Politics on the Hudson

With an expansion of the state’s nickel container-deposit law to water bottles slated to take effect in nine days,  state policy is still in flux, with four different bills being considered by the Legislature to change the measure that passed in April.

The biggest problem is that bottlers say they can’t meet a requirement that all water bottles have a unique bar code for New york on them by the deadline.

“It needs to be fixed,’’ said Laura Haight of the New York Public Interest Research Group, which has long championed expansion of the original 1982 law that covers only beer and soda containers.  “But right now trying to decide how to do it is a real mess.’’

She said Gov. David Paterson’s proposal is the worst of those on the table, since a delay he has proposed in increasing the handling fee on the containers would put many redemption centers out of business.

There was no immediate comment from Paterson.

Cornell University will get $27.5 million in federal and state money over five years to do research on materials for high-storage batteries and other energy-storage devices, state officials announced Thursday.

“The funders recognized the strengths we have as an institution,’’ said Hector Abruna, director of the Cornell Fuel Cell Institute.

Abruna said the money will pay for about 30 researchers, and should also generate as many as 70 other jobs.

The grants to Cornell are part of a $95.5 million grant to five institutions in the state from the federal stimulus package. The state is contributing another $10.5 million.

The State University at Stony Brook, Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, Columbia University and the General Electric Global Research Center in Schenectady were also awarded grants.

Cornell and Brookhaven got the largest grants. Columbia got $17.6 million, Stony Brook $18.7 million and GE $16.5 million.

A state law passed last year to help reduce mortgage foreclosures has been mostly a failure, with only six settlements in Westchester, a state senator said today.

“Current anti-foreclosure efforts have not been very effective,’’ said Sen. jeff Klein, D-Bronx, who also represents Pelham and Eastchester as well as parts of Yonkers, New Rochelle and Mount  Vernon. “We need to do more…:”

Figures gathered by Klein show that a law signed last August that requires settlement conferences between banks and borrowers mostly hasn’t worked. Of the 94 conferences in Westchester in March and April,produced only six settlements. Figures for New York City and Long Island showed equally dismal results.

Klein announced today he’s sponsoring a bill with Assemblyman hakeem Jeffries, D-Brooklyn, that would require homeowners facing foreclosure who want to avoid losing their homes to work with a counselor from the state Banking Department and work out a plan to present to bankers at a conference. Banks would also be given more incentives to reach settlements.

The program would cost $7-$8 million, but Klein said money has already been allocated for counseling programs.

   A survey by Assemblywoman Sandra Galef found that constituents overwhelmingly support allowing recipients of political robo-calls to have themselves removed from call lists, and prohibiting drivers under 18 from using any handheld or hands-free electronic device, such as cell phones, iPods and GPS devices. Ninety-four percent and 93 percent, respectively, of people who responded to Galef’s January questionnaire said yes to those questions.

   Galef, a Democrat from Ossining, Westchester County, said she received 979 surveys back from constituents. There was strong support for making it easier for citizens to dissolve government-created districts, fire districts or special districts; and requiring all governments and school districts to make tentative union agreements available to the public at least two weeks prior to their being ratified by either side.

   Galef said she has introduced two bills based on the survey—one on regulating political robo-calls and another on disclosure of collective bargaining agreements. She is working on legislation to make it easier for citizens to dissolve government districts. She is co-sponsoring legislation to prohibit the use of electronic devices will driving and elect the president by popular vote, she said.

   “I will work with my colleagues in the Legislature to pass many of these proposals which my constituents care about so deeply,” she said in a statement. 

   Here are the results for some of the questions:

  —Should a non-partisan commission be established in New York to redraw state legislative districts after the next census is completed? Yes, 75 percent; no, 25 percent. (more…)

The Westchester County Independence Party today announced that it has endorsed Rob Astorino for Westchester County Executive.

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Party Chairman Giulio A. Cavallo said the party hopes the endorsement will help “clear the stale thinking from the halls of county government with the fresh air of new and vigorous leadership.”

“One-party rule has effectively dismantled the system of checks and balances in the County Charter resulting in a bloated bureaucracy that continues to punish taxpayers,” Cavallo said. “Instead of a healthy tension between the two branches of county government, we have a mutual admiration society. As a result, Westchester families are hurting financially and the current administration just does not understand their pain.”

Cavallo said he hoped the endorsement would send a clear message to “non-affiliated voters and independent -minded Democrats” that Astorino’s vision of a revamped county government is the right vision for the future of Westchester.

_ State tax revenues are likely to fall short of projections this year by $3 billion, meaning more cuts will have to be made in state spending, Gov. David Paterson said today.

“There will be further cuts,’’ Paterson told reporters. “We’re going to have to start thinking about what more cuts there will be.’’

Paterson’s comments came on the heels of a report from Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli that found that tax revenues for April, the first month of the state fiscal year, were almost $250 million below projections.

Paterson said he is likely to call the Legislature back into session later this year – as he did last year – to deal with a hole in the budget. Or, he said, it is possible that lawmakers could act before the end of the regular legislative session, now slated for June 21.

Happy 55th birthday, David Paterson.

The state’s first African American and first legally blind governor surely didn’t expect to be where he is today when he turned, say, 50 (when he was a state senator) or even 53  (when he was lieutenant governor). But by the time he turned 54, the New York political world was turned upside down with the prostitution scandal that brought down Eliot Spitzer and elevated him to the top governmental job in the state.

He will most likely still be governor when he turns 56 next May, but polls show he’s a long shot to still be in his post on his 57th birthday.  The next gubernatorial election is November 2010.

Voters in more than 97 percent of school districts approved their budgets yesterday, a record number, according to counts from the state School Boards Association and New York State United Teachers.

If that figure holds up, it would top the old record of 95 percent set two years ago.

“Even in tough economic times, we see that voters recognize the importance of supporting their local schools,’’ said NYSUT President Richard iannuzzi. The average passage rate since 1969 has been 83 percent, according to the school boards association.

Iannuzzi said a big factor was the inclusion of $1.25 billion in federal stimulus money in state aid to local schools, which eliminated cuts the state had planned to make.

In addition, proopsed tax increases were on average less than 2 percent.

Districts where the budget was defeated  can hold a second vote on June 16. if it is defeated again,  a continegency budget is put in place. That limits tax increases to 4 percent.

   State Inspector General Joseph Fisch’s office released transcripts today of testimony given during a probe of leaks from the Public Integrity Commission to the governor’s office. Interviews with former Gov. Eliot Spitzer were among those released, and the ex-governor does little to disguise his distaste for the inspector general’s investigation and his questions.

   Fisch, a former state Supreme Court judge, released a report last week criticizing the executive director of the Public Integrity Commission for giving confidential information about the commission’s Troopergate probe to a top gubernatorial aide. The executive director, Herbert Teitelbaum, and the former Spitzer aide both stepped down this week. Robert Hermann had taken a job as counsel to the Senate Majority in March. 

   “My time is precious judge. What is your question?” an ornery Spitzer said shortly after the 25-minute interview on Oct. 29, 2008 began. 

   The former governor then said, “I would like to see your questions so that my time is not taken up unduly, and I do not like questions about whether or not I’m surveilled.” He was referring to a question from Fisch about whether the media had been tracking his whereabouts and writing about him. (Spitzer’s answer was yes.)

   Spitzer criticized Teitelbaum’s investigation and said he questioned Teitelbaum’s ethics, and he lashed out at the executive chamber staff and Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who also conducted an investigation on Troopergate. (Aides to Spitzer were found to have improperly used state resources to gather and release information on the use of state aircraft and police services by Spitzer’s chief political rival, then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.)

   Spitzer likened the multiple investigations of Troopergate to the “Pac-Man defense in the corporate context: Investigators were investigating investigators, and indeed you (Fisch) are now one more little Pac-Man participating in this fishing expedition.” (more…)

   A new report on the state’s public health plans found that they surpassed national benchmarks on more than 80 percent of quality of care measures, such as diabetes management, childhood immunization, drug therapy for adults with rheumatoid arthritis, breast-cancer screening and mental-health services.

   On childhood immunization, public health plans served 72 percent of eligible children, compared with 66 percent nationwide. Sixty-five percent of eligible women received breast cancer screenings, compared with 50 percent nationwide. Ninety percent of adults with cardiovascular conditions received cholesterol screenings, compared with 76 percent nationwide.

   The plans serve 3.2 million children and adults in the state’s Medicaid managed care program, Family Health Plus and Child Health Plus. The Coalition of New York State Public Health Plans, which released the report, includes nine plans that serve more than two million people. 

   Alayna Shalom of White Plains said she never thought she’d need a public health plan, but she enrolled her children in it last fall because they lost their insurance (their father had lost his job). Continuing to pay for their benefits, an option required by federal law, or paying for insurance through her job would have been too expensive, she said. Shalom’s children are enrolled in the Hudson Health Plan.

   “I am very grateful for the care that my children receive,” Shalom said.