Politics on the Hudson

Gov. Andrew Cuomo met with legislative leaders in both parties for dinner at the Executive Mansion tonight, and all four lawmakers emerged to offer few details on what will be in Tuesday’s budget presentation.

The governor met with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, Nassau County, Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, Ontario County and Senate Minority Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn.

Skelos, who was the first to leave the mansion, told reporters assembled there that the budget will have “pain.” He added that spending is likely to increase in the budget proposal, but he did not give a specific figure.

“It may be slightly more. The problem with the deficit is that we’re seeing these incredible percentage increases in Medicaid,” Skelos said.

Skelos added that the governor talked about “fairness throughout the state” and to education.

“The details are going to be left for tomorrow, but there’s going to be pain,” Skelos said.

Sampson said “there may be some surprises but it’s not going to be as bad” as initially believed.

Kolb said the governor asked the lawmakers to “keep things under wraps.”

“I think it was a very good, honest give and take with us,” Kolb said, adding that the governor didn’t go into deep detail.

The comments offered up by the lawmakers reflect what Cuomo has said for much of the day today, namely that the cuts and deficit may not be as bad as initially reported, thanks to the “sham” budgeting the governor wrote about in his op/ed today.

Senate Republicans and the Independent Democratic Conference voted tonight to change the rules of the Senate to bar Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy from breaking tie votes, which was one of the key duties of his office.

Republicans believe the changes clarify murky legal language in the constitution. But Democrats claim the changes are unconstitutional.

The rules changes passed 36-26, with all Republicans and all four members of the IDC voting for it.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said Senate Republicans were wrong in attempting to take away the lieutenant governor’s tie-breaking vote.

“I think they are incorrect on their reading of the law,” said Cuomo, who didn’t elaborate.

Democrats were quick to criticize the vote after more than two hours of debate on the Senate floor tonight. They particularly targeted upstate Republican senators, including Rochester-area Sens. Joseph Robach and James Alesi, saying they are stripping power away from Duffy, the former Rochester mayor and top elected official in upstate.

“In a brazen power grab, without any public notice or input, Senate Republicans have brought the state to the brink of a constitutional crisis by stripping Lt. Gov Duffy of his constitutional authority,” Senate Minority Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, said in a statement. “Threatening the integrity of our State Constitution, which has protected New Yorkers for over 200 years, and attacking Upstate New York’s highest ranking elected official just because he is a Democrat is politics at its worst.”

Sen. Thomas Libous, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, said today the legislative rules changes that take away the power of the lieutenant governor are merely clarifying the state constitution.

The Senate is poised to approve the rules changes which Democrats claim are unconstitutional. The speculation is that Republicans could lose their narrow 32-seat majority if one of their members leaves office in the middle of the year.

Libous also believes that the lieutenant governor, currently Robert Duffy of Rochester, is not an elected member of the Senate and therefore not allowed to break a tie in case of a leadership vote. Duffy himself has said the rules are “much ado about nothing” but he would try to vote to break a tie in the event there is one.

Here’s video of Libous following a Senate Rules Committee meeting:

The Senate approved Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s cap on property taxes by a wide 45-17 margin.

Here’s a look at how lawmakers voted. Not a single Republican voted against the bill. The Democrats who voted against the measure represent the New York City region, save for Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, whose district includes Mount Vernon, Westchester County.

Cuomo released a statement this evening praising the Senate for approving the measure.

“I applaud the New York State Senate for promptly passing my property tax cap proposal with strong bipartisan support. This measure will provide a real reprieve to homeowners who are struggling to make ends meet. I, along with countless New Yorkers, look forward to this cap becoming a reality, as taxpayers across the state cannot afford to wait any longer for relief.”

proptaxcap

He wrote in his op/ed earlier today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a late afternoon news conference that the budget process in Albany needs a vast overhaul.

“There are two different problems,” he said. “We have a $10 billion deficit this year. We have that $10 billion because we have a budget process that brought us to the point where the Mediciad program has grown 13 percent and education has grown more than 13 percent.”

The governor and his staff have been tight-lipped over what may or may not be in the budget, due out Tuesday. He wouldn’t even say if spending would go up or down in his proposed 2011-12 budget.

But he said it was clear that the way Albany puts together budgets must change.

“We have to stop that cycle,” Cuomo said. “We have to stop the fundamental process, which is the quote-end-quote budget process in Albany where the annual budgets are basically bandages and the wound remains. The wound is a state government that spends too much money with too little performance for the taxpayer that is causing businesses to leave the state—growth that is unsustainable year after year after year.”

The Senate passed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s bill today that would restrict the growth of local property-tax levies to 2 percent a year or 120 percent of the consumer price index, whichever is less. If approved by the Assembly, New York would be the 44th state to cap local property taxes. Senators also approved a resolution that would require the state to fund any state mandated program imposed on municipalities or school districts that created any new costs.

Sen. Steve Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, who voted yes on the legislation, said he is encouraged that Cuomo is partnering with senators in their efforts to provide tax relief. The senator sponsored the mandate-relief legislation.

“One would have to be deaf not to hear the taxpayers’ cry for relief,” Saland said in a statement. “Over the last few decades, local property taxes far outpaced the rate of inflation and it’s critical to many homeowners and businesses that we stem the flow of rising taxes.”

New Yorkers pay the highest property taxes in the country, according to Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County. “I applaud Governor Cuomo for submitting this bill and making the cap a priority. The Senate is ready to put it in law, now we need the Assembly to join us in passing this measure so we can stop the dramatic growth in property taxes and provide the relief that taxpayers desperately need,” Skelos said.

Senate Minority Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, said that “skyrocketing” property taxes are hurting New York families and retirees. “Passing a property tax cap is about beginning the process of getting government to live within its means because we can’t start to lower taxes until we’ve stopped them from growing.”

It’s unclear whether there’s enough support in the Democrat-led Assembly for passage of the legislation.

Another provision of the property-tax cap legislation is that a school district would be allowed to carry over any unused tax-levy capacity from the prior year, but the maximum tax-levy increase would be 1.5 percent. The school district would submit a tax-levy proposition to voters the third Tuesday in May each year. If the proposal were within the 2 percent limit, a majority vote would be required for passage. If it were more than that, 60 percent or more voters would have to approve the measure.

If voters don’t approve the tax-levy proposition, the district would have to submit a second proposition. If voters defeated that, the school district would have to adopt a tax levy that is no greater than the previous year. The legislation would take effect in the 2012-13 school year.

Senate Democrats are trying to draw Attorney General Eric Schneiderman—himself a former state senator from Manhattan—into the contentious debate over rules reform.

In the letter, Sampson writes that the measure would “substantially diminish the power of the lieutenant governor.

Republicans believe the changes clarify murky legal language in the constitution. But Democrats go further than Cuomo, claiming the changes are unconstitutional and partisan move to hold onto power in case the Senate is divided 31-31.

Republicans hold a narrow 32-30 majority in the Senate after Democrats held a one-seat majority for two years.

Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, a Democrat, called the discord over the rules changes “much ado about nothing.” But he added that he would challenge the measure by casting a tie-breaking vote if needed.

“It’s an issue for the New York state constitution,” Duffy said in an interview. “If in fact and this is a remote possibility, if there is a tie in the future, I will vote in that tie, I will exercise my constitutional right to vote in that tie and it will perhaps be argued in the courts.”

Republicans believe the lieutenant governor should not be able to break a tie during leadership votes.

“We do think it’s constitutional and the high courts will make that decision,” said Deputy Senate Majority Leader Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton. “We believe that members of the Senate should elect the leadership of the Senate.”

Here’s the letter to the AG:
13111 Letter to AG Schneiderman Re GOP Rules Resolution

Yonkers Inspector General Dan Schorr and Yonkers Councilwoman Patricia McDow both issued letters today about Schorr’s investigation into allegations that McDow got years of free parking at a public garage near her home.

Here are their letters:

McDow Ethics Board Referral

McDow response to IG ethics referral

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Monday that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s op-ed story calling the state’s budget practice a “sham” was the result of Cuomo realizing he would have to spend more money than he thought, reports Gannett’s Jacob Fischler.

“In the end result, he is going to wind up spending more money then was spent last year even though he has said there will be a cut,” Silver told reporters today. “There are serious gaps to close and I anticipate tomorrow the governor will do the difficult job that he is presented.”

Silver offered some words of encouragement as well.

“Numbers are in the eyes of the one who is supposed to close it,” he said. “In the end of the day, I assure you we will have a balanced budget.”

Senate Republicans are expected to vote on Cuomo’s proposed two percent property tax cap today as well. Silver said that he had not read the bill yet.  The speaker did confirm though that some of his staff received the bill.

“I will introduce that bill today,” he said.

The Senate unanimously approved Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s nomination of Joseph D’Amico, a former deputy chief for the New York City Police Department, as the 14th superintendent of the State Police. D’Amico, who is from West Nyack, Rockland County, was chief investigator for the Attorney General’s Office under Cuomo, from 2007 through the end of Cuomo’s term. In that job, he oversaw 300 criminal and civil investigators. Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, D’Amico spent 27 years with the NYPD, serving in numerous patrol and investigative assignments in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens and rising to the rank of deputy chief.

Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, described D’Amico as “a cop’s cop” and said he “understands the problems we’ve had with State Police over the last few years, not the membership, but a few people at the top.”

Most recently, Cuomo rescinded a total of $200,000 in bonuses given by the acting State Police superintendent to more than 20 State Police officers at the end of 2010. News of the raises came as roughly 900 state workers were laid off.

“Superintendent D’Amico is a consummate professional with an impeccable reputation who brings decades of hands-on law enforcement and management experience to the force. He has devoted his entire career to protecting the people of the State of New York and will lead the Division of State of Police with honor and dignity,” Cuomo said in a statement.

D’Amico said in a statement that he looks forward “to working with the brave men and women in this fine institution. I am committed to assuring that the State Police is recognized as the preeminent state police force in the country.”

Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee Chairman Michael F. Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County, said D’Amico’s background and experience in criminal investigations and strategies to reduce crime have prepared him well for the new position. “In the months ahead, I look forward to working with Superintendent D’Amico to support our brave law enforcement officers, restore stability within the State Police Department and increase crime prevention efforts to keep our streets safe for law-abiding New Yorkers,” he said.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh said in a statement that New Yorkers will benefit from D’Amico’s “solid police experience, good judgment and political independence.”

New York State Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said D’Amico is a good pick for the job. “I believe Superintendent D’Amico will lead the troopers with the kind of integrity and honesty that he has exemplified throughout his career,” he said.