax stamp. The measure also would have reversed the governor’s power to unilaterally negotiate with tribal leaders one on one, ...
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