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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With elections looming, tensions mount over inaction on vacancy decontrol, Urstadt repeal
On Feb. 1, State Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. gaveled in a meeting of the Senate Housing Committee, allowed for a brief statement from State Sen. Daniel Squadron, referred a bill to the Senate Finance Committee and gaveled out. “Thank you very much for attending our first meeting of this Housing Committee,” Espada said.No witnesses. No debates. Blink (including on the ...
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Clean air vs. contaminated water in latest plan to meet state energy demands
For years, environmentalists have been big boosters of natural gas drilling, seeing it as a way to wean the state off dirty fuels like coal and oil. But not in the case of the controversial proposal to drill in New York’s Marcellus Shale gas reserves, a geologic formation stretching across New York through Pennsylvania and estimated to contain enough to supply the entire ...
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Kevin Parker’s tense, quarrelsome day in a world he says is out to get him
Soon after arriving in his office at the Legislative Office Building, State Sen. Kevin Parker orders his staff to “huddle up.” Eleven hours before the Senate voted to expel Hiram Monserrate, Parker wanted to give a pep talk. “Today is going to be crazy,” he said, after everyone had filed in and the door was closed. “I’m not sure what’s ...
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Tea Party. Anti-Incumbent Rage. Democratic Turmoil. Why the Suffolk County executive believes this really is his moment.
By Sal Gentile
February 17th, 2010
I lost my job over a year ago,” said Al Giuliano. “My wife has had to take a second, part-time job. I was the bread-winner, and now I’m depending basically on her to survive.” Giuliano, an unemployed construction worker and father of two from Middle Island, was standing in a conference room in Hauppauge, addressing the scattered reporters and local ...
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Legislators debate costs, benefits, racial tensions in collecting reservation money
Trying to avoid stoking racial and cultural fires, the Paterson administration has delicately proposed taxing cigarettes sold on Native American reservations to help close the $7 billion deficit. Though the collection process would take at least six months to begin implementing, no revenue from the proposed tax was included in the executive budget. That has led some ...
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Lonelier, frustrated and still a bit bitter, the woman whose name became a verb reflects
By Chris Bragg
February 17th, 2010
Dede Scozzafava’s new office on the fifth floor of the Legislative Office Building is a little cozier than her old one.But that was okay, she insisted. More privacy. “I like to look at things with the glass half-full,” she said.Scozzafava has put on a brave face after the resignation she felt compelled to make as the minority leader pro tem—the ...
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John Sampson’s plan to lead the Democrats to a better 2010
John Sampson enters the Senate chamber and surveys the scene. He gives Pedro Espada confidant Steve Pigeon a pat on the lower back on his way over to squeeze Carl Kruger on the shoulders, bending down for a quiet conference. Then he is down the line along the back row in the chamber—brief hellos and waves to Darrel Aubertine, Craig Johnson, a handshake to Andrea ...
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Espada proves proponent and problem as conference tries to reap long-sought win
For the first time in almost 70 years, legislators are poised to approve a far-reaching farmworkers rights bill that supporters hope will improve the working conditions of tens of thousands of laborers across the state. Standing in opposition, though, is the state’s powerful Farm Bureau, which is arguing that the bill would unfairly burden small family farms at a time ...
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Skepticism about risks, viability in current climate and legislators’ willingness to agree
As talks got under way in 2007 to revive the New York Insurance Exchange—a 1980s-era marketplace for investors to buy and sell risk—Eric Dinallo, then the head of the state Insurance Department, joked, “Maybe we ought to put it on Governor’s Island.”Like that infamous development dilemma at the mouth of the Hudson, the Insurance Exchange is an ...
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Years of infighting bubbles up into war of words, stoking GOP hopes in Nassau
Updated on Jan. 27, 2009A simmering feud between Nassau County Democrats and officials in the town of North Hempstead is threatening to boil over, offering Republicans a possible toehold in an area they had largely given up on and potentially endangering the Democrats’ control of a crucial Senate seat.Supporters of Nassau Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs and North ...
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Revenue boost could help defray bloody budget, but some lawmakers remain squeamish
Sixteen years ago, Randy Gordon, then the New York State Athletic Commissioner, got a phone call from then-Gov. Mario Cuomo asking if he had heard about a new sport called “no holds barred” fighting. “Apparently the Legislature says they want to go with it,” Gordon remembers Cuomo saying. “Just watch it.”Gordon tuned in to see what the ...
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Fears of Peralta’s performance in head-to-head Senate match-up begin to circulate
Embattled Queens Senator Hiram Monserrate has vowed to run again for his seat if his colleagues vote to expel him for his misdemeanor conviction in a domestic abuse case. But Democratic powerbrokers in Albany and Queens who thought that their anointed candidate, Assembly Member José Peralta, would banish the memory of Monserrate forever are now fretting over his chances ...
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Challenges in battlegrounds like Westchester, Nassau and Queens could fizzle
Senate Republicans were brimming with optimism in the days after the 2009 elections. GOP candidates had stunned Democratic incumbents in battleground suburbs, setting the stage for a potentially historic comeback in 2010, including a possible takeover of the State Senate.Then the cold reality set in: the state Republican Party is broke.According to campaign finance records, ...
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With endorsements in play, IDA reform, unemployment insurance top priorities list
With much of their wide-ranging agenda thwarted last year, union leaders are hoping an election year will prod Senate Democrats in the coming months.If not, union leaders say, their support for Democrats in the 2010 elections is not a given.“Democrats need to pass things if they want to be back in the majority,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, ...
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Fights expected over short-term passage, long-term consequences of Paterson plans
Lawmakers and business owners are readying for the battle over Gov. David Paterson’s economic development agenda, which calls for scrapping the Empire Zone program in favor of a new plan aimed at promoting growth in high-tech jobs.New York has sunk more than a half-billion dollars into the decades-old Empire Zone tax incentive program in the last year only to see the ...
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Senate, governor eager to lift charter cap, while Assembly still skeptical
Last year, the education discussion was all mayoral control, all the time. This year, education analysts are predicting the debate over charter schools and the federal Race to the Top program will cast a similar shadow over the 2010 legislative session.Education reform advocates, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Chancellor Joel Klein, are betting that ...
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Bracing for impact, while pet projects like legal pot remain in play
Like just about everyone involved with health policy around the country, those in Albany are looking to Washington for answers to what this year will hold. Lawmakers, advocates and industry insiders all say that until the federal government figures out what to do with health care, any reforms in New York are put on hold. If it passes, that bill will likely include changes to ...
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Paterson revises and redirects from Spitzer approach to ‘fuel-neutral’ push
When Democrats took control of the State Senate a year ago, Sen. Kevin Parker briefly assumed the chairmanship of the Senate Energy Committee—only to have the title stripped after he allegedly assaulted a New York Post photographer. Sen. Darrel Aubertine then took over the chairmanship. But only a month in, his committee’s work was derailed by the Senate coup.Now, ...
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Debate over capital funding threatens to overwhelm transit agenda
The Senate Transportation Committee has compiled a long list of priorities for the current legislative session: Raise money for high-speed rail, safeguard a fund for bridge and highway projects, enforce a newly enacted ban on “distracted driving.”But the Legislature may not get to any of that if one perennial crisis remains unresolved: the MTA.“That’s ...
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Conflicts over shifting money, preserving upstate jobs and gerrymandering districts
In tough economic times, New York faces a prison policy conundrum.On one hand, closing more prisons could save tens of millions of dollars a year and help relieve the state’s yawning budget gap. But prisons in many upstate areas serve as a steady supplier of jobs and their closures could devastate already struggling economies.Senate Codes Committee chair Eric ...
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Rice, Schneiderman lead Democrats, while Hogan and Donovan lead GOP hopefuls
For the dozen or so candidates plotting campaigns for attorney general, the first thing they must figure out is what the current attorney general will do. Most expect that Andrew Cuomo will challenge Gov. David Paterson, leaving an open race for attorney general in his wake. But how that face-off plays out—whether Cuomo is crowned as the Democratic nominee, or faces a ...
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While some legislators advocate broad cuts, others push for structural reforms
In 2009, the Legislature passed a tax hike on wealthier New Yorkers, reformed both the state’s pension and public authorities systems and approved a series of one-shots and temporary revenue generators designed to compensate for the state’s billion-dollar budget shortfall—all while sparing serious cuts to the health and education programs.But this year, with ...
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Speculation that Ravitch will run with Paterson as others keep powder dry
By just about this point in 2006, Eliot Spitzer had shocked most of the political establishment with his surprise announcement that David Paterson would be his lieutenant-governor running mate. That decision crowded out the three people who already had full campaigns underway for the spot.So far this year, the only candidate to announce a bid for the state’s number-two ...
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The calendar turning to a new year means that campaign season has officially begun. In a body as closely divided as the New York State Senate, every seat matters, and every legislator can be a target. In the battle for the state Senate, two opposing forces are headed for a collision: on the one hand, long-term demographic and registration trends seem to favor Democrats; on the ...
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Fresh off Cabrera win, county leaders focus attention instead on Nelson Castro primary
After his starring role in this summer’s Senate coup, the safe assumption was that Pedro Espada would be a marked man in 2010.But that assumption may have been premature. The Bronx Democratic Party, focused on refilling its depleted campaign coffers and coalescing around new leader Carl Heastie, has hinted that it will either sit out Espada’s race next year or even ...
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Eyes turn to Cuomo as GOP comeback in local races stirs infighting in Suozzi’s wake
By Sal Gentile
December 15th, 2009
When Brian Foley last year won a Long Island State Senate seat that had been held by Republicans for decades, many thought the victory heralded a new era of Democratic dominance. Grief-stricken Republicans mourned the loss of what was once viewed as the spiritual home of the national GOP. Democratic leaders in Washington trumpeted their party’s successes in the ...
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State Republicans prepared to pour half a million in help to convince Yonkers mayor
By Sal Gentile
December 15th, 2009
Emboldened by recent gains in the suburbs of New York City, Republicans are eyeing a fresh target in their effort to win back the state Senate next year: Andrea-Stewart Cousins.GOP leaders have been in intense talks with Yonkers mayor Phil Amicone about the possibility of challenging Stewart-Cousins in next year’s elections, according to people with knowledge of the ...
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Specialized medical courts on the table as trial lawyers, doctors aim for compromise
By Chris Bragg
December 15th, 2009
When Democrats took over the State Senate last year, many expected an onslaught of legislation that would liberalize the state’s already liberal medical malpractice laws.But like the longtime Senate Republican majority, a fractured Democratic conference has continued to bottle up much of this legislation, with powerful forces like Sen. Carl Kruger, the head of the ...
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Seething as IDA reform, paid sick leave, unemployment insurance left on backburner
By Chris Bragg
December 15th, 2009
Just hours after the end of the charged special session in early December, Gov. David Paterson and about 70 legislators gathered for a reception held by 32 BJ, the powerful 110,000-member property service workers union.But at the reception at the union headquarters in Manhattan, the topic was not the same-sex marriage bill voted down just hours before. What 32 BJ president ...
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“Polluter pays” policies considered to make up budget shortfalls at DEC
State lawmakers have effectively defunded a landmark environmental protection law passed by Congress more than three decades ago after years of bloodletting and budget cutbacks, according to experts and advocates.Like most state agencies, the Department of Environmental Conservation has seen its budget slashed as a result of revenue shortfalls and shifting federal priorities. ...
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Online degrees proposal faces opposition from professors union, Higher Ed chair
Fed up with the rising cost of college tuitions and a system that he feels fails to offer flexibility for working adults to go back to school, Assembly Member Joseph Lentol has introduced a bill calling for the creation of online colleges within the city and state university systems.CUNY already offers a limited online program, but students can only pursue two different ...
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Two-decade raid of highways fund creates peril for upstate senators looking to pay for new pavement
By Chris Bragg
December 15th, 2009
In recent weeks, a new kind of rush hour has developed between the shores of Lake Champlain, a half-mile wide body of water tucked on the border between New York and Vermont.At all hours of the day and night, a few brave souls can be seen kayaking the lake not for recreational purposes, but because it is the only way to get to work.In early November, the Crown Point Bridge, ...
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Dick Ravitch Has to Rescue New York. Again.
The room was buzzing with policy wonks scratching their heads over New York’s dismal budget situation. A late November rain fell outside. Inside, at a Rockefeller Institute conference on state budget deficits, it was all frayed nerves and apocalyptic warnings. Off to the side sat Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch, hands clasped quietly in front of him, accepting the ...
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Hopes for Collins-Donovan-Faso-Giuliani ticket dim, despite new chair’s effort
By Sal Gentile
December 15th, 2009
There is one yardstick that Republicans will use to measure the success of their new state chair, Ed Cox, who is now into his third month on the job.“It’s all going to revolve around whom he can line up as candidates for the statewide offices,” said Rob Ryan, a longtime GOP operative who managed former Gov. George Pataki’s 1994 campaign, and has known ...
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Gearing up for Owens challenge, moderate Republicans try to keep ther grip on nomination
By Sal Gentile
December 15th, 2009
Democrats have tried for years to lure Janet Duprey, a two-term Assemblywoman from Plattsburgh and the Clinton GOP chair, into leaving the Republican Party.The state Democratic chair, June O’Neill, singled her out at a “Salute to Labor” dinner in Saint Lawrence last year, joking in front of the 500 or so patrons, “The Republicans don’t want you, ...
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By John Dorman and Sal Gentile
By The Capitol
November 25th, 2009
Forty-four years ago, the State Legislature passed a bill authorizing a Constitutional Convention in New York. Voters approved the idea, delegates were elected and, for close to half a year, citizens, legislators and legal experts huddled in the Capitol to produce what former State Sen. Franz Leichter called “a fairly serious document.”The voters rejected it. And a ...
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Kolb touts plan to run in every district, but so far mostly focused on one Democrat
To hear the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee tell it, two-term Staten Island Democrat Janele Hyer-Spencer is responsible for all the dysfunction in New York, from joblessness to soaring energy costs to the state’s overwhelming tax burden.“Staten Island Assemblywoman voted to allow drug dealers who sold to kids to apply for re-sentencing and possibly be freed ...
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Schroeder predicts controversial bills would fare better under Cuomo governorship
Assembly Member Mark Schroeder, a Democrat from Buffalo, has a plan to reform the education system in New York that has nothing to do with charter schools, merit pay or the federal Race to the Top fund.Instead, Schroeder would like to abolish the New York State Board of Regents.“I’m done with the word ‘reform.’ We are beyond reform in this state,” ...
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NYSUT president tries to shape White House education program
By Chris Bragg
November 17th, 2009
In early September, Richard Iannuzzi boarded Air Force 2 and took a seat next to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.Iannuzzi, president of the powerful 600,000-member New York State United Teachers union (NYSUT), had been invited to the vice president’s plane to make the case that New York was committed to the secretary’s vision of education reform. He said the ...
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Renewable energy, affordable housing funds easily tapped by Gov. Paterson
By Chris Bragg
November 17th, 2009
As unions and business interests battle over the $3.2 billion budget gap, there does appear to be at least one area of consensus: both sides support the one-time transfers of funds from public authorities’ surpluses—known as “sweeps”—that comprise $426 million of Gov. David Paterson’s gap-closing measures.The funds, which are generated by ...
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Concerns remain about role of ACORN, future of 10-state cap-and-trade program
It is not often that a member of the New York Assembly gets the attention of the President of the United States. But the confluence of a green energy president and the state’s recent passage of a sweeping new green energy program meant that in September, when Barack Obama was in town to speak at Hudson Valley Community College, Assembly Member Kevin Cahill got a chance ...
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How the inevitable campaign gets from this November to the next
On Election Night 2009, New York City Democrats gathered at the Hilton in midtown Manhattan to celebrate Bill Thompson’s loss to Mayor Mike Bloomberg.The party was raucous. The night went late as Thompson supporters waited for final results, stunned at how well their underdog candidate had done. The mood felt like a family reunion, with statewide officials like ...
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Was Doug Hoffman’s candidacy a renaissance for the Conservative Party or the beginning of the end?
By Sal Gentile
November 17th, 2009
Mike Long was sitting in his office at Conservative Party headquarters, a converted one-bedroom apartment above a Greek diner in Bay Ridge, when Mitt Romney’s people called.The former Massachusetts governor and want-to-be-darling of the right was offering to record a robocall for Doug Hoffman, the Conservative candidate for Congress in upstate New York.Long said no.The ...
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Cuomo seen as empowered by stumbles of Paterson pick, may re-elevate O’Neill
By Sal Gentile
November 17th, 2009
The election returns from Nassau this month were bad for Tom Suozzi.But they may have been even worse for Jay Jacobs.Jacobs, the Nassau Democratic chairman, was installed as the leader of the state party in September based largely on the impressive gains he had masterminded in his home county.Now, some Democrats are wondering if Jacobs is up to the task.“I don’t ...
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Conservative anger attracts national attention, financial backing to district
Stephen Flanagan’s strategy worked.The 55-year-old Suffolk businessman and conservative activist wanted to prove to the world that his congressman, four-term Rep. Tim Bishop, could be defeated, despite scant interest from national Republicans.So Flanagan and his group, the Conservative Society for Action (CSA), whose 3,000 members meet monthly in a rented American Legion ...
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When scandal or death takes a politician, needy non-profits must suffer from want of funds
For years, hungry seniors in Canarsie would chain shopping carts first thing in the morning to the door of the local Jewish Community Council’s soup kitchen, hoping to secure their places in line.But last year, Rabbi Avrohom Hecht had to start telling some of the needy that he could not help them, after a check for a small grant from the Assembly never arrived.Hecht ...
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A specter haunts Rick Lazio.It hovers at the Women’s Republican Club, a plumy, gilded gathering hall near Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, a posh place where the walls are lined with oil paintings of past club presidents. Lazio is slated to appear at a candidate’s night there hosted by the Manhattan Young Republicans club. A nor’easter has blown in, and ...
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Moderate-liberal alliance undercuts dissident leverage, changing power dynamics
Before he became the first member of the State Senate to publicly threaten Hiram Monserrate with impeachment on Friday, Oct. 16, Brian Foley, of Suffolk, called to inform Democratic Leader John Sampson of his decision. Sampson was in China on a trade mission with Senate President Malcolm Smith, so he was half a day ahead.A weary Sampson asked Foley to hold off.“I’d ...
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Former minority leader raises profile, considers race for Congress or comptroller
Since losing badly to Eliot Spitzer in 2006, John Faso has struggled to find his place in the Republican Party.He co-founded, along with Ed Cox, the conservative political action committee New Yorkers for Growth. He ran briefly for the GOP nomination to fill Kirsten Gillibrand’s House seat, losing out to Jim Tedisco. And he toyed with the idea of running for state ...
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Operatives aim for a repeat of Balboni-Johnson transition
By Sal Gentile
September 29th, 2009
Whenever a prominent post opens in Suffolk County these days, Kenneth LaValle’s name seems to wind up on the short lists floated in newspaper accounts.“They’ve had me taking judgeships, being the chancellor of the state university, being the president of Stony Brook, being the president of Suffolk Community College,” said LaValle, 70, the former chair ...
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Health, consumer and environmental groups protest governor’s perceived tilt to business
By Sal Gentile
September 29th, 2009
Earlier this year, Gov. David Paterson signed an executive order establishing a panel of senior advisers tasked with reviewing some of the health and safety regulations that have governed New York State for decades. The idea was to cut back on red tape and improve government function.But now that the panel has begun to review some of the regulations put forward by state ...
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A rush to move from some, an insistence to wait from others on hot-button issue
By Selena Ross
September 29th, 2009
Opinion is split in Albany over which is a more preposterous prediction: that there will be a gay marriage vote this fall, or that there will not be.But there is consensus about who has the most to lose by delaying a vote, with the Senate Democratic leadership likely to then be held accountable for disarray and crucial national gay political donors losing interest in the ...
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Class of state workers excluded from collective bargaining cries foul
By Chris Bragg
September 29th, 2009
In 1971, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller singled out about 2,000 state employees who he believed should no longer be allowed to join a union or collectively bargain.The group, known as Management Confidential (MC) employees, range from secretaries to department commissioners. Rockefeller reasoned that they should be exempted from the Taylor Law, the 1967 law which allows public ...
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Three-way election watched closely for meaning in midterms across the country
By Chris Bragg
September 29th, 2009
Mike Long, the state chair of the Conservative Party, was running mostly on adrenaline when he sat down for breakfast in mid-July with Doug Hoffman in the upstate resort town of Lake Placid.Long had stayed up late the night before to watch his son, Matt, finish the town’s IronMan triathlon, three and a half years after Matt had been hit and nearly killed by a New York ...
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Budget cuts assumed, but little hope for other legislating.
Most legislators would agree that when they trudge back to Albany at the end of September, closing the state’s billion-dollar budget gap will be the number-one priority. But how big that budget gap is remains in dispute.Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said recently that his numbers sync with Paterson’s projections about the budget gap. “All of the ...
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Capital plan remains in flux as incoming chair’s confirmation remains stalled in tracks
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has issued its proposed five-year capital plan, a $25 billion roadmap to the future of the beleaguered agency that was produced after months of painstaking discussions and consultations with outside groups.Now, out come the hatchets.“I suspect there are going to be serious changes,” said Assembly Member Richard Brodsky, of ...
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Coup target works out new role, with responsibilities being put back in his portfolio
Pedro Espada, Jr.’s first item of the agenda after switching to the Republican conference and being voted in as Senate president was to retrieve the keys to the chamber from Angelo Aponte. Next, Espada said, would be to fire Aponte, the secretary of the Senate.Other demands softened over the comings weeks, but on that point, Espada remained firm: He would not end the ...
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Popular Assembly member makes moves toward succession race, possible primary
Assembly Member José Peralta may still be a member of the Legislature’s lower chamber, but in the eyes of his colleagues, he is well on his way to a promotion. In the cloakrooms of Albany, at least, he has earned a new nickname: “Senator Peralta.”The moniker has become a running joke among Peralta’s allies in the Assembly, according to one person ...
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Convinced that Foley is weakest incumbent, Skelos aims to return Long Island to red
He rails against higher taxes, touts his military service in Iraq and totes his often-crying two young children to town hall meetings in his hometown of Shirley.For Republicans, Lee Zeldin is straight out of “central casting for candidates,” said Michael Dawidziak, a Long Island political consultant.And more importantly, Zeldin is now the man GOP leaders are ...
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Republicans and targeted Democrats given line to advance pro-business agenda
Business groups in New York were seething.They had been outgunned by their liberal opponents in the battle over the state’s $14 billion budget deficit. The new Democratic majority, with the help of the Working Families Party, had succeeded in filling the gap largely with increased taxes, mostly on the state’s highest earners.So on April 2, a day after the budget ...
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Outspent 20–1 and against odds, up-and-comer puts promising career on the line
Corey Ellis first heard the phrase in the fires of last year’s presidential primary: “You could run for mayor someday.”At first blush, the idea seemed far-fetched.Jerry Jennings has been mayor for 16 years. He has amassed a campaign war chest unmatched by any in Albany’s history. He has trounced even the most credible challengers, such as Assembly ...
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Remnant volunteer organization looks to provide alternative to state party
The Obama campaign is over. The yard signs have been put away. The commercials have gone off the air. The “Hope” buttons have disappeared off of most of the backpacks in town.But a group of campaign veterans are trying to reignite the old grassroots energy of 2008, hoping to create a viable alternative to the state Democratic Party at a time of transition and low ...
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Advocates claim promises, Monserrate rumored as new Housing chair in post-coup order
Hours after the June 8 coup that threw the State Senate into chaos, Assembly Member Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), the chair of the Housing Committee, approached his colleague, Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), who was carrying sweeping legislation to overhaul the state’s rent laws. Rosenthal was digesting the swirl of events with a mix of awe and disbelief.Lopez was more ...
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GOP leaders consider Collins as back-up if Giuliani skips governor’s race
Ask Erie County Executive Chris Collins (R) to size up the chatter about his potential run for governor next year, and he is likely to turn the conversation to belts. How he recently hired a master black belt, for example. Or, perhaps, about the new green belt on the county payroll. This is all part of the “Lean Six Sigma” business philosophy created two decades ...
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Tom Reed tapped to take on Massa, Sam Williams for Lee
While most people watching New York congressional races have been focused on the upcoming special election to replace Republican Rep. John McHugh, the Democratic and Republican parties have each looked to finalize their choices for candidates to take on the other’s potentially vulnerable freshman member of Congress.In Rep. Chris Lee’s (R-Niagara/Orleans/Genesee) ...
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As Washington wrangles with health care reform, Assembly Member Richard Gottfried and State Sen. Thomas Duane cannot help but look on with a certain degree of skepticism.The two Democrats, both of whom hail from the great liberal bastion of Manhattan’s West Side, have spent their combined half-century (Gottfried is responsible for 39 years of that himself) in Albany, ...
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Buffalo mayor’s ties to operative made into campaign issue by primary underdog
Of all the aftershocks of the June 8 Senate coup, one of the more unexpected ripples was felt a week afterwards and some 400 miles away when Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown (D) canceled a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for his re-election campaign. Though seemingly unrelated, the events shared one common denominator: Steve Pigeon. The top political operative for billionaire Tom ...
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Self-imposed restrictions in place, but promised legislation still not submitted to legislature
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (D) has delayed action on a May promise to set into law his self-imposed ban on the use of placement agents in awarding state pension fund business. According to sources both in his office and in the Legislature, no bill is likely to be submitted soon. DiNapoli instituted his ban in April after Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D) found that aides to ...
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Local activists, Conservatives and national GOP collide in search for nominee to retain seat
As the New York Republican delegation in Congress loses members—seven in the last seven years alone—a series of interlocking disputes have emerged with nearly every open seat: the Conservatives pick their candidate. The D.C. Republicans have another. The local party pushes back against both. Now that President Obama has chosen Rep. John McHugh as his army ...
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New leader stresses policy through consensus for Assembly Republicans
When Senate Republicans staged their coup, newly minted Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb (R-Ontario/Seneca/Cayuga) could only sit back and shake his head, seeming almost annoyed at the chaos down the hall.“We had to cancel a five-way leadership meeting today because of it,” Kolb said. “I’d like to see everything resolved as quickly as possible, so we ...
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There were bills to pass and hearings to convene, but as the Capitol descended into chaos in the final weeks of the session, some Assembly members were having trouble turning their eyes away from the unfolding drama in the Senate.Assembly Democrats view the chaos with a mix of disgust and frustration, tempered by a grudging respect that the GOP’s plan to take the ...
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Alums say some disaster was inevitable, though maybe not quite like what finally came
They thought they had seen it all. But as the coup in the State Senate and all that has followed unfolds, former members of the chamber say they have watched with a mixture of sadness and bemusement. And more than a little surprise. “Now you’re lifting up the rock and you’re seeing all the little uglies that come scrambling out from a chamber that was never ...
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Independence Party, nonprofits could rally to renegade corner in 2010
The last time Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. allied himself with the Republicans, Democrat Ruben Diaz, Sr. roundly defeated him in the general election by a nearly 2-1 margin in the heavily Democratic district. Seven years later, Espada is back on the Republican side of the aisle, and furious Democrats are eager to repeat the history of his defeat as well. “[Espada] is a marked ...
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Even when he was majority leader, Malcolm Smith regularly said that he did not envision himself growing old and gray in the Senate. Now that he is in a role that got diminished faster than almost anyone expected, though, he may choose to make his exit sooner than even he had planned. In Smith’s district in the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens, residents hold out hope ...
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Tom Duane looks to soothe his doubters, salvage his progressive agenda
When Democrats won control of the State Senate last year, there were high expectations for Tom Duane.A longtime tenant advocate, he was expected to help shepherd an overhaul of the rent regulation system through the Legislature. He was pressing for passage, at long last, of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). And as the only openly gay and HIV-positive member ...
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State takeover of public defense now likely to be put off again
Jonathan Gradess was going through security at the Capitol Building when he received word on his cell phone of the coup. Puzzled, he and a lobbyist made their way to the gallery, and sat down outside. Just after 3 p.m., they watched the former Democratic majority walk out in a furious daze.That was supposed to be a good week for Gradess, the executive director of the New York ...
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Advocates hope Senate will return, pass its version of legislation over Assembly’s
This was supposed to be a breakthrough year for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. The legislation had languished in the Assembly since 2004, but finally found Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn) to sponsor it after the Democratic takeover in the upper chamber in January. The legislation started moving through committees in both houses and faced virtually no public ...
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Worries that small local governments are at disadvantage to get stimulus funds
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to crack down on the influence exerted by lobbyists in Washington, D.C., saying he wanted his decisions based on merit rather than on access.In March, Obama made good on the threat, barring registered lobbyists from speaking directly with federal officials about stimulus projects that their clients were seeking. ...
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Three of the world’s largest financial services companies—Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and the Park Hill Group—are spearheading an intensive, behind-the-scenes push to modify or overturn Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s (D) ban on the use of placement agents in managing the state’s $122 billion pension funds, e-mails obtained by The Capitol show.The ...
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Five years ago, Schenectady County and the public sector unions ended a long deadlock over proposed health care benefit cuts with a deal allowing the county to facilitate the importation of pre scri ption drugs from Canada for employees and retirees. With drug co-pays in Canada significantly lower than in the United States, the deal has already saved the county an estimated $6 ...
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As Faso and Eristoff consider run on GOP side, comptroller digs in for first race
Two years ago, Tom DiNapoli was plucked from a life as a backbench legislator and thrust into a job that, because of the man he replaced, is now embroiled in a pay-to-play scandal shaking New York’s political world.Nonetheless, most see Comptroller DiNapoli (D) as a safe bet for the 2010 elections.The state Republican Party, hobbled by successive losses and a lack ...
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Some see tension in Responsible New York
With billionaire Tom Golisano now headed to Florida, there is speculation that Steve Pigeon, Golisano’s top political operative, will hold even more sway over the Responsible New York political action committee formed last year to promote cutting taxes and spending.Those who work with the group, however, say a tension exists between the motivations of Golisano, a ...
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Shifting registration, end of lush member items could endanger 19-term incumbent
In his 18 re-election campaigns, State Sen. Owen Johnson (R-Suffolk) has usually faced token opposition at best.So when the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee recently sent a mailer trashing the seemingly invulnerable 79-year-old, longtime observers detected a distinct shift in political strategy.Democrats are newly emboldened to take out Johnson, they say, because of ...
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Contractors complain that fast pace of spending leaves them out, state admits problems
In preparation for the passage of the $787 billion federal stimulus bill, Gov. David Paterson’s (D) office scoured the state for “shovel-ready” road and bridge projects. They reached out to local officials. They even encouraged members of the public to submit proposals via the state’s economic recovery website. In total, they received over 16,000 ...
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While past governors made a series of incremental reforms to the Empire Zone program, Gov. David Paterson (D) has been touting a complete overhaul in this year’s final budget. “For years, governors have tried to reform the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) that has given tax credits at times when jobs weren’t created, and was fraught with waste and ...
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With state labor commissioner Patricia Smith heading to Washington to join the Obama administration, Gov. David Paterson (D) faces a dilemma in replacing a Spitzer appointee widely regarded as one of the most competent members of his administration. Smith, who served as chief of the labor bureau in then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s (D) office for eight years before ...
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The Short Goodbye
Potentially Divisive Primary Averted, Levy Reassess His Options For Top Job
The Steve Levy Revolution
Where There’s Smoke, There’s A Stand-Off Over Indian Cigarette Taxes
Dede Scozzafava’s View, From A Small Office On The Fifth Floor
Out of the Darkness
Primary, Special Election, Court—Hiram Monserrate Will Not Go Away
Money-Starved SRCC Forces Republicans Into Early Triage In State Senate Fight
Legislators Gear Up For Tough Budget Fight As Fiscal Outlook Worsens
Lieutenant Governor Hopefuls Wait On Marching Orders, A General
One Shot
Curveballs For Cox As He Tries To Pitch Full 2010 Roster
The Waiting Game
The Long Walk
With Nassau Losses, Some Democrats Sing Blues For Jay Jacobs
Rick Lazio Tries Again
Senators Read End Of Amigos’ Control In Moves Against Monserrate
Spurned In Special Election, Faso Weighing Run Against Murphy In 2010
