Bob Cohen and Astorino team pump property-tax argument in quest to unseat 13-term veteran
In some parts of the state, all you hear is jobs, jobs, jobs. In Westchester County, the chorus is property taxes, property taxes, property taxes. That is why Bob Cohen says he decided to challenge long-serving State Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer this year. “There is no other issue,” said Bill O’Reilly, Cohen’s spokesman, as he entered the Westchester County ...
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GOP opponent Jack Martins banking on anti-incumbent fervor for an upset
State Sen. Craig Johnson spent a damp Saturday afternoon shaking hands with the residents of Great Neck at Steppingstone Park before a performance by Beginnings, a Chicago cover band. Some wanted help with legal problems. Others just wanted to tell the senator they were voting for him. “What are you going to do about this mosque, senator?” asked one woman, resting ...
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Philadelphia wins $122 million grant, citing ‘city within a city’ staging ground
New York may have won hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education grant money this summer, but when it came to energy innovation, the state short-circuited. A group of more than 100 partners from across the state had collaborated on a federal application to house an energy innovation hub, which will focus on improving the energy efficiency of buildings. But in ...
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Montgomery is unfazed by challenger, anti-incumbent mood in race for 14th term
The first week in August, at Old-Timers Day in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Sen. Velmanette Montgomery and her challenger, Mark Pollard, nearly collided rounding opposite sides of the same tree.Montgomery and Pollard, an attorney and law professor, stood face-to-face for the first time in their campaign against each other. “I told her I was glad to see her out there,” ...
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$723 million in subsidies on the Washington chopping block, deadline Sept. 30
When Congress finally passed an extension of Medicaid and education funding relief for states earlier this month, New York legislators breathed a sigh of relief. But another, lesser-known program that also came out of the federal stimulus package—and one that has won the praise of even Republican governors, like Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, who have otherwise ...
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What the man trying to grab hold of the GOP wants, and what happens
if he gets anywhere close
Carl Paladino is sleeping. Out in the eastern tip of Long Island, traffic is at a standstill. It is an overcast, humid, mid-August afternoon, and while Paladino catches some Z’s in the back seat of a tan Ford SUV, his campaign aides John Haggerty and Michael Caputo sit in the front, engaged in the time-honored political tradition of talking smack about the ...
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Many layers of overlaps and connections in many jobs for top Sampson aide and childhood friend
A few months ago, Michael Cohen paid a courtesy call to New Jersey State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, the reform-minded “feisty Jewish grandmother” who was former Gov. Jon Corzine’s lieutenant governor running mate last year.Cohen, the district office chief of staff for Senate conference leader John Sampson and one of his most trusted aides, told Weinberg he wanted ...
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Implementation of federal health care reforms could result in State Constitutional challenge
New York State has found a loophole in the
federal health care reforms that it wants to use to cover a group of
non-citizens that Washington specifically has not, since before the 1996 welfare
reforms.The same loophole, though, could also present a challenge to the state’s constitution, if the federal government decides to cover fewer people than the state currently ...
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As concerns converge on charter schools, advocates expect to sit out many campaigns
The state’s teachers union is hopping mad at the Legislature. So mad, they plan on sitting out several key races this year. The combination of charter schools, teacher layoffs, tweaking union contracts to appease the federal Race to the Top gatekeepers, and capping property taxes—which many believe will hurt local schools—is proving to be a toxic cocktail for ...
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Unclear prospects for New York Uprising and New Roosevelt Initiative, despite climate
New York Uprising and the New Roosevelt Initiative—two organizations that have emerged as the most prominent Albany reform groups this year—share the goal of ousting lawmakers that they perceive as opponents of their good-government causes. But beyond their basic shared aims, the groups’ methods have differed widely: New Roosevelt has narrowly focused their ...
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Pre scri ption for politicking as 1199 and providers look to support allies and defeat enemies
Property taxes and mosques may have taken the spotlight for the moment in the state races this year, but health care interest groups are pushing hard to get federal health care reform, nursing shortages and women’s health issues to the top of the list.Tension over healthcare funding cuts has already made this one of the more contentious years for labor groups and health ...
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Green groups want to hear more specifics from Cuomo on hydrofracking
Why are New York’s environmentalists angry? Just ask them what happened this past Memorial Day Weekend.That’s when the state legislature voted to slash the Environmental Protection Fund’s budget by 37 percent, as part of an emergency deal that was designed to keep state parks open. Environmental groups were not happy with the compromise, and they have vowed ...
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Business coalitions plan campaign expenditures to encourage economic development
There are close to 5,000 taxing entities in New York, compared to an average 200 in other states. This is one of the factors blamed for the steady pace of jobs lost—close to 8,500 in the private sector across the state in June alone. Now many are banding together to make this year’s elections a turning point for what they see as New York’s perennially ...
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Real estate industry finds new love with majority party and fissures with Independence
Three years ago, tenant activists were so eager to help Democrats pick up a Republican seat that more than 50 of them trekked northwards to serve as ground troops in Darrel Aubertine’s special-election campaign. But with a number of pro-tenant initiatives stuck in the Senate logjam, tenant activists say that enthusiasm has waned dramatically. When expelled State Sen. ...
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Less taxes and no fault insurance changes top priorities for industry groups
Sorry, Connecticut. The move to raise taxes on those hedge fund managers who work in New York but live out of state died a quiet death in early August, much to the joy of Wall Street and the chagrin of the Nutmeg State officials hoping to poach some of those businesses. But there is still a lot at stake for Wall Street and the insurance industry in this year’s state ...
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Independent expenditures, rather than cash to DSCC, bring money and controversy to State Senate races
In early July, the Washington, D.C.,-based Human Rights Campaign (HRC) waded into New York’s same sex marriage fight, announcing the launch of a new political action committee focused on booting anti-gay-marriage senators. A press release quoting a number of prominent LGBT leaders and officials in New York lavished praise on the group and its newly minted senior ...
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Frustration with Albany spending may be too standard to excite voters, advocates fear
Senate Democrats may have avoided the albatross of the latest budget ever going into the fall elections, but they are still being attacked for this year’s piecemeal budget, hostile negotiations and uncertain revenue.Elizabeth Lynam, deputy research director at the independent, non-partisan Citizens Budget Commission, criticized the budget for doing too little to address ...
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Harlem’s North General repurposed into federal health center, sparking union ire
A rare moment to engineer opportunity from crisis has come to the health care system in New York. Between health care spending that exceeds any other state’s, a lagging economy and successive hospital closings, community health care groups and advocates are seizing what they see as an opportunity to reform health care delivery. Key labor groups, though, are not so sure. ...
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Shortened timeline and staffing shortfalls create anxiety among education reformers
Recent legislation threatens to further convolute the already complicated process used to authorize the opening of new charter schools in New York.In an attempt to make New York’s application for the federal education grant program Race to the Top more competitive, the Legislature voted in May to raise the statewide charter school cap from 200 to 460 by 2014. Experts say ...
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Democratic challenger comes on full force at unchallenged 34-year incumbent
Regina Calcaterra, clutching a clipboard, walks towards a stretch of tiny attached houses in a small senior’s development in Brookhaven, Long Island. It is 95 degrees on a recent Thursday afternoon, but Calcaterra, with her carefully calculated map of voters, does not seem fazed. After a few knocks at each house, Calcaterra leaves behind a campaign flier with a ...
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Experts preview the trauma ahead for Paterson’s successor and the 2011 Legislature
As difficult as this year’s state budget process has been, next year’s seems likely to be even bleaker. The state’s budget division is already projecting a $7.5 billion gap. And if the last few years of budget-gap predicting offer any clue, that number is almost certain to grow. Practically no one is anticipating a statewide fiscal turnaround that can fill ...
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After pledge-signing deadline, New York Uprising effort enters next phase
It will be by rental car instead of RV, but Ed Koch is hitting the road. Making his first upstate campaign tour since his failed run for governor in 1982, Koch is on his way to Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse August 4 to 6, to rally support for New York Uprising, the political action committee he founded earlier this year to force reform by compelling candidates for the ...
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Out on the trail (sort of) with Andrew, Rick and Carl
Gloria Mattera has run for office three times before—twice for City Council in Brooklyn and once for Brooklyn borough president, and she has petitioned for herself or another candidate in just about every election in the past decade. This year, running as the Green Party candidate for lieutenant governor, she has found rumors are true: there is indeed more ...
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Overlapping structure of non-profits and PACs fuel education reform support for legislative candidates
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 ...
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Paterson continues to negotiate with tribes unilaterally, while lawmakers fume
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 ...
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Critics in upstate business communities claim Excelsior Jobs tilts too heavily to Big Apple
The Empire Zone program, the state’s signature economic development program, is disappearing into the sunset, much to the delight of the critics who for years have slammed it as a waste of money and rife with abuse.According to several upstate business interests, the Empire Zone opposition tilted economic development to downstate concerns. They say the government bowed ...
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Work by Schneiderman and Dinallo on Ian’s Law takes on political tint in campaign
This article has been updated.
Ian’s Law, which passed both the Senate and Assembly in late June, forbids insurance companies from dropping an entire class of coverage in order to pull coverage from one person from their rolls. The bill was written in response to the Guardian Life Insurance Co. ending a line of small-business coverage in order to avoid paying for coverage ...
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Effort to improve assessments come as Regents chancellor scales back some tests
At a recent forum on education policy in the Bloomberg era, Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch wasted no words lambasting the state’s “flawed” testing and vowing a huge paradigm shift in how the exams are administered to students across the state.But not everyone in the audience was wowed by all the talk of paradigm-shifting. “What happens is they ...
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Project is first public-private partnership between power companies and state
While officials and residents grapple with the Gulf Coast oil spill, Gov. David Paterson has joined a group of nine other governors to promote a different kind of off-shore energy facility—massive ocean wind farms, with the first one planned for a Queens coastline. The New York project, planned 14 miles offshore from the western end of the Rockaway Peninsula, is being ...
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Inside the Senate Republicans’ weary war room
State Sen. Kevin Parker rose to introduce a bill that he said would keep the state’s disabled population safe in the case of another terrorist attack or a natural disaster.Across the chamber, Senate Republicans were audibly cranky.“The state would be safer if he weren’t here,” State Sen. John Bonacic muttered as Parker spoke.Bonacic is not the most ...
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The long-suffering minority conference struggles through another difficult election year
When Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb took over from Jim Tedisco over a year ago, he said his goal was to run competitively in all 102 districts held by Democrats. And if he was ever going to pull it off, this would be the year to do it. Voter anger at incumbents is at an all-time high, especially toward Democrats, who control all three braches of government. Republicans ...
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Comptroller’s office claims approach could lead to privatization of pension fund
For the past 20 years, the State Comptroller’s office has assumed that the state’s pension fund investments would grow at 8 percent annually, with every penny needed to keep up with New York’s soaring pension costs.During the ’90s boom, those growth expectations were met and often exceeded. But over the past decade, the stock market has risen and ...
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No luck so far for SRCC in narrowing field for well-funded pianist over local mayor
In 2004, 10-term incumbent State Sen. Nancy Larraine Hoffmann narrowly fended off a Republican primary victory from her right by Thomas Dadey. Then she faced Dadey again in the general election, with him coming at her on the Independence and Conservative Party lines. The move split the Republican vote, allowing Democrat David Valesky to pull out a 1,000-vote victory, and ...
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Legislation would adapt New York City model in attempt to force development rethinking
Over the last decade, New York City has added hundreds of miles of bike lanes and wedged pedestrian plazas into what were once high-traffic auto zones. These changes have not been without critics, who say slowing car speeds are a public safety threat and slow down businesses that rely on cars or trucks.Now these same city-centric growth policies may transform the rest of the ...
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Sam Hoyt takes on local teachers’ union amid latest campaign for re-election
Of approximately 70 public schools in Buffalo, 17 are charter schools, per capita more than any other city in the state. Around$71 million in public funds are transferred to those schools each year, a figure that has the local teachers’ union up in arms. The union chief is arguing that millions are being siphoned away from public schools to benefit just a fraction of ...
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Existing programs look to remain, though some call for state to make fresh start
When President Bill Clinton was trying to carry out healthreform in the mid-’90s, he stumbled across an idea thought up by some academics at a meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo. They believed health care costs could be brought down by starting a regulated marketplace in which a certain pool of consumers would shop for pre-approved private health plans. Clinton adopted the ...
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Maziarz calls Assembly Democrats’ new moves a harmful delay tactic
Environmental advocates in New York City and Syracuse heralded the Department of Environmental Conservation’s April announcement of strict new regulations to govern drilling in the parts of the Marcellus Shale that sit in those cities’ watersheds. This move protected water supplies, which, due to federal exemptions, are not filtered.But around the rest of the ...
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Huntley supporters peg 25-year-old almost-Council upset winner a political opportunist
At a midtown Manhattan gay bar called Therapy, Lynn Nunes mingled with about 50 supporters at the kickoff fundraiser for his primary challenge against State Sen. Shirley Huntley. In a speech before the crowd, Nunes promised that with their support, Huntley would go the way of George Onorato and Hiram Monserrate, two other Queens senators who voted against the same-sex marriage ...
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After what they saw as a series of letdowns on a broad array of issues, in mid-May, the New York State AFL-CIO launched its first-ever in-session campaign against sitting members of the Senate.In robocalls and flyering in five Senate districts (four Democrats and one Republican), the 2.5-million-member union called out individual senators who had run with labor support in the ...
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Andrew Cuomo applies his AG strategy to the gubernatorial race
Toward the end of his campaign book and announcement video, Andrew Cuomo lays out the core theme of his campaign. “There was a time when New York State government was a symbol of integrity and intelligence and a source of pride,” he says, the edges of a smile creeping into his cheeks. “There was a time when this state led the nation in job development and new ...
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Challengers call for increased disclosure, but stop short of urging complete ban
Luke Martland, a former Albany assistant district attorney, is running hard in his long-shot primary campaign against State Sen. Neil Breslin.But for all the controversial issues being debated by the state, Martland’s argument has much less to do with Breslin’s voting record than with the six-term senator’s work as an estate and tort lawyer at the law firm ...
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Ed Diana latest low-rung candidate to enter campaign against junior senator
The hope was for a marquee name: Pataki or Giuliani or, hell, even Zuckerman. Instead, there are many names, none of them marquee: Bruce Blakeman, David Malpass, Joseph DioGuardi and Edward Diana. In a year when the weakness of state Republicans has becoming a running theme— especially while the rest of the country tilts red and even Massachusetts has a statewide ...
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Though seven candidates line up for November, attention is on race to succeed congresswoman
When asked about the Republicans’ chances of unseating Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, the Nassau County Republican chair holds up a piece of paper lying in the center of his desk that contains the names of seven people who are vying for the right to take her on in November.“On a personal basis I’ve found her to be a very nice lady who’s totally ...
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Albany may take action in advance of implementation of new federal legislation
After having let it rust for more than a decade, backers on both sides of the aisle want to bring back prior approval, a far-reaching policy that gives the state oversight over health insurance premiums. But, they say, they are moved to act not only by looking back over 10 years of skyrocketing premium prices, nor by the thought of short-term savings. The emphasis is on the ...
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Lack of money to pay for expanded staff threatens key component of reforms passed last year
When Gov. David Paterson signed a bill last December to regulate the state’s 700-plus public authorities, the legislation was hailed as one of Albany’s most significant reforms in decades—the beginning of the end for the state’s “Soviet-style bureaucracies” that have amassed$45 billion in public debt. The centerpiece of the dense 25-page ...
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When thousands of union members marched on Wall Street to rail against alleged abuses by Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms at the end of April, their primary focus was spurring the passage of the financial reform bill currently in Congress.But at the same time, local union leaders are also pushing to change state laws in New York that they say would make the financial ...
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If the teachers’ union has its way, the control of State Senate this year will be determined by the debate over the role of charter schools in New York. The New York State United Teachers and its powerful city-based local, the United Federation of Teachers, are pledging to oppose any legislator or candidate for statewide office who voted to lift the cap on charter ...
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BEAN COUNTER BLOW-UP—DiNapoli vs. Wilson Heats Up
While driving from Albany back to the city one day in early May, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli was caught in a sudden thunderstorm. “It’s craaaaazy!” he said, stretching out the word. “Lightning and dark clouds and wind!” With a laugh, he added, “Typical for the mood in Albany at the moment.”That mood could be a problem for DiNapoli, ...
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BEAN COUNTER BLOW-UP—DiNapoli vs. Wilson Heats Up
As Republican Comptroller candidate Harry Wilson sat answering questions at his campaign office in Manhattan, he strained to speak over an old air conditioner whining in the background. The walls of the small office were almost completely bare and the skeletal space contained few amenities beyond an odd desk or chairs. Despite the racket caused by the air conditioner, the ...
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Party puts hopes in UPS worker Howie Hawkins to get back ballot access
“Grandpa” Al Lewis and Malachy McCourt were never regulars in People Magazine or US Weekly, but they were big enough names for the Green Party to pick as the gubernatorial nominees in the hopes of getting a little rubbed-off celebrity sheen. The strategy was simple: hope that the spectacle of these men running for office (they also once approached the more famous, ...
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Not a DSCC priority, race may attract Christopher St. Lawrence and Scott Vanderhoef
In 1999, state Democrats did everything they could to win a State Senate race in the Hudson Valley, even going so far as to agreeing to repeal a commuter tax that angered suburban voters but was popular among the New York City Democrats who dominated the conference.But Republicans kept the seat anyway when Rockland County minority leader Thomas Morahan beat the county’s ...
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Democratic candidate claims advantage
Last month, Dean Skelos met with three GOP county chairs at a diner in Hudson Valley to talk about the race in the 40th Senate District.In a year in which Republicans stand a decent chance at retaking the State Senate, Skelos was concerned about the vigorous primary challenge that the incumbent, Vincent Leibell, was receiving from hard-charging Assembly Member Greg Ball. ...
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With concerns over quick fix last fall, some look to model in Babylon
In a last-ditch effort last November to win a share of $452 million in federal weatherization grant stimulus funding, New York lawmakers thought up, drafted and passed a bill in just three days to increase the state’s odds of success.Under the rules of the federal competition, dubbed the “Retrofit Ramp-Up Program,” grants would be doled out by the U.S. ...
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Late budgets and local voting concerns may complicate Democrats’ proposal
Back before World War II, New York had a June 30 budget deadline, just like everyone else. But something strange was happening: budgets were being passed too early, resulting in huge surpluses. In 1943, the Legislature shifted the start of the fiscal year from July 1 to April 1.Now, Senate Democrats want to move the start of the fiscal year from April 1 to June 1 as a ...
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Republicans resist making policy change as part of budget bill
For 13 years, advocates have tried to pass a bill that would legalize marijuana for medical uses through the Legislature.Now, chances of legalization are better than ever, partly because Democrats are willing to do an end-run around floor votes and include the measure in this year’s budget negotiation. The bill has already been voted out of two Senate committees, and is ...
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Veteran housing lawyer confronts Stuy-Town ruling, predators
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 ...
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State and federal laws prevent keeping Massachusetts workers from Capitol renovation jobs
Early one recent Monday morning, Bill Eggleston plopped down a giant inflatable rat down on Washington Avenue, just yards away from the Capitol, and began to protest.As the morning wore on, about 35 people showed up to join him, including other members of his union, the Ironworkers Local 12. They gave flyers to passers-by, reading: “Ralph’s Blacksmith does not ...
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At the podium in the basement of the Legislative Office Building officially kicking off his campaign on April 12, Bill Samuels is mostly dry, absent-minded-professorial, laughing nervously when he drops a word or sentence from his prepared remarks. Posing for pictures later, he is a full-on ham, yukking it up with the receptionist in the lieutenant governor’s ...
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Greg Meeks also seen as vulnerable by small band of political organizers
In Southeast Queens, among quiet, tree-lined blocks in neighborhoods like Springfield Gardens, St. Albans, Cambria Heights and Queens Village, an uprising is brewing. In the wake of the failed Aqueduct deal that engulfed local leaders like Senate President Pro Tem Malcolm Smith and Rep. Gregory Meeks, and subsequent allegations of ethical misconduct, conflict of interest ...
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While Steve Levy aims for the governor’s mansion, Republicans and Democrats in Suffolk revolt
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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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In November, the New York City Building and Construction Trades Council struck a deal with the Bloomberg administration that included work rule changes for the union that would keep the city’s capital construction in the black. The deal was necessary, the union says, because of two fiscal realities: the downward spiral of the construction industry and New York ...
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New York may have flunked the first round, but with $3.4 billion left in the federal Race to the Top competition, state education officials and lawmakers are already gearing up for a much more contentious second round.And the deadlock over budget negotiations is not helping, as legislators look for time to engage the extensive debate over how to make the controversial changes ...
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A bill currently before the Assembly Energy Committee would change the economics of the renewable-energy industry by turning previously unprofitable projects into cash cows.Known informally as the New York Renewable Resources Act, the bill would be among the biggest experiments in the country in changing the economics of renewable-energy investment.Sponsored by Assembly Member ...
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Now that health care reform has passed, Washington is preparing to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. But in New York, advocates say the two issues are intertwined. They argue that the final healthreform bill passed in March will hurt the state’s half million illegal immigrants. The bill’s provisions, which advocates claim will increase the difficulties ...
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As a group of about 30 seniors trickled into an AARP meeting at a grade school in Bayside on April 6, they passed by a sign saying: “Guest Speaker Is: Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza.”But Carrozza, their seven-term representative and the Assembly’s deputy majority whip, did not talk about Albany or her northeast Queens district. Instead of constituent ...
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Two years ago, Barack Obama was at the top of the ticket, Democrats were in the ascendancy, and State Sen. Bill Stachowski, fully expecting to be named chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, promised Western New Yorkers a wealth of resources if they would give him their vote. He was one of the few incumbents the Democrats needed to protect, and they focused much of ...
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Economic shortfalls and scandals encourage increased efforts toward transparency
For the past 18 years, Assembly Member Sandy Galef has rejected member item funding for her capital area district, arguing that the discretionary funds breed corruption and waste. This year, Galef has taken her quest a step further, introducing a bill to ban the discretionary funds this year for all members. Galef admits the legislation has little chance of passing. But that ...
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Large out-of-state corporate chains will provide most of new cash, according to internal budget documents
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 ...
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Revenue shortfalls, payroll tax rollbacks could prompt further cuts
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 ...
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Studies leave questions of whether consumers would opt for diet or off-brand
When Health Commissioner Richard Daines tried to rally support for Gov. David Paterson’s proposed cent-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks, he hewed to the line about what the levy would do on the state waistlines.Left unmentioned was what the tax would do on the state’s bottom line. Though administration officials say that the tax could bring in as much as $1 billion ...
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Despite some resistance, acceptance grows for Paterson’s proposed education cuts
Sixteen Senate Democrats recently sent a letter to Gov. David Paterson opposing his call to cut $1.4 billion in school aid. The cuts, they claim, would undermine recent progress in education across the state.“We cannot, in good conscience, vote for a final budget that includes any cuts to education,” the letter begins. Unfortunately, not everyone whose ...
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PEF rails against temporary employees, CSEA against use of outside contractor
For years, the state has been hiring a growing number of outside consultants to provide expertise in areas where they say the state workforce lacks specialized knowledge. But the leadership of the Public Employees Federation has been railing against the state’s rising number of contractors, arguing that the state’s annual $2.9 billion in spending on some 23,000 ...
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Concerns also arise over DHCR weatherization, MWBE compliance
In its efforts to drive the $21.8 billion in federal stimulus funds allocated to last year’s budget into the economy, New York appears to have moved with one foot on the gas and the other on the brakes.The largest share of the state’s stimulus money, which went to fill state budget gaps in education funding, relieving local Medicaid payments and saving existing ...
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Perkins and Wright wrestle over leadership of black powerbase as Latinos plot own rise
Al Sharpton’s emergency leadership meeting at Sylvia’s Restaurant in early March attracted more than just hoards of news reporters. It also drew a sizeable crowd of angry Harlemites. While Sharpton and a host of prominent black, Latino and Asian leaders negotiated the fates of David Paterson and Charlie Rangel inside, Julius Tajiddin, dressed in a raincoat and a ...
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In wake of scandal, Mungeer places calls for next superintendent to come from outside
As reports broke that Gov. David Paterson may have used his security detail to intimidate a domestic violence victim, leadership of the State Troopers Police Benevolent Association wanted to make one thing clear: the governor’s security detail might be members of their union—but they were far from representative of the union’s overall membership.“While ...
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Charlie Rangel’s expected departure complicates Manhattan/Bronx State Senate election
Rep. Charlie Rangel’s decision to step down as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee last month set off a flurry of speculation about who will soon succeed him in Congress. But the news also scrambled an already complex race for one of the State Senate seats overlapping with the district. Two leading candidates have emerged to replace State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, ...
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$300 million from DRP and money for years ahead missing with delayed deal
Even before the state’s deal with the Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG) deal fell through, Gov. David Paterson had been mulling delaying tax rebates because of the looming cash shortfall.Now there is $300 million more missing. The state’s overall cash shortfall for the bills that come due on April 1 has now ballooned to over $2 billion, according to the ...
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Less than 10 percent of money from Washington has been put in play by state
In the 13 months since the federal economic stimulus bill was passed, less than 10 percent of the $770 million awarded to New York for energy efficiency and clean energy projects has been spent, according to the federal Department of Energy’s public records.Much of the money has been allocated but has yet to be spent. For example, the State Energy Program—a fund ...
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Ripple effect from Brooklyn federal court ruling expected to effect rest of state
Following a March 1 Federal District Court ruling, the state is now legally responsible for giving thousands of mentally ill adults the chance to live on their own, find work, shop, budget, cook and entertain friends. The state has appealed the decision, which requires it to move several thousand people currently living in large, dormitory-style “adult homes” in ...
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Democrats begin to loom in the race to succeed Cuomo
“There’s going to be an announcement between now and the end of May, because that’s when the Democratic convention is,” said Kathleen Rice, when asked when she thought Andrew Cuomo would declare what everyone had been assuming for the better part of two years, and, by doing so, finally set in motion the cascade of events that has, to a large degree, ...
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After a March 4 press conference in the Capitol building touting tougher crackdowns on violent domestic offenders, Dan Donovan slipped into Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos’ office for a 20-minute meeting. When he came out, Donovan seemed as confused as ever about whether to run for attorney general.“Is there a path to victory?” he asked. “I’m a ...
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Byron Brown seen as top pick for LG, though some worry about ethics questions
If the general election were held tomorrow, the race for lieutenant governor of New York—a position that has gained importance in direct proportion to the dwindling fortunes of the last two governors—would come down to a choice between the supervisor of the Town of Ramapo and Mike Huckabee’s former state campaign director. For now, those two candidates, ...
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Gas industry says legislation in response to Marcellus Shale propsal would kill all drilling efforts
Gov. David Paterson has made clear that he will wait for the state Department of Conservation to finish studying the risks of the proposal before making any final decisions on drilling in the Marcellus Shale.That could take months, however, and several state legislators who fear the drilling could contaminate New York City’s water supply say they are not content to let ...
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No turnover likely despite new agenda and round of proposed changes to state education oversight authority
On a Wednesday in early February, Board of Regents member Roger Tilles walked into his reappointment interview with Assembly Members Deborah Glick and Cathy Nolan. Six minutes later, he walked out with a pretty clear feeling that he would retain his seat for another five-year term. Tilles is one of six people on the 17-member Board whose term is ending next month, an unusually ...
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Standoffs with public-sector unions provide springboard to higher office
In a speech at the Conservative Party convention in late January, Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney proudly recounted how last fall, the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) had bused 1,000 members to budget hearings in Syracuse to protest her.“They stood in front and chanted, ‘Hey, hey, ho, ho, Joanie’s got to go,’” Mahoney recalled, ...
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Legislature looks to reform dysfunctional agency in hopes of reasserting mission
When the State Liquor Authority was formed in 1934, the state’s sprawling network of speakeasies was still winding down. Bootleggers shuttled from juice joint to gin mill, and moonshine was a common brew.In the decades since, whiskey-smuggling crime syndicates have gone the way of the flapper. But to many, the SLA is still a racket.In 2008, the agency was embroiled in a ...
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Trans-fat bans and calorie counts could run up against local and federal overlap
When New York City banned trans fats and required calorie counts on menus two years ago, its Health Department launched a massive campaign to ease the laws’ passage. Subway riders were inundated with slick public service ads. Health inspectors were briefed en masse about what to look for in restaurant kitchens. Cooks trying to cut out trans fats could even call a chef ...
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Critics say effort to keep law is driven by New York City labor groups, hurts upstate economies
Almost 100 years after lawmakers enacted a statute requiring all public works projects to have multiple contractors bidding for the job and working on the site, Gov. David Paterson proposed repealing the law for almost the same reason it was originally passed: to fight corruption, increase competition and drive down construction costs. Paterson and critics of the Wicks law ...
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Inside the first and final days of the Paterson campaign
There was going to be a reason to end eventually anyway. This one just got him there sooner.But for a brief, two- or three-day period, David Paterson and the people left in his increasingly small circle gave it a shot. A popular attorney general had waited too long to campaign hard in Massachusetts and lost by 5 percent. A down-in-the-polls governor had clawed his way back to ...
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Money, corporate interests collide as liquor stores hit winery owners in support of measure
Shortly after she declared her support for selling wine in supermarkets last year, Susan Hayes, the owner of Miles Wine Cellars, a winery near Seneca Lake, received an e-mail from a liquor store owner in Rochester.“The liquor store association is going to list on their website ALL the wineries that are on our side,” wrote Jim Lepore, the owner of Chili Liquor. ...
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Kruger suggests impeachment could soon be an option in front of Legislature
By Andrew J. Hawkins and Chris Bragg
Now the fight is over whether he should resign and whether people are irresponsible for even suggesting it. There is only so much that can be done to quell the talk of revolt from within, sighed state Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs.“Well, we’re Democrats,” he said. “We’re not Republicans.”But as the ...
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All the way up until the very end, they were with him.But now that Gov. David Paterson’s time is ticking, some of his most fervent backers quickly backtracked.Assembly Member Crystal Peoples-Stokes stood beside Paterson in West Seneca for the third stop on his campaign launch. Five days later, she was ready to talk resignation. “Domestic violence is intolerable ...
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Last-minute bid for GOP line still on table, AG or comptroller runs more likely
At first blush, David Paterson’s decision not to run seems like bad news for Steve Levy. The conventional wisdom had it that Levy’s only shot at becoming governor would be to win a fractured Democratic primary that involved Paterson, Andrew Cuomo and perhaps even several others. With the Cuomo coronation now all but scheduled, that plan has been shelved. In the ...
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Proponents say ‘up or down vote on Roe v. Wade’ could mobilize independents, divide GOP
By Chris Bragg
February 17th, 2010
From the budget to the MTA bailout, suburban Democratic senators have taken one tough vote after another over the past year.In an effort that would give their Senate Democratic allies stronger talking points going into the November elections, pro-choice advocates are now pushing a sweeping piece of legislation that could drive a wedge in the Republican conference while shoring ...
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Resources to track and collect money from 10 percent of workforce remain scarce
By Chris Bragg
February 17th, 2010
In 2006, Tony LaCava stood outside a construction site in the Bronx for two days and filmed as 40 people worked on the scaffolding. But when LaCava, a representative for the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1, examined the payroll sheets for the project, he found only 15 people listed as having worked those days. LaCava said he reported the problem and submitted the ...
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Last November, the federal government ordered all states to compile a list of their “persistently lowest achieving” schools so they could become eligible to receive federal money—up to $500,000 per school in improvement grants and possibly more in Race to the Top funding.In mid-January, the New York State Education Department identified 57. The following ...
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Paladino’s Way
Michael Cohen And Elnatan Rudolph: NY Staffers, Well-Paid Consultants, NJ Candidates
Splits Among Gay Political Activists Rankle Efforts To Flip Seats
Budget Blues Seen As Unlikely To Affect State Races
How They Spent Their Summer Vacations
Charter School Bundlers Help Favored Candidates With Donor Math
Progress In Reservation Tobacco Tax Fight May Go Up In Smoke Again
Avoiding Oblivion
Despite Political Atmosphere, Even Modest Gain Remains Big Push For Assembly GOP
Unclear Answers On Wilson’s Pension Fund Growth Adjustment Proposal
The Coming Cuomo
Post-Bruno, Outside Income Becomes Hot-Button Issue In Senate Campaigns
Tom DiNapoli: A Complicated Campaign For First-Time Comptroller Candidate
Harry Wilson: The Great GOP Hope
Without A Celebrity Candidate, Greens Hope Policy Gets Higher Billing
The Way To Reform Albany Is...(Pick One)
Back In Queens, A Quiet Revolt Against Malcolm Smith Begins To Form
Defection Rejection
For Carrozza, Assembly Office At Nexus Of Wide-Ranging Elder Law Involvement
Full Deck Of Candidates Stacked Against Stachowski In Pivotal Senate Race
The New Sheriff
For GOP, All Eyes Rest On Wavering Donovan
Prospective No. 2 Candidates Wait To Hear From The Prospective No. 1
The Short Goodbye
Potentially Divisive Primary Averted, Levy Reassess His Options For Top Job
