CITY & State New York 02052018

2018 STATE

LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

JEFF KLEIN'S GAMBITS HAVE PAID OFF, BUT WHAT'S HIS ENDGAME?

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

February 5, 2018

At Verizon, We Don’t Wait for the Future. We Build It.

By Leecia Eve Verizon Vice President, State Government Affairs, New York, New Jersey & Connecticut Each year, Verizon invests nearly $2 billion in our networks and employs more than 18,000 people with good-paying jobs in our great state. This year we will expand our investment through an unprecedented partnership with the New York State Broadband Fund – the most robust broadband program of any state in the nation. This partnership between Verizon and state and federal government will invest more than $100 million to deploy our best-in-class fiber product to more than 15,500 rural locations in the state. This work will be done by Verizon’s highly-skilled and well-compensated workforce, enabling New York to compete even better in the global economy.

Verizon is leveraging its relationship with New York-based Corning Inc. to provide fiber optic cable and associated hardware to expand its network within targeted unserved and underserved communities. Last April, Verizon announced an agreement with Corning to purchase up to 20 million kilometers (12.4 million miles) of optical fiber through 2020, with a minimum commitment of more than $1 billion. At Verizon, it’s clear: We don’t wait for the future. We build it.

Connected devices have been part of life for only about 10 years. They have driven tremendous change in how we communicate, work, learn, play, and live. Connected devices have helped us watch that “must see” game or movie, while monitoring the security of our homes, to paying for goods and services. Verizon has played a central role in bringing these changes. Our leading and visionary effort will continue as the number of devices needing mobile connections grows – in the billions – through technology and innovation. The digital future – public safety innovations, smart communities, smart homes, remote learning, ehealth, autonomous vehicles, and more – will be made possible by the next generation of wireless platforms – 5G. The work to make this happen is already underway today.

Verizon is leading the way in developing 5G standards, right here in the tri-state area. We will deliver the promise of the digital world, as Accenture reports, creating three million new jobs and boosting annual U.S. GDP by $500 billion. The American Consumer Institute reports that New York State could see an additional $33 billion in economic activity, almost $10 billion more in earnings and almost 25,000 new jobs each year. This year, New York lawmakers can encourage investment in wireless broadband infrastructure and help bring the full benefits of 5G deployment to New Yorkers through smart communities’ services and other modern solutions. This is an unprecedented opportunity we all should embrace.

Delivering the Promise of the Digital World Verizon is meeting customers’ changing needs with more services and capacity in more places. We’re adding small, low-powered cell antennas where the greatest number of customers need to stay connected. Corning Community College was the first campus in the nation to deploy Verizon’s outdoor small cell technology, giving highly-trafficked areas the ability to connect at high speed. In New York City’s Silicon Alley, Verizon is using its Intelligent Edge Network to power a 5G-enabled innovation lab for startups and academics.

Dubbed the “Verizon Open Innovation Lab,” it is the world’s first 5G-powered co-working experience. Participants can work with Verizon’s innovation teams to advance new technology solutions. These are just two examples of how Verizon is using new technologies to improve coverage and add capacity.

They are also reasons why we support legislation for a uniform local process for upgrading and maintaining wireless network equipment in keeping with federal requirements. Verizon promotes investment in and facilitates deployment of digital wireless broadband communications networks to keep New York consumers, businesses and government agencies connected.

A Solid Wireless Network is Smart New York communities are facing new challenges: Creating jobs, maintaining affordability, and transforming downtown neighborhoods into vibrant communities where people want to live. Population changes, an affordable housing shortage and the need to maintain aging infrastructure are stretching budgets. Local leaders are turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve the quality of life. IoT helps communities solve today’s biggest challenges – speeding up emergency response, improving traffic flow, smart parking, and enhancing energy and water efficiency. It is helping communities save time, resources, and money, while managing today’s challenges and boosting citizen engagement.

As one of New York’s largest private-sector employers and one of its largest taxpayers, we are central to the economic growth and vitality of the state. Verizon invests billions in our wireless and wireline networks in partnership with many small- and medium-sized businesses, including MWBEs and other diverse firms statewide.

Verizon is a founder and one of only 22 U.S. corporations that is a member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable, comprising businesses that spend at least $1 billion annually with minority- and woman-owned suppliers. Since 2011, Verizon has spent more than $25 billion with MWBE firms and last year we spent almost $5 billion with such firms. Verizon is proud to employ more than 10,000 veterans. Military Times ranks Verizon as the top company nationally for the recruitment and retention of veterans.

We thank New York’s lawmakers and community leaders who understand Verizon’s robust and innovative networks and our commitment.

When we work together, great things can happen. New Yorkers deserve nothing less.

We Build It Ad.indd 1

2/2/18 3:50 PM

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

3

EDITOR’S NOTE

JON LENTZ Editor-in-chief

“I want to accomplish things in Albany,” state Sen. Jeff Klein said in January 2011, shortly after forming the Independent Democratic Conference. “I want to accomplish things in my district.”

Since those early days of the breakaway conference, a lot has changed.

At the time, Klein said then-state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was “very supportive” of the IDC, although Skelos didn’t acknowledge its existence at first.

Mainline Democrats said they would entice IDC members to rejoin the fold – or could knock them out of office.

The IDC went on to partner with the state Senate Republicans, helping keep the GOP in power. Primary challenges were launched, but fell short. Instead of dissolving, the conference doubled in size. Its members have accomplished things in Albany, passing bills on gun control, medical marijuana and paid sick leave, even as they stand accused of blocking other progressive bills, such as the state’s DREAM Act. Through it all, what remains a matter of debate is what truly drives Klein. In this week’s cover story, City & State’s Frank G. Runyeon seeks to answer that question with an in-depth profile of the IDC leader.

CONTENTS

STATE LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW An in-depth rundown of the hottest topics in Albany, including education, health care, infrastructure, energy, real estate and labor ... 14

JEFF KLEIN When everyone else is playing checkers, the IDC leader is playing chess

... 6

WINNERS & LOSERS

Who was up and who was down last week ... 34

4

CityAndStateNY.com

The

February 5, 2018

Latest COLD COMFORT FOR NYCHA RESIDENTS New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $200 million investment toward fixing or replacing old boilers at 20 New York City Housing Authority developments. But those repairs won’t start until July, when most NYCHA residents probably won’t need heat, and the repairs won’t be completed for years. About 3,000 NYCHA residents went without heat during a blizzard this winter and the boilers in many more buildings are just too old to keep up with the cold.

State Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco threw his hat into the ring for the governor’s race to challenge Gov. Andrew Cuomo, announcing his candidacy on Tuesday. He joined a Republican primary field that includes Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb and former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra. DeFrancisco told City & State that he thinks he has a good shot at the nomination, and that when it comes time for the general election, Cuomo won’t be able to bully him. If elected, he would be the first upstate governor in some time, and though he has plans to fix New York City transit, that could be good news for other parts of New York that feel shortchanged by Cuomo’s focus on the downstate transportation matters.

The

Back & Forth

A Q&A with state Senate Deputy Majority Leader

John DeFrancisco The

Kicker

ALBANY ADDRESSES SEXUAL Bob Holden, a registered Democrat HARASSMENT

who ran on the Republican Party line, In the wake of the #MeToo movement, which narrowly defeated incumbent New reYork cently hit the City state Councilwoman capital in the form of an allegaElizabeth Crowtion against state Sen. Jeff Klein, the state Senate ley, making her the only sitting council has updated its decade-old workplace harassment member to lose re-election this year. policy. The new policywho expands the definition Holden, campaigned heavilyofonhaoprassment, adds more to protected classes a ofhomeless people position the city opening and reprimands supervisors who failwas to report ha-in shelter in the district, narrowly rassment. Butthe thelead policy also warns acon Election Day,that andfalse a recount cusations canconfirmed lead to punishment or termination, his 137-vote victory. Crowsomething state Senate Democratic Leader Andreaof ley’s loss also means that the number Stewart-Cousins criticized. women in the council will decrease to 11.

C&S: You’ve been mulling a gubernatorial bid for a while. What made you run?

JD: First of all, I wanted to make sure that I was in a position to believe I had a reasonable shot for the nomination, so I was running around the state speaking with various committee people and delegates to the ultimate convention that selects the candidate. Secondly, I wanted to make sure I could get a group in place that knew what they were doing statewide. But really the triggering force was both the governor’s State of the State, but mostly his budget presentation. It just seemed to me that when we’re in a deficit situation, people are leaving the state – more leaving than coming in – you don’t continue to raise taxes, or in his language, have $1 billion of “revenue enhancers.”

C&S: Cuomo has amassed quite the war chest. How will you catch up?

“Our ethics rules, it TURNS me to go inside.”

OUT, did not allow

— New York City Mayor BILL DE BLASIO, on why he didn’t attend the Grammy Awards, via the Daily News Get the kicker every morning in CITY & STATE’S FIRST READ email. Sign up at cityandstateny.com.

JD: I fortunately did not have serious contenders over the last several years and in my Senate campaign, I was able to bank about $1.5 million.

Now that’s a far cry from $31 million, but it’s a start. My philosophy is basically this – some things are difficult, but if they’re the right thing to do, you’ve got to do it. Otherwise, Gov. Cuomo would be a monarch in the state of New York.

He amasses enough money, he gets no opponents and he ends up staying indefinitely or as long as he wants.

I think once the momentum starts rolling, then you’re going to be able to raise some money. I liken it to Mario Cuomo, who got beaten by an unknown George Pataki. It’s quite an analogy. Mario Cuomo was being talked about for president of the United States, but the only difference with Andrew, Andrew thinks he already is president of the United States.

JOHN DEFRANCISCO CAMPAIGN; MIKE GROLL; JOEL RASKIN/SHUTTERSTOCK

DEFRANCISCO DIVES IN

JOHN DEFRANCISCO CAMPAIGN; MIKE GROLL; JOEL RASKIN/SHUTTERSTOCK

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

BREAKING THE BANK? NEW YORK’S BANK SETTLEMENTS, YEAR BY YEAR

$3.BILLION 98

$340

$2.BILLION 48 MILLION

$60

MILLION

MILLION

MILLION

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

NOTABLE SETTLEMENTS 2012 and 2014:

Standard Chartered Bank $640M total

2013:

2014:

2015:

2016:

2017:

2018:

$1.29 BILLION

$660

$335

Royal Bank of Scotland $50M BNP Paribas

$2.2

BILLION

Commerzbank $610M

Agricultural Bank of China $215M

Every year, the state Department of Financial Services rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars in financial settlements when they slap penalties on firms that are breaking the law. What may be bad news for those companies is good news for the state’s bottom line, especially this year when the state has an expected $4.4 billion shortfall.

All of that money goes straight into the state’s general fund and then allocated to any number of projects or spending areas. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget includes what it calls “extraordinary monetary settlements,” which accounts for DFS’ biggest payouts since fiscal year 2015, along with a few from the state attorney general’s office. This year, it contains $702 million in new settlements, which Cuomo earmarked for specific projects. He proposed $125 million would go toward health care, $194 million into the New York City Subway Action Plan and the remaining $383 million for general operations.

However, since 2014, the amount of money coming from settlements has declined. Here’s a look at how much DFS has raised for the state budget, year by year, since the agency was established.

2017

2018

1 settlement 6 settlements 11 settlements 9 settlements

Deutsche Bank $425M Western Union $60M

7 settlements 14 settlements

5

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CityAndStateNY.com

February 5, 2018

THE CHE MAST

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

HESS STER

RISING FROM HIS red leather chair in the gilded New York state Senate chambers, state Sen. Jeffrey D. Klein stood near the apex of the semicircled seats of the upper house. It was Jan. 8. He had the floor.

His allies in the Independent Democratic Conference flanked him, gazing up to him, comfortable in their thrones. In most cases, they owe their unique political power to him. Their loyalty to his breakaway group gave them stature, influence and money. Just under his nose, mere feet away, were the mainline Democrats, whose leadership Klein rejected in favor of his own cross-party power-sharing agreement. To his right were his allies, the Republicans, his coalition partners.

Klein has accomplished what few thought possible just seven years ago, an unprecedented political reality. He stands astride a partisan chasm, brokering deals for progressive legislation with conservative lawmakers. In a moment of vicious partisan rancor and obstructionism nationally, he and his IDC are an anomaly – a cause for celebration to some, a cancer to others.

The 57-year-old senator from the Bronx took his notes from a file folder with a world map printed on the side. His suit was

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STATE SEN. JEFF KLEIN HAS RISEN IN ALBANY

BY OUTPLAYING HIS RIVALS. WHAT IS HIS ENDGAME?

Story by FRANK G. RUNYEON Photography by SASHA MASLOV

sharply tailored with a purple tie, his skin was bronze, his hair was coiffed and trim.

At least from the gallery, it appeared that as he spoke, the strength of his office, the sheen of appearance and the determination of his words belied a hint of uncertainty and discomfort.

He had a secret.

JEFF KLEIN IS a political genius, his enemies and allies agree on some variation of that. But that brilliance comes wrapped in ever-present dichotomies. He’s an adoring son and brother, but he doesn’t like to be touched. He’s a Democrat but he’s allied with Republicans. He’s a man whose favorite movies include “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Kill Bill.” He has a long-term girlfriend, but calls himself single. He’s a fitness buff who smokes.

But his tactical acumen and maze of contradictions lie beneath a carefully crafted exterior that can be distracting.

He wears designer suits. He drives an “executive class” Mercedes. His left wrist carries a golden Rolex perhaps worth $10,000 and a diamond adorns his right ring finger.

He has a blazing white smile with flawlessly straight teeth. He has deeply tanned skin, from what one tanning salon called “oncea-week” visits, and his haircuts have cost in the “high hundreds,” a Senate source said.

His smile can evoke both playful malice and an aw-shucks awkwardness while his eyebrows can form striking gothic arches.

Don’t mind Klein’s outer skin, just be wary of his skill, say current and former New York legislative staffers and lawmakers who have worked closely with him. Klein is a chess master, when so many others in Albany are just playing checkers.

But tactics are only one element of his political survival. The engine of his success is obvious, even to a casual observer.

“Nobody works harder,” Klein says with a grin, stating his personal motto. He wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and meets his personal trainer at a gym above a Jiffy Lube in the Bronx.

He’s back home by about 6:45 a.m. reading the print papers cover to cover, then the online news clips prepared by his staff.

He obsesses over details, personally crafting bills, tweaking constituent response protocols, consuming books and rarely resting.

He seems always ready for action and always talking politics. He is a one-man perpetual motion machine, who once mused: What it is that people do after they clock out at 5 p.m.?

“He’s a robot. He really is,” said Klein’s longtime political partner and newly elected New York City Councilman Mark Gjonaj, admiringly. “He lives and breathes politics.”

“Jeff. Do you ever take a break?” his sister Lisa Schneider asked during a family vacation. “He said, ‘No. This is my life. This is 24/7. I take a break when I sleep, a couple hours at night with my cell next to me.’”

He, his family, friends and allies all say with reverence that he does it “for the people.” His enemies, of course, say his motivation is less altruistic and more primal. To them, Klein is driven by power.

“It’s just raw ambition overcoming ethically and politically appropriate conduct,” said G. Oliver Koppell, a former assemblyman, state attorney general and Klein’s 2014 state Senate primary challenger.

“Raw ambition.”

In his more than 20 years of public service, Klein has been accused of many things and challenged by critics in politics and the press.

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CityAndStateNY.com

He took businesses’ campaign contributions and passed laws that will benefit those businesses, one report said. He directed $100,000 in pork barrel spending to create a plaza that already existed, another story reported. A particularly damning piece stated that “Klein has gamed the system – and possibly broken the law – for years, thumbing his nose at city zoning regulations, getting tax breaks he isn’t entitled to, and failing to disclose his assets to state officials.” And another blasted the “turncoat Democrat” for his “$1 million staff” allowance.

All those stories featured the byline of onetime New York Post reporter Candice M. Giove, arguably among Klein’s dogged skeptics. That is, until Giove left the Post in October 2013 and Klein hired her in January 2014. Just months after she upbraided him as a traitor, she was drawing a paycheck from that million-dollar ledger. Today, Giove is Klein’s communications director who journalists in the Albany often see as Klein’s fearsome shadow, in lockstep with the IDC chief, tearing into journalists that dare to criticize her boss.

Giove noted that she transitioned from journalism into public relations “like many successful media professionals” and referred back to a 2014 City & State write-up where she said: “I thought it would be very interesting to see what the other side is like,” Giove said.

“What surprised me is what a workhorse Jeff is. I think he’s an incredible elected official, and I think from the other side, you don’t really get to see that.”

And so, when the latest allegations of wrongdoing erupted this January, with a former IDC lawyer accusing him of forcibly kissing her in 2015, a student of history might be left to wonder if this scandal will be any different from his last. Whether this or any other allegations are true or false, surveying Klein’s decades in New York politics, you have to admit it: At least up until now, it seems nothing can stop Jeff Klein.

IN THE MOMENTS before Klein gave his opening address to the state Senate, the words of state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ remarks echoed through the chamber.

The Democratic Senate minority leader’s impassioned speech decried the scourge of sexual harassment in Albany, even wearing all black to signify her solidarity with victims of sexual abuse. In fact, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan – every key political leader, it seemed – had used part of their opening address to denounce the hot-button issue and demand reform.

February 5, 2018

“HE’S A RO

B

Everyone, that is, except Klein.

Klein spoke of the IDC’s ambitious budget agenda – student debt relief, addressing a doctor shortage in rural areas, fixing a New York City subway system in chaos, voter reform and generally protecting the state’s hard-working taxpayers – but not a word about the issue that would soon dominate coverage of him in the headlines.

What few knew was that a HuffPost reporter had contacted Klein’s staff four days earlier to describe allegations that an IDC staff lawyer said he grabbed her and stuck his tongue down her throat outside of a bar one night in Albany. The story would post soon. It was Monday.

Two days later, at 3:36 p.m. on Wednesday, Giove fired off an email to members of the Albany Capitol press corps, excluding HuffPost. Klein would break the news himself and frame the narrative.

“The reason for this call is that a former IDC staffer has made a serious allegation to a Huffington Post reporter. … This staffer alleges that on the night of March 31, 2015, the night that the 2015 state budget passed, I forcibly kissed her outside of a bar where staff members were celebrating. I want to be crystal clear, this alleged incident never happened,” Klein told reporters.

After Klein reiterated his openness to an investigation, state Sen. Diane Savino got on the line. Savino and Klein have been dating since 2008, even sitting for a power couple profile that noted their shared nickname, “Klavino.”

“This incident never occurred,” Savino hammered home. “And to insinuate that it would have occurred in front of me, and those of you who know me know, I would not have remained silent. There would have been an incident that night had this occurred in full view of myself.”

Klein and Savino played up chummy banter with the reporters, calling them by name and asking how they were doing. After the questions were asked and reporters began hanging up, a moderator announced the call was over. But a hot mic in Klein’s office picked up a few final words.

“Was that ok?” asked Klein. A male voice responded, “Yeah, all the Twitter traffic was–” Two beeps sounded and the line went dead.

A few minutes later, Giove pushed out an email with a document labeled “preliminary investigation,” prepared by an IDC-retained law firm that, based on interviews with more than 10 former and current IDC staffers, concluded that “it defies both reason and credibility to suggest Sen. Klein would have, in full view of both his longtime girlfriend, numerous staff members, and in the middle of a very visible and public street, assaulted the Former Staffer, as her allegation suggests.”

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

A ROBOT. HE REALLY IS. HE LIVES AND BREATHES POLITICS.”

STATE SEN. JEFF KLEIN VISITING A SENIOR CENTER.

Thirty minutes later, HuffPost had its story up. Erica Vladimer, the former IDC lawyer, went on the record describing her account of what happened that evening.

After going outside with Klein for a cigarette, Vladimer said he grabbed her head as she turned towards him, HuffPost reported.

“All of a sudden there was a hand on the back of my head and he shoved his tongue down my throat,” she told HuffPost. “‘Senator, absolutely not,’” she recalled saying. Then Klein grinned at her. “What? What?” Vladimer recalled him saying, like he was being coy, almost trying to flirt and play a game.

“What? What? What did I do?”

The story consumed Albany. Perhaps the state capital’s #MeToo moment had finally arrived, editorial boards opined. When lawmakers first returned to Albany the week before, the question had been whether Klein would really rejoin the mainline Democrats: Will he do it? Now, in the wake of Vladimer’s allegations, it had shifted: Did he do it?

Even asking the question became a political act.

The governor promised an investigation.

The state Senate declined to investigate.

Klein welcomed an independent inquiry and has since confirmed the Joint Commission on Public Ethics is investigating.

In the absence of immediate answers, the questions surrounding Klein beg larger ones about the way he conducts himself: How well do we really know this powerful man?

AT THE BACK of a dimly-lit Italian restaurant in the Bronx, Klein ordered the chicken parmesan. The waiter turned to leave. Klein stopped him.

“Pounded thin,” he said, narrowing his fingers high above the white tablecloth, in a pincer motion.

It was a cloudy afternoon in October, months before Klein would be engulfed in scandal.

Patricia’s used to be little more than a neighborhood pizza shop, Klein said, but now, with its white tablecloths and imposing artwork in thick elaborate frames, it held a certain grandeur. A heavy mirror hung to Klein’s left, coating the wall in a dark reflection. A giant chandelier cast light from the center of the room to Klein’s corner table.

The chicken parmesan arrived.

“This is my place,” Klein said, pausing with his fork and knife hovering above the tenderized meat. “I get very attached to restaurants. I like restaurants. I’m single. I don’t cook.”

“How many leaders are bachelors?” I

9

asked.

“Carl, Flanagan,” Klein began.

Giove glowered at the senator, interjecting, “Well, I mean…”

“She’s my girlfriend, but we’re not married,” Klein said.

“That’s what I’m saying! You’re single by tax status,” Giove prodded, hinting at his 10year relationship with fellow IDC ally Sen. Diane Savino.

“Oh, ok, right. Ok. Right, ok,” Klein retreated.

“Diane would be offended,” Giove offered.

Klein paused, then doubled down. “Diane’s my girlfriend, but we’re not ma-rried,” he intoned. Then he added quickly, “Yeah, don’t write that. Diane will be pissed.”

Leaving the restaurant, Klein continued on the tour of his district we had begun early that morning.

He had selected three schools, two senior centers, a NYCHA tenants’ meeting, a marina, and an anti-hate forum to showcase his swath of northern New York City and Westchester County. It was a breakneck pace, with the senator traveling separately in his glossy black SUV with an assistant and his press team trailing behind. Klein doled out an oversized check to a musical theater group, chatted with grade schoolers about their future careers, and glad-handed adoring octogenarians. By appearances, he was a beloved figure.

Even Koppell says Klein does a pretty good job of taking care of the people in his district.

“I think he’s pretty good at potholes,” Koppell said.

“Look, I’ve dedicated most of my adult life to public service,” Klein said, before rattling off a litany of professional accomplishments.

“Worked for a congressman right out of Columbia graduate school. It was my first job.

He told me that I wanted to get elected. I realized very quickly I enjoyed it. It made a positive difference in people’s lives. I was good at it. But I didn’t want to work for an elected official, I wanted to run in my own right.”

Klein knew he was headed for elected office long before that.

“I was class president in 5th grade,” Klein said, ticking off several student government positions, from vice president in junior high school to university senate in college. “It’s clear that’s what I always wanted to do.”

The sixth-grade teacher who taught Klein civics remembers the aspiring power broker. “He was a deliberative, thoughtful type of kid,” said Ron Imundi, now 71. But at 12 years old, Klein hadn’t grown a tough outer shell. “He was a cuuute looking kid. He was a nice-looking, smart kid,” Imundi said.

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Jeffrey’s sister Lisa is two years younger.

She always admired her big brother.

“Very personable, very outgoing, very ambitious – even back then,” she said.

When she was bullied on the way home from school one day, her 10-year-old brother noticed she was upset and ran back to confront the kid. “He said, ‘Don’t even think about starting with my sister. I watch over her!’” Lisa remembered.

“We would always be together as a family, always,” Lisa said. That holds true today, she said. “If it’s not family vacations, we text often and we speak as much as we can, several times a week.” Her sons look up to Klein as a role model.

And for a boy who would grow to cultivate an urbane, tidy persona, Klein always had an apparently incongruous affection for the

February 5, 2018

with his brother and his father, who emigrated from Poland. His mother’s father was a butcher from Hungary. A career in sales or a trade would have been only natural.

“Oh no, no,” his sister remembers Jeffrey telling their father in the machine shop. “I have other aspirations.”

Klein would go on to be the first college graduate in the family, graduating from Queens College in 1983, adding a master’s degree from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in 1985.

By then, he had already caught the eye of Democratic political operative John Sabini, who would become a New York City councilman and state senator. Coordinating a re-election project for then-Mayor Ed Koch in 1984, Sabini noticed Klein as a diligent young volunteer from the Bronx, who readi-

KLEIN AT A PRESS CONFERENCE.

wild.

“He would collect snakes and he was into all those reptiles,” laughed Lisa, remembering her brother at age 10. “He had a passion for that.” And he still does. Klein has kept lizards and turtles as pets throughout his legislative career.

But Klein wouldn’t ultimately make a living getting his hands dirty.

When Jeffrey and his sister went to visit their father in his shop after school, he would say to Jeffrey, “Maybe you want to go into business,” Lisa recalls. The machine shop was a family business that Klein’s father ran

ly worked late nights and weekends.

When Sabini began working for Rep. James Scheuer, he got the hardworking kid from the Bronx hired.

In three years, Klein rose to become Scheuer’s chief of staff and started climbing the ladder of local politics. Klein displaced a long-serving Democratic committeeman in 1988 and became district leader in 1990.

During that rapid political rise, Klein married a young lawyer named Beth. But while his political career soared, the marriage fell apart.

“I was married at 27 and divorced by 29,”

Klein told the Times Union in 2013. “We were just young and didn't really know what we wanted out of life. I knew I wanted to serve the community where I was born and raised.”

Klein went on to CUNY Law School and gained admittance to the bar in 1994. Klein would work for Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman from 1994 to 1995 and later operate his own firm from 1996 until 2015. At Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman, Klein said the partners asked him not to leap into politics. But Klein was determined to take a shot at a legislative seat. He would have to challenge the Democratic machine to get it.

BRONX POLITICS WAS often carefully choreographed in the 1990s.

In 1994, Assemblyman George Friedman sponsored a bill creating a new state Supreme Court judgeship in the Bronx. As chairman of the Bronx Democratic Party, Friedman oversaw the nominating convention where

he was named the party candidate, a sequence of events all but ensuring his election, a New York Times editorial bemoaned.

Given the timing, it also left his Assembly seat vacant after the primary, leaving the choice of nominee to the local committee.

“Those are usually closed affairs and boss controlled,” Sabini told City & State in a recent interview.

Klein was not the heir apparent. So, Klein did what Klein does best.

“He visited all these little old county committee people and went to their living rooms and told them he wanted to be their assemblyman,” Sabini said. “And the other candidate just took it for granted.”

When the committee voted on the nominee, Klein won. His challenger didn’t know what hit him.

“He just outworked the other guy. That was it!” Sabini said. “Ambition is a funny thing in politics. If you have too much am-

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

bition, a certain amount of people don’t like you. But you can’t fault him for ambition.”

Klein’s passion for politics spills into all areas of his life, blurring the distinction between what is personal and what is political – he is dating a fellow senator, after all. But a closer look at a different relationship helps show how symbiotic those worlds are for Klein.

Albanian-American real estate developer Mark Gjonaj says he first met Klein in the early 1990s, at the dawn of Klein’s legislative career. Gjonaj served as a liaison to the area’s ethnic Albanian enclave and a conduit to the city’s politically powerful real estate community, former state Senate staffers say. At some point, Klein and Gjonaj became fishing buddies and “social friends,” Gjonaj said.

Gjonaj, however, was a stalwart Republican supporter, doling out contributions to longtime incumbent state Sen. Guy Velella while he was being investigated for corruption, and well after he was indicted for it – Velella

a property that Gjonaj had purchased for $280,000 the previous June. City records show no major improvements were made to the house during that time and market value estimates place the property at $299,300.

Alan Blass, a forensic accountant and former deputy chief investigative auditor for the New York City Department of Investigation, finds the transaction suspect. Blass cited two elements that make the sale unusual: The fact that the sale price was so much higher and the fact that Gjonaj did not do it through his real estate business. By buying and selling the house in his own name, he would pay more in taxes, Blass noted.

Gjonaj’s spokesman said not to read too much into the transaction. “Mark originally purchased the home for his family but ultimately decided to list the property for sale on the open market. Jeff Klein purchased the home,” said Gjonaj spokesperson Reginald Johnson. Gjonaj also made minor improvements, he noted.

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Most recently, Klein helped muster support for Gjonaj’s New York City Council election, with Gjonaj’s campaign raising and spending far more than any in city council history: $1.3 million.

Klein, former state Senate staffers note, has long been a friend to real estate interests, well beyond his relationship to Gjonaj, and the real estate lobby has been very good to him in turn.

A breakdown of Klein’s campaign contributions by broad industry shows that real estate is by far his largest industry donor, having given $1.2 million from 2000 to 2016, according to data collected by the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The Real Estate Board of New York’s political action committee alone gave $15,000 to Klein and $100,000 to the IDC’s campaign fund – the PAC’s largest contribution in 2017, according to state Board of Elections filings. REBNY gave $41,000 to other individual IDC members, which adds up to $156,000, or more

THE SENATOR AT A COMMUNITY GATHERING.

eventually pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy.

In 2000, Democratic candidate Lorraine Coyle Koppell challenged Velella, highlighting that he was under criminal investigation.

“I’m a Democrat and I'm supporting Lorraine Koppell,” then-Assemblyman Klein told the Times. “But Guy Velella and I work together well. We get things done.”

Klein promised to support Koppell at first, but never followed through in any way, said Koppell, whose husband, G. Oliver Koppell, later ran against Klein. Velella won that election, but when he entered a guilty plea in May 2004, during the runup to that year’s election, Klein was there to capitalize by running.

Two months before, Klein had decided to buy a new house. On March 23, 2004, he signed a deed to pay Gjonaj $500,000 for

Klein’s spokesperson Giove also shared mortgage documents that show the house was appraised privately for $550,000. Further, Giove denied that Gjonaj and Klein were even friends at the time, and said that Klein worked with a real estate agent and was not in direct contact with Gjonaj about the purchase of the property.

It remains unclear how the home’s sale price increased by 78 percent in under a year.

The record shows Klein and Gjonaj went on to boost each other’s political fortunes.

Although, Giove notes, not exclusively. Klein supported Gjonaj’s 2012 Assembly race opponent Naomi Rivera and Gjonaj did make a $500 donation to Velella, a Republican, after the sale, in May 2004, she said. Beginning in 2006, however, Gjonaj and his family gave $9,500 in campaign contributions and have remained stalwart supporters of Klein.

than a quarter of the PAC’s contributions last year.

A significant amount of these campaign contributions were spent on food, which seems understandable for a man who is always talking shop. Nevertheless, last year’s restaurant bills were impressive.

Klein spent $44,000 at restaurants, compared to Republican Majority Leader John Flanagan’s tab of just $7,787, according to the New York Post.

But Klein’s defenders said that he’s nothing like the leaders that his power-sharing coalition supplanted when a series of corruption indictments rained down on Albany over the last decade.

“I see very little similarities between Malcolm Smith, John Sampson, and Jeff Klein,” Sabini said. “Very little.”

Klein is indeed very different than the

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fallen leaders who left him standing atop the Capitol’s power structure. But he was there when they fell and he knew them well.

“I’M THE FIRST Democrat to represent this district in 100 years,” Klein said with satisfaction. “I flipped a seat from Republican to Democrat. And the minute I got there, yeah, I wanted a Democratic majority because I wanted to get things done. The majority was certainly the place to be.”

In short order, Klein became the deputy minority leader, took over the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and raised millions of dollars. Come 2008, the Democrats went from being behind by six seats to taking a two-seat majority in the state Senate for the first time since 1964. Spirits were high and visions of legislative victories filled party leaders’ speeches.

Reality was not kind to the optimists.

“We got nothing. It was fight among ourselves,” Klein said, frustrated even by the memory of living under that regime. “Hate to say it, but most of the leadership from that time is now in jail, whether it’s Carl Kruger, John Sampson, Pedro Espada.”

“I know some people say I was the leadership. Well, I was a deputy,” Klein said with a shrug. “But the way our system works, whether we like it or not, it’s the leader that calls the shots.”

And at that time, Klein was not a top Senate leader – not yet.

That year, the party gave him the unenviable task of wrangling a rebellious group of four senators – Espada, Kruger, Hiram Monserrate and Ruben Diaz, Sr – who rejected Democratic leader Malcolm Smith and keeping them in the Democratic fold. As it turned out, with the exception of Klein and Diaz, every one of those men would be found guilty of a felony within 6 years.

“One of the worst things that happened was the coup with Pedro Espada,” Klein said, referring to the parliamentary maneuver Espada used to unseat Smith. “I still fought on and wanted to keep the (Democratic) majority, it was very, very difficult.” And fleeting.

Republicans took back the state Senate in 2010. The Democratic leadership stripped Klein of his role as party strategist and he resigned the deputy minority leader post.

But he had a plan.

“I started thinking about some type of coalition or a better way to work between both sides of the aisle about a year after the coup,” Klein said. But seeing senators he’d worked so hard to elect in traditionally Republican districts meet defeat in 2010 hit him hard.

“These were solid people and took a risk and won seats that were Republican seats,”

February 5, 2018

Klein said. The Democratic leadership failed to appreciate their politically precarious positions.

The party needed better leadership, he thought, and an independent conference was needed. He wasn’t the only one who thought so.

A core group of breakaway Democrats – Klein, Savino, state Sen. David Valesky and state Sen. David Carlucci – would go on to form the Independent Democratic Conference, or the IDC. “The hyper-partisan gridlock that we see in Washington virtually every day of the week, that’s what New York was like,” Valesky told me during a recent interview in his cavernous corner office in the Capitol building.

“There’s got to be a better way,’” Valesky remembered telling Klein at the time. “This just isn’t working.”

“I don’t think it’s necessarily tacking to the middle. It’s knowing what you’re able to get done and what you can’t,” Klein said. He and Cuomo are similar that way. “He’s very results oriented, I’m very results oriented,” Klein said.

“If he can have someone work on the Republicans to be more focused on core Democratic issues like the $15 minimum wage, like paid family leave, like Raise the Age…” Klein said, listing his accomplishments.

Looking at the more than 60 signed bills posted like trophies on the wall of Klein’s conference room, just a few dozen paces from the Republican majority leader’s office, even a diehard party loyalist might be left wondering if Klein has a point.

But in the era of President Donald Trump, calls for party loyalty have grown to a frenzied pitch among grassroots progressive activists. Groups like True Blue NY and NO IDC NY have a stated goal of attacking Democrats who aren’t liberal enough.

The IDC is near the top of their list for breaking ranks with mainline Democrats and sharing power with the Republicans, but there’s another New York state senator on whom Klein would have them focus their ire.

Sen. Simcha Felder is the man who truly tips the balance of power in the Senate towards the Republicans, Klein says. Felder, a political curiosity, ran successfully on the Democratic, Conservative and Republican lines in the past election.

At the moment, with two Democratic seats vacant, the current Senate math works out to 21 mainline Democrats, 31 Republicans, 8 IDC members, and Felder. Even if the IDC and Felder switched teams to align with the Democrats, the Republicans would

retain the majority 31-30 – at least until special elections in April.

But Felder, technically a Democrat but really an unapologetic party heretic who caucuses directly with the Republicans, admits that he and Klein don’t interact much.

When asked about the balance of power in the Senate, Felder said that everyone is “fighting over power, stature, leveraging, doing a lot of the things that I’m trying to do.”

“I think everyone would agree that the reason that it hasn’t changed is because of personality disagreements between some of the leadership of the Democratic caucus and the IDC,” Felder said.

While there are long-simmering tensions between Deputy Democratic Conference Leader Sen. Michael Gianaris and Klein – although they once enjoyed each other’s company in adjacent Assembly seats – many political observers argue that Cuomo could put an end to the IDC’s rebellion if he decided it was worth the political capital.

Considering Cuomo’s presidential ambitions for 2020, he may be deciding just that.

Over the summer, there were reports that members of New York’s congressional delegation had chastised the governor for allowing the IDC to persist, followed by more reports rippling through Albany that Cuomo was trying to reunite Klein’s conference with mainline Democrats, perhaps to appease those who will anoint the party’s next presidential candidate.

The first reports of IDC primary challengers surfaced in October, when a press report named Alessandra Biaggi as a potential Klein opponent. And for those who see the governor’s fingerprints on the backside of every political transaction, there’s an intriguing conspiracy theory.

Stringing together the timeline of key events surrounding Biaggi’s candidacy, her ties to the Democratic establishment, and the breaking news of the sexual harassment scandal, there’s a slew of coincidences.

On Dec. 28, Biaggi bought the domain name for her campaign website at what would have been about the same time Erica Vladimer said she told state Sen. Liz Kreuger, a Democrat, that she was coming forward with the allegations that an unnamed lawmaker forcibly kissed her. On Jan. 2, Biaggi registered as a candidate. On Jan. 4, the HuffPost contacted Klein about Vladimer’s allegations. On Jan. 6, Biaggi paid for a website template and the site went live on Jan. 9, Biaggi said. On Jan. 10, the scandal broke as Klein hosted the conference call with reporters and the HuffPost published

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

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“I DON’T THINK IT’S NECESSARILY TACKING TO THE MIDDLE. IT’S KNOWING WHAT YOU’RE ABLE TO GET DONE AND WHAT YOU CAN’T.” its story. The next day, on Jan. 11, Biaggi launched a social media campaign, making Vladimer’s sexual assault allegations a central part of her political attack.

Now, consider that Biaggi’s previous employer was Cuomo, and before that Hillary Clinton, and before that Joe Crowley. Coincidence?

“Yes,” said Biaggi earnestly. “Literally, not one person on this earth … nobody, no one” told her in advance about the Erica Vladimer story, she said. It was simply luck of another order. Perhaps it was preordained? “Those are your words,” she said, laughing.

As she spoke about Klein, the 31-year old lawyer’s buoyancy dissipated, giving way to cutting words. She has no appreciation for his politics, and no respect for his power-brokering with Republicans.

“He’s not a diplomat. He’s a traitor,” she said with ice in her voice. “And it’s time to bring light to that.” Her campaign does not have the institutional backing of the Democratic Party, she admits, or the $2 million war chest Klein currently holds. Still, she noted with quiet confidence, she will raise money and fight on.

“There are other important endorsements that will make this fight winnable,” Biaggi said coyly.

Back in October, the news of Biaggi’s likely run seemed like little more than an

annoyance to Klein.

“We hear a lot of talk about IDC primaries,” Klein said. “Do you know of one candidate they’ve recruited against a Republican?

Not one,” he said, drawing comparisons to the days of Democratic dysfunction before the IDC. “That’s all it’s about. Just a circular firing squad.”

To date, a majority of the IDC members will have primary challengers.

But for Klein in particular, the sexual assault allegations may pose a vexing political challenge as the September primaries loom higher on the horizon. There’s a broader cultural calculus afoot in the #MeToo movement which has toppled the careers of U.S. senators – why not a New York state senator?

A dozen former and current lawmakers, legislative staffers, and others who have spent time with Klein all agreed that they were unsure if the allegations were true or not. Anyone is capable, many said, even as they noted that they had never witnessed any similar behavior from Klein.

Two elements of Vladimer’s account stuck in people’s minds. The first was that she immediately told a friend at the time. The second was that so few people would lie about something like this because, they reasoned, what do you really have to gain?

Kathleen Peratis, a lawyer specializing in

sexual harassment cases for law firm Outten & Golden, agrees with those instincts.

“The fact that she reported it to friends in real time adds credibility to her story,” Peratis said. “Also, she is not looking for money, and that too adds to her credibility.”

Until JCOPE issues its findings, at least, Klein’s political fate appears secure.

WITH NO SHORTAGE of political foes who continue to scrutinize his 30 years of political gamesmanship, where has he slipped up?

I asked Klein back in October, what he considers to be his biggest mistake.

“Mistake?” Klein said, a bit thrown.

I kept it broad: Anything between now and fifth grade?

“He doesn’t make mistakes,” said Giove, the former Post reporter who once wrote an article calling him a “turncoat Democrat.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “You know, I ran for the Assembly and I won. I ran for the Senate. I won. I continued to get re-elected.

Uh. You know, I flirted with higher office.

At one point I was looking to run for attorney general. I decided to run for Senate instead, you know, two years before. I’m very happy with how we’ve conducted ourselves.”

He paused again and squinted.

“Bad mistake? Mistakes in politics, you mean?” he said, going quiet. “I could think about it.”

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2018 Sta Legislative 14

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City & State New York

It’s shaping up to be an unusual year in Albany.

State officials are confronting the impact of the Trump administration that some say is hostile to New York’s interests. For the first time in years, the state is facing a multibillion-dollar budget gap. And more than ever, Gov. Andrew Cuomo appears to be positioning himself for a run for president in 2020.

In other ways, things are much the same.

Already, two state lawmakers are facing allegations of wrongdoing, one involving corruption and the other sexual misconduct.

Several former state officials will be tried (or retried) this year, with the trial of Joe Percoco, the governor’s former right-hand man, already underway. And it’s an election year, so everybody will be itching to wrap up their legislative affairs early and get out on the campaign trail.

But lest anyone forget, there’s also a long list of legislative proposals to be debated and, in some cases, passed. In the state budget, which is due at the end of March, there are the perennial questions about how much to spend on health care and education. The battle lines are being drawn over a proposal to address New York City’s neglected subway system by instituting congestion pricing. And there are plenty of other issues on the table as well, including payroll taxes, property taxes, sexual harassment, bail reform and much more.

In this special state legislative preview, we summarize dozens of key proposals put forth by the governor and state lawmakers, and offer the latest updates on where they’re at – and where they’re going.

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February 5, 2018

HEALTH CARE

RAISING RATES? Bipartisan concerns raised about Cuomo’s plan to tax health insurance industry

LISA S., CREATISTA, JAAOKUN/ SHUTTERSTOCK

By REBECCA C. LEWIS

IN THE COMING fiscal year, New York faces a $4.4 billion state budget shortfall, looming cuts from the federal government thanks to the new tax law and potential threats to health care spending from Republicans in Congress.

One significant way Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed to address those concerns is by turning to the health insurance industry to get some extra cash. He suggests doing this through a new 14 percent windfall tax on health insurers to address the estimated 40 percent cut they are expected to get under the federal tax law, and by taking a cut of the proceeds from nonprofit to for-profit insurance conversions to create a health care shortfall fund.

This isn’t the first time Cuomo turned to the health care industry to help close a deficit. In 2011, when the state faced a $10 billion deficit, Cuomo worked together with the sector to create a Medicaid Redesign

Team in order to find ways to cut costs and control spending growth.

But this year, health insurers feel like they have been left out in the cold.

“Health plans feel that they have really stepped up to the plate to be partners with the state in terms of its ambitious Medicaid reform programs … setting up the health insurance exchange, which is held out there as a model for the nation for its successes in terms of reducing the number of uninsured and increasing access to quality insurance for people,” said Leslie Moran, senior vice president with the New York Health Plan Association. “And we feel like … it diminishes the partnership, it diminishes the efforts, the plans (that we) have put forward to help New York state realize its goals.”

Moran added that although health insurers will see some benefit from the federal tax cut for corporations, it doesn’t necessarily translate to the state level, as New York already im-

poses steep taxes on the industry. She said if the state tax goes through, the costs will likely get passed on to the insured, increasing premiums and health insurance costs overall.

State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle raised similar concerns.

Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, who chairs the Insurance Committee, acknowledged that lowering the federal corporate tax rate could potentially result in runaway profits for the health insurance industry. But the Democratic lawmaker said that rather than imposing a new tax, the state should simply let the health plans translate their savings to customers through lower prices.

“When people identify those things they cannot afford in New York state, they come up with three things: the cost of housing, the cost of taxes and the cost of health insurance,” Cahill said. “And if we are going to add a New York state tax to health insurance, we should fully expect that that will

LISA S., CREATISTA, JAAOKUN/ SHUTTERSTOCK

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

HEALTH CARE ISSUES Women’s health

Cuomo’s budget advances his women’s agenda with several items on women’s health. The first would codify the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade into state law to safeguard New York abortion rights regardless of federal action. Another measure would protect a women’s right to contraception and create a maternal mortality review board within the state Department of Health to review every maternal death in the state. The U.S. has the worst maternal death rate of any developed nation, and New York ranked 30th in the country in 2016 with a rate of 20.9 maternal deaths per 100,000 births.

Opioid abuse

Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed a surcharge of two cents per milligram of the active opioid ingredient in prescription drugs, which would raise an estimated $127 million in the first year. The money would go to a new Opioid Prevention and Rehabilitation Fund, which would expand prevention, treatment and recovery services. But the Empire Center for Public Policy’s Bill Hammond points out that the budget only increases overall spending on alcohol and drug treatment by $18 million. He told City & State this appears to mean that Cuomo is simply shifting revenue sources without increasing spending by much – although the budget also adds $26 million for the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.

Recreational marijuana

Easing his opposition to recreational marijuana, Cuomo proposed a state-funded study on the impact of regulating the drug for wider, legal use. This proposal aligns Cuomo closer with Democrats in the state Legislature, who have been trying to pass the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act since 2013. Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a bill co-sponsor, told City & State that while he believes the available information is enough to legalize the drug for regulated recreational use, he saw the study as a step in the right direction.

Safe staffing

The Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act, which has been bouncing around the state Legislature since 2010, is on the docket again this year. It passed the Assembly in 2016, the furthest the bill has made it, but failed to come to a vote in the state Senate. The legislation, which has been a top priority for the New York State Nurses Association for years, would create a nurse-to-patient ratio to ensure nurses are not overworked and patients receive better care. However, it faces opposition from hospitals and business groups.

Medicaid redesign

The budget continues to advance the work of and implement the recommendations of the state’s Medicaid Redesign Team established in 2011. Many of the recommendations are aimed at helping those with long-term care needs and addressing Medicaid’s aging population, and include controlling drug prices. One new proposal is meant to support Medicaid’s youngest users through the First 1,000 Days on Medicaid initiative. The 10-point plan would provide better access to services for all children covered by Medicaid and improve their health outcomes through initiatives like statewide home visits for expectant mothers.

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wind up coming out of the ratepayers’ pocket rather than the shareholders’ pocket.”

Cahill suggested that the state should instead look at spreading that windfall tax among a number of corporations that will also see a benefit under the federal plan, so it doesn’t only target health insurers. He said this would also allow for lower tax rates by spreading out the burden.

State Sen. Catharine Young, who chairs the Finance Committee, said Republicans are opposed to any tax hikes because they take the state in the wrong direction. State Senate Insurance Committee Chairman James Seward, a fellow Republican, said he instead favors recently introduced legislation that would require health insurers to pass on the savings they get from the federal tax cut to policyholders through rate reductions or refunds.

“This measure, in my mind, both protects a significant segment of our economy and also protects consumers,” Seward said.

“And so that’s the approach we’d like to take in the Senate, let’s return that money to health insurance premium payers.”

Bill Hammond, director of health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy, said the main problem with the governor’s tax pro-

February 5, 2018

posal is that it keeps revenue for health care “in the family” by taxing the industry, when it should be coming from multiple sources.

“I feel like that it’s one of the reasons why we have some of the most expensive health insurance in the country, so I don’t see it as a healthy way to go,” Hammond said.

Fewer details are known about the governor’s second major revenue source: money taken from health insurance conversions.

Cuomo expects to garner $750 million per year from those conversions, with $500 million earmarked for Medicaid and the rest going into a shortfall fund in the event of significant federal funding cuts.

Currently, the only deal the public currently knows about is Centene Corp.’s plan to buy the nonprofit insurer Fidelis Care for $3.75 billion. The Citizens Budget Commission noted that this is an uncertain revenue stream that relies on conversions that might not happen, thus potentially widening the budget shortfall.

Cahill had no problem with the state benefiting from such conversions if they do happen. The way he sees it, a large portion of nonprofit health insurance income is derived from public sources, so it only makes sense for the public to see some of

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the money when they convert to a for-profit company.

“The question is not whether this company is going to convert, because I believe that under the current law, the state can’t stop them from converting,” Cahill said. “What we can do, however, is regulate where the proceeds of that sale benefit. Will it benefit the public, or will it benefit entities associated with the parties involved in the transaction?”

Seward said the conversion fee remains an open question in the state Senate, since details are still sparse. Young added that state Senate Republicans are not opposed to the conversion fee, but similarly said they are still awaiting further details.

However, Moran warned the conversion fee would increase the price of doing business, potentially limiting a practice she said benefits New Yorkers.

“Some of the reasons plans look to convert from not-for-profit to for-profit are things like it significantly increases a plan’s ability to access capital, which allows them to then invest in the community and build on their existing infrastructure,” Moran said. “If you don’t have increased access to capital, your ability to grow your business and to improve services to your members is greatly curtailed.”

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Healthcare improvement is no accident.

According to the 2017 America’s Health Rankings report, New York improved its overall health ranking more than any state over the past five years.

New Yorkers are living longer, healthier lives thanks in part to years of hospital improvements in critical areas like smoking cessation, immunizations, obesity, and mortality due to cancer.

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February 5, 2018

EDUCATION

THE SCHOOL AID DANCE After Cuomo calls for belt-tightening, New York’s Board of Regents looks to lawmakers for more school aid

ANDREW KIST

By MONICA DISARE, CHALKBEAT NEW YORK

STATE BOARD OF REGENTS CHANCELLOR BETTY ROSA, LEFT, WITH STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER MARYELLEN ELIA.

SHORTLY AFTER Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed a modest increase in school spending, the state’s top education policymakers began plotting ways to secure more funding.

State Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa rallied her fellow board members at a meeting last month, urging them to shift their focus to the state Legislature, which must negotiate a final budget with the governor. She said the board should come up with a unified plan for pressuring lawmakers, adding that state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia would continue to make the case for more funding in public, and in private conversations with legislators.

“Now the question becomes: What else can we do to continue to move that agenda forward?” Rosa said to the group. “I’d like us to do it in a collective kind of way so that it doesn’t become a free-for-all.”

In the 2018 spending plan that Cuomo released last month, he proposed a $769 million increase in education funding – less than half the amount that the Board of Regents had called for. Rosa and Elia issued a

statement soon after the budget was released and said they were “concerned.”

They may face an uphill battle as they prepare to urge lawmakers to haggle for more school aid. New York is staring down a projected $4.4 billion budget deficit, responding to a federal tax overhaul that could limit the state’s ability to raise revenue and bracing for the possibility of further federal cuts.

Even as the Regents got set to resist Cuomo’s spending plan, Elia pushed back against another one of the governor’s proposals.

In his budget plan, Cuomo suggested that the state education department and his budget office be given final approval of local school district budgets. The added oversight is meant to ensure that the neediest schools receive their fair share of funding, but Elia raised concerns that it could usurp local officials’ authority.

“I think there’s some concerns, clearly, on someone from (the state education department) and/or the division of budget – separated from a school and their community – saying you can’t do something on your budget,” Elia told reporters outside the Regents meeting.

Now that the governor has submitted his budget, lawmakers in each chamber will craft counteroffers. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has already signaled that he wants a sizeable increase in school funding this year. But state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan has spoken in general terms about spending restraint.

The Board of Regents is also pushing for extra funding for specific purposes, such as support for students learning English. The board had called for an additional $85 million for English learners this year, but the request did not make it into the governor’s budget.

Regent Luis Reyes, a longtime advocate for English learners, asked how the board can ensure that this goal does not get lost in the shuffle. “How do we spend the rest of January, February and March publicly and/or privately to get this pillar to be built and not to be dismantled?” he asked.

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Chalkbeat New York is a nonprofit news organization covering the effort to improve schools for all children, especially those who have historically lacked access to a quality education.

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

ANDREW KIST

EDUCATION ISSUES

Pre-K expansion

The executive budget includes $15 million for expanding prekindergarten, adding to the $800 million the state already spends annually. That falls short of the $20 million expansion the state Board of Regents requested.

The investment would provide instruction to an estimated 3,000 more 3- and 4-year-olds in high-need school districts. Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched the state pre-K program in 2013, which currently has 123,000 students enrolled, and has expanded it every year since.

Student hunger

Cuomo proposed the No Student Goes Hungry Program to provide students with healthy, locally sourced meals at school to fight child hunger. The initiative includes legislation to ban a practice known as “lunch shaming,” in which schools single out students unable to pay by serving them other, usually lower-quality food. It also would expand access to school breakfast for students from low-income families.

Tech training

Cuomo’s budget would spend another $6 million on student access to computer science and engineering education. The Smart Start program would award grants to train teachers

in those fields and to provide resources to teach students.

The program also includes legislation that would create model computer science standards. The initiative goes hand in hand with a program from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to train every student in the basics of computer science.

Higher education

The upcoming fiscal year marks the second phase of Cuomo’s Excelsior Scholarship, which adjusts the eligibility threshold for students to receive free tuition to public universities to households making up to $110,000 per year. Cuomo’s budget also includes a plan to address student loan debt, including a new student loan ombudsman and a requirement that schools notify students with updates on their incurred loans as well as other protections.

DREAM Act

While debate rages in Washington over the federal DREAM Act, Cuomo’s executive budget proposal includes legislation to implement the state version of the DREAM Act, which would help thousands of undocumented immigrants in New York gain access to higher education by making them eligible for the Excelsior Scholarship, the Tuition Assistance Program and other state scholarships.

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February 5, 2018

ENERGY

GORAN BOGICEVIC/SHUTTERSTOCK

ENERGETIC CHANGE: CUOMO TAKES AIM AT ESCOs

By JEFF COLTIN

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO’S looking for new revenue streams to plug the state budget gap, and one way he’s trying to scrape together some extra cash is to end a tax break for companies that supply energy.

Energy service companies, or ESCOs, provide electricity and natural gas to residential and business customers, which is then delivered through utilities like Con Edison or National Grid. New York opened up the energy market to ESCOs in the early 2000s in an effort to give New Yorkers more options in how they get their energy and, hopefully, to drive down prices by introducing competition. To jumpstart the market, New York exempted them from paying sales tax.

Now the ESCO market is thriving, with some 200 companies providing electricity and gas across the state. The Cuomo administration has said the sales tax exemption is no longer necessary – and if the taxes are collected, the state expects it would initially bring $96 million into state coffers and $128 million in subsequent years.

But the energy companies aren’t happy.

“The existing tax exemption benefits customers, not ESCOs, by providing them with direct savings and encouraging a more competitive energy market, which is good for all consumers,” said Bryan Lee, spokesman for the Retail Energy Supply Association. “Eliminating the tax exemption for businesses would increase energy costs at precisely the wrong time.”

Others are have raised concerns about the ESCO market. A New York City ESCO was found to charge triple Con Edison’s rate

for electricity, and a Finger Lakes region ESCO charged eight times the going rate.

State regulators cracked down, banning them from selling to low-income customers.

Some 20 percent of residential energy customers buy from ESCOs. While some customers enjoy options like receiving only electricity from renewable sources, others are lured in by a promise of lower prices that are never delivered. A much higher rate of commercial and industrial customers also use ESCOs, and largely benefit from the market to fit their different energy needs.

But that isn’t enough to redeem ESCOs for AARP, which has been a major critic of the energy companies’ tactics.

“The ESCO industry kind of went off the rails. … These guys were employing many deceptive marketing practices all across the board in the residential marketplace,” said Bill Ferris, AARP’s state legislative representative in New York. “It’s an industry that in large part has failed in New York.

So if the governor believes that he wants to take away a tax break for them, we’re not going to argue for or against it.”

ESCOs could merely add the new tax to customers’ bills, further increasing prices.

Ferris said he isn’t sure they will do that, since the companies are benefiting from the recently passed federal tax law, which cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

Arthur “Jerry” Kremer, a former assemblyman who is now chairman of the trade group New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance, argued that customers would suffer from the change.

“If the ESCOs lose the tax exemption, they pass this on to the consumer, and the consumer is paying for it, whether it’s direct or indirect,” Kremer said. “I understand what (the Cuomo administration is) trying to do with ESCOs, since they are somewhat controversial, but it’s just another burden for the utility payer.”

A major state business group found the proposal unfair as well.

“I don’t know how anybody could think it was good for consumers,” said Darren Suarez, director of government affairs for the Business Council of New York State, which opposes the measure. “This is basically the imposition of a tax where there isn’t a tax now, for a product where there’s no change.”

Cuomo would have to get support from the state Senate and Assembly to repeal the exemption. Michael Cusick, Democratic chairman of the Assembly Energy Committee, could not be reached for comment.

State Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee Chairman Joseph Griffo was noncommittal.

“We are busy reviewing, examining and evaluating all of the governor’s proposals at this time,” Griffo said in a statement. “I am sure that there will be counterproposals and modifications to the governor’s proposed spending plan as the process moves along.”

Cuomo’s proposal does have precedent. New York City eliminated the ESCO sales tax exemption in 2009, and consumer advocates called on the state at that time to do the same. Nine years later, it may happen.

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City & State New York

February 5, 2018

23

GORAN BOGICEVIC/SHUTTERSTOCK

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Plastic bag fees

A year and a half after the New York City Council passed a 5-cent plastic bag fee to discourage their use, and a year after the state Legislature blocked it from going into effect, environmentalists who backed the measure are still waiting for a resolution. A state task force couldn’t settle on one recommendation, so it provided eight possible solutions. And don’t expect lawmakers to be eager to narrow it down. In January, state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan called the bag fee “just idiotic.”

Environmental initiatives

The budget continues the $2.5 billion investment from the Clean Water Infrastructure Act that was passed last year.

Together with the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act, a municipal grant program to improve water quality, it will fund investments in wastewater, source water protection and initiatives to combat harmful algal blooms upstate.

There are also plans to repair the Niagara Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant. After a discharge incident in July, the state Department of Environmental Conservation started an investigation that will be followed by an overhaul to improve the infrastructure of the facility and the wastewater system. Cuomo’s executive budget also maintains a record $300 million for the state’s Environmental Protection Fund.

Pension fund divestment

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has fielded calls to divest the state pension fund from fossil fuels for years, but he’s resisted. Environmentalists say the state’s supporting an industry that’s bad for the planet, but DiNapoli thinks it’s better to have a seat at the table where the state can nudge companies in the right direction. But now a new voice is asking the comptroller to divest: Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The pair will form an advisory committee to discuss divesting the $200 billion fund, so expect real debate behind the scenes.

Energy storage

Cuomo announced an energy storage initiative that would deploy an estimated 1,500 megawatts of energy storage by 2025 – and employ an estimated 30,000 New Yorkers. To achieve this goal and drive down costs, the budget included an investment of at least $200 million from the New York Green Bank toward strategic energy deployment along the electric grid.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority would also contribute $60 million to help with various barriers, including customer acquisition and interconnection.

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CityAndStateNY.com

February 5, 2018

INFRASTRUCTURE

CONGESTION PRICING WINNERS & LOSERS

BRAVOKILOVIDEO/SHUTTERSTOCK

By GRACE SEGERS

AS IF GOING to Manhattan wasn’t expensive enough. The Fix New York City panel, which was convened by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in October, has released its congestion pricing proposal for implementing tolls in Manhattan’s central business district. This would reduce traffic and create a dedicated revenue stream to repair the ailing subway system.

The cordon would exist below 60th Street and would be applied at street, bridge and tunnel crossings into the zone, but would not include the FDR Drive above the Brooklyn Bridge. The $11.52 toll would be one-way, and the price is derived from the two-way charge of $5.76 that is the average toll rate for MTA and Port Authority tolled tunnels. Here are the winners and losers of this congestion pricing plan – if legislation based on the Fix New York City report is proposed and passed.

WINNERS Public transportation riders – Straphangers have suffered signal problems, derailments and increasingly bad service for years, but an injection of around $1 billion per year from this congestion

pricing plan, dedicated specifically to service improvements, could ease the pain. The revenue would also be used to improve bus service, which could be aided by decreased congestion and a crackdown on traffic violations, such as driving in the bus lane. Buses would be exempt from the toll.

Move NY campaign – Alex Matthiessen, the director of the Move NY campaign, which has long advocated for congestion pricing, led a conference call in support of the Fix New York City report.

After years of struggling to get congestion pricing considered as a viable option for reducing traffic and funding the subway system, the Move NY campaign finally has a proposal to rally behind.

Low-income New Yorkers – An argument often made against congestion pricing is that low-income New Yorkers who use cars to commute into Manhattan would be disproportionately burdened by adding a toll. However, census data cited by the report suggested that fewer than 5,000 residents who use cars to commute into Manhattan could be considered working poor, and the Fix New York City

panel recommended adding a tax benefit for low-income New Yorkers who must commute by car. Meanwhile, the 190,000 working poor who use the subways and buses could benefit from repairs paid for by the congestion pricing plan.

LOSERS Truck drivers – After the congestion pricing technology is installed, there will be a period of time that the toll only applies to trucks before it affects all vehicles. This makes truck drivers guinea pigs, as it gives officials time to work out any issues. Truck drivers will also be paying $25.34 for each trip into the central business district, which is a big chunk of change, even by Manhattan standards.

Taxis and ride-hailing vehicles – The good news: If you’re a taxi or Uber driver, you don’t have to pay the toll below 60th Street. The bad news: there will be an extra charge for riding in a taxi or ride-hailing vehicle in the central business district and even further uptown. The report proposes a range of surcharges from $2 to $5 below 96th Street, depending on the day of the week and the time.

BRAVOKILOVIDEO/SHUTTERSTOCK

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

Parking placard abusers – The panel recommended an overhaul of the city’s system of handing out placards that exempt the recipient from certain parking rules, with the creation of a review board to assess existing parking placards and the criteria for handing out new ones. Parking placard abuse increases congestion in Manhattan’s central business district, as many holders park illegally in bus lanes or loading zones.

So if you’re one of the 114,600 New York City employees with parking placards, your days of parking obnoxiously may be numbered.

Mayor Bill de Blasio – The mayor has voiced his opposition to congestion pricing, but he could have his wishes overruled if the state Legislature decides to pass a version of Fix New York City’s proposals. Ultimately, the state – and not the city – controls all taxes and tolls. De Blasio has also been reluctant to pay for half of an $836 million plan to fund emergency subway fixes, which is required for the first phase of the Fix New York City plan. In an interview with “The Brian Lehrer Show,” de Blasio softened his opposition to congestion pricing, saying that the revenue would have to be used only to fix the subway and bus system to earn his support. But the mayor’s support, or lack thereof, may not matter very much.

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INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES NYC Subway Action Plan

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $836 million New York City Subway Action Plan was proposed last year to fix and improve the city’s ailing subway system. It also marks the latest development in the long feud between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Cuomo is demanding the city pony up half of the plan’s cost after he allocated $429 million for the state’s portion in his budget proposal. But the de Blasio administration has said it already pays plenty toward the MTA, and shouldn’t be asked to provide more funding for the state-run agency.

Gateway rail tunnel

The proposed rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey has hit a number of speed bumps. Earlier this year, the Trump administration backed out of covering half the cost of the $13 billion project. That decision came after New York and New Jersey had reached an agreement

on funding the project. The plan suffered another blow when Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen announced he was stepping down. The New Jersey Republican chaired the House Appropriations Committee and has been a prominent voice in trying to win Trump’s support.

But transit officials remain hopeful the project will still come to fruition.

Design-build

According to Cuomo’s budget, the state saved $31.8 million through design-build construction, a procurement method that bundles the designing and building phases of a construction project into one package to save money and streamline completion. Cuomo has proposed new legislation that would expand design-build authorization to a limited number of state agencies – but not to New York City.

The biggest state design-build project is the replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge with the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. However, last year, Cuomo failed to persuade state lawmakers to authorize an expansion.

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CityAndStateNY.com

February 5, 2018

LABOR

KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

HOW THE FEDERAL TAX LAW COULD HURT NEW YORK’S PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS

By GRACE SEGERS

WAYNE SPENCE IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FEDERATION.

IN HIS State of the State address on Jan. 3, Gov. Andrew Cuomo affirmed his commitment to New York’s union workers, saying that the state “must do all in our power to protect collective bargaining, the right to organize and preserve workers’ rights.”

Cuomo was referring to the U.S. Supreme Court case Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which could prohibit mandatory fees to unions from government workers who decline to join them. However, public sector unions in New York may also be facing another threat in the long term, in contract negotiations with the state.

New York is facing considerable fiscal challenges, including a projected $4.4 billion budget deficit and impacts from the new federal tax law, which limits the state and local property and income tax deduction to $10,000.

This could affect the state’s revenue stream, as many wealthy New Yorkers who form the base of the state economy would no longer be able to deduct their high property and income taxes. The federal government may also pay for the $1.5 trillion tax reform law by cutting funding to programs used by the state.

E.J. McMahon, the research director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, said the impact on contract negotiations for most government employees would not be immediate, due to the delayed effects of the tax law and that no major negotiations are currently underway.

New York recently reached five-year agreements with the Civil Service Employees Association and District Council 37, providing annual salary increases from fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2021. The Public Employees Federation has a three-year collective bargaining agreement through 2019.

McMahon said there could be a lag effect, where the current economic situation does not influence negotiations until contracts are next renewed. This is comparable to union negotiations during Cuomo’s first term. Most state union contracts had been locked in with pay increases before the recession hit in late 2008. By the time Cuomo was negotiating contracts in 2011, the recession had taken its toll on the state’s finances.

“His state contracts in the first term for the unions was the hangover of the unions coasting through the recession with pay increases,” McMahon said, referring to the wage freezes implemented in 2011. Something similar may happen in 2021. If the effects on the federal tax law are as bad as Cuomo fears, then he may be more aggressive in negotiating union contracts and urge for a pay freeze.

McMahon noted that even the contracts negotiated this year may not be impacted by the tax overhaul because New Yorkers will not see changes to their federal taxes this April. The New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association and the New York State Police Investigators Association

are among the public employee unions with contract negotiations this year. The state is also still negotiating with the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association as well as the Police Benevolent Association of New York State.

Election year politics could also interfere with contract negotiations. Cuomo, who is seeking his third term, will want the support of labor and may be hesitant to restrict wages.

However, a deal reached before the election that does not factor in future fiscal issues and gives unrealistic pay increases could lead to greater problems for the state down the line.

Carol Kellermann, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said the state does not have a reserve specifically for union contracts. The long-term effects of the federal tax law and the state budget deficit could constrict the funds the state has available for negotiations.

“On the one hand, everybody should have an incentive to resolve the contracts now, and not have them be lurking around during the election,” Kellermann said. “On the other hand, there are a lot of unknowns about finances, and if the unions aren’t willing to be realistic and participate in cost saving (now) ... then they might drag on until after the election.”

But the longer the delay in reaching an agreement, the greater the fiscal stress on the state may be.

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KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

City & State New York

February 5, 2018

LABOR ISSUES Farmworker rights

In a blow to labor but a win for the agriculture industry, a New York court decided not to give farmworkers collective bargaining rights. The New York Civil Liberties Union brought a lawsuit last year that argued the lack of collective bargaining rights leads to discriminatory practices against largely immigrant farmworkers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo decided to not contest the suit, so the New York Farm Bureau stepped in. The judge in the case ultimately sided with the Farm Bureau, although the defendants are expected to appeal. State legislation has been introduced to extend collective bargaining rights to farmworkers, but it has died several times since 2009. It was reintroduced in the current legislative session by state Sen. Marisol Alcantara and Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan.

Preparing for the Janus ruling

At stake in the Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 case is the right of public unions to collect fees from nonmembers who still benefit from collective bargaining. Labor unions believe an unfavorable ruling in this case would cripple their ability to represent workers by eliminating a large

chunk of their revenue. The U.S. Supreme Court was expected to rule against labor unions in a similar case, until Antonin Scalia’s death two years ago ended in a split vote. Now, New York unions are once again bracing for an adverse ruling with Scalia’s replacement, Justice Neil Gorsuch, filling out the court. The decision could have a severe effect on organized labor.

Combating workplace harassment

A former staffer’s allegation against state Sen. Jeff Klein of sexual misconduct has brought the #MeToo movement to Albany, and the state Senate has reworked its decade-old workplace sexual harassment policy to expand its protections. The updated policy included a new line stating that false accusations could lead to firing or disciplinary actions, which was seen by state Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins as tone-deaf. For his part, Cuomo included legislation in his budget that would prevent taxpayer money to be used for settlements in sexual harassment lawsuits against public officials and create a dedicated unit within the Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate claims.

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CityAndStateNY.com

February 5, 2018

REAL ESTATE

TAXING TIMES PHILIP KAMRASS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

Cuomo aims at state property tax to insulate from federal attacks

By JEFF COLTIN

DUTCHESS COUNTY EXECUTIVE MARCUS MOLINARO AND GOV. ANDREW CUOMO IN 2017.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO hates the new federal tax law. He’s suing Washington for its “targeted assault” on New York and his administration’s best minds are working to insulate the state from the law’s effects. While the battle rages on, Cuomo is also fighting the tax war on a more local front against a less powerful opponent: municipal governments, and their multilayered bureaucracy.

If local governments issue lower property tax bills, the thinking goes that any changes from Washington could hurt less.

As Martha Stark, the policy director for Tax Equity Now New York, told City & State, “The $10,000 cap on state and local deductions won’t feel as bad if your property tax didn’t go up.”

The new federal tax law sets a $10,000 limit for the state and local tax deduction, meaning New Yorkers paying more than that in state and local taxes will be on the hook for more money than ever.

Cuomo fears the bigger tax bills will send more residents south to Florida, and he may have a hard time stopping them. Tax experts doubt the efficiency and legality of Cuomo’s tax workarounds and state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan isn’t eager to work with the governor.

Tackling local taxes may be easier.

Cuomo plans to do that through the County-Wide Shared Services Initiative.

Starting last year, the governor pushed counties to hold meetings about sharing

services like snowplowing, trash pickup and fire services across municipalities in order to save money. If the counties actually instituted the reforms, the state government would match the savings, further reducing the property taxes municipalities needed to charge to stay afloat.

The Cuomo administration said 34 of the state’s 62 counties took part last year, finding a total of more than $200 million in savings. Cuomo’s budget would give the counties equal to what they saved, and if that carrot isn’t enough, Cuomo also has a stick – he’s proposed withholding state aid unless counties continue to hold consolidation meetings. “We must do more,” the governor said in his State of the State address, “because property taxes are now toxic to our economy and our stability.”

One important voice is on board with the plan. “I’m such a believer in this consolidation,” said Democratic Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, who chairs the Real Property Taxation Committee.

“It’s not a huge amount of money probably for every municipality, but setting the tone for pulling ourselves together and saying, ‘Where can we save’ was certainly directed by the governor,” she said. “I give him great credit for kind of convincing localities to do that.”

But not everyone is a believer. Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro, a frequent Cuomo critic, has called the plan

“intrusive” and noted that 70 percent of his county’s spending is on unfunded mandates from state government. But the criticisms didn’t stop Molinaro from participating in the initiative, and Dutchess County expected to save $27 million by sharing services, including $600,000 alone from buying road salt as part of a cooperative, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal.

The initiative does not do anything for the 8.5 million residents of New York City, which already shares services across its five counties, but consolidation is just one of the ways Cuomo is trying to keep property taxes lower. The state will once again cover the cost for any growth in counties’ Medicaid costs, and all municipalities except New York City are again barred from raising property taxes by more than 2 percent in a given year without a local override vote. Cuomo is also continuing the property tax relief credit, an income-based refund of property taxes that, according to the state, sent an average check of $380 to 2.6 million New Yorkers. In turn, Cuomo is hoping to limit the increase in the school tax break, or STAR rebates.

The parties can expect to hear more dire language about the state and local tax deduction as the budget deadline nears.

“Our property taxes have long been an obstacle to growth,” Cuomo said in his State of the State address, “but today the federal SALT provision, it is an economic cancer.”

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City & State New York

February 5, 2018

PHILIP KAMRASS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

REAL ESTATE ISSUES

Property tax cap

Property taxes are effectively capped at 2 percent growth per year everywhere in the state except New York City.

State Senate Republicans love the fiscal discipline, and want to make the cap permanent statewide, and state Sen. Andrew Lanza has a bill that would put the five boroughs under the cap as well. New York City Democrats have never liked the idea, but the idea could gain more traction this year, amid growing fiscal fear. Meanwhile, New York City officials have continued to call for changes to the city’s unfair property tax system, although little progress has been made.

The “LLC loophole”

Campaign contributions from limited liability corporations aren’t treated like those from other businesses, meaning they can be used to subvert contribution limits and pour money into political campaigns – a popular tactic for real estate developers, who often control many LLCs. Cuomo’s been a big beneficiary, so many Democratic legislators have doubted his resolve in passing legislation to close the so-called “LLC loophole.” He listed it as a priority for the third straight year, but has

failed so far. A pending court case, however, could make legislative action unnecessary.

Scaffold Law

Critics of the Scaffold Law argue that New York is the only state in the country where construction contractors and property owners are fully liable when a worker gets hurt on a construction job, while supporters insist it’s essential to protect workers. The law also contributes to high building costs. Business groups and developers have been trying to repeal it for years, and even though Rep. John Faso has joined Assemblyman John McDonald on the case, change is unlikely after it was left out of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget.

Affordable housing

Cuomo spoke about the record number of homeless New Yorkers in his State of the State address, but his budget didn’t propose any additional spending for affordable housing beyond his five-year, $20 billion plan, now entering its third year. Still, he plans to allocate nearly $500 million this year to build affordable housing units, working toward the state’s goal of 100,000 units.

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CityAndStateNY.com / PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES

February 5, 2018

February 5, 2018 Notice of Qualification of 532 Neptune Commercial LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 1/12/18. Office location: New York County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 1/2/18. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 45 Broadway, Fl. 25, NY, NY 10006. DE address of LLC: 1013 Centre Rd, Ste 403-B, Wilmington, DE 19805 . Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Auction Sale is herein given that Citiwide Self Storage located at 4555 Pearson Street, Long Island City, N.Y. 11101 will take place on WWW. STORAGETREASURES.COM Sale by competitive bidding starting on February 9, 2018 and end on February 22, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. to satisfy unpaid rent and charges on the following accounts: Contents of rooms generally contain misc.

Household goods and other effects. #8R26Wendy Sutter, #9s01Raquel Sanchez, #2B06Samuel Eskenazi & #5K07- Janet Victors.

The contents of each unit will be sold as a lot and all items must be removed from the premises within 72 hours.

Owners may redeem their goods by paying all rent and charges due at any time before the sale.

Notice of Formation of Alwest Management LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 1/10/18.

Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 250 Greenpoint Ave, Fl. 4, Brooklyn, NY 11222.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Common Energy LLC. Articles of Org. filed Sec. of State (SSNY) on 1/9/18. Office: NY County. SSNY desig. agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the company c/o 527 Hudson Street, Ste. 20-170, NY, NY 10014.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF FORMATION C O N S T R U C T I O N PERSONNEL SOLUTIONS LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with Sec. of State of New York (SSNY) on 1/10/18. Office loc: NY Cnty.

SSNY is designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process served against the LLC to 307 W 38th St, Ste 1218, NY, NY 10018.

Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of 20192035 BROADWAY RETAIL LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/21/17.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: Douglas Gladstone, Esq., Goldfarb & Fleece LLP, 560 Lexington Ave., NY, NY 10022.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Respectful Productions LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) 7/10/17.

Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail any process to: The LLC, Attn: James Flanagan, 508 E 79th Apt 4F, NY, NY 10075. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of ROMARK CREDIT ADVISORS LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/21/17. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/17/16.

Princ. office of LP: Attn: Serge Todorovich, Esq., 461 Fifth Ave., 22nd Fl., NY, NY 10017.

Duration of LP is Perpetual.

SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St.- Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qual. of TRANSIC TELECOM, LLC, Authority filed with the SSNY on 12/13/2017.

Office loc: NY County. L L C formed in DE on 06/12/2003.

SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Anthony Rossabi 110 Riverside Drive #11C, NY, NY 10024. Address required to be maintained in DE: 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert of Formation filed with DE Div. of Corps, 401 Federal St., Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Auction Sale is herein given that Access Self Storage of Long Island City located at 29-00 Review Avenue, Long Island City, N.Y. 11101 will take place on WWW.STORAGETREASURES. COM Sale by competitive bidding starting on February 9, 2018 and end on February 22, 2018 at 12:00 p.m. to satisfy unpaid rent and charges on the following accounts: Contents of rooms generally contain misc.

Household goods and other effects. #482- Guillermo Rodriguez, #1433- Cindy Louis, #1702Quinsessa Harrison, #3430 &#3431- Consuelo Pornillos, #4106John T. Mack, 4441- Taxi Magazine, Inc. The contents of each unit will be sold as a lot and all items must be removed from the premises within 72 hours.

Owners may redeem their goods by paying all rent and charges due at any time before the sale.

Notice of Formation of Bonsai Kakigori, LLC filed with SSNY on January 23, 2016. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 26 W 20th St Apt 4 NY, NY 10011. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Qualification of ROMARK CREDIT ADVISORS GP LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/21/17. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/25/17.

Princ. office of LLC: Attn: Serge Todorovich, Esq., 461 Fifth Ave., 22nd Fl., NY, NY 10017.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St.- Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of RB Realty Capital LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 7/7/17.

Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 420 Lexington Ave, #2320, NY, NY 10170.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of SUNNYSIDE PRESERVATION GP, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/12/18. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: The Related Companies, L.P., Time Warner Center, 60 Columbus Circle, NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of MVB MANAGEMENT, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/25/18.

Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/21/17. Princ. office of LLC: 555 Madison Ave., 26th Fl., NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 30AW, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/05/18.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: c/o National Registered Agents, Inc., 111 Eighth Ave., 13th Fl., NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of Telesca Feurer LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/12/17. Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 25 Robert Pitt Dr., Ste 204, Monsey, NY 10952.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Tiro Digital, LLC filed with SSNY 11/21/17. Office: NY County.

SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 340 E 23rd St, 9A, NY, NY . Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of RAVEN ASSET-BASED OPPORTUNITY FUND IV LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/28/17. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/20/17. Princ. office of LP: 110 Greene St., Ste. 9G, NY, NY 10012. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Raven Capital Management GP IV LLC, Attn: Joshua Green at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., Federal & Duke of York Sts., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 64 2nd Avenue Investors LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/08/17. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Highpoint Property Group, 20 West 22nd St., Ste. 1601, NY, NY 10010, Attn: Drew Popkin.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes to collocate wireless communications antennas at five locations. Antennas will be installed on a building rooftop with an overall height of 97 feet at the approx. vicinity of 117 West 57th Street, New York, New York County, NY 10019.

Antennas will be installed on a building rooftop with an overall height of 33 feet at the approx. vicinity of 40-30 149th Place, Flushing, Queens County, NY 11354. Antennas will be installed on a building rooftop with an overall height of 63 feet at the approx. vicinity of 116-42 Farmers Boulevard, St. Albans, Queens County, NY 11412. Antennas will be installed on a building rooftop with an overall height of 156 feet at the approx. vicinity of 765 Stanley Avenue, Brooklyn, Kings County, NY 11207.

Antennas will be installed on a building rooftop with an overall height of 80 feet at the approx. vicinity of 533 East 5th St., New York, New York County, NY 10009. Public comments regarding potential effects from these sites on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Natalie, n.kleikamp@ trileaf.com, 10845 Olive Blvd, Suite 260, St. Louis, MO 63141, 314-997-6111.

PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com

February 5, 2018 Notice of Formation of BISP DEVELOPMENT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/14/17. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 45 Main St., Ste. 526, Brooklyn, NY 11201. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

EUROPEAN DREAM WOODS, LLC Art. Of Org. Filed with Sec. of State of NY 12/19/2017.

Off. Loc.: Richmond Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to The LLC, 329A Sand Ln, Staten Island, NY 10305. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

DL Tax, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 11/01/2017.

Office loc: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Daisy Lui, EA 147-24 27th Ave, Flushing, NY 11354.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Qualification of KINDRED HOLDINGS INSURANCE AGENCY, LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/12/17.

Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/8/17.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 142 Greene St, NY, NY 10012. DE address of LLC: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904.

Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of 532 Neptune Residential LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 1/12/18. Office location: New York County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 1/2/18. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 45 Broadway, Fl. 25, NY, NY 10006. DE address of LLC: 1013 Centre Rd, Ste 403-B, Wilmington, DE 19805 . Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1307821 FOR LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 224 GREENE ST BROOKLYN, NY 11238. KINGS COUNTY, FOR ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION. ART DOMAIN LLC.

2776 BOULEVARD LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 10/3/2013. Off. Loc.: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, c/o Moulinos & Associates LLC, 150 East 58th Street, 25th Fl., New York, NY 10022. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

CITYANDSTATENY.COM

SQC COFFEE LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 12/28/2017. Off. Loc.: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to c/o Aury Bennett Stollow, Esq., 475 Park Avenue South, 27th Fl., New York, NY 10016. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of RDZ FAMILY HOLDINGS, L.L.C. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/12/18. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/09/97.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, Attn: Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. The regd. agent of the company upon whom and at which process against the company can be served is Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of CR ADVANTAGE II, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/24/18.

Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/22/18. Princ. office of LLC: 119 Fifth Ave., 8th Fl, NY, NY 10003. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of DE, Div. of Corps., The John G. Townsend Bldg., PO Box 898, Dover, DE 19903.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF MBDL LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) 10/25/17. Office loc: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process against LLC may be served.

SSNY shall mail any process against LLC to: 7014 13th Ave, Ste 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228.

Princ bus addr of LLC: 96 5th Ave, NY, NY 10011. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of NP Railcar Investments III GP LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/6/17. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/24/17.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 280 Park Ave, Fl. 3, NY, NY 10017. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801.

Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of LHCSA Home Health Holdings, LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/19/17. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 3/6/17. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of NVR Consulting LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/26/17.

Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 320 W. 38th St, Ste 1003, NY, NY 10018.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of NY TAVT, LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/20/17. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/8/17.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

CINDY D NESS, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/26/2018. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 333 Pearl Street, 17C, NY, NY 10038.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Formation of CAKE 150, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/24/18. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 11 Greene St CM LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/13/17. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP, 190 Willis Ave., Mineola, NY 11501, Attn: David J. Heymann, Esq. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of LG 161 LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 11/2/17. Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 161 Chrystie St, Fl. 2, NY, NY 10002.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of RIDGE BREEAAD LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/05/18. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 358 5th Ave., Ste. 902, NY, NY 10001.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Efficient Wealth Partners LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/14/17.

Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 1 Rockefeller Plz., Fl. 11, NY, NY 10020.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Qualification of S3 RE 42-45 12th Street LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/26/17. Office location: New York County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/20/17. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 444 Madison Ave, Fl. 41, NY, NY 10022. DE address of LLC: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904.

Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

The name and address of the Reg. Agent is Spruce Capital Partners LLC, 444 Madison Ave, Fl. 41, NY, NY 10022.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of Novolex Shields, LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 12/18/17. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 101 E. Carolina Ave., Hartsville, SC 29550. LLC formed in DE on 8/29/17. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Cogency Global Inc., 10 E. 40th St., 10th Fl., NY, NY 10016. DE addr. of LLC: 850 New Burton Rd., Ste. 201, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of SKM Seventy Four, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 12/20/17. Office location: NY County. Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Cogency Global Inc., 10 E. 40th St., 10th Fl., NY, NY 10016.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of RJNYU-RJTCF 44 JOSANA STADIUM II L.L.C. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/14/17. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity. Last date to dissolve is 12/31/2067.

Notice of Formation of Maguire ET LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/20/17.

Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of Blitz Ventures LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 12/20/17. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 1240 Rosecrans Ave., Ste. 600, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266.

LLC formed in DE on 11/15/17.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave., 13th Fl., NY, NY 10011. DE addr. of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Notice of Formation of OPO Investor, LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 11/10/17. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 152 W. 57th St, Fl. 22, NY, NY 10019.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

31

Notice of Qualification of venBio Select Fund LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/28/17. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/28/09.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 120 W. 45th St., Ste. 2802, NY, NY 10036. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, State of DE, Dept. of State, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of LL SPORTSWEAR GROUP, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/22/17. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Florida (FL) on 08/06/13. Princ. office of LLC: 1385 Broadway, NY, NY 10018. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to C T Corporation System, 111 Eighth Ave., NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whom and at which process may be served. FL addr. of LLC: 170 NW Spanish River Blvd., Ste. 4, Boca Raton, FL 33431.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., Clifton Bldg. - 2661 Executive Center Circle, Tallahassee, FL 32301.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of INCLINE GLOBAL LONG ONLY FUND LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/12/17. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/06/17.

Duration of LP is Perpetual.

SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership, 140 W. 57th St., 14th Fl., NY, NY 10019. The regd. agent of the company upon whom and at which process against the company can be served is Jeffrey Lignelli, 140 W. 57th St., 14th Fl., NY, NY 10019.

Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of NP Railcar Investments III LP. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/6/17.

Office location: New York County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/24/17. SSNY is designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 280 Park Ave, Fl. 3, NY, NY 10017. DE address of LP: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. List of names and addresses of all general partners available from SSNY. Cert. of Limited Partnership filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

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CityAndStateNY.com / PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES

Notice of Formation of Assisted Alternative Merchant Strategies LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 12/11/17.

Office location: NY County.

Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Anthony Anastasio, 75 Wall St., Apt 24P, NY, NY 10005, principal business address.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 1STC, LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 10/27/17.

Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is National Registered Agents, Inc., 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of SPG Tremont LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/15/17. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: the Company, c/o Slate Property Group LLC, 38 East 29th St., 9th Fl., NY, NY 10016, Attn: Martin Nussbaum.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of Data Driven Properties LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 11/7/17. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 405 Lexington Ave, NY, NY 10174.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of DMF HOSPITALITY USA, LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 11/21/17. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 375 Park Ave, Ste 2703, NY, NY 10152.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Shoreline 1301 Associates LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 9/7/17. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 20 W. 47th St, Ste 205, NY, NY 10036.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Third Avenue SPE LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/20/17.

Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 105 Mulberry St, Ste 202, NY, NY 10013 Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of TBH BSA LENDER LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/15/17. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 240 Madison Ave., 15th Fl., NY, NY 10016.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of RCM CAV GP LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/28/17.

Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/20/17. Princ. office of LLC: 110 Greene St., Ste. 9G, NY, NY 10012. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, Attn: Joshua Green at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., Federal & Duke of York Sts., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity Notice of Qualification of 460W34 Owner LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 1/3/18. Office location: New York County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/11/17. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is National Registered Agents, Inc., 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity Notice of Formation of Wingspan Consulting LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 1/3/18. Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 440 W. End Ave, Apt 8-D, NY, NY 10024.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM Notice of Qualification of Family Matters In-Home Care, LLC. Auth filed with Secy of State of NY 11/15/17. Office loc: NY Co. LLC formed in CA 1/29/13.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail ´copy of process against LLC to: 2155 S Bascom Ave Ste 116, Campbell CA 95008. Cert of LLC filed with Secy of State of CA, 1500 11th St., Sacramento, CA 95814.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

February 5, 2018 Notice of Formation of 352 6th Avenue Holder, LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/14/17. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 256 W. 116th St, NY, NY 10026.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of Ashler Capital LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/14/17. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/14/17.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity Notice of Formation of NICE BLET, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/09/17. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to M. Nader Ahari, 524 Broadway, Ste. 405, NY, NY 10012. As amended

by Cert. of Amendment filed with SSNY on 01/02/18, name changed to NICE BELT, LLC and process addr. is M. Nader Ahari, 200 Park Ave. South, Ste. 1608, NY, NY 10003.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LQ Collective LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) ) 01/12/2018. Office loc: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC to princ bus addr: 235 E 95th St, Apt 24L, NY, NY 10128. Purpose: any lawful act or activity Notice of formation of TIN ROOF OWNERS, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) 1/4/18. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal business address: 320 West 19th Street, 5E, NY, NY 10011. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of 2867 BROADWAY MANAGEMENT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/12/17. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 601 W. 112th St., Apt. 2C, NY, NY 10025. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Lot and Parcel LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of NAD Technology LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) 12/6/17. O f f i c e location: New York County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/15/17. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of AJ Roosevelt Island Mezz LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 11/30/17. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/28/17.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

PATENT AND TRADEMARK BUREAU LLC filed with SSNY 3/24/17. Office loc: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: Patent and Trademark Bureau LLC, 230 Park Ave, 10th Fl, Helmsley Bldg, NY, NY 10169.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of formation of KIFU PARIS LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) 11/7/17. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal business address: 244 Fifth Avenue, Suite E35, NY, NY 10001. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of AJ Roosevelt Island TRS Mezz LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 11/30/17. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/28/17.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

CKK Realty LLC, Arts of Org filed with SSNY on 109/18/17.

Off. Loc.: New York County, SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The LLC, 21 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002. Purpose: to engage in any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of BONNAIG & ASSOCIATES, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) 12/21/17.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to princ bus addr: 25 Murray St, 6D, NY, NY 10007. Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LABORIELJAX LLC . Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) 1/12/18. Office loc: BRONX County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC to princ bus add: 340 Beekman Ave Apt 4a, Bronx, NY 10454. Purpose: any lawful act or activity

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Formation of Mooi Swim, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) 7/28/17. Office loc: Richmond Co. SSNY designated agent for service of process on LLC. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The LLC, Attn: Cheyenne Maxey, 17A Waterview Ct, Staten Island, NY 10305.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1307911 FOR LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 5 VILLAGE GREEN WAY PATCHOGUE, NY 11772.

SUFFOLK COUNTY, FOR ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION. VITA VIAGGIO INC.

Notice of Formation of ZACH ALLEN ENTERTAINMENT, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/15/17.

Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 205 E. 76th St., Apt. 3, NY, NY 10021.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of HYDRANGEA ESTATES LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/09/18. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/16/15.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to Ada Clapp, Gen. Counsel, Elysium Management LLC, 445 Park Ave., Ste. 1401, NY, NY 10022.

DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, DE Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., Ste. 4, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of GAMBILL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/29/17.

Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/26/17. Princ. office of LLC: 101 Park Ave., 48th Fl., NY, NY 10178. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, Attn: Benjamin S. Gambill III at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., Federal & Duke of York Sts., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Archer Towers Development LLC. Arts of Org. filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 3/31/17. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 186188 FIRST AVE LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/21/17.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: Douglas Gladstone, Esq., Goldfarb & Fleece LLP, 560 Lexington Ave., NY, NY 10022.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of ASML US, LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 1/9/18. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 9/28/00.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011. DE address of LLC: 1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is CT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com

February 5, 2018 Notice of Formation of BRP AT Developer LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 1/2/18. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 111 8th Ave, NY, NY 10011.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of S3 RE 159 Broadway LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 11/29/17. Office location: New York County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/9/17. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 444 Madison Ave, Fl. 41, NY, NY 10022. DE address of LLC: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904.

Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

The name and address of the Reg. Agent is Spruce Capital Partners LLC, 444 Madison Ave, Fl. 41, NY, NY 10022.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of GAMBILL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/29/17.

Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/26/17. Princ. office of LLC: 101 Park Ave., 48th Fl., NY, NY 10178. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, Attn: Benjamin S. Gambill III at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., Federal & Duke of York Sts., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of EMILY PRENTISS TRAVEL LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/28/17.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Linda Prentiss, Esq., Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP, One Speedwell Ave., Morristown, NJ 07962.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of The Assemblage NoMad LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 6/26/17. Office location: New York County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 6/23/17. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 40 Wall St, NY, NY 10005. DE address of LLC: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St. Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of Retention Program LLC. Authority filed with NY Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/26/17.

Office location: New York County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 7/24/15.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 187 Wolf Rd, Ste 101, Albany, NY 12205.

DE address of LLC: 108 W. 13th St, Wilmington, DE 19801.

Cert. of Formation filed with DE Secy of State, 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of HYDRANGEA ESTATES LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/09/18. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/16/15.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to Ada Clapp, Gen. Counsel, Elysium Management LLC, 445 Park Ave., Ste. 1401, NY, NY 10022.

DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, DE Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., Ste. 4, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Kwue Molly, LLC. Arts of Org. filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) 12/19/17. Office loc: Richmond County. SSNY designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: Ainissa Espada-Caruso, 71 Harbor View Place, Staten Island, NY 10305. Purpose: any lawful activity or purpose.

DNA STRATEGIC CONSULTING LLC Art. of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 10/13/2017. Off. Loc.: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, 35 Great Jones, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10012. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

JD MEDIA CONSULTING LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/12/2018.

Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 3 Peter Cooper Road, Apt 2F, NY, NY 10010.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Formation WWR5349 LLC Arts of Org. Filed with Secy. of State of NY 11/2/2017.

Ofc Loc.: Richmond Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to The LLC, 7 Navy Pier Ct #5086, Staten Island, NY 10304.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation HK5327 LLC Arts of Org. Filed with Secy. of State of NY 11/2/2017.

Ofc Loc.: Richmond Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to The LLC, 7 Navy Pier Ct #5086, Staten Island, NY 10304.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 921 Washington Avenue LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 10/12/17. Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 125 Park Ave, Fl. 7, NY, NY 10017.

Purpose: any lawful activity .

Notice of Qualification of TAO LICENSING LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/05/18.

Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/08/08. Princ. office of LLC: 1350 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Loud Tree Media LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 1/5/18.

Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 1501 Broadway, Ste 1616, NY, NY 10036.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

GET COVERED LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 11/15/2017. Off. Loc.: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to c/o Northwest Registered Agent LLC, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Office 40, Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of Quai Nystrom LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 12/20/17.

Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 25 Robert Pitt Dr., Ste 204, Monsey, NY 10952.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

STORAGE Midtown Moving & Storage Inc. will sell at Public Auction at 810 East 170 Street, Bronx NY 10459 at 6:00 P.M. on FEBRUARY 13, 2018 for due and unpaid charges by virtue of a lien in accordance with the provisions of the law and with due notice given all parties claiming an interest therein, the time specified in each notice for payment of said charges having expired household furniture & effects, pianos, trunks, cases, TV’s, radios, hifi’s, refrigerators, sewing machines, washers, air conditioners, household furniture of all descriptions and the contents thereof, stored under the following names: BATTLE MARGARET BROWN MAXINE CURRY BRENDA/CURRY ANNIE DAVID RYAN GADSON CLAUDETTE GENTHER GENIEVE JAN ELISIAK JOHNSON JOY KISS IMRE ROBERTS LENWOOD MARTINEZ LYDIA MCCRAY AKIRA PELLOT ANDRE POON ZHI RIVERA CARLY ANTONIO ROSADO ROSS LAUREN SANTOS SHIKIA SULLI VAN PATRICIA/DOE JOH AND JANE SMITH RUTH JEFFREY SMITH EDDIE HUMPHREY AKA EDDIE THOMAS HUMPHREY/JOHN DOE, JANE DOE/JOY MADDOX JORGE HORMAZA BROWN JUSHEAMA BUSH JOHN CRUZ LUMEN FORBES MIGUEL KIRTON NICOLE/SEBRO NATHANIEL ROMAN REINALDO RIVERA STEPHANIE SAMUELS TAMEKA SMITH DARLENE VELASQUEZ NEREIDA FISCHER RICHARD JOHNSON JANELLE PENA ANA

Notice of Formation of FIFTH AVENUE CAPITAL II LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 7/14/17. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 521 5th Ave, Ste 1804, NY, NY 10175.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM Notice of Formation of 941 Washington Avenue LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 10/12/17. Office location: New York County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 125 Park Ave, Fl. 7, NY, NY 10017.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of InStone Productions LLC. Arts of Org. filed with New York Secy of State (SSNY) on 1/8/18. Office location: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 25 Robert Pitt Dr., Ste 204, Monsey, NY 10952. The name and address of the Reg. Agent is Vcorp Agent Services, Inc., 25 Robert Pitt Dr., Ste 204, Monsey, NY 10952.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

33

LEGAL NOTICES? WE CAN PUBLISH! CALL DANIELLE 212-268-0442, EXT 2039 LEGALNOTICES@CITYANDSTATENY.COM

34

CityAndStateNY.com

February 5, 2018

CITY & STATE NEW YORK MANAGEMENT & PUBLISHING CEO Steve Farbman, President & Publisher Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com, Vice President of Strategy Jasmin Freeman, Comptroller David Pirozzi dpirozzi@cityandstateny.com, Business & Operations Manager Patrea Patterson

Who was up and who was down last week

PRODUCTION creativedepartment@cityandstateny.com Creative Director Guillaume Federighi, Senior Graphic Designer Alex Law, Graphic Designer Kewen Chen, Junior Graphic Designer Aaron Aniton, Digital Content Coordinator Michael Filippi, Multimedia Director Bryan Terry

LOSERS RAVI RAGBIR “D-day” was not as successful as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Field Director Scott Mechkowski hoped it would be.

Ragbir, an immigrant rights activist, was released after a judge ruled that his detention was unconstitutional.

Ragbir had been arrested during his check-in with ICE on Jan. 11 – Mechkowski’s “D-day.” However, ICE said in a statement that it does not target citizens, and that “any suggestion to the contrary is irresponsible, speculative and inaccurate.”

OUR PICK

OUR PICK

WINNERS

Imagine needing to buy a MetroCard and the machine only takes cash. The MTA was planning a systemwide software upgrade last weekend that would have resulted in that scenario, but backed down in the face of massive Twitter opposition. In the words of M train rider Patti Smith, “The people have the power!” Now buy that MetroCard on credit and read Winners & Losers while you wait 20 minutes for your train.

MARTY GOLDEN The Golden man-child has displayed not only a penchant for allegedly heckling bicyclists while impersonating a police officer, but also an ability to stick his foot in his mouth. The Brooklyn state senator was roundly criticized for what many called a racist remark when he said opioids are no longer a “ghetto drug.” He later apologized, but when protesters rallied outside his office, a Golden spokesman said they were engaged in “uninformed criticism.”

THE BEST OF THE REST

THE REST OF THE WORST

RUBÉN DÍAZ SR.

MATT DRISCOLL

Took money from ride-hailing Uberindustrial complex, now oversees industry.

RAFAEL ESPINAL

Legitimizing the underground with call for legalization of basement apartments.

SURAJ PATEL

Upstart 34-year-old businessman outraises Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

DONALD TRUMP

By his own unique standards, the president’s State of the Union address was actually ... presidential.

EDITORIAL editor@cityandstateny.com Editor-in-Chief Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com, Managing Editor Ryan Somers, Senior Editor Ben Adler badler@cityandstateny.com, Digital Editorial Director Derek Evers devers@cityandstateny.com, Copy Editor Eric Holmberg, Senior Reporter Frank G. Runyeon frunyeon@cityandstateny.com, Staff Reporter Jeff Coltin jcoltin@cityandstateny.com, Digital Reporter Grace Segers gsegers@cityandstateny.com, Editorial Assistant Rebecca C. Lewis rlewis@cityandstateny.com

Feds show no love for Thruway chief in assessing $14 million fine for the state’s illegal “I Love NY” highway signs.

DAVID FARBER

NYCHA official is forced out, despite being the chairwoman’s “dear friend.”

JEREMIAH KITTREDGE

ADVERTISING Vice President of Advertising Jim Katocin jkatocin@ cityandstateny.com, Account/Business Development Executive Scott Augustine saugustine@cityandstateny.com, Account/Business Development Executive Danielle Mowery dmowery@cityandstateny.com, Sales Associate Cydney McQuillan-Grace cydney@cityandstateny.com, Junior Sales Executive Caitlin Dorman EVENTS events@cityandstateny.com Sales Director Lissa Blake, Events Manager Sharon Nazarzadeh, Senior Events Coordinator Alexis Arsenault, Marketing & Events Coordinator Jamie Servidio

Vol. 7 Issue 5 February 5, 2018 2018 STATE

LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

JEFF KLEIN'S GAMBITS HAVE PAID OFF, BUT WHAT'S HIS ENDGAME?

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

February 5, 2018

Cover direction Guillaume Federighi Photography Mike Groll

Charter school advocate lands on “got to go” list after “inappropriate” conduct.

THOMAS RICE

Daily News dubs him “Detective Do‑Little” for making up fake witnesses.

WINNERS & LOSERS is published every Friday morning in City & State’s First Read email.

Sign up for the email, cast your vote and see who won at cityandstateny.com.

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