Politics on the Hudson

The state Democratic Committee is holding its 2009 Spring Business Meeting this weekend at the Hilton Rye Town hotel in Rye Brook.

Caucus meetings are planned Sunday morning and the general meeting starting in the afternoon, with an introduction by Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, a keynote address by Gov. David Paterson and remarks by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer and state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith.

The convention comes amid speculation that plans had been underway for state Chairwoman June O’Neill to step down and become executive committee chairwoman, the Daily News reports. But that would mean moving Westchester County Democratic Chairman Reggie LaFayette out of the executive committee chairmanship.

LaFayette said such talk is news to him.

“I spoke to June this morning on some convention matters and this never came up,” he said. “I’m sure that June would have mentioned something to me.”

The anticipated increase in taxpayer subsidies to the state pension system will mean an average property-tax increase of 10 percent or more by 2011 in most cities, the head of the state Conference of Mayor said today.

“The bigger the city, the more public-safety expenses, the higher those percentages will be,’’ said conference executive director Peter Baynes.

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced earlier today that an increase in pension contributions  from taxpayers by almost 50 percent may be needed starting in 2011 because of record investment losses by the pension fund’s investments last year.

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi will be headlining a fundraiser next week for Rockland County executive candidate Thom Kleiner in Nyack next week. Here’s the invitation.

The $125-a-plate fundraiser also has a number of Democratic sponsors, including Rep. Eliot Engel and Sen. Jeff Klein, both of the Bronx.

Suozzi is running for re-election this year amid speculation that he will eye statewide office next year, perhaps a run for state attorney general if Andrew Cuomo runs for governor. He ran unsuccessfully in a Democratic primary against Eliot Spitzer in 2006.

Kleiner, Orangetown supervisor, is running against Republican County Executive  Scott Vanderhoef, who is seeking a fifth four-year term. Vanderhoef has had statewide aspirations himself: He was Republican gubernatorial candidate John Faso’s running mate in 2006.

The value of assets held by the state pension fund plunged 26 percent last year, to $109.9 billion, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said today.

The drop will mean higher contributions from taxpayers will be needed in 2011 to keep paying pension benefits to retirees of state and local governments, he said.

He attributed the drop to the international economic downturn.

“Like everyone who has seen the value of their investments decline, we’ve felt the weight of the global economic crisis,’’ he said.

Several staff changes today in the Paterson administration.

Paterson announced that Insurance Department Superintendent Eric Dinallo will resign in July to become a visiting professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Dinallo came in with the Spitzer administration and worked with Spitzer in the attorney general’s office.

He’s rumored to be eyeing a run for attorney general if Andrew Cuomo decides to run for governor.

Also reportedly leaving the second floor is press secretary Errol Cockfield, a former Newsday bureau chief who also came in under Spitzer. He’s expected to move over to the governor’s intergovernmental affairs office.

And coming into the governor’s office is Robert Megna as budget director. He takes the $178,000-a-year job from Laura Anglin, who is resigning to head the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities.

Megna had been commissioner of the state Department of Taxation and Finance. Jamie Woodward was named acting commissioner of the department; she had been executive deputy commissioner.

Former state Comptroller Carl McCall said he endorsed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand today because “I’ve known her for a long time and I’ve admired her for a long time.”

With her potential Democratic primary foes dropping off, McCall said in an interview that his endorsement today comes because “She has some momentum now. This was just a good time. She’s trying to reach out to a lot of people to get on board now.”

He downplayed criticism that Gillibrand, the former Albany-area congresswoman, has flip-flopped on issues, in particular gun rights and same-sex marriage.

“When you move to statewide office, you have to look at things a little differently,” McCall said. “You’re representing a different kind of constituency. I don’t think it’s a flip flop. I think you evolve and have different interests you have to serve.”

Though about 10 of her New York congressional colleagues have yet to endorse her, she’s been touting recent endorsements from elected leaders and groups.

Today, other Democrats who endorsed her include: Brooklyn Assemblymen Darryl Towns and Karim Camara;  Assemblywoman Deborah Glick of Manhattan, Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson of Mount Vernon, Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples of Buffalo, Assemblyman Mark Schroeder of Erie County and Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Greenburgh, Westchester County.

How dysfunctional and combative is the Senate?

“You couldn’t get two-thirds of them to agree on what was even if there was only one clock in the room,’’ E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center, a conservative think tank, opined today on Talk-1300 radio in Albany this morning.

Republicans and Democrats have been remarkably consistent in voting along party lines all year on controversial issues, since the Dems took a 32-30 majority in last year’s elections, ending a string of Republican control that stretched back all the way to 1938, with the sole exception of 1966.

The changed control has meant more clout for Westchester, where four of the five senators are Democrats. But Rockland and Putnam, which are represented by Republicans, lost influence.

June is normally the time when thoughts of many people turn to proms, the end of school, summer vacations, pennant races and barbeques.

But this year, New Yorkers may have to focus on their wallets a little more than usual.

A host of new taxes passed as part of the state budget and then, for people in the Hudson Valley, last month as part of a plan to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, take effect on Monday, June 1.

They range from higher levies on auto insurance to Internet purchases and car and limo rentals.

The biggest hit was scheduled to be a new nickel deposit requirement on water bottles, but a state Supreme Court judge this week put off the effective date, saying that bottlers weren’t given enough time to work out the details of the new program. So for now, the only containers that require the deposits are beer and soda bottles and cans.

The biggest tax hike, on the incomes of the wealthy, is retroactive to the first of the year. Overall, lawmakers and Gov. David Paterson agreed to increase taxes and fees by about $8 billion to help close a budget gap.

   The Senate’s traveling ethics-reform show hit New York City today with a public hearing on four proposed bills that would strengthen ethics laws. There will be a public hearing in Buffalo tomorrow and Albany on Tuesday.

   The bills would:

  — Lower the amount of money lobbyists and firs that receive state contracts can contribute to political campaigns and committees. Require lobbyists to disclose business relationships with public officials or their family members as well as campaign contributions.

  —Strengthen the state election law that prohibits using campaign funds for personal use.

  —Create a nine-member commission to oversee both the executive and legislative branches of government.

  —Require legislators to disclose their business relationships and random audits of financial disclosure statements.

   The first two bills are sponsored by Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, and the others are sponsored by Sen. Daniel Squadron, D-Brooklyn. “We can’t fix ethics oversight unless we fix the structure of our oversight bodies,” Squadron said in a statement. Gov. David Paterson has called for shutting down the state Public Integrity Commission and replacing it with an independent Government Ethics Commission.

   The governor’s recommendation followed a scathing report from the state inspector general on State Inspector General Joseph Fisch told lawmakers last week that the now-former executive director of the Public Integrity Commission leaked confidential information about an investigation into now-former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s administration.

Senate Republicans are keeping up the pressure on Senate Democrats over their approval of new drug laws that, starting June 8, will allow judges to seal the records of drug offenders from potential employers.

Republicans put out this montage of Republicans senators ripping the changes during the floor debate on the issue last month. And will it blow up like the drivers’ licenses for immigrants debate of 2007?