Last year, the state’s highest court threw the real estate world into chaos when it found that the owners of Stuyvesant Town in New York City had illegally collected special tax breaks while deregulating thousands of apartments. Tenants threatened to sue. Landlords lost piles of money.And Brian Lawlor was left to clean up the mess.“We have a crisis in New York City ...
Read more »When Steve Levy was still a Democrat, Jon Cooper, the majority leader of the Suffolk County Legislature, introduced a bill to give the county police commissioner a fixed five-year term. Levy, who prizes his control over administration appointments, opposed the bill. So Cooper dropped it.Now that Levy is a Republican, Cooper has not only redoubled his efforts to get the bill ...
Read more »When Gov. David A. Paterson signed sweeping changes to the state’s Rockefeller drug laws last year, it set off a rowdy debate between tough-on-crime conservatives who said the move would let felons run free and supporters who heralded a new, more enlightened criminal justice system. Twelve months later, the argument may be moot, since budget cutbacks have forced the ...
Read more »Brian Foley just cannot shake the Tea Party.They picket his fundraisers, swarm his office and hurl epithets at his town halls. They come dressed in tailcoats and tri-cornered hats, blast patriotic Lee Greenwood songs and chase Foley supporters to their cars.The protestors call themselves “patriots” and claim to be defending principle, but Foley dismissed them as ...
Read more »Last year, the Conservative Party turned Dede Scozzafava’s name into a verb. Now the party is in danger of getting “Scozzafava’ed” itself.Disillusioned Tea Party activists across the state are gearing up to run third-party candidates against establishment Republicans. And in several of those races, Conservative leaders have sided with the GOP rather ...
Read more »As the foreclosure crisis continues to ravage New York’s housing stock, advocates and officials say the Paterson administration has been missing in action, hampered in part by a lack of leadership at the state’s key housing agencies.In December, the state’s two top housing officials resigned in quick succession, just as Paterson was gearing up to unveil an ...
Read more »“Warren Redlich for Governor?”That is how Warren Redlich, a long shot candidate for the Republican and Libertarian gubernatorial nominations, greets visitors to his campaign website. He knows people dismiss him as a gadfly, but he insists he has a shot to win.A traffic lawyer from Guilderland who supported Ron Paul for president in 2008, Redlich is hoping to build ...
Read more »In their campaign to kill a proposal by Gov. David Paterson to legalize wine sales in grocery stores, the state’s liquor lobby is employing a new tactic: challenging Paterson’s claim that the bill would generate $300 million in state revenue this year.Sensing that Democratic lawmakers eager to avoid massive cuts to health care and education may look elsewhere to ...
Read more »After a year in which state lawmakers rescued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from a “doomsday” scenario, only to later slash state aid from the agency’s budget, officials once again fear that the beleaguered transit system could be the victim of political wrangling in Albany.Transportation advocates say the MTA kitty could prove an appealing ...
Read more »In May 2009, Gov. David Paterson slammed a proposal by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to allow local governments to defray the rising costs of public pension plans by borrowing the money and paying it back in installments.One year and a $9 billion deficit later, Paterson is changing his tune.In his executive budget proposal in January, the governor included a plan similar to ...
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Defection Rejection
Paterson’s Switch To Supporting Borrowing Could Bring Down Pension Costs
