Politics on the Hudson

   An Albany-area man who used to work for the state Department of Taxation and Finance was arrested today on charges that he illegally posssessed sensitive personal data on thousands of New Yorkers and using some of the information in an elaborate identity-theft scheme. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said his office collected evidence showing Healey had at least 90 allegedly fradulent credit cards  and other credit lines at more than 20 banks. Unpaid charges on the accounts were more than $200,000.

   Walter Healey, 63, of Oakwood Avenue in Troy allegedly took taxpayer identification information from the tax department and used it to apply for and obtain credit cards, according to a complaint filed by Cuomo’s office. He was arraigned this morning in Troy City Court and released on a $5,000 bond. The charges carry a maximum of six to 18 years in prison.

   As required by law, state tax officials are notifying more than 2,000 people across New York whose information was breached. Cuomo’s office is contacting victims who had a credit card account applied for or opened in their name and is working with credit bureaus to rectify situations in which credit was affected.

   Cuomo alleged that Healey opened accounts using the Social Security numbers of at least 15 different people, including a 4-year-old boy and at least four dead people (his mother and sister were among them). He worked in a unit that scans identification documents, including Social Security cards and birth certificates, submitted in connection with routine audits, Cuomo said, and he had access to various tax documents and returns. A fellow employee reported Healey.

   In a search of Healey’s home last fall, investigators found copies of more than 700 New York State tax forms; copies of more than 300 birth certificates and 1,000-plus Social Security cards; and hundreds of pages of credit card statements, inquiry letters, applications and cards in the name of Walter Healey and numerous other individuals.

   The state found about 2,000 Post-It notes in Healey’s home with the Social Security numbers of taxpayers written on them, and many of them were accompanied by notes that said things like “good prospect,” “had money” and “go with this one,” the Attorney General’s Office said.

Senate Republicans refused to support the rules reform report released today by Senate Democrats, saying they didn’t have enough time to review it and was lacking some reforms, such as better distribution of resources between majority and minority members.

Senate Republicans abstained from endorsing the report, saying they will release their own report on the rules reforms.

Here’s some of their comments:

“This report is a missed opportunity to change the dysfunction of Albany to bring about more fairness, more civility and more empowerment for individual Legislators to serve the best interests of their constituents,”
Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, Orange County “The recommendations are small steps to address perception, and do nothing to change the culture that has caused New Yorkers to lose faith and confidence in their state government.”

“This report falls way short of what we could have done to enact real reform,” Sen. George Winner, R-Elmira, said.  “It does not get to the core of changing the culture of dysfunction or ensuring that every member has the resources they need to influence the legislative process and serve the people of their district.  Instead, the Democrats chose to tinker around the edges of the committee process, and deliver more empty promises for reform in the future.”

“The Democrats’ lack of openness and transparency has become an unfortunate and disappointing pattern,” Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, said. “This draft report was delivered this morning with no opportunity for legislators to read it and consider the recommendations. It is lip service to change and reform and fails to deliver real results, just like the state budget that the Democrats put together behind closed doors. I think the people who participated in this process, the good government groups, those who spoke at the public hearings and attended meetings expected much more, and certainly the public deserved much more from this effort.”

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, said today that he will have the 32 votes necessary to pass an MTA bailout plan.

“We will pass it,” he told reporters today. “We have the votes to pass an MTA plan.”

How he will get there, though, remains unclear. Two Long Island Democratic senators remain opposed to the inclusion of a payroll tax, which they claim would hurt the New York City suburbs.

Westchester County Sens. Suzi Oppenheimer and Andrea Stewart-Cousins have opposed a payroll tax largely because it would hurt schools who would have to pay the tax and thus might pass the cost onto property owners through higher taxes.

Yet some senators are hoping to lure them on board by getting approval to restore the STAR property-tax rebate check, which would alleviate some of the concerns over property taxes. Also, the payroll tax would be reduced the farther away the employer is from New York City.

Meanwhile, Smith explained that half of the revenue from a $1 surcharge on taxi-cab rides in the MTA region would go to fund upstate roads and bridges, which he said would be in addition to funding a five-year capital plan for the state’s transportation needs. The Legislature approved a $17 billion plan for roads and bridges four years ago.

Senate Democrats estimate that $95 million would be raised through the MTA plan and would be used to leverage $1.2 billion in bonds for upstate roads and bridges.

But Republicans aren’t buying into the plan, even though they have clamored for funding for upstate roads and bridges to be included in any MTA deal.

“It might paint a few bridges,” said Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, of the pot for upstate.

State Senator Pedro Espada Jr., a Bronx Democrat who is playing a role in blocking any MTA bailout, apparently lives in Mamaroneck and may be violating election law, CBS news has reported.

Residents of the senator’s East 201 St. cooperative say they haven’t seen Espada in the building, even though he owns an apartment there. A spokesman for the senator said he has owned the Mamaroneck house for 18 years, but the Bronx co-op is his primary residence. Read more here.

With New York’s Legislature labeled as the most dysfunctional in the country, a bipartisan committee today is outlining a host of reforms to improve the transparency and functionality of the Legislature.

The report from the Temporary Committee Rules and Administration Reforms comes after months of hearings by lawmakers over how to improve the operations of the Legislature, which has long been deemed as ineffective.

The report focuses mainly on the Legislature’s committee process in the Senate. The committee structure is often cited as lacking the needed reforms to allow bipartisan legislation to become law. Senate Democrats, who took control in January for the first time since 1965, said the recommendations will end decades of legislative bureaucracy.

In 2004, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School labeled the state Legislature the most dysfunctional in the nation.

“It has been correctly noted that much of what ails the Senate is the result of “the culture”-the long-standing stranglehold of Senate leadership, resulting in rank-and-file Senators being largely shut out of the legislative process,” the report states.

Among the recommendations:—Reduce the number of the roughly 32 standing committees by one third. Only Mississippi has more legislative committees.—Cut lawmakers’ assignments to a maximum of four standing committees, from the current eight, which is the most of any legislative body in the country.—Institute eight-year term limits on committee chairmanships.—Make committees proportionate to the number of majority and minority members in each chamber.
—Require members to be physically present to vote in committees and record attendance of standing committee meetings on a single committee voting sheet.

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, explained his property-tax relief plan last night on Capital Tonight, which is shown across upstate. He wants to restore the STAR rebate check this year and move to a circuit breaker, which would tie property taxes to household incomes.

He says the state Senate is expected to pass his property-tax proposal next week, saying he’s already lined up support among 20 senators. He’ll need 32.

   Senate Democrats unveiled a new proposal to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has a budget deficit of at least $1.2 billion and has said it will have to raise fares by 25 percent or more if it doesn’t get help from the state. The MTA serves about 8.5 million people each weekday and serves New York City and seven suburban counties, including Westchester, Putnam and Rockland.

   Under the plan, which would raise $1.76 billion, there would be a $1-per-ride surcharge on taxi fares, including in the suburbs. There would be a tax of up to 34 cents for every $100 of payroll on employers in the MTA region, which would raise $1.49 billion. Counties that are farther away from New York City would pay slightly less, according to the Senate, but details were not immediately available. Half of the $190 million raised from cab fares would go to the MTA, and the other half would go toward road and bridge projects upstate and on Long Island.

   Fare hikes would be kept to 8 percent, the Senate said.

   Other parts of the proposal would:

  —Increase the auto-rental tax from 6 percent to 11 percent, which would raise $35 million.

  —Boost the fee for a driver’s license by 25 percent, an average increase of $12, which would bring in $10.5 million.

  —Place a $25 fee on motor-vehicle registration, which would raise $130 million.

   The plan does not include new tolls on the bridges that cross the East and Harlem rivers. The tolls and the payroll tax have been the most controversial measures proposed. 

   The Senate expects to vote on the legislation next week. Whether it will get enough votes to pass is unclear. Not all of the 32 Democrats are expected to vote for it. There are 30 Republican senators. 

   The Assembly and governor issued statements this evening that said they hadn’t yet had time to fully review the Senate proposal.

Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, said today he’ll make an announcement May 9 on whether he will seek the Congressional seat currently held by U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains.

What Ball won’t say is how his fundraising is going.

Ball didn’t file a report with the Federal Election Committee in time to meet its April 15 deadline. But he said it wasn’t necessary because he is still in the exploratory stage.

Federal Election Commission spokeswoman Julia Queen said under the “testing the waters” stipulation filing is required if $5,000 is raised or spent.

But Ball said since he isn’t a candidate yet, it doesn’t apply.

He won’t reveal how much he has raised or spent on his extended “listening tours” across the district that stretches over five counties.

County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, D — Somers, on Sunday announced his reelection bid during a fundraiser in Yorktown.

Kaplowitz is the Legislature’s vice chairman and has served on the county board since 1998. His district includes most of Yorktown, part of Somers and all of New Castle.

He’s seeking his seventh term on the board.

Kaplowitz is a member of the board’s Budget and Appropriations Committee and has chaired it. He also sits on the Environment and Energy Committee.

The New York Jets picked the state University College at Cortland as the upstate home for their 2009 summer training camp, officials announced Monday.

Gov. David Paterson and the National Football League team said the Jets will hold its training camp at SUNY Cortland starting July 31. The agreement is for one year, but could be extended, officials said.

Marist College in Poughkeepsie and Cornell University in Ithaca were on the team’s short list of campuses.

“Cortland acted quickly and had all the ingredients to make it really doable here,” said Jets owner Woody Johnson at a news conference at the college.

The Jets new coach Rex Ryan has indicated that he wants to move the team’s training camp from Florham Park, N.J., and into upstate New York.

The Jets will practice at Cortland for about three weeks, and then hold a Family Night practice at their former training facility at Hofstra University on Long Island Aug. 12. It will hold three open practices at their New Jersey facility on Aug. 22, 26 and 27.

The Jets are also paying some of the cost of the move, which the team had pegged at about $800,000. In 2002, SUNY Cortland opened a major new sports complex.

Paterson said the Jets’ decision will be a boost to the upstate economy. Paterson said he’s a Jets fan and then recited moments in Jets history, like its 1969 Super Bowl victory over the Baltimore Colts and naming all four members of the 1980s “Sack Exchange” defensive unit.

“Millions of dollars will come into this area, which will be a boom to this region as a result of the Jets making New York their summer home,” said Paterson.

The Jets will join the New York Giants as making the state’s university system its summer home. The Giants train at SUNY Albany. The Buffalo Bills train at St. John Fisher College outside Rochester.