In a 10-page letter to President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden this week, Gov. David Paterson proposes how New York and the nation could benefit from billions of dollars he wants them to include in their economic-stimulus package. In an $800 billion package, $500 billion would be for Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps, welfare assistance, child care and flexible education block grants to states.

   The remaining $300 billion would be for investments in infrastructure. For each $1 billion invested, an estimated 30,000 are created That would mean 351,000 jobs in New York, Paterson wrote. New York has at least 1,922 infrastructure projects totaling $11.7 billion that can be ready to begin within six months of receiving federal money.

   This is the breakdown of ready-to-go projects in New York:

  —Transportation infrastructure, 382 projects, $3.66 billion

  —Wastewater infrastructure, 92, $1.35 billion

  —Clean water infrastrucutre, 7, $132.6 million

  —State parks infrastrucutre, 31, $35.3 million

  —K-12 school consruction, 737, $966.1 million

  —Higher ed school construction, $245, $2.64 billion.

  —Affordable houisng, 202, $192.97 million

  —Broadband infrastructure, 9, $8.46 million

  —Health information technology, 7, $1.3 billion

  —Energy infrastrucutre and green jobs, 210, $1.42 billion.

(AP photo)

Flags on state government buildings across New York will be flown at half-staff Monday in honor of New York State native and U.S. Army Reserve Major John P. Pryor, M.D., who died Christmas Day in Mosul, Iraq, the governor’s office announced today.

Major Pryor, of New Jersey, was born in Mount Vernon and grew up outside Albany. He was a member of the 1st Medical Detachment, Forward Surgical Team, based at Fort Totten, in Queens.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, are ending a rollercoaster year by joining Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Times Square to help lower the New Year’s Eve ball.

The former first couple will join Bloomberg tomorrow night in Times Square to lead revelers in the final 60 second countdown, and push the ceremonial button that lowers the ball.

The Clintons look back at a wild 12 months. Last New Year’s Eve, they were in Iowa as Sen. Clinton campaigned for the Democratic caucus, which she eventually lost to Barack Obama. She is now on her way to become his secretary of state.

Like a lot of people these days, Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone has financial problems. Well, to be clear, we’re talking about his city. We can’t speak to his personal finances.

Faced with an estimated $16 million gap in the current Yonkers’ budget and a more than $100 million hole in next year’s spending plan, Amicone meets tomorrow with two Democratic state senators who represent Yonkers. The Republican mayor will be meeting with Sen. Jeffrey Klein, whose district also includes parts of the Bronx and Mount Vernon, and Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, whose district also includes Greenburgh.

Amicone’s agenda is not that much different from the one he’s touted for many years, according to his spokesman David Simpson: The inequity of the state school aid formula, which sends far more money per student to upstate big cities than to Yonkers. Though the mayor had hoped for a massive injection of state education funding before New York’s finances tumbled with the stock market, Amicone is seeking more modest help this time around.

Staff writer Jorge Fitz-Gibbon reports:

Westchester residents have contributed $128,250 to President-elect Barack Obama’s upcoming inaugural celebration – part of nearly $22 million donated nationwide to the record-breaking event.

A total of 13 county residents so far have chipped in for the Jan. 20 celebration, which will culminate with the Illinois senator’s swearing in as the nation’s first black president. The inauguration is expected to draw some 2.5 million revelers to Washington, D.C.

Two Westchester donors have contributed $50,000 each to the festivities, while another chipped in $25,000. The remaining contributors donated $250 or $500, according to records of funds raised by the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee.

The records were released as part of Obama’s vow to bring more transparency to inaugural fundraising efforts. Unlike previous inaugural committees, the current one has said it would not accept contributions from corporations, political action committees, labor unions, federally registered lobbyists, non-U.S. citizens and registered foreign agents.

In addition, the committee is releasing the names of any donors who contribute more than $200, and capping individual contributions at $50,000. “Bundled” contributions are capped at $300,000.

Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, D-Ossining, continued to make the case for a property-tax cap, releasing a survey today of about 500 of her constituents that found 88 percent want a cap on school property taxes.

During her re-election bid over the summer, Galef, who heads the Assembly Real Property Tax Committee, warmed to the idea of a tax cap after being a major proponent of a circuit-breaker, which ties taxes to household income.

She’s broken from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, who has yet to back the cap and bring the measure to the Assembly floor. The GOP-controlled Senate (at least for a few more days) passed the measure over the summer.

Galef has been hosting Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi at events to tout a tax cap. Suozzi heads the NYS Commission on Property Tax Relief, which recommends the cap.

She’s hosting a forum with Suozzi on Thursday, Jan. 22 from 7-9 pm at Croton Village Hall.

Here’s some of the questions and answers from her survey:

Are you in favor of a property tax cap?
88%—yes
12%—no

If you favor a cap, do you think 4% or 120% of the Consumer Price Index (the lesser of the two) is reasonable?
62%—yes
38%—no

The (Suozzi commission) report calls for any school district that wants to exceed the cap to get approval by at least 55 percent of the voters and by 60 percent if the school district received a 5% or greater boost in state aid. Do you think this is reasonable?
70%—yes
30%—no

Do you think a tax cap should be passed as its own legislation?
76%—yes
24%—no

If not, would you support a cap in conjunction with a guarantee that school costs and state mandates for schools would be covered by state aid?
68%—yes
32%—no

If you believe state aid is necessary to keep schools strong, would you be willing to have your income tax raised to support the aid?
32%—yes
68%—no

Would you support circuit breaker relief in the form of a personal income tax credit against real property taxes paid in excess of a percentage of income?
64%—yes
36%—no

If “yes” would you support replacing the current Middle Income STAR Rebate check with the new Circuit Breaker and use the state money that currently funds this STAR program to pay for the Circuit Breaker?
44%—yes
56%—no

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said today that the federal government could be coming to New York’s financial rescue with at least $5 billion a year for Medicaid.

The relief would be part of a federal bailout proposal being drawn up by President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders. It is expected to total between $80 billion and $100 billion this year in Medicaid funding for states in addition to money for infrastructure maintenance and improvement, according to Schumer.

Schumer said the proposal being discussed would temporarily boost New York’s Medicaid reimbursement rate by about 10 percent, which would yield an extra $5 billion annually for the state.

The federal government, state and counties share the cost of Medicaid, but New York receives a smaller percentage of the total cost than other states because of its wealth. New York spends more per capita ($2,283) on Medicaid, a $45 billion program, than any other state in the country and more than twice the national average ($1,026). Congress and the Obama administration hope to have the stimulus package passed by Congress and signed into law by the end of January, Schumer said.

New York Health Commissioner Richard Daines, a physician, released a YouTube video about the benefits of taxing soda and other sugary drinks, which is a proposal by Gov. David Paterson as part of his budget.

The idea is unpopular with New Yorkers, yet Daines—aided by a blob of six pounds of fat in the five-minute video—tries to show how Americans and New Yorkers, especially kids, continue to drink too much soda, leading to obesity.

Caroline Kennedy vowed Saturday that upstate New York would not be shortchanged if she’s picked as the state’s next U.S. senator, saying she would promote renewable-energy initiatives, look to rebuild the infrastructure and bolster education.

“If I am lucky enough to be selected, I absolutely would take this commitment seriously to represent all of New York state,” she said in an interview with Gannett News Service.

“There are a lot of opportunities with the new alternative-energy jobs and green jobs upstate that may provide the kind of opportunity that we haven’t seen in a long time.”

Under criticism for her lack of experience and openness about her candidacy, Kennedy agreed to some media interviews in recent days to try to better explain her credentials and why she’s interested in succeeding Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

She has talked about following her family legacy of public service and being inspired by her father, the late President John F. Kennedy.

She said in interviews she doesn’t feel a sense of entitlement to the position, which was once held by her uncle Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, telling NY1 television Friday that “I can tell you in our family, in particular, there is a sense we have to work twice as hard.”

Kennedy, 51, of Manhattan, said she’s been a wife, a mother of three, an author and an education advocate and now feels it’s the right time to seek public office. She said she has connections in Washington—particularly with her uncle Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and President-elect Barack Obama—that could help New York.

Some other points:
—When asked about the future of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester County—which Schumer and her environmental activist cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has wanted closed—Kennedy said she also thinks it should be shut down.

“We have an opportunity now,” she said, “to really invest in alterative energy … I think we need to develop alternatives to Indian Point in particular.”
—Kennedy said she’s up for the rigors of running in both elections if picked by Paterson. In fact, she said she would almost prefer a traditional campaign, saying that would make it easier for her to talk to voters and get her message out.

She said she doesn’t plan to travel the state again before Paterson makes his decision, saying the “governor’s made it clear that he doesn’t want a campaign.”

Kennedy said she would back whoever the Democratic governor picks.
—Kennedy beat back criticism, particularly from Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-Queens, that she has been handled by aides in the same manner as former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who was initially held back from media interviews.

“People like to say all kinds of things in politics. I’m used to that. I grew up with that,” she said. “When I look in the mirror I don’t see Sarah Palin, so that’s for everybody else to decide.”
—Kennedy said she doesn’t have “the traditional kind of experience in elected office. But I think that in our country today people are looking for new kinds of voices.”
—As for Paterson’s recent state budget proposal, she called his plan to slap taxes on soda “an interesting approach” to deal with childhood obesity problems, but didn’t fully endorse it.

She said raising income taxes on the wealthy—which Paterson has so far ruled out—may need to be an option in the future.

“In principle I think that everybody has to pay their fair share and those with more should have to step up as well. But I think people seem to agree that now maybe is not the time with the economy (struggling). So I think that’s obviously down the road and requires a lot more study.”

Former Mount Vernon mayor Ernest Davis said he had no part in granting $10,000 and $5,000 raises for six employees in the city’s Law Department.

In a story about raises for governmental appointees that ran Sunday, chief of staff Yolanda Robinson said raises for the department were negotiated in the former administration and took effect in 2008. But Davis said he didn’t approve the raises and wouldn’t have supported anything other than equal raises for his staff across all departments.

Robinson stood by her comments and faxed a copy of a letter to back her claim. In the Dec. 18, 2007 letter, a member of the legal team asked Davis for raises based on the employees’ long hours and hard work, and the salary of their counterparts in the county. The letter shows that conversation took place under Davis, but isn’t proof that raises were settled under the former mayor. The City Council approved the raises in January, but it’s still unclear which mayor put the legislation on the table.