Politics on the Hudson

Gov. David Paterson will co-host the Mike Francesa Show on WFAN 660 AM Wednesday, taking a detour from budget deficits and Indian cigarette tax collections to talk (presumably) Terry Collins and Mark Sanchez.

Paterson, a long-suffering New York Mets fan, will co-host the entire show with Francesa, whose show is also simulcast on the YES Network. The show runs from 1 to 6:30 p.m.

The outgoing Democratic governor is more at-ease in radio interviews and is rumored to be considering a gig in talk radio once he leaves Albany.

Business groups are pushing back agains the state Legislature’s approval of a temporary suspension on hydraulic fracturing in New York and are urging Gov. David Paterson to veto the legislation.

Paterson has not said if he would sign the bill.

“This bill misses its intended mark by putting a stop to all safe oil and gas drilling that’s currently allowed in New York,” said Brian Sampson, the executive director of Unshackle Upstate, a pro-business Rochester-based group. “This unnecessary legislation could force New York’s oil and gas producers to pack up and leave New York – taking good-paying jobs and tax revenues with them. At a time when our state and its taxpayers are struggling to stay afloat, it makes absolutely no sense to enact legislation that eliminates jobs.”

The Assembly passed the moratorium late Monday night, 93-43 after nearly two hours of debate. The Senate previously approved the ban in August.

The bill bans hydraulic fracturing, also known as hydrofracking, a controversial drilling process that involves using a mixture of water and chemicals. The ban comes as energy companies seek to drill for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation of the Southern Tier.

Though environmentalists say the process is unsafe and potentially hazardous to local water quality,  opponents of a moratorium say the bill is an overreach by the Assembly and Senate.

“A comprehensive set of existing industry best practices and state regulations have proven effective in the safe use of the hydraulic fracturing process for more than 60 years and in over a million wells,” said John Felmy, chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute. “Every aspect of exploration and production is guided by a straightforward written framework for sound operations.”

Incoming state Sen. David Carlucci, D-Clarkstown, Rockland County, said this morning that he was unaware that Senate Democrats planned to vote late Monday on its leadership for next year.

Instead, after spending the day at the Capitol, he left. Carlucci, who won the open seat vacated by the death earlier this year of longtime Republican Sen. Thomas Morahan, said he still hasn’t made a decision on who he will support to lead the conference next year. Senate Democrats picked current Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson of Brooklyn to continue to lead the conference; an official vote will be made in January.

“I headed out not knowing that this vote was taking place,” Carlucci said. “I do look forward to having a voice and a vote when I take office in January and make sure I have a voice in who the leader is and making sure they are going to best represent the needs of the residents in Rockland and Orange counties.”

Carlucci said he was “a little disappointing” about not being informed of the vote, but he said that’s why he ran for office, to increase transparency in government.

“It is a little disappointing, but the backroom politics is not something I’m in favor of and I would have liked to have known there was a vote going on. And that why I hope when I do have that voice as a state senator that we’re made aware of these things,” he said.

CapTon has been chronicling today what one source described as a “complete ambush” in the unexpected vote by Senate Democrats to name Sampson its leader, despite his ties to the Aqueduct scandal and the increasing likelihood that Democrats will lose the majority come January.

Carlucci also told Liz that Sampson never mentioned to him there would a leadership vote, so he left at around 7 p.m. The vote was about three hours later.

Add the League of Women Voters to the list of those pleased with the Assembly and Senate approving a commission that will study judicial pay raises.

Judges in the state haven’t a had a raise in dozen years and advocates believe a pay increase would help retain good jurists. Historically, judicial pay raises have been tied to legislative pay raises.

The good-government group issued a statement this afternoon applauding the move. Earlier, Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, a childhood friend of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said it was a”real reform.”

Here’s the statement from the group:

The League of Women Voters of New York State congratulates the state legislature on passage in Monday’s special session of the Quadrennial Commission for Judicial Compensation to determine fair and equitable compensation for our judges and justices. The League is proud of its five-year role in pressing for passage of legislation that provides a fair and objective process to determine the compensation of our judiciary.

New York judges and justices have not received pay increases for more than eleven years. This Commission will take the politics out of the process of determining judicial compensation and will preserve the independence of the judiciary by breaking the link to legislative pay raises.

The League of Women Voters of NYS applauds Governor Paterson for including the reform measure on the extraordinary session agenda and thanks Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader John Sampson for their action. Finally the League thanks Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman for his tireless work to achieve this ground breaking reform depoliticizing the process by which judges are compensated.

Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo blasted state lawmakers for failing to come to an agreement in order to close a $315 million deficit, saying they “failed” New Yorkers.

“They failed, they failed the people of New York once again,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo met privately this afternoon with Assembly Democrats for about 90 minutes to discuss legislative goals for next year, including rent control goals and property-tax relief.

The Legislature was back in Albany this week after Gov. David Paterson called a lame-duck session in order to close the mid-year 2010-11 budget deficit. The governor’s Division of Budget urged across-the-board 2 percent cuts to the budget.

The state is expected to face a deficit of at least $9.2 billion for the 2011-12 fiscal year, which begins April 1.

Cuomo said after meeting with the Democrats at an Albany hotel that the budget woes will only be compounded because of the Legislature’s failure to act.

“All it did was kick the can down the road,” he said. “It’s just making a bad situation worse. My basic point is, hard decisions, tough choices, just don’t go away just because you don’t make them. At the end of the day, from the standpoint of the people of New York, the state government once again has failed to perform and that’s what needs to change next year.”

The Westchester County Association today announced that it was forming a private-sector economic development task force to help rejuvenate the county’s economy.

In announcing the new initiative, Bill Mooney, president of the WCA said it was about “going to the mat” for the private sector and developing an action plan and public policies to help restore the county’s economic base.

“We have the top business leaders who are ready to take action and we will be moving ahead quickly and assertively,” Mooney said.  “As the recession has continued and the financial problems confronting both our state and local governments have continued to grow at an alarming rate, our members have expressed an increasing level of concern about the economic climate of the state, the county and its municipalities.  We are seeing that no place, including Westchester, is immune from today’s enormous economic pressures.”

Members of this task force will be named within a few days.

County Executive Rob Astorino’s push to close mental health clinics is “heartless” and “premature,” say some Democrats on the Board of Legislators.

In the latest battle between branches, lawmakers accused Astorino of being overzealous in closing four mental health clinics, so  they have a message for him: cease and desist until they sign-off on a budget.

“If someone doesn’t get the support they need, that could be dangerous to the people of Westchester,” said Chairman Ken Jenkins, D-Yonkers. “They need to stop until we get through this process.”

In a mostly partisan vote Monday, the Board of Legislators, by a 10-6 vote with one Democrat against it, passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the administration to stop moving on the closure of four mental health clinics until the board passes a budget, which is scheduled for Dec. 13.

Critics say Astorino has no real transition plan and is simply cutting ties with a fragile population.

Astorino in November proposed a $1.78 billion budget with deep cuts to programs, services and staffing, including shuttering two mental health clinics in Peekskill and Mount Kisco by Dec. 31 and two others in Yonkers and Mount Vernon by June.

Since then, the administration has sent out letters to 1,600 patients notifying them of the closures and started lining up not-for-profits to take over operations, which include counseling, therapy and caseload management for people with alcohol and substance abuse problems and developmental disabilities.

The board’s resolution is nonbinding and not helpful, said Ned McCormack, Astorino’s senior adviser and communications director.

“All this does is create a lot of confusion for patients, the workers and non-profits. It’s not helpful to any of the people involved,” he said. “They have no legal authority to direct the county executive to do anything.”

The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee today released its 27-day post primary campaign finance filing today, showing $2.4 million in outstanding loans and liabilities.

With the need to pay that money back, it will likely be more difficult for the party to pay its legal bills in the two remaining too-close-to-call races on Long Island and in Westchester County. Republicans are fighting to retake the majority.

They score a victory today against Sen. Antonine Thompson, D-Buffalo, who conceded today to Democrat-turned-Republican Mark Grisanti. That would make the Senate tied at 31-31 and Republicans need at least one more seat to take the majority.

Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson on Monday shrugged off the amount of debt the committee is in, saying the committee has been in the red before and has been able to dig itself out.

And then there were two.

Democratic Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, conceded this morning in his re-election bid, one of three previously undecided Senate races that will determine control of the chamber in January.

“I thank the residents of the 60th Senatorial District for allowing me to serve them for four years – a duty that I took very seriously and an experience for which I am extremely grateful,” Thompson said in a statement this morning. “I thank the many community partners who I’ve had the pleasure of working with side-by-side for a better 60th District.  Together, we accomplished monumental successes in the areas of economic development, education and the environment.”

As of yesterday afternoon, Thompson said it was “too premature” to say whether he would concede to Republican Mark Grisanti, saying he might push for a full recount. But as the sides headed to court this morning, Thompson and Democrats appeared resigned to packing it in, as WGRZ reported last night. He trailed Grisanti by 527 votes.

Thompson’s concession gives Republicans 31 seats in the 62-member chamber, with two races still undecided—one in Long Island and one in Westchester County.

“I congratulate Mark Grisanti on his hard-fought victory in the 60th Senate District, and welcome him as part of our new Republican majority in the state Senate,” Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, said in a statement.

“Mark deserves credit for standing up for Western New York, and for running a strong and successful campaign. There are many other individuals who also played key roles in this extraordinary victory, starting with my friend and colleague Senator (George) Maziarz.”

As of yesterday, Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, Westchester County, held a 325-vote lead and she is expected to win. But Republicans are banking on winning the Long Island seat held by Democrat Sen. Craig Johnson, who trailed Republican challenger Jack Martins by 431 votes.

Democrats are seeking a hand recount in Johnson’s race, but it’s undetermined whether it will occur. Newsday reported this morning that Republicans are fighting a judge’s request of a hand count of more than 80,000 ballots cast in the race.

New York has spent billions on infrastructure, but its roads and bridges are crumbling, according to a new report issued today by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

He pointed to the recent closure and eventual demolition of the Lake Champlain Bridge in the North Country, which was suddenly closed late last year with little warning.

“New York has spent more than $63 billion over the last ten years and plans to spend nearly $47 billion over the next five years,” DiNapoli said. “But the state still had to close a bridge that was dangerous, and there was no plan for a replacement until it was an emergency. Crisis management is not only uneconomical, it’s irresponsible.”

Even though the state plans to spend $46.6 billion the coming years on infrastructure improvements, the spending won’t keep up with the need to replace bridges, roads and tunnels. The report comes after Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch released a study that found the state needs to reform how it spends money on transportation projects like the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Here’s the comptroller’s report:

Capital Spending Report Nov2010