Politics on the Hudson

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, put out a victory video touting the on-time budget’s passage and included a few digs at Democrats.

In the video, released this afternoon, Skelos opens with recalling the dysfunction that gripped the Senate while it was being controlled by the Democrats.

“For the past two years, when the state government was controlled by the Democrats, New York was hit with late budgets, increased spending and out of control taxes that drove jobs out of the state,” Skelos said.

He then pivots to taking credit for the passage of $132.5 billion budget that reduces spending and doesn’t include new taxes, which was approved early this morning.

“The budget we passed two days before the April 1 fulfills those promises,” Skelos said. “The budget spends less, taxes less and includes real reforms that will put New York back on the path to economic prosperity.”

Senate Democratic spokesman Austin Shafran responds with criticism leveled at the GOP for closing the Senate’s public galleries to protesters demonstrating against cuts (the Democratic-led Assembly chamber was also closed off to the protests).

“The Senate chamber, which Senator Skelos blocked the public from yesterday, should be a place for bipartisan cooperation and united action, not political attacks. It is our hope the spirit of bipartisanship that gave us an on-time budget will continue and the promises we all made will be promises kept,” Shafran said.

Here’s the Skelos video:

Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, R-Clarence, Erie County, voted against five of the 10 budget bills passed in the Assembly over the past two days, a review of the voting records shows.

Corwin is the Republican nominee for the 26th Congressional District, a seat opened by the resignation last month of Republican Christopher Lee. Corwin is running as a fiscal conservative in a district that stretches from Erie to Monroe counties in western New York.

The budget bills passed overwhelmingly in the Democratic-led Assembly, but Corwin was among 17 lawmakers—mainly fellow Republicans—to vote against the health and mental hygiene portions of the budget. She was one of only five lawmakers to vote against the education budget, which cut aid to schools by $1.2 billion. She also voted against the aid to localities bill, the state operations bill and the legislature and judiciary bill, which passed 113-36.

Democrats hold a 99-51 seat majority in the Assembly. There was no immediate comment this afternoon from Corwin’s office on her votes.

Assemblywoman Inez Barron, D-Brooklyn, appears to the only Democrat who consistently voted against most of the budget bills. On the Senate side, Democratic Sens. Ruben Diaz Sr. and Tom Duane, of the Bronx and Manhattan, respectively, voted against every budget bill—although some of their Democratic colleagues joined in on various bills.

Here’s the roll call on the last two days of budget bills in the Assembly.

Updated: Here’s a statement from Corwin explaining her vote.

“I was elected by the hardworking taxpayers of the 142nd Assembly District to fight against wasteful spending and support policies that facilitate job growth. As a result, in those aspects of the budget agreement that promoted job growth, I was supportive. Conversely, I opposed instances where taxpayers were not getting value. The bottom line is that while there were certain aspects of the budget that were beneficial to taxpayers, there were other elements that represented business as usual.”

Assembly Budget Votes March 30

Now he’ll really know what the food tastes like.

The former director of the state prison system’s food operations pleaded guilty today in Oneida County Court for bilking taxpayers out of $500,000 by falsifying travel and attendance documents—and took every Friday off for 17 years, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said today.

As part of a plea deal, Howard Dean is expected to be sentenced to 6 months in jail and five years probation, DiNapoli said. Dean has also agreed to pay $50,000 restitution and an additional $50,000 restitution during the 5-year probationary period.

“There is never a good time to rip off the taxpayers,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “But taking every Friday off for 17 years – and getting paid for it – is particularly galling, especially at a time when so many New Yorkers are out of work. Mr. Dean didn’t show up for work, but he’ll have to show up for jail, and there are no Fridays off in prison. His sentence should send a message to any public official with sticky fingers: watch out – we will find you.”

More details on the case here.

Without much prompting from reporters, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said early this morning that focus in his chamber will turn toward passing an ethics bill, re-approving rent regulations for New York City and a cap on property taxes.

“Clearly an ethics reform bill, keeping homes affordable to people whether they rent or they own,” Silver said after the Democratic-led Assembly approved the final budget bills. “I think those are things that just jump off the page.”

Silver has not committed to whether he would back the 2 percent cap on property taxes that was approved by the Senate on Jan. 31, which has the backing of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The powerful Assembly speaker also gave credit to Cuomo (while also giving a nod to his rank and file conference) for achieving an on-time spending plan.

He said some of the more forceful personalities in the Assembly were “tempered by a strong leader in the governor’s office. That led to this particular budget to be able to function in such a difficult set of our circumstances.”

Silver was the subject of an interesting Times piece on Monday that discussed his seemingly diminished roll in the budget process and the notion that Cuomo, at least this year, was able to gain unusually large concessions from the speaker.

The approximately 125 Teacher Resource and Computer Training Centers in the state got a last-minute reprieve in the 2011-12 budget with a $14.3 million allocation in the budget year, which is $20.4 million for the school year.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget did not include any money for the training program, which was set up 26 years ago following an agreement of the Legislature, state Education Department and New York State United Teachers. The Senate’s one-house budget resolution mirrored the governor’s on that issue, but the Assembly had $32.5 million in its one-house spending plan.

That’s follows no state funding in 2010-11 and a $35 million allocation two years ago using federal stimulus money.

NYSUT pushed for setting aside some state money for teacher centers, saying that not providing any would shift more of the financial burden for training teachers to school districts. There is a need for training with the state Education Department preparing to roll out a new teacher and principal evaluation system, and new standards, curriculum and tests. Teachers certified since 2004 have to get 175 hours of professional development every five years.

It was unclear until yesterday whether the teacher centers would see any funding in the new fiscal year. Lawmakers were focused on what restorations they could make to Cuomo’s proposed cuts of more than $1 billion in school aid. The governor and the Legislature had to close a $10 billion deficit.

Centers have been able to use the state money to help leverage about $50 million in programs through public/private partnerships with companies like Verizon and Microsoft.

Deputy Senate Majority Leader Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, defended the decision last night to limit access to the public at the state Capitol, saying State Police were concerned about the potential of unruly behavior by protesters who camped out near the Legislature chambers.

About 300 protesters spent most of the night at the Capitol, but they and the public were barred from the galleries in the Assembly and Senate. That drew criticism from Common Cause executive director Susan Lerner, who said the move “offends all notions of good government and civic engagement and was plainly in violation of New York State Constitution.”

But Libous said safety and an orderly process in adopting the budget was the top priority for State Police and the Legislature.

“That was a simple decision. I spoke directly to the State Police. They advised us to close the gallery down,” Libous told reporters this morning. “They said that the crowds are extremely rowdy. They felt that if the galleries are open, they would be doing nothing but arresting hordes of people all evening, that it would tremendously disruptive for us to complete the budget. That decision was based on the safety of the members and the staff and at the supervision of the State Police.”

The budget was approved in the Senate slightly before midnight, but at around 1 a.m. in the Assembly.

Attention in the Senate could turn to pension reform and reducing the cost of unfunded state mandates on municipalities, Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, said this morning.

The Senate wrapped up voting late last night on the $132.5 billion state budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Among the savings in the state budget is a plan to achieve $450 million in state worker concessions. Skelos said the ball is firmly in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s court on those negotiations, which are currently underway.

“I think now it’s an executive function to negotiate with the unions to see if he can bring savings to the state. This is now between him and the unions, but we’re going to do legislatively is pension reform at least from the Senate Republican point of view, mandate relief and costs that are driving up local government and the state,” he said.

Asked about the chances of an ethics package clearing the Senate—where good-government groups and Democrats have claimed GOP lawmakers have balked at that possibility—Skelos said measures would be taken soon, adding that Republican former Sen. Vincent Leibell and the charged Sen. Carl Kruger, D-Brooklyn, would likely have still gotten in trouble.

“I think we want to negotiate an ethics bill that’s fair,” he said. I don’t think one change in the ethics law would have changed what these individuals did, but we are going to move toward an ethics package, there’s no question about it.”

Here’s some video:

The New York Lottery announced this morning the seven state workers who won the whopping $319 million in last Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot.

They were all co-workers from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The seven are:

John Hilton, 57, of North Greenbush (Rensselaer County)
Gabrielle Mahar, 29, of Colonie (Albany County)
John Kutey, 54, of Green Island (Albany County)
Tracy Sussman, 41, of Colonie (Albany County)
Mike Barth, 63, of Bethlehem (Albany County)
Kristin Baldwin, 42, of Clifton Park (Saratoga County)
Leon Peck, 62, of Johnstown (Fulton County)

From the Lottery’s press release:

“We’ve been playing the big jackpots for years,” said Mike Barth, the group member who purchased the lucky ticket on Wednesday, March 23rd at Coulsons News Center at 470 Broadway in Albany. Barth said the group’s fortune was sealed by the “fickle finger of fate.”

“I was at the counter. It was my turn to buy a ticket when I reached down to grab a Snickers® bar from the candy display and someone reached over me, actually cut in front of me to buy a ticket,” recalled Barth. “I thought about saying something but decided to just let it slide. I bought the next ticket…the winning ticket.”

Lottery millionaire John Hilton said the $319,000,000 pot was the kind of jackpot that made it worth throwing in the usual $2 per person. “We usually start playing when the jackpot hits $100,000,000,” he said, adding, “We’re pretty buttoned up. We keep a checklist of who’s in and who’s out for any particular drawing. You’ve got to.”

Gabrielle Mahar was the first of the group’s members to discover the seven had the winning combination worth $319,000,000. “I was up late reading and wanted to catch the numbers but missed them. I was dialing up the Lottery website on my phone when the numbers scrolled across the screen. I was dumbfounded.” She hesitated before calling her current (soon to be former) supervisor Kristin Baldwin. “It was late. What if it wasn’t real? I didn’t know what to do,” Mahar said.

The phone chain reached Leon Peck early the next morning. “We’re IT people. We get calls all the time about malfunctioning servers so I figured that was why my phone was ringing so early in the morning,” Peck, the usual office prankster, thought the call might be pay back for one too many wise cracks made in the office. “But, I didn’t think anyone would be calling that early on a Saturday just to play a joke on me.” Tracy Sussman said she shared Peck’s initial reaction to receiving an early Saturday morning call from a co-worker. “I got on the phone and said, ‘What’s wrong now?’”

Although Mega Millions winners have 60 days from the date they claim their prize to decide if they want to receive the annuity payment or the cash value of that annuity, the close-knit group was sure upon arriving at the Lottery’s offices that they would share the lump sum amount of $202,797,203. “We met as a group with a financial advisor the day before. We were all in agreement about the lump sum,” Baldwin said. Each group member will receive a one-time payment totaling $28,971,029 before state and federal tax withholdings. The net value of each check will total $19,129,571.

The group’s immediate plans for the money run the gamut. For Mahar, it means a new dishwasher. For Barth it’s a set of new tires and a college education for his son “not based on where he can go, but where he wants to go,” said the father of a graduating high school senior. John Hilton said he’s taking the celebrity approach to his new fortune, “I just want to fly somewhere in first class,” he said. For John Kutey, the choice is simple, “My wife and I are going to every Disney Park there is!”

The others have yet to make up their minds.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who is not a political ally of Gov. Andrew Cuomo by any means, gave a partial thumbs up to the budget, but said more remains to be seen on the impact of the cuts to local education aid.

From his statement:

Addressing a $10 billion deficit will not come without pain. Many school districts and health care providers face a formidable challenge to absorb significant cuts in funding. When school districts present voters with their proposed budgets in May, we will start to see the impact of these cuts at the local level. In addition, the cuts in health care must be managed to minimize the impact on those most in need of care.

The budget cuts about $1.2 billion in education spending over last year, one of the deep education cuts in history. Cuomo has said the districts can absorb the revenue loss without layoffs by cutting superintendent pay, administrative overhead and seeking concessions from teachers unions.

DiNapoli and Cuomo are both Democrats, but Cuomo declined to endorse him during a tough campaign against Republican Harry Wilson. There was even some talk of Cuomo, then the attorney general investigating DiNapoli’s disgraced predecessor Alan Hevesi in a pension fund scandal, endorsing Wilson over his fellow Democrat.

DiNapoli, in his statement this morning, pledged to perform a comprehensive review of the new 2011-12 budget.

“My office will begin its comprehensive review of the budget and will issue a report soon after the Financial Plan is released by the Division of the Budget,” he said.

Here’s Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos’ closing remarks last night on the budget deal. The Nassau County Republican praises the budget for sticking to Republican ideals of lowering taxes, cutting spending and boosting economic-development programs.