The June 27 2011 Issue of The Capitol

The new power plant law could hasten Indian Point’s closure.

Steve Acquario is still waiting for mandate relief.

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JUNE 27, 2011

How same-sex marriage puts the State Senate up for grabs pg. 6 Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16t 6

VOL. 4, NO. 12

Bruce Gyory says upstate is losing electoral clout.

Andrew Schwartz/iStockphoto/Joey Carolino

UPFRONT

Trivial Pursuits What senators passed before same-sex marriage

cial companies applying pesticides to use less than is suggested on the pesticide label.

—A bill to make sweet corn the official state vegetable of New York passed in the Senate, although a debate subsequently ensued over whether corn is, in fact, a vegetable at all—apparently it is considered a grain when fed to cows, and a vegetable when eaten by humans.

Corn beat out the onion, which was favored by freshman Sen. David Carlucci,

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hile the Senate stalled on momentous issues like rent regulations, property taxes and gay marriage last week, it still pursued the people’s business. Here are some of the bills senators passed instead: —Thinking of buying that Edsel? Get ready to pony up an extra Benjamin. The Senate voted on a bill to require an additional $100 registration fee for any antique car.

who eventually ended up voting in favor of corn against his own candidate. As a consolation, the Senate passed a bill designating July 25 a day of state appreciation for the onion, and Carlucci got made fun of

by Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show.”

loading firearms.”

—A bill passed to place a $1 tax cap on cigars.

Notably, none of the above bills had any reported fiscal implications for the state beyond the per diem costs the lawmakers received to remain in session past the scheduled end date.

—Laura Nahmias lnahmias@nycapitolnews.com

—Convicted felons are now legally prohibited from not only purchasing regular firearms but also “antique firearms, black powder firearms or muzzle-

By The Numbers

10%

8.9%

New York's unemployment rate held steady at 7.9 percent in May, according to figures released last week. That's better than the national rate, which inched up to 9.1 percent, New York City's 8.6 percent rate, and the statewide figure of 8.6 percent a year ago.

—Queens Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. sponsored and passed a bill to outlaw flashy LED license plates. They’re distracting, apparently—more so than all of the other flashy things one can see while driving in Queens.

—A bill passed authorizing the creation of a commission to study why people sometimes drive the wrong way on the highway.

8.2%

9%

8%

7.1%

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6%

—A culture war ensued over a bill to make the state’s September 11 Remembrance Flag the official September 11 Remembrance Flag.

4.7%

4.3%

5%

New York State Unemployment Rate By Month

—A bill passed prohibiting the sale of bear gallbladders.

4%

3%

—Nik Wallenda (of the Flying Wallendas) is now legally permitted to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope, by order of the Legislature.

—A bill passed that would allow commer-

2008

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Joey Carolino

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Source: New York State Department of Labor

The Month Ahead (June 27–July 24) Sen. Charles Fuschillo hosts veterans pancake breakfast

Crain’s Most Powerful Women in New York City luncheon

Rep. Nita Lowey’s birthday

Sen. Liz Krueger’s cocktail fundraiser

Former NYC Comptroller Bill Thompson’s birthday Independence Day holiday

Sen. Kevin Parker begins summer events

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco’s birthday

Sen. Joe Addabbo sponsors tax lien assistance services

NYLCV end-of-session legislative briefing

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ESDC Chief Financial Officer Frances Walton’s birthday

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F S Sn THE CAPITOL

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted Social media key to same-sex marriage The proof is in the Facebook feed.

Several weeks ago, Sen. Jim Alesi was the first Republican to announce he would vote “yes” on a same-sex marriage bill if it came to the floor. He became persona non grata within his conference, but he was “liked” hundreds of times by samesex marriage supporters on Facebook.

“About a week ago, I lost what I thought were a lot of good friends, people who supported me,” Alesi said to a prosame-sex marriage crowd last week. “I think I have some new friends.”

A day later, when his conference counterpart Roy McDonald said he’d vote “yes” on marriage too, the “likes” on his official page skyrocketed to more than 11,000. Those “likes” were driven in large part by the same-sex marriage advocates—cross-platform multitaskers like Brian Ellner, a strategist for the Human Rights Campaign and New Yorkers United for Marriage.

Sample Facebook post: “Join us at the Capital today at 12 Noon. [I]f you can’t get

to Albany, please tweet ‘share’ and ‘like’ our new video and make a respectful call to your state senator now! Let’s win.”

Ellner said he deploys social media as a way to “amplify the voices” of people who support the same-sex marriage bill.

In the new world of electronic advocacy, their “likes,” tweets, retweets and comments can act as a harbinger of the issue’s importance—and inevitability.

Of course, the appearance of widespread support can also be manipulated online. Plugged-in types skew young and

The Dead Candidates Society Washed-up pols sit on millions in campaign cash Republicans want Anthony Weiner to give up the $4 million he raised to run for mayor someday—but now that he’s resigned from Congress in disgrace, there’s no rule saying what he has to do with it.

He could follow the lead of Chris Lee, another New

York congressman hounded out of office because of inappropriate online behavior. Lee returned a halfmillion dollars to his contributors this year, trimming his campaign balance to around $50,000.

Weiner could also let the money sit there while people chatter about whether he could make a political comeback someday (see: Spitzer, Eliot).

Or he could stop filing reports, as ex–Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. appears to

have done with the most up-to-date of his many campaign accounts. But that could result in fines if relevant expenses and receipts aren’t disclosed.

“They don’t have to close it out,” said Tom Connolly, a spokesman for the New York State Board of Elections, adding that ousted or retiring officials often give the money to other candidates and committees or to nonprofits. “There’s nothing that says you have to get rid of that money.”

— Jon Lentz jlentz@nycapitolnews.com

$216,340.69

$3,973,112.27

$282,516.79 $353,149.75

$182,006.93 $105,694.32

Anthony Weiner

Chris Lee

$29,371.76

$5,305.47

$53,550.35

$0 Eric Massa

Eliot Spitzer

David Paterson

Carl Paladino

Joe Bruno

Pedro Espada Jr.

-$7,869.84

Hiram Monserrate

Anthony Seminerio

Joey Carolino

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n 2011, we are never truly alone. When a powerful legislator grapples with an internal conflict, he breaks the fourth wall and tweets about it.

At least that’s what Republican Sen. Greg Ball thought last week when he found himself at a crossroads.

“Opening up the discussion!” he tweeted.

“So, if you were me, how would you vote on gay marriage? Yes or No?” He got thousands of replies. But whether the senator votes as his Twitter followers tell him belies the point: Social media platforms are taking on an increasingly powerful role in Albany.

wealthy, a demographic with greater support for same-sex marriage. Facebook also controls negative feedback: There are no “dislike” buttons, and negative comments can be deleted or posting disabled.

Still, social media has proven key to advocates’ strategies. Chelsea Clinton, for instance, presided in May over the launch of Friendfactor, a site set up specifically to promote same-sex marriage. Consultants working on the site include Chris Hughes, cofounder of Facebook and an Obama campaign social media strategist.

There are now 1,200 members, who ask their straight friends to lobby state senators on their behalf. More than 8,000 calls have been made.

“We built this tool because we know that people care about their friends more than they do about issues,” wrote Jason Bornstein, a spokesman for Friendfactor.

“It also makes what could be a scary political action—calling a senator—personally meaningful and demystified. You see your friend’s picture and personal goal, and they see when you call for them, so your effort is recognized.”

—Laura Nahmias lnahmias@nycapitolnews.com

Brian McLaughlin

Sources: NYC Campaign Finance Board, NYS Board of Elections, Federal Elections Commission

www.nycapitolnews.com Publisher/Executive Director: Darren Bloch

The Capitol is published twice monthly.

Copyright © 2011, Manhattan Media, LLC

THE CAPITOL

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JUNE 27, 2011

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PERSPECTIVE

Coniberal? Progractionary?

Maybe being progressive among Democrats. It’s a little means something different scary, but Cuomo has launched SESSION now. Conservatives never that boat.

WRAP-UP liked the New Deal or the In an era when corporaGreat Society, never liked tions dominate economics Social Security or Medicare and politics, the collapse of or progressive taxation, support for economic fairness always favored unleashing the economic will have enormous consequences for Aid and Health Care.”

By telling us New York has to cut and political power of large corpora- most Americans. spending and can’t afford any more taxes, tions and hated government programs These policies built the American middle that softened the hard edge of class, made upward mobility possible, Cuomo paid a hefty price wealth and income inequality. from traditional Democratic made old age bearable and created a politiDemocrats, on the other cally active and involved citizenry that constituencies. He’s looking hand, stuck with those prin- encouraged democratic values. hard at a national future, ciples as inarguable and fundawhich requires left-wing The new beast slouching out of Albany mental declarations of their onto the national stage is an unfamiliar credentials. What to do? social vision, until now. The creature, and a dangerous one. It’s not His answer is shrewd erosion of Democratic soli- that labels matter, but labels matter—and and insightful—maybe. He darity in this fight will have smushing together right-wing economics has adopted the economic Richard Brodsky huge consequences. policies of the Right, but is and left-wing identity politics deserves a Identity politics rose from new name. aggressively supporting the liberation and identity struggles of the the civil rights movements, the women’s Progractionary? Congressive? ConibLeft. He is carefully courting the leaders movement and a growing awareness of eral? Libactionary? You choose. But it of New York’s many religious, ethnic and historical repression and injustice against could change America for the worse no language minorities, and has made enact- once-stigmatized groups of Americans. matter what you call it. ment of a gay marriage bill a top priority. Ensuring decent treatment of all AmeriCuomo exercised considerable muscle cans is central to any society’s long-term Richard Brodsky is a Senior Fellow to get it done, with Democrats falling in health and decency, but it lacks the broad at Demos, a NYC-based think tank, line and Republicans preparing to trade unifying appeal of economic issues. and at NYU’s Wagner School of Public The Right never supported the civil Administration. He served in the enough votes for other things they want.

He’s betting that a true human rights rights or women’s movements, or most of state Assembly from 1983 to 2010 victory, and an important one, will allow the others. Those causes became linked and chaired the corporations and him to reclaim the liberal mantle his to Democrats almost as powerfully as environmental protection committees. father fashioned and wore for so long, no economic justice. Now identity politics He appears regularly as a contributing may have trumped economic concerns editor on WRNN-TV. matter what his economic policies are.

A new beast mixes liberal identity politics and conservative economics

BY RICHARD BRODSKY

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used to be able to recognize lefties by smell, touch or sound. They cared about progressive taxation, economic justice for the poor, a decent level of government services and the environment and had a healthy suspicion of big business.

Somewhere in the last six months they slipped one past me.

Some leading Dems are tossing most of that stuff overboard. They are embracing Republican economic policies, while still clutching hard to Democratic ideals on identity politics.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the most outspoken exponent of this new kind of politics. He’s creating a new kind of beast: the “Progractionary”…the “Congressive”…the “Coniberal”…the “Libactionary.” It’s a high-risk, high-reward kind of politics, and the outcomes are unknown.

Cuomo’s state budget and his rhetoric were from the hard-right playbook, the one with chapters titled “Read My Lips, No New Taxes,” “The Problem Is Spending and Unions” and “Cut School

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2011

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Cuomo’s First Report Card GOAL Legalize same-sex marriage

WHAT HE SAID*

WHAT GOT DONE

GRADE

“We believe in justice for all; let’s pass marriage Cuomo stunned New York by shepherding same-sex marriage through the equality this year once and for all.”

Republican-controlled Senate, sparking talk of him running for president in

2016.

Pass a balanced budget without borrowing

“We need a state spending cap and we need to The $132.5 billion state budget closed a $10 billion budget gap without close this $10 billion gap without any borrowing.” raising taxes or borrowing.

Redesign state Medicaid program

“The Medicaid program needs a desperate over- As one of his first acts as governor, Cuomo created the Medicaid Redehaul. It is dysfunctional on many levels, so this sign Team. The group recommended some $5 billion worth of cuts and process has to be done anyway.” capped the state’s share of Medicaid spending, while avoiding a cap on

medical malpractice awards.

“I think if we add financial incentives to the The bonus made it into the budget. Local governments that consolidate Create a local governments that actually consolidate, you would must use 70 percent of the bonus—the amount of which was unspecigovernment consolidation bonus see an acceleration in the consolidation process.” fied—to offset local property taxes.

Prevent tax increases, cap property taxes

“We have to hold the line on taxes for now and The budget not only contained no new taxes, it actually eliminated some fees, reduce taxes in the future. New York has no future such as the millionaires’ tax, much to the consternation of Cuomo’s fellow as the tax capital of the nation.”

Democrats. It also imposed New York’s first-ever local property tax cap.

Consolidate banking, insurance and consumerprotection agencies

“We can consolidate them into a department of financial regulation that better protects the consumer, and the consolidation will save the taxpayer money by reducing the cost of three separate organizations.”

Transform state government

“It’s time to organize the government—make it Cuomo created the Spending and Government Efficiency Commission in professional; make it efficient; make it effective.” April, with the goal of cutting and consolidating government. The commis-

Cuomo not only consolidated the three agencies into the newly created Department of Financial Services, he also appointed top aide Ben Lawsky to run it. The governor also scaled back the new agency’s Martin Act powers, so as not to step on the attorney general’s turf.

sion has produced a report of preliminary recommendations that has yet to be voted on.

Create green jobs

“We proposed a $100 million competitive grant Cuomo managed to slip in a deal at the last second on the state’s Green program that will go to local private sector part- Jobs/Green New York program, though there has been no word on the nerships that come up with the best plans to proposal for a $100 million grant program. create green jobs, reduce pollution and further environmental justice.”

Reform state ethics laws

“The people of this state have lost trust in state government; this government has lost credibility with the people of this state. It’s time to pass ethics reform and it’s time to pass ethics reform now.”

Double state contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses

“The Minority- and Women-Owned Business Cuomo appointed a task force to look at the issue of M/WBE, though Enterprise endeavor is a good one. It has a current some believe the group lacks a clearly defined mission. goal of 10 percent of state business. I want to double that goal to 20 percent of state business.”

Provide mandate relief

“Putting together a group that will start January 7, and will commit to hav[ing] actions by the April 1 deadline, and will propose eliminating any unnecessary state mandates.”

Close unused juvenile justice facilities

“Don’t put other people in prison to give some A number of proposals have been introduced in the Legislature to reform people jobs. Don’t put other people in juvenile the state’s troubled juvenile justice system, but so far no clear plan has justice facilities to give some people jobs.” emerged. Cuomo has yet to articulate a strategy for juvenile justice reform.

Launch two $250 million educationgrant competitions

“Run those two competitions, and actually incen- The grants have yet to be released. Meanwhile school districts across the tivize performance and change the behavior state are wincing from steep budget cuts and a property tax cap that is through the funding mechanism.” expected to put additional pressure on their finances.

Create 10 regional economic councils

“These will be public/private sector partnerships, Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy has said the regional councils will begin work this the focus of which is to create jobs, jobs, jobs in summer. So far, though, no word on who will serve on the councils, what those regions.” regions will be covered and how the councils will leverage state economic

An ethics law was passed to much fanfare. Good government groups hailed the deal as a huge step forward, but some were concerned that the bill was weak on client disclosure and gave the current legislative majorities too much power over the appointment of an independent oversight panel.

The governor’s Mandate Relief Redesign Team met several times, but released only a preliminary report on possible solutions. The deadlines came and went without any hard action, to the consternation of Republicans and local government officials.

development dollars. Advocates and business owners are anxious.

Pass campaignfinance reform

“We need public financing of campaigns.”

Promote urban greenmarkets

“We’re going to set up greenmarkets in urban The plan got a lot of green thumbs-ups after its mention in the State of areas all across the state to get good food to inner- the State speech, but so far, no action. Too soon to say whether it’s been city communities, and these markets will be a host squashed or pickled. for the New York agricultural products.”

The ethics deal noticeably did not address the issue of campaign finance reform. Senate Republicans reportedly pushed to exclude it from the final deal.

A+ A+ A A A– A– B+ B B B C+ C C C– D D

*all quotes from Cuomo’s January 5th State of the State speech.

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Within the caucus, Cuomo’s strongarm tactics to win votes have left fissures for Democrats to exploit—as when three Republicans got into a rare open tiff on the Senate floor over health insurance exchanges. While the caucus did not line up with everything in Cuomo’s agenda, it did set the stage for him to become a rising Democratic star.

Some Republicans grumble that Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos should have used his power to block Cuomo more often—such as by refusing to bring samesex marriage up for a vote—and that next year’s election could put their single-seat majority in danger.

“They’re not happy with their leader.

They want to get in control of this,” said one longtime Senate Republican insider.

“They’re not happy with the guys who came out and announced they would support [same-sex marriage]. This is the tail wagging the dog, and that is not the way this conference has functioned and succeeded for the last several decades.”

Andrew Schwartz

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Tom Libous (left, with Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr.) will face the challenge of retaining his party’s slim hold on the chamber next year in the wake of the same-sex marriage vote.

Elephant In The Room How same-sex marriage puts the State Senate up for grabs

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS AND CHRIS BRAGG

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t should have been a great night to be a Senate Republican in New York.

One after another, they rose in the ornate Senate chamber to praise the imminent passage of the campaign platform that propelled them back to the majority.

Sen. Mark Grisanti touted his bill to reshape the state university system. Sen. Greg Ball said his constituents could hardly believe a property tax cap was coming true.

They spoke of an on-time budget, mandate relief, a partnership with a fiscally conservative governor and an historic legislative session, down to its final hours.

Each of those hard-fought achievements would have been an extraordinary accomplishment for a conference that was facing political oblivion a year earlier, operating with a one-vote majority.

But the Republican senators knew better. Standing to congratulate themselves, they knew their steps to clean up New York’s finances would never make the 11 o’clock news. Their last vote of the night would see four Republicans joining almost all of the Democrats to legalize same-sex marriage, drowning out everything else.

“The social issues distract us,” said

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JUNE 27, 2011

Sen. Steve Saland, who was about to “We’re going to do great!” Deputy break ranks and vote with the Democrats. Majority Leader Tom Libous insisted, Their speeches finished, the Republi- flashing a wicked grin and gripping a cans took a 15-minute break to hash out reporter by the arm. strategy then returned stone-faced. Even Detect a hint of desperation? Maybe. the four members poised to vote “yes”— Democrats have a lock on the Assembly Saland, Grisanti, Jim Alesi and Roy and the governor’s office, and New York McDonald—wanted to do it as quietly is trending blue. Census numbers suggest as possible and get out of Albany—the that if the Senate district lines were sooner the better. redrawn fairly—which they may be if “Fast and furious,” Cuomo sticks to his pledge McDonald said, as he strode to veto any partisan redisback into the Senate chamber. tricting—the Republicans SESSION would be back in the minority WRAP-UP come 2013. ust three years ago, Next year is a presidential Senate Republicans election, when voter turnout seemed headed for the is traditionally 10-15 percent dustbin of Albany history.

Democrats had taken control of the higher than in off-year elections, and chamber for the first time in decades and President Obama’s supporters—Demoseemed poised to work with a Democratic crats, minorities, liberals—are sure to governor and Democratic Assembly to flock to the polls for him in New York. usher in an era of liberal Democratic Senate Democrats are already targeting swing districts and plotting a comeback, dominance.

Instead, the Democrats proved inca- confident their conference can ride the pable of holding their caucus together, presidential wave back into the majority.

So while Republicans will spend the much less governing. New Yorkers responded by giving the chamber back to rest of the year walking tall about their Republicans in a 32-30 squeaker after all accomplishments, their victories may hold the seeds of their future defeat. the recounts were tallied.

The property tax cap will likely force Then Gov. Andrew Cuomo took office preaching fiscal constraint and tax relief, local school districts to make unpopular which dovetailed nicely with the Repub- cuts. The no-new-taxes state budget licans’ agenda. They worked together to will squeeze schools, hospitals, nursing break Albany’s logjam and pass mean- homes and social services. The wateredingful laws—giving Senate Republicans down expansion of New York City rent hope they can maintain control in next regulations won’t do much to help the city’s two Republican Senators. year’s elections.

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he dynamic within the Republican conference is one of a professional group of people who have their differences but don’t take those differences out in a personal fashion,” Ball said.

He had just finished a push-up contest on the Senate floor—literally—with Assemblyman Jim Tedisco as they waited for movement in the last few days of the session. Ball was once again waffling on whether to vote in favor of same-sex marriage (in the end, he voted “no”) and explaining why Republicans would stick together after a successful year.

“We don’t view the opportunity to split with the conference as one of political gain,” Ball said.

It was a clear reference to how Democrats squandered their majority in the last session, when members were peeled away with titles and chairmanships. As the session drew to a close, Republicans like Ball were fond of pointing out how they had restored sanity and competence to the Senate.

“We have a better understanding of bills than they did last year,” said Sen. Bill Larkin, a grandfatherly Korean War veteran who is also one of the oldest members of the chamber (and one of several rumored to be nearing retirement). “They could have done gay marriage, rent control—they [had] 32 votes—redistricting, everything.”

Another popular refrain, and a possible campaign slogan for 2012, is that the Senate Republicans are more natural partners for Cuomo and his fiscally conservative agenda. The conference brings balance to a dynamic that includes Cuomo and Sheldon Silver, the leader of the ultraliberal Assembly. Without the Republican majority, they argue that the state would be on a downward slope to fiscal ruin.

“Anybody who believes Governor Cuomo could have had a harmonious relationship with two houses that felt that spending was the way out of this mess is not in touch with reality,” said John

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DeFrancisco, a Syracuse Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

But DeFrancisco refused to predict whether the last six months would tilt the balance toward Republicans in 2012.

“Who knows?” he shrugged. “The fact is, the process has been better. Whether that gets translated to the districts and they recognize that—who knows? Hopefully they can see change in leadership has made a difference.”

Other members were even more sober about the future of their conference. Alesi, a Monroe County Republican who not only came out as the first Republican “yes” vote for same-sex marriage but embraced that role with an almost manic passion, warned that if the bill was not allowed to come to the floor for a vote, there would be consequences for him and everyone else.

“It would energize the LGBT community to work against Republicans in the next election,” he said.

As for his own re-election—his district’s Conservative Party chair has already written him off as persona non grata and local Republicans are incensed at a frivolous personal injury lawsuit he finally dropped—Alesi was circumspect.

“This is Albany and this is politics, and you never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “Every politician wakes up wondering what they are going to face in the next election, and I’m no different than anybody else.”

Behind closed doors, Alesi stood out as the lone Republican in the conference to urge the bill to the floor for a vote.

McDonald, the other declared “yes” vote, was less adamant, sources close to the conference say. A few members wanted a vote even though they were committed to voting against it. The rest just wanted the issue to go away.

For many Senate Republicans, it was not a moral or religious issue; it was an issue of stark political consequences.

“There are conservative constituencies that will remember this and will vote against the member who voted for it,” said one GOP operative close to the conference. “There may even be voters who vote against members who didn’t vote for it, just because it came up for a vote.”

John McArdle, a top Senate Republican aide for almost 30 years who helped push same-sex marriage this year, framed it differently.

Cuomo’s successes are the Senate Republicans’ successes, McArdle said, and as the governor enjoys some of the highest poll numbers of any elected official in the nation, the conference would be wise to align themselves as closely as possible to him.

“They’re going to come out of this very, very well,” he insisted. “And I think that’s going to be the consensus with everybody, except maybe Fred Dicker.”

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he Democrats didn’t look so good.

Sen. Mike Gianaris, normally impeccably dressed as chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC), was rumpled. The session had

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dragged nearly a week beyond its sched- enough jobs (which his Democratic predeuled conclusion, he was wearing the cessor, Antoine Thompson, did not address at all). They plan to hit Ball for his Hamlet same suit two days in a row.

Not that there was much reason to be act on gay marriage, which put him in the dressed up. Beyond going on Dicker’s radio crosshairs of both sides of the issue.

Democrats insist some policies that show to blast the Senate Republicans and holding a press conference to wail about appear to be big wins for Republicans the delays, there was little Gianaris or his could ultimately backfire. When the reality of drastic spending cuts to education kicks colleagues could do to end the stalemate.

A year ago, they were trying to whip up in, they contend that the Republicans’ 32 votes to prevent a government shutdown refusal to back the poll-popular extenas each week extender bill after extender sion of the millionaire’s tax, combined bill came to the floor. Now they sat quietly in with their insistence on a 2 percent proptheir offices, occasionally sending out press erty tax cap, could be viewed by voters as releases that sniped at Republicans and conservative overreach.

Strategists for the Demofollowing Twitter for the latest cratic campaign also hope pronouncements from Skelos the ethics law’s new income or Libous.

SESSION disclosure requirements could WRAP-UP Democratic strategists prompt some of the Repubwho work with the DSCC are lican senators who work as not optimistic about what lawyers to retire rather than has transpired in the past six publicly name their clients. months. In 2010, Democratic But finding credible challengers to Senate candidates ran against Albany’s out-of-control spending, spiraling prop- Republican incumbents may be difficult. erty taxes and corruption—all issues, District lines will likely not be finalized they could credibly argue, that Republi- until May 2012, so Democratic candicans had helped spawn during their four- dates won’t know the terrain until just a month before petitioning begins. And decade tenure in the majority.

Yet during their two-year stint leading with the DSCC $3 million in debt, no the chamber, Democrats not only failed one can credibly tell candidates they’ll to fix those problems but made them have the outside money to compete with worse. Now, as 2012 looms, some people Republicans in 2012.

When he ran the Democrats’ campaign close to the DSCC fret that for the first time in years, their candidates cannot efforts, Sen. Jeff Klein poured money into credibly run against dysfunction in the Democratic challengers all over the state. state capital—and that for all the Repub- Gianaris says the playing field in 2012 will licans’ struggles, the Democrats won’t be be much narrower. The operation spent $6 million on outside consultants last able to capitalize on them.

“It’s difficult for the Democrats cycle. Now, its staff has been cut to two.

“By necessity and by choice we have because the governor has made the Legislature look much more functional,” said become much leaner, much more effiDoug Forand of Red Horse Strategies, cient, much more targeted, much more who ran the DSCC in 2008. “It creates an streamlined,” Gianaris said. environment where it’s easy to say, ‘See, look, we know what we’re doing.’” big part of the reason Gianaris Senate Democrats focused this session was handed the keys to the on expanding rent regulations, a cause DSCC days after his election unlikely to help them outside New York to the upper chamber is his renowned City, where they already hold all but two fundraising ability. Last election cycle, seats. But it may well help them oust Sen. Gianaris poured hundreds of thousands Marty Golden, who has some 70,000 rent- from his campaign account into the stabilized tenants in his Brooklyn district Senate Democrats’ coffers. But winning and is a top Democratic target in 2012. back the hearts and minds of Democrats Golden was in a position to stop may still prove difficult.

Senate Republicans from siding with Even with Senate Democratic embarlandlords on rent regulations, Democrats rassments like Pedro Espada Jr. and will argue, but again revealed himself as Hiram Monserrate gone, Kevin Parker got far too conservative for his distinct. And into a tussle with a Senate guard during the Democrats have little doubt that mailers final night of the session and Carl Kruger will be arriving in households throughout is going about his business while under his district bearing the infamous image indictment. And prosecutors are still of Golden getting a foot massage off the actively probing how AEG worked with Senate floor.

Senate Democrats in its scandal-plagued Democrats also plan to pick away bid for the Aqueduct racino contract. in individual districts at what they are “The Republicans beat Brian Foley, broadly calling “broken promises” by the Craig Johnson and Darrel Aubertine by Republicans, starting with Skelos’ pledge tying them with the Senate Democratic to support independent redistricting. leadership,” said one consultant who They will go after Suffolk Republican works with the Senate Democrats. “But Lee Zeldin, who promised but failed to none of that’s gotten better. It’s the same repeal the MTA payroll tax (passed under people and it’s only gotten worse.”

Democratic rule). They will go after Klein, who broke away from the Grisanti, the Buffalo Republican, arguing Democrats to form the Independent that the SUNY 2020 plan does not create Democratic Conference (IDC), also

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poses a problem. The four IDC members continue to snipe at their old colleagues anonymously, trying to foment trouble.

Few people noticed the IDC this session because the Democrats are in the minority. But if Democrats take two or more Republican seats in 2012, IDC members would be faced with the choice of rejoining the rest of the Democrats or swinging the majority to the Republicans.

Democratic campaign officials see a long-term Republican-IDC alliance as unlikely, but some Republican strategists already envision them leading the Senate.

“Even if [the Senate Republicans] have less than 32 votes, it’s more likely to [be] a coalition government with the IDC,” one GOP consultant said. “Any Democrat who beats a Republican who is from upstate or from [Long Island] would be more comfortable with them than with the New York City-centric conference.”

Still, Democrats say whatever stumbles happen in individual districts, a changing New York will put them in the majority next Election Day. Republican Sen. Owen Johnson is strongly rumored to be ready to retire from his Long Island district, and he may not be alone.

Even if Cuomo ultimately backs off his threat to veto any redistricting plan not drafted by an independent commission— and Democrats expect him to keep his word—the population shift from upstate to downstate, the end of prison-based gerrymandering and the overpopulation of Long Island districts will likely put new Republican seats into play.

“We stand in a better position as a united Democratic conference relative to the past,” Gianaris insisted, “or relative to how the Republicans seem to be behaving throughout this session.”

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hen the Senate Republicans walked into the chamber for their final “fast and furious” vote last week, they didn’t speak much.

Grisanti rose to explain why he would be the 33rd vote for same-sex marriage, but most of his Republican colleagues didn’t even look at him. They faced forward, hanging their heads.

All except for Skelos, whose eyes were transfixed on his most vulnerable member.

After the roll was called, the Republican members sat silently as the chamber and the advocates in the galleries exploded in cheers and chants. Finally, Republican Sen. Ken LaValle rose and began to clap his hands slowly.

Outside the Senate chamber, pandemonium was erupting. The Republicans rushed toward the exit, ready to head home, but found the Senate elevator just off the floor was shut down.

On one side of the Senate were antisame-sex marriage protestors on their knees, praying for salvation. On the other was a throng of gay marriage activists whooping and hollering.

In either direction, there was no escape. editor@nycapitolnews.com JUNE 27, 2011

7

Right In The Middle Cuomo borrows from fiscal hawks in shifting state to the right

BY JON LENTZ

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n this bluest of the blue states, where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans nearly two-to-one, unions have long held sway and Barack Obama notched one of his best ballot performances in 2008, things are not as they once were.

Yes, Republicans still hold less than a quarter of the seats in the state’s Congressional delegation, even after a smattering of electoral victories in 2010.

And, of course, in the last gubernatorial race New Yorkers overwhelmingly elected Andrew Cuomo, the scion of liberal icon Mario Cuomo.

Yet through the younger Cuomo’s first few months as governor, the center has shifted unmistakably to the right, and

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JUNE 27, 2011

Liz Feld, the former Larchmont the rookie governor has been borrowing pages from the policy books of Republi- mayor and spokeswoman for the fiscally cans like former gubernatorial candidate conservative New Yorkers for Growth, John Faso as he navigates through the applauded the governor for taking on issues like rising pension and health care state’s financial shortfalls.

“Obviously there’s a more fiscally costs that state legislators had ignored.

“They ignored every conservative tone,” said E.J. warning sign,” Feld said. “It McMahon, an influential SESSION didn’t take an actuary to figure expert at the conservative WRAP-UP that the pension costs at some Empire Center for New York point were going to be unsusState Policy. “This budget tainable. But we’ve got a long was much more fiscally way to go.” conservative than any of Economists on the liberal those proposed by the governor’s two Democratic predecessors. side are less enthusiastic about the state’s Now the question is: will it be sustained?” rightward tilt under Cuomo. Ron Deutsch, For years, Faso, McMahon and a of New Yorkers For Fiscal Fairness, who handful of like-minded conservatives lobbied unsuccessfully for extending the pressed for seemingly outlandish ideas millionaire’s tax, said he was troubled like a zero-increase budget, pension by the governor’s strong conservative stance. reform and a hard property tax cap.

“The governor’s fiscal policies are Now, these measures are the crowning achievements of Cuomo’s first few straight out of Fox News,” Deutsch said. months in office, and there is no sign he’ll “I think the reality is that this Democratic be letting up any time soon in his drive for governor has embraced many traditionally Republican fiscal policies that Demofiscal restraint.

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Thomas James

crats have beaten back for many years— in particular the property tax cap.”

Conservative policy wonks who developed and championed the ideas get some of the credit—and blame—for their passage this year.

“They’ve certainly helped drive policy, and what they’ve been able to do is focus the issues and streamline the arguments and package them for general consumption,” said Bill O’Reilly, a Republican operative who has worked with Faso and others. “That’s the key to this game.”

But the key drivers behind the shift to the right are the governor, a wellexecuted (and well-funded) strategy and an electorate ready to change course in the wake of the recession and a sluggish economic recovery.

“We had a good effect by putting out these various alternatives that could be done,” said Mike Long, chairman of the state Conservative Party. “I think that truthfully, the reason some of these things are happening is mainly because of the economic circumstances we find

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ourselves in. Without that it would of taxpayers in the private sector experiencing not only stagnation be business as usual.”

The same battles over public but shrinkage in their income. Then finances are playing out across the they looked on and watched the country, with varying results. Wisconsin, long a bastion of liberalism, infuriated unions when its governor drastically weakened their bargaining rights. Other states, like public sector look non-responsive.”

He added that Cuomo was Connecticut, have raised taxes on the wealthy, something Cuomo has adept in leveraging his control over Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver refused to do.

Yet by all accounts it is Cuomo in a year when rent regulations, a priority for the speaker, himself who has had were up for renewal. the greatest impact “He has a keen underon the state’s direcSESSION standing of the Albany tion.

Assembly WRAP-UP dynamic,” McMahon Democrats who said. “Somebody with lobbied hard for a less understanding of the millionaire’s tax say Albany dynamic might the governor went too far in opposing the measure, have blown it.”

Frank Mauro, executive director and have warned they will revive of the left-leaning Fiscal Policy the popular measure.

“While the governor may say that Institute, said only time will tell he’s progressive but broke, I would whether Cuomo’s rightward shift suggest that his fiscal policies put will help the state’s economy, but he him in the category of staunch predicted that staffing cuts would hurt the state in the short term, and conservative,” Deutsch said.

McMahon said Cuomo embraced education cuts would hurt longfiscally conservative ideas because term growth.

Acknowledging that the adminvoters were frustrated.

What was unique about this istration had to make tough recession was that it was “defla- choices to deal with the budget tionary in its impact on income and gap, Mauro noted that New York expectations,” McMahon said. “For had one of the fastest rates of GDP the first time you had a large number growth in 2010.

“I’m skeptical that the slowing down of the growth of property taxes will have the miraculous effect that the governor and the Business Council in its advertisements has purported,” Mauro said. “I don’t know what economic theory supports the concept that you can make deep cuts in government spending and not slow the economy down.”

There is some grumbling among conservatives as well, who are disappointed by the lack of strong mandate relief measures as well as the strengthening of rent regulations and a failure to pass medical malpractice reform.

But conservatives are also setting their sights on repealing the Triborough Amendment, which locks in automatic pay increases for public sector employees, and creating 401(k)-style pension plans for public workers.

Those ideas may seem like impossible dreams for conservatives in a state like New York—but so did a property tax cap.

“The big kahuna still on the table is pension reform,” said O’Reilly, the Republican operative. “Unless you get pension reform, the state will be eaten alive. All of these fiscally conservative groups have a lot more work to do.” jlentz@nycapitolnews.com

“The governor’s fiscal policies are straight out of Fox News.”

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Recapping The Tax Cap

BY JON LENTZ

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o many observers, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s embrace of a property tax cap is a sign that the center has moved to the right in New York.

But if you’ve been around as long as E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the Empire Center for New York State Policy, you would resist such a conclusion.

“I think a lot of these ideas have always been more commonsensical than right or left,” said McMahon, a longtime tax cap proponent.

Backing him up is evidence showing that the property tax cap idea has jumped from Republicans to Democrats and back again over the years, making it something of a bipartisan policy prescription.

As far back as 1995, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, pitched a version of a property tax cap, though it died in the state Senate.

“This bill seeks to provide critical relief from the most onerous tax placed on New Yorkers,” Silver said in a statement in March 1995, a year after becoming speaker. “Real property taxes are regressive, burdensome levies on families across our state that have continued to rise even as income taxes have been cut. Now it’s time to stop the tax shift and let homeowners finally gain some real benefits.”

According to McMahon’s research, a tax cap next appeared in 1997 as part of Republican Gov. George

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Pataki’s school tax relief bill, but was shot down by the teachers unions.

Then in 2006, Republican John Faso took up the property tax cap mantle in his ill-fated gubernatorial campaign against Eliot Spitzer, who rejected the idea and won in a landslide.

“Then, a year later, Eliot Spitzer was actually the one who put the idea on the map,” McMahon said.

After Spitzer passed a massive, multiyear school aid increase—as directed by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court decision—some school systems nonetheless approved budgets with big tax increases, prompting the governor to explore a different approach.

In his 2008 State of the State address, he called for a commission to study property tax relief and the idea of a property tax cap.

Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, headed the commission and delivered a report that recommended a tax cap. Gov. David Paterson went forward with the measure, which was passed by the Senate but was never introduced in the Assembly.

“All of those people played a role in moving this issue forward,” McMahon said. “[But] the pivotal figure is Cuomo. This would not have been imaginable without Cuomo’s commitment to it from start to finish.” jlentz@nycapitolnews.com

www.nycapitolnews.com

It’s Time to Get on the Road to Economic Recovery

By Brian Sampson

As many New Yorkers fight to overcome the highest unemployment rates in decades, there are large areas of our state that never benefited from the national economic boom of the late 1990’s. Numerous Upstate communities have felt the impact of a tremendous loss in population and the disappearance of private sector jobs.

The reasons for these struggles are widely known. High taxes, crippling mandates, burdensome regulations and escalating energy costs have given New York a reputation as a place to avoid starting a business.

To meet our energy goals, create new jobs and grow Upstate’s economy, we must maintain our state’s existing baseload energy capacity while also creating a regulatory environment which encourages the development of new sources of power. The safe development of the Marcellus Shale provides such an opportunity.

Economist Tim Considine has projected if we were to drill 42 Marcellus wells in 2011, New York would see 1,419 new jobs. By 2020, New York could see 20,000 new jobs.

Additionally, investments in safe natural gas development would total $153 million with $19 million in sales tax and $21 million in Federal taxes.

In spite of the current de facto moratorium, in Elmira, Corning and other locations across the Southern Tier, hotels are packed and restaurants are filled due to the Marcellus-related activities in Pennsylvania.

The job creation in the Southern Tier is not limited to the service sector. For example, French firm Schlumberger is building a $30 million facility in Horseheads (Chemung County). The company supplies materials and technical services to the drilling industry.

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry has identified six core industries related to natural gas extraction.

From the 2nd quarter of 2006 to the 2nd quarter of 2010, the job count in these industries in New York’s Southern Tier increased by 174 (+49%) to 531, according to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. In contrast, the region’s private sector job count declined by 8,500 (-4%) over the same period.

It’s time for our policy makers to give our communities the tools to help create private sector jobs and realize economic prosperity.

By lowering our tax burden, reducing unnecessary mandates and properly developing our natural resources, we will be able to reclaim the title of the Empire State.

Brian Sampson is the executive director of Unshackle Upstate, a bipartisan coalition representing a growing group of more than 70,000 employers with upwards of 1.5 million workers in every region of Upstate. To learn more about Unshackle Upstate, please visit www.unshackleupstate.com.

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New York AREA’s membership includes some of the state’s most vital business, labor and community organizations including the New York State AFL-CIO, Business Council of New York State, Partnership for New York City, New York Building Congress, National Federation of Independent Business and many more.

W W W. A R E A - A L L I A N C E . O R G JUNE 27, 2011

9

Wedding Crashers Senate passed a non-discrimination bill the Conservative Party opposed. In the following election, Long withheld the party’s ballot line from Sen. Dean Skelos but granted it to other senators.

But even some Democrats doubt that Long’s opposition to same-sex marriage

BY LAURA NAHMIAS will turn into a full-fledged war between hen New York’s state the Conservative Party and Skelos, who Senate voted to legalize same- is now the Senate Republican leader.

“Mike Long’s got a lot of other irons in sex marriage last week, the number of gay Americans legally allowed the fire,” said a Democratic consultant. to marry in the country doubled, from “I’m hard-pressed to see a successful 16 million to 32 million. The Empire vote for marriage equality turning into an State Building lit up like a rainbow, there Armageddon between the Republicans was dancing in the streets and the bill and the Conservatives.”

What the four Senate became an excuse for pundits Republicans will have is to speculate about the strong support from gay possibility of Gov. Andrew SESSION rights groups, who will see Cuomo as a presidential WRAP-UP the Republicans’ political candidate in 2016. survival as a badge of honor But state politics in New they can use to convince York are not usually so highother lawmakers in other minded. In the nation’s thirdlargest state, Senate seats are often won states to change their votes.

“No Republican lawmaker who voted by a few hundred hard-won votes. And for the four Republican senators who yes on same-sex marriage has ever lost voted “yes”—Jim Alesi, Roy McDonald, re-election for that vote,” said Brian Ellner, Mark Grisanti and Steve Saland—each of the chief strategist on the marriage bill from the Human Rights Campaign. those votes is now in question.

Marriage advocates are willing to While political insiders on both sides of the aisle agree those four would be hard spend anything to keep that statement to beat in a general election, a Repub- accurate, no matter how difficult their lican primary is different. Primaries draw races and no matter their other political older, more conservative voters who are leanings, he said.

“We will support a Republican senator likely to oppose same-sex marriage on against a Democrat,” Ellner said. “We will moral or religious grounds.

Conservative Party Chairman Mike support a Republican senator who votes Long has also vowed to withdraw support ‘yes’ against a gay Democrat.”

The stakes are high for the Republican from any candidate who voted “yes” on marriage, taking away a crucial swath Gang of Four as well as for same-sex of voters. That’s a step farther than he marriage advocates who now must prove went in 2002, when the Republican-led that their Republican allies can live to

Will voters says “no” to Republicans who said “yes”?

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fight another day.

“If Jim Alesi and Roy McDonald end up getting beat in 2012, [marriage rights advocates] are going to have serious problems in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and wherever they go next,” a Democratic operative said of the first two Republican senators to support same-sex marriage.

New Yorkers United For Marriage, a coalition composed of gay rights groups such as the Empire State Pride Agenda and Marriage Equality New York, and underwritten in part by the Gill Action Fund, reportedly spent $3 million on the spring campaign to pass the marriage bill.

In 2009, supporters of the bill spent $1,193,275 and its opponents spent $745,371.

Supporters also spent $419,678 on individual candidates last year, outstripping the bill’s opponents by tens of thousands of dollars, and the most recent campaign filings are expected to show exactly how much LGBT groups spent in the final months of their campaign for the bill’s passage.

Bill Mahoney, an analyst for the New York Public Interest Research Group, expected the amount to be the secondlargest lobbying expenditure of the year.

A major opponent of samesex marriage, the Catholic

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Conference, shrank from pushing back against the issue, both in terms of debate and money spent. The conference spent more lobbying to change a law to lower the statute of limitations on sexual abuse charges than it did against same-sex marriage, Mahoney noted.

The National Organization for Marriage, meanwhile, has threatened to spend $2 million to oust the four Republicans who voted for the bill, though the group has yet to follow through on its past spending threats.

“They’ve been pounding their chests since 2009,” said one Democratic operative. “You have to wonder how much is bluster and bluff, whereas the marriage equality advocates—the pro-[marriage] side—have proven time and again their ability.”

That sentiment was echoed again and again as the final week of the debate wore on, ultimately taking on the blood oath quality of a Mafia agreement.

“Let me just say this,” repeated one member of the New Yorkers United for Marriage Coalition in the halls of the Capitol last week. “We always remember our friends.”

This was evident in the days after Alesi and McDonald flipped. McDonald came out with a fundraising plea, urging supporters of “equal rights” to “stand with Roy.” Same-sex marriage advocates told their followers and supporters to “like” McDonald on Facebook, donate to his campaign and send him thank-you notes.

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Alesi stands to benefit too. A few short months ago he was considered unelectable after filing a lawsuit against one of his own constituents. He was also a major target of the Senate Democrats last fall. The DSCC spent more than $300,000 backing his challenger, Mary

“We will support a Republican senator against a Democrat.

We will support a Republican senator who votes ‘yes’ against a gay Democrat.”

Wilmot, in a race that Alesi won by a little more than 7,000 votes. That margin of victory was provided by the Conservative line, which he’ll certainly lose in 2012. With the right backers, marriage advocates suggested that Alesi, who is set to become a spokesman for the HRC, could make up that loss with prosame-sex marriage voters.

Saland’s re-election could be different. Last year, Didi Barrett ran against the Hudson Valley Republican in part on the platform of same-sex marriage and Saland won handily, without needing the Conservative line to seal his victory.

But while Saland’s district, which includes Columbia and Dutchess counties, has always

Doing Business in NY Requires Low-Cost Power

By Heather Briccetti

With New York facing high energy prices and an uncertain economic future, it is more important than ever to retain and attract quality companies and jobs to the state. May jobs data illustrates that too many of our fellow New Yorkers remain unemployed.

In order to attract new business, investment and jobs, New York State must be able to provide businesses and residents with consistent and affordable power.

leaned Republican, it does include the town of Hudson, which has become a growing gay center in the past decade. Democrats targeted his seat last year largely because of its burgeoning LGBT population.

Saland will get support from those residents, said a member of the New Yorkers United for Marriage coalition, who added, partly in jest: “What, are the interior decorators going to throw out Saland for voting ‘yes’ on marriage? Please.”

The senator with the most to lose is Grisanti, the Niagara Falls-area freshman whose win over Antoine Thompson last fall was one of the few shocks of the election. Grisanti campaigned in 2010 on the promise that he would not support samesex marriage. The Conservative Party endorsement helped put him over the top last year. Next year, he will have to make up for losing the

party line, as well as for betraying every voter who counted on him to stop same-sex marriage.

Grisanti’s salvation may come when Skelos sets about redrawing his district in a more favorable way.

Cuomo could show his own gratitude by not challenging the lines, even potentially endorsing him for re-election. But both are long shots, and Grisanti’s fate as of now is decidedly up in the air.

In his speech on the Senate floor last Friday, Grisanti was already trying to inoculate himself against the charges of flip-flopping that may come in the future.

“Many people who voted for me will question my integrity a short time ago,” he said. “To those whose support I may lose, please note what I told you in the past and what I was telling you, I believed was the truth.” lnahmias@nycapitolnews.com

Electric rates in New York run 60 percent above the national average, and there is a clear need for more generating capacity to help keep costs down and provide affordable, reliable power to support employers and growth industries throughout the state.

Given the state's need for affordable, reliable and environmentally sound power, The Business Council of New York State believes that it is imperative that Indian Point be relicensed.

The facts are clear: Indian Point generates 2,000 Megawatts (enough to power up to two million homes) of critical and virtually emissions-free electricity for the lower Hudson Valley and the New York City metropolitan region.

Through its PlaNYC environmental and economic blueprint for growth, the City of New York has a roadmap for strengthening the economy, addressing climate change and enhancing the quality-of-life enjoyed by New York City residents. This vital initiative specifically identifies the Indian Point Energy Center as a critical component of New York City's energy infrastructure.

According to PlaNYC, “replacing Indian Point would exceed $2 billion and New Yorkers would also pay at least $1.5 billion in higher energy costs over the next decade, and electricity consumers could see their bills increase by 15 percent.”

New York is making significant strides on energy conservation and beginning to diversify its supply with alternative and renewable energy sources. But to maintain and improve our economy we must also preserve and expand sources of affordable, dependable electricity such as Indian Point that can be counted on 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Heather Briccetti is the Acting President & CEO of The Business Council of New York State, Inc. a business advocacy organization representing 3,000 employers who employ more than one million New Yorkers across the state.

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The New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance (New York AREA) is a diverse group of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working together for clean, low-cost and reliable electricity solutions that foster prosperity and jobs for the Empire State.

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Minority Rules Growing urban minority vote will challenge upstate’s role in state elections

BY BRUCE N. GYORY

debate. Upstate and suburban voters make up 70 percent of the he long-term direction of electorate, and when they support New York state politics is shifting, a property tax cap by a 4–1 margin, thanks to two diverging trends: elected officials pay heed.

In the same way, the upstate The upstate ascendancy is waning, and ascendancy has been felt in New the aggregate minority vote is rising.

York’s opposition to Upstate has long driven raising gasoline taxes, New York’s electoral engine. its reluctance to close Its residents make up 37 upstate prisons, its percent of the state’s popuemphasis on road and lation and 39 percent of its bridge spending and its registered voters. Yet for reluctance to support decades they have cast almost environmental bond 45 percent of the total vote issues. in presidential years, and up Bruce Gyory At the root of this regional to 48 percent of the vote in voting pattern is the lower gubernatorial election years.

New York City, by contrast, is under- rate of voting among minority and represented in state politics. It has 42 younger voters in New York City. If they percent of the state’s population and 38 show up at the polls in greater numbers, percent of its registered voters, but for three decades it never cast so much as one-third of the state’s votes until 2008.

In gubernatorial years, it barely turns out 30 percent.

The four suburban counties—Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland— have 21 percent of the state’s population, and, like clockwork, they are between 23 and 24 percent of the state’s electorate.

This period of what I call the “upstate ascendancy” has not been reliably proRepublican. Democrats have won the governor’s office five times since 1980, versus three Republican victories. In an era of regional parity could emerge. In fact, as upstate and suburban counties 2008, New York City grew to 34 percent of have drifted away from large Repub- the state vote share, pulling upstate down lican advantage to rough parity, these to 42 percent.

Correspondingly, the rise of the have become swing regions. Independent voters determine the outcome minority population—including black, there, and Democrats have learned to Hispanic, Asian and multiracial voters— will become more important for electoral hold their own.

So it should come as no surprise that calculations.

In 2010, exit polls said minority voters the property tax cap has become a central concern in New York’s governmental made up 29 percent of the state’s elec-

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torate. Gov. Andrew Cuomo carried these minority voters by more than 4–1, which is why his Democratic ticket of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli won despite the final polls projecting dead heats.

The good news for Republicans is that both former Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have proven that effective outreach can lead to Republican successes among minority voters.

In 2002, Pataki won the votes of 45 percent of Hispanics and a strong majority of Asian voters. Bloomberg won a quarter of black votes in 2001 and 47 percent in 2005; he won half of Hispanics in 2001 and one-third in 2005 against a Hispanic challenger; and he won a strong majority of Asians in both elections.

Bloomberg lost shares in all three demographics in 2009, which is why his reelection was so close.

The numbers frame the question for New York Republicans: Will they follow the Bloomberg–Pataki example of enlightened self-interest in future elections? Or will they continue falling into the chasm of a demography gap?

The 2010 Census confirms that the

Republicans will have virtually no chance of winning statewide elections if they can’t crack at least a third of this minority vote.

Statewide voter share 48%

45%

46%

45%

31% 28.5% 23.5%

24%

UPSTATE:

31%

46%

44% 32%

30% 24%

NEW YORK CITY:

24%

Bruce N. Gyory is a political consultant at Corning Place Consulting in Albany and an adjunct professor of political science at SUNY Albany. editor@nycapitolnews.com

SUBURBS: 48%

43%

46%

42% 33%

30% 24%

pipeline of future minority voters is growing all over New York. While 67 percent of New York City and 31 percent of Long Island are now minority, the statewide share is 44 percent. Which means that in 2012—and certainly by 2014—the aggregate minority vote will cross 30 percent, rising toward a full third of the state’s electorate.

As that aggregate minority share grows, Republicans will have virtually no chance of winning statewide elections if they can’t crack at least a third of this minority vote.

To paraphrase an old adage, thinking voters may seek guidance from Citizens Union, but political handicappers will chart where the state’s independent and minority voters are heading—and at what level of turnout. And how well candidates swim in these crosscurrents will determine the future contours of New York’s political riverbed.

34% 24%

23%

40%

30%

29% 24%

50%

24%

24%

30% 20% 10%

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2002

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Sharing The Wealth Cuomo team targeting ambitious goal for minority and women contracting

BY JON LENTZ

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n the past five years, New York businesses owned by women and minorities have more than doubled their share of state contract dollars.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants that number to double yet again—and while he is giving it high-level attention and support, his administration must tackle the goal with a smaller staff to administer the program, and a history of state officials paying only occasional attention to meeting similar goals.

Spurred by former Gov. David Paterson, state agencies boosted the share of state contract dollars awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses to 10.3 percent last year, up from 3.9 percent in 2006.

Cuomo continued the push in his State of the State speech in January with a call for “economic opportunity for all New Yorkers” and a new goal of 20 percent, one of the highest in the country.

Kenneth Adams, who oversees the state’s Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) program as head of the Empire State Development Corporation, said some state agencies have already exceeded the governor’s ambitious target.

“It’s doable,” Adams said. “But with some agencies it’s going to require an increased effort within that agency in their procurement area. It’ll require our oversight and reporting on their compliance—some encouragement, let’s say.”

The state’s M/WBE program, which began in 1988 under then-Gov. Mario Cuomo, is designed to eliminate the gap between the number of minority and female business owners in the state and their lagging share of state contracts.

Even after efforts to strengthen the program, critics still say there is room for improvement.

Last fall, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli issued a report on the M/WBE program that cited a failure to get companies to sign up, with only 5 percent of an estimated 160,000 eligible firms completing the lengthy certification process.

Most agencies set targets of only 5 percent or less of their actual spending, the report found—and because some agencies changed what qualified as spending from quarter to quarter, their reported M/WBE participation rates were inconsistent.

Richard Brodsky, a former assemblyman, said the M/WBE figures are misleading because they exclude millions of dollars in state spending, such as some contracts awarded by public authorities.

“When the governor says he wants to improve a program, it’s a good thing,” said Brodsky, who held a hearing on state M/WBE contracting in 2006. “The point is, this program has been bedeviled by

essentially phony numbers.”

The program will also have to get by with a somewhat smaller staff following the loss of five employees, leaving 18 employees in 2011. Paterson’s push as lieutenant governor coincided with an increase in staffing.

Adams and ESDC will have some

said. “At each meeting it’s not just, ‘Let’s talk about that.’ ” Thompson, who criticized a similar city-based program when he was comptroller, said Cuomo’s leadership would be a big boost in meeting state M/WBE goals.

“It really has not been a major priority for the city of New York, not in the same way the state has made it a priority,” Thompson said. “I think Governor Cuomo has been quite courageous in saying: ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and then: ‘Now let’s get there.’ ” Tim Lohrentz, an M/WBE expert at the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, said that New York was one of the worstperforming states several years ago.

As a result, it was relatively easy to get to the current 10.3 percent, he said, but reaching Cuomo’s 20 percent target will be harder.

But New York, one of few states with strong M/WBE backing from its governor, has plenty of pieces in place, and could reach its goal over the next two to five years, Lohrentz added.

“Having buy-in at the top makes a huge difference,” he said. “Agency heads and deputies who might be ambivalent otherwise will take notice and be more motivated to make it happen within their agency.”

Other elements of the program, including the creation of a chief diversity officer post and a detailed disparities study, were spearheaded by Paterson, who chaired a task force as lieutenant governor and continued his push when he was elevated to the governorship.

“Paterson gets enormous credit for this,” Brodsky said. “It was something he had always been interested in.” jlentz@nycapitolnews.com

“When the governor says he wants to improve a program, it’s a good thing.

The point is, this program has been bedeviled by essentially phony numbers.” outside help meeting the new goal.

In February, Cuomo named a team of lawmakers, agency heads and experts to improve the program.

The task force, which has been quietly meeting each month, is addressing the range of obstacles that eligible companies face, from poor compliance and limited communication on the part of state agencies to struggles for firms to get loans and meet bonding requirements.

Bill Thompson, the former New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate, is chairing the governor’s task force, which he said will look at everything from easing bonding requirements and improving access to capital to providing more support and breaking up larger contracts into smaller ones that are easier for M/WBE firms to secure.

“I think you’ll see parts of that taking shape over the next few months, because there are things being worked on now that are part of it,” Thompson

State M/WBE Contracting

Amount of state contracts (in millions)

$1,000

Women-owned firms

$800

$600

$400

Minority-owned firms

$200

2001 THE CAPITOL

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

www.nycapitolnews.com

2007

2008

2009

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JUNE 27, 2011

13

The Regents’ folly

By Richard C. Iannuzzi

P

encils down! Standardized tests in math, science, social studies and English Language Arts for third- through eighth-graders; mid-terms and finals; and an exhausting battery of high school Regents exams have all finally come to a close for the state’s nearly 2.7 million students.

Who could blame them for exhaling a huge sigh of relief?

Unfortunately, however, that relief may be short-lived. Even more dizzying, high-stakes testing pressure is coming. The Board of Regents, choosing political expediency over sound education policy, recently adopted regulations -- contrary to the law crafted to form the centerpiece of New York’s successful Race to the Top application -- that allow districts to double the weight of questionable standardized tests in measuring teacher effectiveness. Instead of requiring 20 percent of a teacher’s annual evaluation to be based on student growth as demonstrated by standardized tests – and a second 20 percent based on other, locally developed measures – the Regents caved to political and financial pressure.

A

t the 11th hour, they allowed school districts the option of using state test scores for both the first- and second- 20 percent, essentially doubling to 40 percent the weight of high-stakes tests that both Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Education Commissioner John King agree are seriously flawed. The Board -- over the objections of Regents Roger Tilles, Betty Rosa and Kathleen Cashin -- chose political expedience over educationally sound and carefully developed high-quality measures of student growth.

While the issues center on the process for judging teachers, the Regents’ folly will have a significantly negative impact on students. If the system for judging teacher quality is flawed, then the outcomes will also be flawed.

Some of the best teachers will be ignored and some of those most in need of support will also be overlooked. When a flawed system drives emphasis in teacher evaluation on the wrong qualities, the wrong qualities will be emphasized in the classroom. Even greater “teaching to the test” and unrelenting “test prep” will take precedence over programs and policies that actually improve student achievement, emphasize critical-thinking skills and address the achievement

gap. The pressure placed on principals and teachers to “stress the test” will no doubt “stress the student’s” coping abilities.

I

nstead of well-rounded instruction in all subjects, impromptu discussions of world events and meaningful exposure to the arts, music and foreign languages, school districts -- especially poorer ones such as Albany, Buffalo and Brentwood – will find themselves chasing higher standardized test scores. Instead of developing meaningful measures of student growth to drive instruction, improve student performance and evaluate teacher effectiveness, many districts will find economic pressures leaving them no choice but to take the easy way out—seeking a double weighting of flawed exams over an educationally sound measure of performance.

New York State United Teachers filed a lawsuit this week to overturn portions of these harmful regulations. NYSUT, to be clear, remains fully committed to a comprehensive, objective and fair system of evaluating teachers to improve student performance, one that includes high-quality measures of student growth used appropriately. Our suit is based not only on clear violations of the law, but on mounting evidence that an over reliance on high-stakes testing has, so far, had little or no positive effect on graduation rates or actual student learning.

N

o one disagrees that only the most capable, highly skilled professionals should have the privilege of teaching New York’s students. But, creating regulations that are contrary to law and the findings of the best of the best in educational research is more than just folly: It’s reckless and harmful to students and teachers. The Regents had a legal duty to write regulations consistent with state law and a moral duty to improve student learning and accurately measure teacher effectiveness. Regrettably, the Regents failed New York’s teachers and principals and, more importantly, its children.

Richard C. Iannuzzi taught elementary school for 34 years in Central Islip and is president of the 600,000-member New York State United Teachers.

Richard C. Iannuzzi, President Andrew Pallotta, Executive Vice President Maria Neira, Vice President Kathleen M. Donahue, Vice President Lee Cutler, Secretary-Treasurer

Representing more than 600,000 professionals in education and health care.

www.nysut.org 800 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham, NY 12110-2455

n

518-213-6000

n

800-342-9810 n Affiliated with AFT / NEA / AFL-CIO

Nuclear Options

for energy expansion. Only two new plants and one new transmission line are expected to be completed in the New York City area by 2013, adding nearly 1,400 megawatts to the region’s capacity.

Next up on the drawing board are 2,000 megawatts’ worth of generation plants, as well as up to 3,000 megawatts of transmission lines to New York City from upstate and Québec—all of them proposed to launch by 2016 but none yet approved.

New Article X power plant law may help Cuomo’s plan to close Indian Point

By Jon Lentz

F

or the first time in eight years, New York now has a streamlined process for building new power plants in an energy-hungry state—and environmentalists and business interests are equally happy with it.

Yet by solving one festering issue, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has cleared the way for both sides to focus on another: Whether to shut down the Indian Point nuclear plant on the banks of the Hudson River.

The new “Power NY” bill emerged unexpectedly in the waning days of the legislative session, after energy executives had despaired of ever renewing the Article X law that governs the location and permitting of new power plants.

Cuomo campaigned on a pledge to renew the law as well as to close Indian Point, knowing that New York would need robust alternative sources of power if the state lost the 2,000 megawatts capable of being generated by the nuclear site.

“This new power plant siting law is opening up new opportunities for power generation throughout the state,” said Michael Virga, a spokesman for Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, who wants to find alternatives to Indian Point. “And that of course would be critical to filling the gap if Indian Point were to go off-line. That could help phase in the phase-out.”

Advocates say Cuomo and his Empire State Development Corp. head, Kenneth Adams, who came from the private sector Business Council lobbying group, never portrayed Power NY as an Indian Point killer—and say they deserve credit for making Article X renewal a priority on its own terms.

“Ken Adams is saying it’s ridiculous that we don’t have a siting procedure,” said Sen. George Maziarz, chair of the Senate Energy Committee and one of the bill’s sponsors, during negotiations on the bill.

While industry is welcoming the opportunity to generate more power in the state, environmental groups are happy with protections in the law for people living near proposed generators.

Power NY also tees up what environmentalists call the nation’s most far-reaching energy efficiency plan—a $5 billion loan fund to pay for retrofitting 1 million New York homes and businesses, paid back over time directly on energy bills.

Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party, said “on-bill” financing for the Green Jobs/Green New York program was a key priority for the party because it will create 60,000 jobs—many of them subject to prevailing wages—while saving money and the environment at no cost to the state.

“We’re doing it to a scale that makes

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a difference,” said Cantor, who credited the governor for breaking the logjam. “In reality, it was Cuomo.”

With a process in place, power companies can now proceed with plans

New York’s energy supply

New York has over 37,000 megawatts of energy capacity, with nuclear power the third most common source. Here’s a breakdown of the top sources, the share of the state’s energy they provide and snapshots of potential growth.

Natural gas- and oil-powered plants 13,618 megawatts 36 percent

These dual-fuel plants are the state’s dominant energy source.

New York City and Long Island rely heavily on these plants, and will continue to for the foreseeable future.

Natural gas only 6,569 megawatts 18 percent

Natural gas could see a boost with new pipelines, but growth depends on hydrofracking regulations. More than 5,000 megawatts of new natural gas generation have been proposed in the state, second only to wind.

Nuclear energy 5,272 megawatts 14 percent

The Indian Point facility near New York City has drawn criticism and calls to close it, but proposals for new nuclear generation still trail only wind, natural gas and dual fuel plants.

Hydropower 4,177 megawatts 11 percent

This is the cheapest source of energy, and the most common renewable resource in the state. There are few proposals for new hydropower generation.

Oil only 3,236 megawatts 9 percent

This conventional energy source is a key component of the state’s energy supply, especially downstate. Crises in the Middle East have made the price of oil subject to volatility.

Coal 2,620 megawatts 7 percent

Coal, a non-renewable energy source, is not a dominant energy source in the state, but it is more commonly used throughout the rest of the country.

Wind 124 megawatts Under 1 percent

It’s only a tiny fraction of the state’s energy supply, but the industry has proposed to hook up more than 7,000 megawatts of new wind power, the most of any energy source.

Source: New York Independent System Operator

www.nycapitolnews.com

All of that new power could make it easier for Cuomo, environmental groups and neighbors to demand that Indian Point be closed. Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, who sponsored Power NY and was one of the lead negotiators, said Indian Point didn’t inspire the law but illustrated why it was necessary.

“It points out that we should be very careful to make sure we have a mechanism in place to make sure that plants are not sited where we don’t want them,” Cahill said. “Indian Point provides that lesson to us.”

Indian Point’s defenders say the new law will not make it any easier to take the aging plant out of service, since new power plants take five to ten years to develop, build and put into operation.

“Everyone knows that if you have a siting law, it’s going to take a while until people start to come forward and companies start to make proposals,” said Jerry Kremer, a lobbyist and chair of the New York Affordable Reliable Energy Alliance.

“The fact is there’s no replacement power for Indian Point.”

Many experts expect the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to relicense the plant’s two reactors when they are up for renewal in 2013 and 2015, despite Cuomo’s opposition. Cuomo’s role in the process is limited to approving or denying water permits, since the plant’s discharge flows into the Hudson.

“I think he’s going to use all his energies to try to do it on a regulatory front, but I don’t think it’s the right public policy for New York State,” said Gavin Donohue, president of the Independent Power Producers of New York, Inc. Rick Gonzales, the chief operating officer for the New York Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s power grid, told a state Senate committee in May that if both Indian Point units went out of operation, New York would run short on power by 1,400 megawatts in the summer.

“Assuming that one megawatt serves approximately 1,500 electric customers in New York City, this means that up to 2.1 million customers could be subject to interruptions, in the form of rolling blackouts, if one of several critical electric facilities goes out of service,” Gonzales said.

But environmentalists are not deterred.

Armed with Power NY, they say they can now focus on making smart improvements to New York’s energy supply and better shepherding existing resources to hasten Indian Point’s demise.

“With this legislation passing, we’re going to see increased projects in the pipeline that, over time, will render Indian Point’s power obsolete,” said Phillip Musegaas, an attorney with Riverkeeper, an environmental group opposed to relicensing Indian Point.

“Between renewables and energy efficiency and potentially some new generation,” he said, “you can easily address the issue of Indian Point’s power output.” jlentz@nycapitolnews.com JUNE 27, 2011

15

RISING STARS ALBANY’S NEXT GENERATION OF POLITICAL LEADERS

T

he Capitol recognized its crop of 2011 Rising Stars earlier this month with a cocktail reception at the Albany Crowne Plaza, where some of the sharpest young minds in politics and government rubbed elbows with some of the most experienced. Some in our new group of Rising Stars met for the first time, others got advice from Rising Stars from previous years, and everyone shared their pride in how our Rising Stars are making their mark on New York.

Assemblywoman Grace Meng, Rising Star Linda Sun and Lissa Yang

Robert Freeman, Rising Stars Nirav Shah and Sen. David Carlucci

Sen. Neil Breslin, Rising Star Eric Sumberg and Robert Freeman

Sen. Tim Kennedy and Laura Wood, both Rising Stars

Heather Beaudoin and Joanne Fernandez Background: Steve McInnis and Bill Lacey

Photos by Andy Kainz Rising Stars Simeon Banister and Richard St. Paul

16

JUNE 27, 2011

www.nycapitolnews.com

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RISING STARS

Assemblyman Jack McEneny and his daughter, Rising Star Rachel McEneny

Rising Stars Jamar Hooks, Simeon Banister and Gregory Smiley

Rising Star Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez (center)

Rising Star Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, Jack O’Donnell and Mike McGuire

Adeidra Irvin, Rising Star Tai White and Dorothy El-Amin

Sen. Neil Breslin and Rising Star Kathleen Digan

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www.nycapitolnews.com

JUNE 27, 2011

17

Working With: • NY City Department of Transportation • NY City Metropolitan Transit Authority • Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority

• NY State Department of Transportation • The Port Authority of NY/NJ • NY State Bridge Authority

Kieran Ahern • President • Dan O’Connell • General Counsel

ISSUESPOTLIGHT

N

Organized Labor

ew York is the most highly unionized state in the nation, but that doesn’t mean organized labor has it easy these days. Public-sector unions are being threatened with layoffs in order to accept wage freezes, higher medical payments and lower pensions to help balance government budgets. In the private sector, city construction unions are threatening to strike at the end of the month. Yet New York’s largest unions remain remarkable fountains of political strength, and labor leaders are weighing how best to make their power felt.

The Capitol shines a spotlight on organized labor and the role unions play in New York today.

Q: What are the most important challenges facing New York’s labor force today?

Point/Counterpoint

Sen. Joseph Robach, chair of the Senate Labor Committee: We need to spur economic growth by getting shovels in the ground throughout the area and creating good jobs so hardworking citizens can get back into the workforce and we retain young people just getting Joseph Robach out of school.

Q: Is labor as politically powerful as it once was?

Robach: As I previously stated, labor is a vital resource to our state, to help provide both needed service and help improve our economic climate by spurring economic development.

Wright: Yes and no. Yes, in the fact that you’re not

Keith Wright winning any major election without labor. It’s just not going to be done—or it can be done; it just makes it a Assemblyman Keith Wright, chair of the Assembly Labor Commit- lot harder. I think that to some extent labor needs to reach out to other comtee: Facing the labor force all over the country is people trying to take away the munities. Labor, like politics, evolves. The labor unions that were all Irish or all hard-fought gains that the labor movement has accumulated from its inception. Italian from years back—it’s not your grandfather’s labor union anymore. I think Those gains were hard-fought, and they should be appreciated, and they have to labor unions have to evolve into other communities. They have to really reach be kept in place. So that’s number one. Number two, probably the other challenge out to communities of color, especially in terms of apprenticeship programs, is trying to keep the labor movement together, because a lot of times people get because that’s their labor force for the future. When you get the third-generation comfortable and they take the gains that labor has accumulated over the or fourth-generation folks that are in the labor unions, they want to go on years for granted. I see it with the civil rights movements, and I see it to become doctors and lawyers just like every other ethnic group that with a lot of things; they take it for granted. And a lot of times you has migrated to the United States of America, or New York City in don’t miss the water until the well runs dry. particular. So I think that, in order to keep them relevant and ISSUESPOTLIGHT to keep them current and such, I think they need to reach out to other communities, communities that have not necessarily Q: How would you rate Governor Cuomo’s relations with participated in labor unions in the past. labor unions?

Organized Labor

Q: What sort of compromise do you see between Cuomo and unions over pension reform?

Robach: I know that currently the governor is in discussions with many labor unions, and things seem to be going in the right direction.

“Pension reform is an ongoing discussion between the governor and the unions, and only time will tell.”

Wright: I would have to say, he has a fantastic relationship with labor unions.

They were part of his Medicaid Redesign Team. They played an integral part in his election. I think that he takes advice from them on issues that concern them; he’s not shutting them out. I know one of his big issues is looking at the costs of pensions and such. And I think that he is certainly consulting with them, which is probably a lot more than a lot of other governors have done. And whether they agree with him or not is another story, but at least he’s giving them the respect that some other governors have not always given them.

Robach: Pension reform is an ongoing discussion between the governor and the unions, and only time will tell.

Wright: I don’t know. I wish I did, but it remains to be seen. Sometimes I haven’t always agreed with the governor in terms of some of the things that he has done the last six months. But I think in the long term, I think they’ll end up being the right decisions for the State of New York.

Q: What effect would thousands of layoffs have on the state’s ability to deliver services?

“Labor’s going to have to really take a hard look at the pension system and their upcoming contracts with the state.”

Q: What can labor unions do to better acclimate themselves to the state’s economy?

Robach: Labor is one of the vital resources to this state. We are doing everything we can with my colleagues in the Legislature to find the balance to help all of the hardworking men and women of this state and further the growth of good jobs for everyone.

Wright: Labor’s going to have to really take a hard look at the pension system and their upcoming contracts with the state, and the plus[es] or minuses concerning collective bargaining. Sometimes the hardest person to talk to is yourself—it’s the man in the mirror, or the woman in the mirror. So they’re going to have to look at that, and that answers your question. Whether I agree with it is another story, but I’m just saying, that answers your question.

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Robach: This is an ongoing discussion with the governor’s office, to find ways to keep jobs right here in the state, spur economic growth in our region and keep vital services to our residents in place.

Wright: It would be a problem. Or as they say in your neighborhood: problematic. We are probably in one of the worst economic crises we’ve been in in years. I don’t want to see one person lose their job. The loss of a job not only has an effect upon that one person whose job it is but it has an effect upon families. It has a real ripple effect. So the layoff of thousands of people would have a tremendous, devastating, tsunami-like effect upon the economy, upon our educational system, upon our health system, upon our social system and upon our family structure as we know it. So it would be devastating.

www.nycapitolnews.com

JUNE 27, 2011

19

Union

Union Power

Membership

PAC Funds*

President

Legislative Director

600,000

$7,048,631.48

Richard Iannuzzi

Stephen Allinger

175,000

-$64,067.62

Chris Shelton (VP of NY)

Bob Master

45,000

N/A

Stuart Appelbaum

Ademola Oyefeso

300,000

$0.00

Danny Donohue

Fran Turner

360,000

$446,652.71

George Gresham

Kevin Finnegan

56,000

$91,085.90

Ken Brynien

Brian F. Curran

265,000 (U.S.)

$181,186.63

John Wilhelm

Ray Stever

40,000

$49,333.42

Armand Sabitoni

George Truicko

T

o put it lightly, relations between the Cuomo administration and the state’s labor force could be a lot better. The governor was able to win his landslide victory last year without a lot of labor support, but unlike other states, unions in New York are still a force to be reckoned with. With big issues creeping up, like pension reform, the debate is expected to get a lot more polarized. Here is a snapshot of the state’s top unions.

* As of Jan. 2011

Source: NYS Board of Elections

S U N D BIT ES

Ken Brynien, president, Public Employees Federation

Gary LaBarbera, president, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York

In our industry, [our challenge] is to bring more focus to opportunities for cost savings related to management inefficiencies and excesses that increase costs and hinder job creation. There is too often an attitude that only labor has to make changes. Labor is making changes.

It’s time for others to make changes too. When union members of the building trades are working, it’s usually a sign that the rest of the city and state are also doing well. Our relationship with the governor is a good one because his agenda reflects this same outlook. Putting New Yorkers back to work is the barometer by which we’ll all be measured.

E.J. McMahon, senior fellow, Empire Center for New York State Policy

The biggest challenge [public-sector unions] have is how they can continue to defend the status quo when it’s unaffordable and unsustainable. While other states were doing massive layoffs and furloughs, they were not touched overall. They are making some temporary sacrifices. I don’t think that’s a paradigm shift. So far it’s working well for [Cuomo]. He’s perceived as being tougher than he is, and he has unbelievable approval ratings. For him, if he maintains his current posture publicly, I don’t know how it hurts him. Rhetorically, he’s very committed to staying the course. He’s basically stopped the drift and stopped the bleeding, as some of us saw it. But staying the course doesn’t get easier from now on.

He’s going to have to stay consistent.

ISSUESPOTLIGHT Organized Labor 20

JUNE 27, 2011

Labor unions are the only organizations that fight for working men and women, that fight for decent wages and benefits and that fight for secure jobs and safe working conditions. The biggest challenge is to defend workers against the forces that wish to strip them of their livelihood, their pensions, their health care and their voice. We want to partner with the governor to help the state provide better cost-effective services that improve the lives of all its citizens. Failure to partner with us will be a lost opportunity that will negatively affect everyone.

Danny Donohue, president, Civil Service Employees Association Labor in both the public and private sector really reflects the population of New York as a whole, and our priorities are the same as they are for most New Yorkers—creating good jobs and strengthening the economy. When we address those issues, a lot of the other nonsense of playing people off against each other goes away. Governor Andrew Cuomo is at a crossroads for his administration. He is riding high in the polls but his policies are not as well-received. There are big differences between running a political campaign and actually governing the State of New York. The governor will have to decide if he is going to grandstand for political purposes or really be a pragmatic manager for all the people of New York.

Norman Adler, founder, Bolton–St. John’s consulting firm The number-one challenge is finding jobs or keeping jobs. That’s really what it amounts to. All the debate is about layoffs, or about cutbacks to budgets that will prevent them from adding people to the workforce. [Labor’s relations with Cuomo are] not terrific. At the moment I would say there’s trouble right here in Capital City. It depends on who runs against him. Unless there’s a terrific Republican or the state is in a terrible circumstance…let me put it this way, right now he’s acting like he won’t need them to get re-elected.

www.nycapitolnews.com

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6/20/11 10:15 AM

Follow The Union Cuomo believes CSEA deal should serve as a template, but other unions are skeptical

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS

“C

SEA really stepped up,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a late evening press scrum amid the swirl of end-of-session exhaustion and speculation.

He was referring to the just-announced five-year labor agreement his administration had inked with the Civil Service Employees Association, the state’s largest public employee union, with 66,000 members.

Cuomo said he hoped the agreement— which includes a three-year wage freeze, nine furlough days each year and higher health care contributions—would serve as a template for other union agreements in the future.

Now other labor leaders privately wonder how other unions, such as the Public Employees Federation and Council 82, whose members rejected a

outside the Capitol just days before the CSEA deal at which he denounced Cuomo as fundamentally disrespectful of unions and the work state employees do.

E.J. McMahon, senior fellow at the

POLITICS

•

Empire Center for New York State Policy and a vocal critic of unions, said the CSEA contract will put enormous pressure on other unions to make a deal with the administration.

“On the state level, as a pattern, it’s very valuable for the governor,” McMahon said. “It’s what he needs. ...It’s probably the best deal he could get, outside of the Council 82 deal that they rejected.”

The Citizens Budget Commission went even further, saying the deal could serve as a template for Mayor Michael Bloom-

POLICY

•

berg as he seeks similar concessions from city-based unions to fill the city’s budget gap.

The mayor’s preliminary plan currently assumes a two-year wage freeze. By adopting the state plan, Bloomberg could save an additional $388 million, and a fiveday furlough for municipal unions could save the city $400 million.

“The city will find itself in the same predicament again next year unless it follows the example set by state labor and management,” said CBC senior researcher Maria Doulis.

PERSONALITIES

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ISSUESPOTLIGHT Organized Labor

tentative deal with Cuomo earlier this year, can maneuver after CSEA has set the bar for negotiations.

“PEF stands ready to meet with the state’s negotiators to reach an agreement that balances the needs of our members as well as the needs of the state,” PEF President Ken Brynien said in a tersely worded statement that conveyed no sense of whether he shared the governor’s optimism.

In the wake of the CSEA deal, several unions are grumbling that the only difference between Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who just scored a big win over his state’s public sector unions this month, is that Cuomo is not seeking to drastically curtail collective bargaining rights.

And many are still fuming over the governor’s refusal to extend the millionaire’s tax, which would have brought the state billions in revenue and precluded the need for union givebacks.

Instead, the state adopted a budget that includes $450 million in labor savings, leading Cuomo to threaten unions with almost 10,000 state worker layoffs if they did not agree to concessions.

Brynien keynoted a PEF rally

22

JUNE 27, 2011

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BACK & F O R T H

No Relief

S

tephen J. Acquario, executive director of the New York State Association of Counties, has been a firm advocate of coupling the property tax cap with measures to provide more flexibility on unfunded state mandates. But Acquario doesn’t expect any mandate relief—make that meaningful mandate relief—until next year, as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2012–2013 budget.

Speaking with The Capitol after a last-minute meeting with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and aides to the governor, Acquario discussed the future of the state’s mandate-relief redesign team, the “tweaks” passed this year and the need for improved state-county relations. What follows is an edited transcript.

The Capitol: Will the state get mandate relief this year?

Stephen Acquario: If there ever was a year where meaningful mandate relief must happen, it’s this year. That is because of the property tax cap, a cap on local taxes.

It’s inconceivable and irresponsible to have the unit of government, the state, affect another unit of government’s tax without providing corresponding mandate relief. The consequence can be devastating for local services.

TC: What did you say to top legislative staff and the governor’s aides?

SA: In these conversations we were describing the impact of the property tax cap. We support Governor Cuomo’s property tax cap, but to effectively implement it there needs to be a mechanism, and that is thorough, meaningful mandate relief. It can’t be through odds and ends and tweaks of regulations.

Banning unfunded future mandates is helpful, but it’s not going to help the local taxpayer right now.

There’s a lot of buzz about a future moratorium on unfunded mandates or creating councils to study the issue. We don’t need councils. We have identified nine state mandate programs that consume 90 percent of the county property tax statewide. Therein is the problem, and therein lies the solution to effectively implement a property cap.

TC: How did the meeting go?

SA: There’s a great deal of receptivity to that. They have to go home and face their community leaders. They have to go home and face the mayor of the city of New York, who represents five boroughs. They’ll have to go to counties all across the state. They made an earnest effort to address those concerns.

TC: What will NYSAC be doing in coming weeks and months?

SA: Over the coming months we are convening the leaders from across the state, implementing the operating budgets for 2012 under the property tax cap. We’re going to look at the impact of unemployment—if we have to eliminate services locally through not-for-profits, and how that is going to impact communities. How each local government is going to confront the issue of a life after a tax cap will include looking to perhaps sell or eliminate local services such as long-term-care homes.

All the mandated programs get taken off the top first, and that leaves 15 cents on the dollar locally. Unfortunately, those are the programs which truly serve the

THE CAPITOL

community, including our veterans. Community colleges will have to be looked at, and whether we’re going to have a role in community colleges as we go forward.

That’s a large part of the state’s public purpose; and Fashion Institute of Technology and the Nassau-Suffolk Community College in Westchester, that’s something that will have to be reviewed again as well. Can we be participating sponsors of these colleges?

TC: How much time do counties have to adjust?

NYSAC

between the state and the counties. The county leaders have made a bipartisan effort to not simply blame the state. We’ve chosen to offer solutions and to be part of our process. You can only get to solutions through dialogue and communications and a good-faith effort to work together collectively between the state and the locals.

We’re hopeful it will produce some meaningful outcome.

TC: Can anything be done on mandate relief postsession?

SA: It’s unlikely. They may return, and they’ve demonstrated that over the past, that they would return. They’ve had plenty of time to study the issue. They’ve had plenty of time to draft the proposals. Here and there they’ve introduced bills. I’d say if it doesn’t get done in June of 2011, it likely gets done in the governor’s executive budget in 2012.

We’ll continue to work closely with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on his 2012–13 budget in the summer and fall months.

TC: Why didn’t the governor champion mandate relief?

SA: Because it’s complex. Give him a moment in time— it used to be called a honeymoon. There are no more honeymoons in government. He’s a new governor; he’s the chief executive of the state and he’s just taken the reins.

He needs some time to figure out just exactly how things work. I think we’ve made our case in explaining the administrative arm of state government, which is what counties are. We’ve given him our view about how some of those state programs are being financed. I think his next budget will reflect some changes in policy to address those issues.

I think he needed some time to truly appreciate it. I would not say he’s not championed it. He’s now mentioned it on a number of occasions. He’s pretty immersed in just how complex it really is, and why it’s truly important to New Yorkers to reform. He’s been a champion of change, and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him in that regard.

“It’s inconceivable and irresponsible to have the unit of government, the state, affect another unit of government’s tax without providing corresponding mandate relief.”

SA: About three months. The budgets are taking shape now; department head requests are going into management now; budget finance will present it to the board in about 45 to 60 days. Then they’ll have budget hearings and so forth, and the budgets will be enacted as early as September. All budgets need to be enacted prior to 12/31.

TC: Will some regions be hit harder?

SA: All regions and all homeowners will benefit with the tax cap, but that must include meaningful mandate relief. Otherwise the impact is unknown. Upstate has been struggling, both in its ability to maintain population and its ability to attract and retain economic development, meaningful jobs and businesses. Downstate has been able to maintain population and grow but remains under the same pressures of state-mandated services. The tax cap and its impact to eliminate or reduce local services will be equally assessed across the state. Mandate relief, which is tied to all counties—all will benefit from that. There’s no particular part of the state that can afford a tax cap better than another part.

TC: Will the mandate-relief task force meet again?

SA: That is unknown at this time. I imagine the task force will reconvene. We have gone through a series of five or six meetings of the mandate relief team, and scored a number of proposals for consideration. We have been waiting for a report from the commission, from the team, and expect to have more meetings on this issue. It’s not a one-and-done type of process. These are complex areas, long-standing fiscal policy and program responsibility

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TC: How would your Medicaid

proposal work?

SA: Consistent with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the president’s federal health insurance program, there is a window of time to provide long-term and meaningful mandate relief through a phaseout of local tax dollars financing Medicaid, and a phase-in and leveraging of new federal funds to pay for this program. That would create a different financing mechanism for Medicaid services here in New York State. This would reduce the local property tax, eliminate it in many instances—and also [generate] savings from the state’s Medicaid cost-containment initiative in the 2011 state budget. This would help replace local tax dollars. Combined, these actions can help finance a gradual removal of the county property tax financing the federal Medicaid program in New York.

TC: What else needs to change?

SA: I think there needs to be a better dialogue to communicate between the local governments and the state. There has been a lack of trust, perhaps both ways and perhaps for good reason, for several decades, and that needs to end. This is one New York, and there’s one taxpayer in New York, and both units of government are serving that same taxpayer. We hope Governor Cuomo can continue to champion that and restore the partnership.

TC: How much have your property taxes gone up?

SA: In Albany County, they’ve gone up just under 6 percent.

—Jon Lentz jlentz@nycapitolnews.com JUNE 27, 2011

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