Politics on the Hudson

After announcing that the Senate would leave tonight without passing the revenue piece of the budget, Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, went over to the other house to talk with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan. The Assembly plans to return tomorrow to vote on the revenue part of the budget.

Sampson said he spoke with Silver about developing a Medicaid contingency plan in case Congress doesn’t come through with the full $1 billion New York is expecting. Sampson said they also talked about the Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act, which would give the State University of New York and the City University of New York the ability to set their own tuition without needing approval from the Legislature, allow them to enter into public-private partnerships, reduce state regulations and streamline the purchasing process. The Senate supports the SUNY and CUNY plan and wants to come to an agreement with the Assembly, Sampson said.

On the Medicaid issue, the Senate expects to finish its plan tonight and talk with Robert Megna, Paterson’s budget director, about it tonight, then try to “catch up with” the governor sometime tomorrow morning, Sampson said. The senator said he isn’t “drawing lines in the sand” about wanting the Medicaid and SUNY/CUNY legislation to be included in the revenue bill.

But the Assembly majority doesn’t think there needs to be a contingency plan, and members have problems with the SUNY/CUNY Empowerment Act, said Assemblyman Ron Canestrari, D-Cohoes, Albany County. The state needs to “put the heat on the feds to deliver to New York state,” and New York would weaken its position by putting forward a contingency plan, he said.

“We’ve got to act as if those funds are coming. We need them, and that’s the end of that,” he said.

Canestrari said he opposes the Empowerment Act as it’s been proposed and believes most of his colleagues in the Assembly are against it too. He has a lot of reservations, “all of which I think fatally wound the empowerment plan,” he said.

Canestrari said doesn’t like the provision that allows the university systems to set their own tuition and charge different tuitions at different schools. There’s no guarantee that the money collected in tuition would stay in the system, he said. One of the other objections he has is he doesn’t think the university systems should be able to contract out land-lease agreements without legislative approval, he said.

Gov. David Paterson spoke to reporters in Washington today about up to $1 billion in Medicaid money the state could lose, and his ongoing concerns that the Legislature hasn’t developed a contingency plan in case Congress doesn’t come up with the money.  Paterson met with other governors in Washington today to discuss the Medicaid funds (FMAP money) and the difficulties for states if Congress doesn’t approve the money.

The governor said it’s important for the Assembly and Senate to pass a contingency plan in case the money doesn’t come through. He’s getting signals that some of the money will come through, but not the full $1 billion.

“There is no compromise. It just has to be done. It’s $1 billion we could lose from our budget. Other states are doing it. Everybody in Washington knows that. No excuses, and I think that we need that plan immediately in case we have to use it,” Paterson told reporters.

Paterson said he couldn’t offer specifics on where the state would cut because those decisions haven’t been made yet. “We’re not going to borrow money to get out of this crisis. We would probably have to lay off workers … in fact we would have to lay off workers sooner than our plan of Jan 1,” he said. “And we would have to probably cut something like a 1 percent cut to all services across the board.”

“Some states have tried to protect those areas worst hit to this point, and I’m sure New York will do the same, but everyone has been hit so hard. It’s just frustrating where we’ll have to go in order to keep the budget balanced if we don’t get the FMAP money,” he said.

Paterson said lawmakers need to plan ahead on the Medicaid funds. “This would be something new for Albany – actually  demonstrating fiscal discipline and anticipating reality, not the fantasy of continuing to tell people that the FMAP money is coming,” he said.

Senate Democrats shelved plans to vote on the final pieces of the state budget tonight, saying instead they want to negotiate over how to close a potential $1 billion gap in federal aid and enact reforms to the state university system.

So they are taking at least a five-day break. They will return to Albany after the July 4th weekend.

The decision by Senate Democrats was the latest twist in the Legislature’s inability to adopt a final budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which started April 1.

Gov. David Paterson has called on the Legislature to come up with a contingency plan if the state doesn’t receive about $1 billion in federal aid for Medicaid.

Legislators had refused to address Paterson’s request, leading him to veto spending for schools and lawmakers’ earmarks for hometown projects.

But just hours before the Senate was scheduled to vote on revenue raisers to close a $9.2 billion budget gap, Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, said they want to work with the governor and the Assembly on a contingency plan if the so-called FMAP doesn’t arrive.

So they will hold off on the budget until a deal can be reached, likely next week, he said.

“One of my things in passing a fair and responsible budget is having a contingency plan available just in case we do not receive our FMAP money,” Sampson told reporters. “That is important to me and my conference.”

The move raised questions about whether Senate Democrats, who hold a slim 32-30 seat majority, had the votes to pass the revenue bill – which included lifting a sales-tax exemption on clothing purchases under $110 and other taxes and fees.

More specifically, some Senate Democrats were potentially holding out support if the Legislature didn’t agree to reforms to the State University of New York.

Paterson and SUNY officials want more autonomy for the colleges, such as being able to set their own tuition rates and enter into partnerships with private businesses – which now require legislative approval. The Assembly has been opposed to many of the measures.

Sen. William Stachowski, D-Buffalo, said the SUNY reforms are critical.

“It’s very important to my region. It’s very important to SUNY,” he said.

Asked if he would have supported the revenue bill without SUNY reforms, he said, “I can’t answer what I would or wouldn’t have. We’re still working on it.”

Senate Republicans ripped Democrats, who control state government, for leaving Albany without a budget completed. More than 70 percent of the spending plan has been approved through weekly extenders to keep state government operating.

“They had no problem passing bills to increase spending, but now they are going home without passing a bill to pay for it,” said Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County. “This is Democrat-controlled government at its worst.”

But Sampson insisted all 32 Democratic senators would have supported the current budget plan, and stressed that the goal is to have a balanced budget and potentially the SUNY reforms.

The Assembly just passed legislation 105-1 that would extend the Power for Jobs and Energy Cost Savings Benefit programs through May 15, 2011. The only problem is there’s no identical bill in the Senate, and lawmakers are preparing to finish up the budget and other business and then leave Albany. The Senate and Gov. David Paterson’s administration agreed weeks ago on a plan that would put a permanent program in place, but the Assembly disagrees with it.

The two low-cost power programs, which primarily serve businesses and non-profits, have been extended annually in recent years while legislators and the governor’s administration have attempted to create a permanent replacement for them.

Talks broke down, and the programs expired early this month. The main sticking point is the Assembly wants to preserve a hydro-power benefit for upstate rural and farm customers, while the governor’s administration and Assembly Democrats want to take the bulk of the existing benefits and put them toward economic-development efforts.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, recently proposed convening a conference committee between the Senate and Assembly to hash out differences, but the Assembly received no response, Assembly Energy Committee Chairman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, said on the floor this afternoon. Paterson has said he is not interested in another temporary-extender bill this year.

Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Rome, Oneida County, said businesses and manufacturers and constituents who work in those manufacturing and commercial-sector jobs need an energy program now “and I don’t believe that we can wait until the next governor.” Paterson is not running for election this November.

Morgan Hook, a Paterson spokesman, said today that the administration agrees with a statement Silver said in May 29: “Businesses need certainty. I would ask that we allow time in the next session to put a permanent or multi-year solution in place … we tend to do extenders rather than come up with creative ways to give the business community of this state more certainty as to what the future will look like.”

“We have created exactly what the Speaker called for on May 27, 2009, and that is a permanent, self-sustaining low-cost power program that will retain and create hundreds of thousands of jobs and give the business community certainty,” Hook said. “The Senate passed this bill 59-2, and editorial boards, chambers of commerce and business groups from every region of the state support our plan. This is the bill the Assembly should vote on, not another extender.”

Whether the state Legislature would allow Rochester’s mayor to have control over city schools was hanging in the balance today as advocates and opponents were lobbying state senators over the measure.

The bill’s sponsor, Senate President Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, told Gannett’s Albany Bureau this afternoon that the bill is one vote short from the 32 votes needed for passage in the Senate.

The holdout among Senate Democrats is Sen. Ruben Diaz, D-Bronx, who has opposed a mayoral control plan in New York City and said he would not support it for Rochester.

“I don’t believe in mayoral control. I voted and I opposed the one for the City of New York and what I don’t want for the city of New York and that I believe is wrong for the city, I don’t want for any other part of the state,” Diaz said.

Smith, however, said, “I’m still working on it” and wouldn’t rule out a vote tonight, when lawmakers are expected to hold session to vote on legislation and possibly the remainder of the 2010-11 state budget.

Without all 32 Senate Democrats on board, supporters would need at least one Senate Republican to back the measure, and pressure was on Sen. James Alesi, R-Perinton, Monroe County, to vote yes.
Alesi and Republican Sens. Joseph Robach and George Maziarz represent Rochester, but Robach and Maziarz were expected to vote no.

Alesi said this afternoon he has made no final decision and, in fact, had reached out to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has gained oversight of that city’s schools and as been a major advocate of the mayoral control.

Bloomberg and Alesi were expected to talk later today.

But Alesi again expressed his continued concern that if the Legislature gives the Rochester mayor control of the schools, it is uncertain who the mayor would be when it takes effect next year.

Mayor Robert Duffy, who developed the mayoral control initiative, is running for lieutenant governor with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo. So if Cuomo and Duffy win, the city would elect a new mayor.

“I have grave concerns over who the mayor is going to be and grave concerns about destabilizing the system,” Alesi said.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said the revenue raisers that the Legislature plans to approve—the Senate in the midnight hours and the Assembly tomorrow morning—are pretty well set.

“I don’t envision any great talks about changing it,” Silver said.

Silver said any override of Paterson’s vetoes would be considered after the budget is adopted. But in the Senate, Republicans has indicated that they would not support an override, and their votes would be needed to do it.

Silver was asked whether the SUNY reforms, being pushed by some Senate Democrats to be part of a budget deal, would hold up the final budget deal. He suggested that it could be an off-budget issue, and reiterated concerns about the impact of letting SUNY schools set their own tuition rates, which the Assembly has warned could lead to big increases in tuition.

“If we have to talk about a substantive issue that has no impact on the budget, we’re prepared to talk about it,” he said. “But the one thing this conference has stood for is an affordable education from pre-k to B.A. so we are not going to put SUNY education out of the reach of anybody who wants it in this state.”

He also said there could be a deal with the state Senate to adopt no-fault divorce in New York, something that has already passed the Senate.

Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, Putnam County, said he hasn’t violated Assembly rules that prohibit use of Assembly televised proceedings in campaign ads because the clip he uses in his ad has been in the public domain and thus isn’t directly Assembly footage.

“It’s publicly accessible. It’s in the public domain,” Ball, who is running for state Senate, said yesterday. “Anybody can go online and find it. So it’s not Assembly footage in any way.”

The ad is on his website here and includes a short clip of him on the Assembly floor ripping the Legislature as “the most dysfunctional Legislature in the United States Of America.”

Richard Nicholson, a Katonah attorney and supporter of Ball’s primary opponent Somers Supervisor Mary Beth Murphy, filed a complaint June 11 with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Assemblyman Dan O’Donnell, D-Manhattan, who co-chairs the Legislative Ethics Commission, to say Ball is violating Assembly rules.

The complaint, obtained by Gannett, said Ball’s ad is a “direct violation” of Assembly rules. Nicholson said in an interview that the “law couldn’t be more clear.”

Silver’s office had no immediate comment on the complaint.

State Senate candidate Bob Cohen is holding a press conference outside the Port Chester office of state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck. Cohen is Oppenheimer’s Republican challenger and is a Scarsdale volunteer firefighter and real estate executive.

According to the release put out by his campaign, Cohen today will be calling “for an end of brazen abuse of taxpayer dollars for political gain.” Cohen will be holding the event today at 2:30 p.m. outside Oppenheimer’s office at 222 Grace Church Street.

Oppenheimer this fall is seeking her 14th term in the state’s 37th Senate district, comprised of Harrison, Mamaroneck, New Castle, most of New Rochelle, North Castle, Ossining, Rye Town, Rye City, Scarsdale, and White Plains.

They may not have a lot in common, but Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino has the back of Gov. David Paterson when it comes to his 6,900 or so vetoes of new spending and legislative pork.

Paterson struck out $419 million in school aid and plans to veto an additional $300 million in member item projects after lawmakers passed their own budget without a contingency plan in case the state loses up $1 billion in federal Medicaid funding.

Paladino, who called the governor a “drug addict” last week, gave Paterson some credit.

“Governor David Paterson deserves credit for inking up his stamp to veto $419 million in education spending and for pledging to take aim at an additional $300 million in new spending and pork. I would not sign the very first extender and every extender thereafter until the runaway State Legislature stops wasting taxpayers’ money. But better late than never,” Paladino said. “This never-ending budget drama represents the kind of irresponsible government I will change when I become governor.”

Paladino, a developer and business man from Buffalo, is trying to wrest the GOP nomination for governor away from former Rep. Rick Lazio, the party’s preferred candidate by petitioning for a spot on the primary ballot. He is also trying to gain a spot on the November ballot on a third-party line.

Senate Democrats said they provided Republicans today with a memo that estimated the total spending in the Legislature’s budget at $135.7 billion.

GOP senators criticized Democrats for not being able to provide a bottom-line figure during a floor debate yesterday.

This is the memo that Senate Democrats sent:

Memo to Libous-1