Politics on the Hudson

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but not necessarily an endorsement when its with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

New York’s Republican mayor isn’t backing Rob Astorino for county executive — even though the Republican touted the endorsement during a debate Wednesday and campaign literature.

Astorino had the picture to prove it.

Bloomberg and Astorino met last month and had a substantive discussion, though there was a misunderstanding that an endorsement actually took place, said Astorino’s Spokesman William O’Reilly.

“The error was mine and  mine alone. I apologize for the misunderstanding,” O’Reilly said.

The Bloomberg campaign did not return calls Thursday.

The Spano campaign said it shows that Astorino has been misleading the public during this race.

“It’s just another example that this guy doesn’t tell the truth,” Spano Spokesman Paul Bader said of Astorino. “It’s another example of inaccurate statements he keeps on making.”

The Spano camp, earlier in the day, had called on Astorino’s campaign to pull all of its misleading advertisements — ones that were cited by a fair campaigns group.

The Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee on Wednesday faulted Astorino for five complaints made by the Spano campaign and made two against the Spano campaign.

NYPIRG, Citizens Union, Common Cause and League of Women Voters today sent a letter to the Legislative Ethics Commission calling on it to investigate whether Sen. Hiram Monserrate, D-Queens, has illegally set up a legal defense fund as he faces sentencing in December for misdemeanor assault involving his girlfriend.

The groups said Monserrate should disclosure of the names of the contributors and amounts of the donations and ban the creation of legal defense funds.

Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Albany, said he plans to put in legislation to do just that.

The commission said earlier this week it has not provided an opinion on Monserrate’s defense fund.

But then again, the commission has never taken action publicly against any lawmaker in its two decades in existence.

Here’s the groups’ letter.

1 on Scribd” href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/21824559/Legal-Defense-Fund-Complaint-Letter-FINAL-1”>Legal Defense Fund Complaint Letter FINAL¹

Gov. David Paterson indicated today that he wants state lawmakers to pass legislation that would link property taxes to household incomes as part of a way to curb state expenses.

There’s just one problem: The state doesn’t have the money to pay for it.

And Paterson said this afternoon during a meeting of legislative leaders that the state’s two-year budget gap has increased to $10 billion, compared to about $6.7 billion in July.

Paterson, however, said in a statement earlier in the day that when economic times are better, the state should put in place the so-called circuit-breaker program, which would limit a homeowner’s property taxes to a percentage of their income. He said the measure should be approved along with his call for a cap on state spending.

Depending on future state surpluses, the measure could save homeowners between $500 and $1,500 a year in property taxes, he estimated.

“Albany is notorious for two things: overspending and overtaxing. My legislation solves both,” Paterson said in a statement.

At the leaders’ meeting, Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, said he recognizes that the state now faces a $3.2 billion deficit, but warned of cuts that would hurt schools and health care.

He said the impact of the health-care cuts would be more like $744 million because of federal matching funds compared to the $287 million proposed by Paterson.

“That could be the difference between a paycheck and a pink slip for some of our health-care workers,” he said.

Asked by Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, if he support $3 billion worth of cuts, Sampson said “Maybe you’re with it, but we’re not with cutting services to children, to seniors, education. These are things that will have a serious impact on our constituents in the state of New York.”

Paterson ended the roughly 45-minute session by imploring leaders to agree to his cuts, saying nobody likes having to make deep cuts to programs that impact people’s lives.

He’s called a special session for Nov. 10.

“This is going to be a painful budget process,” he said. “Nobody wants to do any of the things that we’re doing. ”

He later told reporters that he’s pleased lawmakers agree with two-third of his proposed budget plan. Cuts aside, the rest of his plan calls for raising revenue and sweeping funds from other accounts.

Yonkers Inspector General Philip Zisman released a report today critical of a charity run by city employees and he accused them of mismanagement and negligence.

In his report he mentioned that he interviewed Republican Jim Castro-Blanco, a candidate seeking to unseat incumbent Democrat Chuck Lesnick,  Yonkers’ City Council president.

Castro-Blanco represented the Yonkers Alliance for Latino and Immigrant Services last year when the charity failed to pay unemployment and workers compensation insurance to the state.

Some might question the timing of the report just days before the election.

““There was no political reason,” Zisman said this afternoon. “We had worked on it for a long time and we were finished.”

Castro-Blanco said he first heard of Zisman’s report this morning.

“You wrote an article quite a while ago regarding YALIS’ problems with the State of New York,” Castro-Blanco wrote in an email. “I was retained solely to resolve those issues.  I was pleased to negotiate an extremely favorable resolution with the State that saved a worthwhile organization many thousands of dollars.”

Here is a link to our on-line story:

The National Organization for Women in New York, The New Agenda and The Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee have started their own petition drive and letter asking Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson to have Sen. Hiram Monserrate, D-Queens, removed from office.

That’s in addition to the other petition that was recently started.

Monserrate have vowed to stay in office after he was convicted of misdemeanor assault involving his girlfriend, despite a Senate committee that has been set up that will look at removing him. Political forces in Queens are also moving against him.

Here’s the women’s groups letter to Sampson.

The state continues to raid a fund dedicated for repair of roads and bridges to pay for operating expenses, leading to a deterioration of the state’s infrastructure, according to a report today from the state’s Comptroller’s Office.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said that since 1991, only 35 percent, or $11.6 billion, of the money in the state’s Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund went to repair the state’s roads and bridges.

The rest covered state debt payments as well as operating expenses at the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Transportation, DiNapoli said.

The trust fund was created in 1991 to fund the construction and development of state roads and bridges and was to be self-sustaining through taxes and fees. But starting in the 1994-95 fiscal year, the fund began paying debt for bonds from the state Thruway Authority, and later operating expenses for state agencies, DiNapoli said.

The report comes as Gov. David Paterson recently said the state doesn’t have the money to fund a $25.8 billion five-year capital plan for roads and bridges.

“This money should be going toward keeping our roads and bridges safe, not to fund state agency operations,” DiNapoli said in a statement.

Gov. David Paterson’s proposed mid-year budget cuts are facing pushback from Senate Democrats, with Senate Finance Chairman Carl Kruger, D-Brooklyn, this afternoon warning that the Senate will not go along with some of the cuts to education and health care.

After two public hearings this week on the budget, Kruger said the Senate will “develop a deficit reduction plan to close the budget gap without disrupting vital services or imposing any new fees or taxes. And most significantly, the hearings are being conducted in public for all to see and contribute.”

He said more than 100 groups have testified over a two-day period so far. In Long Island, he said parents and children with developmental disabilities spoke about what the cuts would mean to them. And he attached a clip of a mother speaking during the session, which is below.

“There is no doubt that we have to make substantial cuts, but the task at hand is for them to be fiscally responsible and fair. We are in agreement on nearly $2 billion of the Governor’s $3 billion gap closing proposal. But it is no surprise that some aspects of his proposal are simply not acceptable,” he continued.

“Dramatic reductions to higher education opportunity programs for low income students and developmental disabilities services are poorly devised ideas passed off as solutions,” Kruger said in the statement.

“Also, the governor’s Medicaid and healthcare cuts place disproportionate pain on hospitals and nursing homes given they have weathered a number of cuts already. We have to do better and those who do not recognize that responsibility lack the imagination or inclination to come up with new answers to old problems.”

Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick announced today that he will receive endorsements from several unions on Thursday at an 11 a.m. on the steps of City Hall.

Lesnick will be joined by union leaders and members from: Teamsters Local #456; Yonkers CSEA # 9169; Yonkers SEIU Local #704 – Municipal workers; SEIU 1199 – Health & Hospital Workers; SEIU 32 BJ – Building Maintenance; IUPAT DC #9 – Painters; IBEW #3 Electrical Workers and Westchester Building Trades Council.

Lesnick, an incumbent Democrat, faces a challenge from Republican Jim Castro-Blanco.

The Friends of the Yonkers Public Library will hold a “Meet the Candidates” reception on Saturday from 1:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the Yonkers Public Library’s Will branch at 1500 Central Park Ave.

Candidates for public office on the State, County, and local levels have been invited to attend the event. Light refreshments will be served.

Among the potential Republican candidates for governor next year, Erie County Executive Chris Collins is looking to regroup after comparing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to Adolf Hitler and an Antichrist, and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani won’t say whether he will run until after next week’s election.

In the meantime, GOP candidate Rick Lazio is out picking up endorsements. After getting the endorsement in his home Suffolk County, the former congressman today announced the backing of Orange County Republican Chairman Bill DeProspo.

Here’s DeProspo’s statement:

“I am supporting Rick Lazio for Governor of New York because I believe he is the right candidate with the new ideas to turn New York state around. We need a candidate for Governor with a record of accomplishment and Rick Lazio is that candidate.

As a Congressman, he oversaw some of the most sweeping federal housing reforms in our lifetime, and helped author the first balanced budget in a generation. His proposal for a hard property tax cap will help ease the burden on working families here in Orange County and his plan to grow jobs is what the New York  needs. Most importantly, New York desperately needs new leadership, and that’s why I’m supporting the one candidate who has promised to bring sweeping change to our Government. I wholeheartedly offer him my endorsement.”