Politics on the Hudson

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, plans to introducelegislation Monday that would increase the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2013.

New York’s minimum wage is $7.25, the same as the federal minimum wage. Silver’s proposal would index increases in the minimum wage to inflation, legislative officials said.

Assembly Democrats plan to hold a news conference Monday to introduce the bill.

Silver announced early this month that increasing the minimum wage would be a priority for Assembly Democrats this legislative session.

“Frankly, it is absurd to expect anyone – let alone a working family – to afford the cost of living today and be able to invest in their future on a salary of $7.25 an hour; or $15,000 a year,” he said before Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State speech Jan. 4.

New York’s minimum wage is more than $3 less than what it would be if it had kept pace with inflation in the past four decades, according to the National Employment Law Project Action Fund. The state’s minimum wage has gone up 10 cents in the last five years and is lower than 18 other states.

Ten states index their minimum wages each year to keep pace with the rising cost of living, the group said.

Cuomo hasn’t taken a position on the issue.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined Silver a few weeks ago in calling for a hike in the minimum wage. The mayor said in his State of the City address that increasing the minimum wage would help “those who are trying to help themselves,” but it
also a “balancing act.” (more…)

State Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald told lawmakers this week that the agency plans to consolidate its 11 regions of the state into six in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins April 1. Each region has a central office and multiple residencies for operations staff and equipment. The residencies would not be affected by the consolidation, she said.

“We can consolidate how we do engineering and planning, right of way acquisition, environmental review to maximize those resources,” she said after speaking at a public hearing on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget.

McDonald, pictured here, said the administration hasn’t decided yet what the six new regions will be and where they will be headquartered.

Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, Broome County, said in a statement today that she is concerned the Binghamton area could lose its regional office.

“I understand the governor wants government to be more efficient, but we need make sure the Southern Tier isn’t negatively affected,” said Lupardo, a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee.

The DOT’s Region 9 is headquartered at the Binghamton State Office Building and covers seven counties: Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan and Tioga.

“The DOT regional office is critical to our ongoing flood recovery,” Lupardo said, referring to Tropical Storm Lee last September. “They are also managing vital infrastructure projects, such as the I-86 conversion. I want to make sure that DOT consolidation plans do not delay repairs to roads, bridges and other critical work. I’m also concerned about our workforce. We can’t afford to lose jobs at this point in our local economic recovery.”

For the first time since October 2002, more than half of New York residents feel the state is moving in the right direction, according to a poll released by Marist College’s Institute for Public Opinion today.

The poll, which was conducted last week through phone interviews, found that 52 percent of state residents think the state is headed down the right path, while 40 percent said it was going down the wrong path and 8 percent were unsure. It was commissioned by NY1/YNN.

In October 2010, when the same poll was conducted right before Gov. Andrew Cuomo took office, 72 percent of New Yorkers thought the state was headed in the wrong direction. Cuomo has been able to build a wealth of support based on a mostly successful first year in office.

“I think there are several (reasons why) and most of them can be traced back to Gov. Cuomo,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute. “Cuomo has redirected a lot of what has been poor functioning of Albany and a sense of a broken relationship between Albany and the voters.”

The poll found 48 percent of Republicans believe the state is going in the right direction, a 20 percent increase from the last such poll in November.

Cuomo received strong support in the poll, earning a favorability rating of 76 percent in the state, a 6 percent increase since November. Though his approval rating was slightly lower at 58 percent, the support for Cuomo is unlike most places around the country, Miringoff said.

“In terms of being a strong leader and fulfilling campaign promises … all those questions we’ve been asking about him, clearly he’s now been very successful in governing from the middle in a very polarized time,” he said.

Support for some of Cuomo’s recently announced initiatives was more mixed. (more…)

Seven education groups from around the state are backing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal to expand the new competitive-grant programs for schools that reduce costs through management efficiencies and improve student achievement. The governor recommended awarding $250 million for the grants in the 2012-13 fiscal year, which starts April 1.

A number of groups—including the Alliance for Quality Education, the state Council of School Superintendents and the state School Boards Association—have criticized the governor and urged him to instead spend more money on general education aid. State funding for education is scheduled to increase 4 percent in the next fiscal year, following two years of steep cuts.

The state Board of Regents’ budget proposal included $50 million for the two programs. State Education Commissioner John King told lawmakers this week that he had concerns about the impact it would have on funding for high-needs districts, particularly in light of the 2 percent tax cap. The Council of School Superintendents and AQE also support spending just $50 million on the grants.

Organizations that are backing Cuomo’s recommendation include NYCAN: The New York Campaign for Achievement Now, Students for Education Reform, Democrats for Education Reform in New York City, Buffalo ReformED, District Parent Coordinating Council of Buffalo, Parent Power Project in Rochester and Democracy Builders.  This is their statement:

“For years, the special interests in New York State have fought successfully to protect the education bureaucracy at the expense of our students. The results of their efforts speak for themselves: New York State now spends more on education that any other state in the nation but we are only 38th in graduation rates. We can no longer accept an education system where the bureaucracy thrives while our students fail.

“Governor Cuomo has put forward a bold education proposal to change the status quo and create an education system that finally puts students first—the only way that students will truly succeed. A key part of this agenda is the Governor’s proposal to have $250 million in increased education spending allocated through competitive education performance grants. This is exactly the type of strategic approach we need to ensure that we are funding education based on student outcomes, not just continuing to throw money at systems that are failing our students. These grants will reward high needs districts that show they are helping struggling students improve each year; the competition will push all schools to do better and those that succeed will have created established models for success that others can follow.”

“As they have in years past, the special interests are fighting hard against rewarding performance, but there is little outrage over our growing number of failing schools. Instead, these special interests fighting for a blank check to protect the adults at the expense of the students and grow the bureaucracy. The special interests have fought hard to reward the bureaucracy and ignore student achievement, and in doing so created the struggling school system we have today and we cannot let them win again. We encourage parents, students and all New Yorkers who want to change our schools for the better to fight back by signing up at www.NYStudentsFirst.com or participating in the growing conversation with @NYGovCuomo on Twitter by using the #NYStudentsFirst hashtag.

“Throwing money at the bureaucracy and watching students fail simply doesn’t work. Governor Cuomo’s bold proposal to reward districts that show higher student performance truly puts students first.”

The State University of New York Board of Trustees adopted a resolution today that will increase its efforts to hire minority- and women-owned business enterprises by requiring that purchasing and facilities staff at state-operated campuses receive mandatory training and that the system’s chief financial officer report annually on the usage of MWBEs and discuss strategies for increasing the number and percentage of contracts that go to these businesses.

A recent change in state law sets statewide goals for MWBE contracts and penalizes agencies that don’t substantially meet their goals, according to SUNY. Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order a year ago that sought to remove barriers from minority- and women-owned businesses from obtaining state contracts.

“Increasing the utilization of MWBEs is an important element of SUNY’s contribution to the growth, vibrancy, and diversity of New York State’s economy,” Trustees Chairman H. Carl McCall said in a statement. “Governor Cuomo has made access for MWBE enterprises a central part of his agenda. I am proud to say that SUNY is up to the task of assisting the Governor to achieve this critical goal.”

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher said the university system exceeded its goals in the procurement of commodities and services for the first time in the 2010-11 school year, and its goals for 2011-12 are to use at least 20 percent MWBEs for all construction, construction-related work, non-construction-related services and commodities.

The university’s policy since 1983 has been to take action to ensure that MWBEs have the opportunity to participate in providing goods and services at competitive prices. SUNY established university-wide goals for hiring MWBEs this school year. They are lower than the statewide goals, but SUNY plans to have its goals in line with the state’s by 2015.

These are the state’s goals, followed by SUNY’s goals for 2011-12:

(more…)

Public-employee unions are not happy with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal for a new, less generous pension tier for new employees that would allow them to choose the traditional defined-benefit plan or a 401(k)-style plan. The governor is recommending other changes to the civil-service system,  such as increasing the retirement age from 62 to 65 and creating new eligibility lists that would allow an agency to hire a candidate who has a lower score than another worker on the other eligible list.

Fran Turner of the Civil Service Employees Association, who testified this afternoon on workforce issues before a joint Assembly/Senate budget committee, said members of the blue-collar union do not make big salaries and are not “breaking the bank” when it comes to pensions. The union made concessions in agreeing to a new contract last year, including furlough days and higher health-insurance costs, and doesn’t believe the state is living up to its side of the bargain. The budget calls for downsizing and privatizing, she said.

Public Employees Federation Vice President Joe Fox said what Cuomo is calling “civil service reform” is a bad idea. It would lead to less security, reduced benefits, higher costs and lower pensions for workers. He noted that the current pension fund is fully funded, and 83 cents of each dollar paid out is based on earnings from the fund. The average pension is $19,150 a year, he said.

“Cloaked in the guise of reform, this proposal is about politics and placating big business special interests, not sound public policy,” he told lawmakers. “This bill ignores the landmark Tier 5 pension reform enacted by the Legislature less than two years ago which is estimated to save the state and local governments $35 billion over 30 years. We don’t need a new tier to cut costs, just let Tier 5 work as intended.”

The civil-service reform “would mean a lower standard of living for future retirees, reduce the ability to recruit individuals who see public service as a career and create a mercenary mentality where the commitment to public service no longer exists,” said Fox, whose union is the state’s second largest.

E.J. McMahon, senior fellow with the conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy, plans to tell lawmakers that the governor’s budget includes “the most significant and potentially far-reaching reform of New York public pensions in at least 36 years.” He is scheduled to testify this afternoon.

“New York’s current defined-benefit pension system represents a significant financial and generational trade-off, the costs of which have not been sufficiently recognized,” he said in a statement. “Current government employees are promised a constitutionally guaranteed benefit, the closest thing to absolute retirement security, which replaces a relatively high percentage of their pre-retirement income and is ultimately supplemented by full Social Security benefits.  Taxpayers get to assume all the financial risk associated with delivering on this promise—while also saving for their own retirements.”

Below is Joe Fox’s full testimony:

PEFtestimony

State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, one of a dozen top college officials who attended a brainstorming session with President Obama last month, said in a statement today that she liked what she heard during his State of the Union address last night. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how to control the cost of a college education, which the president said during his speech needs to be a priority for the country.

The president last night called on Congress to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July and extend the tuition tax credit.

“Of course, it’s not enough for us to increase student aid.  We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money,” Obama said in his speech. “States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets.  And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down.”

Zimpher said the president’s focus during the meeting with college officials was “tackling the ‘iron triangle’ of higher education – cost, productivity, and access and completion.” What he called for last night is in line with the approaches SUNY is taking this year, she said.

This is from the statement she released:

“At SUNY, we stand ready to support the President’s call. We are working to develop cradle-to-career education networks throughout New York State and have invited K-12 officials to join us in ensuring that students who enter college are well prepared and can graduate on time, ending the need for remedial education. And as the President aims to double the number of work-study jobs in the next five years, SUNY is doing its part. We are bringing co-operative education to scale, helping students across the SUNY system obtain paid internships and hands-on work experience with local businesses in their field of study.

“Like President Obama, we also see that retaining our graduates is critical to the rejuvenation of our economy. SUNY’s partnerships with business and industry provide all students – whether they are born New Yorkers or have sought an American education from overseas – with an incentive to stay in the U.S., build a career here after graduation, and contribute to strengthening our economy.

“Above all, SUNY welcomes the President’s challenge to cut higher education costs. As we continue to identify opportunities for our 64 campuses and central office to share services and to become better stewards of student tuition dollars, we are committed to moving $100 million in administrative costs to instruction and student services over the next five years.”

SUNY is in the first of five years of annual tuition increases. Tuition is going up by $300 a year. Undergraduate tuition increased from $4,970 to $6,470 this year.

As co-chairman of a new mortgage investigation unit announced last night by President Barack Obama, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will work with federal agencies and state attorneys general to investigate parties that contributed to the global financial crisis by pooling and selling residential mortgage-backed securities. The Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses will be run through the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

This is Schneiderman’s statement on the appointment:

“I would like to thank President Obama for his leadership in the creation of a coordinated investigation that marshals state and federal resources to bring justice for the victims of the misconduct that caused the mortgage crisis.

“In coordination with our federal partners, our office will continue its steadfast commitment to holding those responsible for the economic crisis accountable, providing meaningful relief for homeowners commensurate with the scale of the misconduct, and getting our economy moving again.

“The American people deserve a robust and comprehensive investigation into the global financial meltdown to ensure nothing like it ever happens again, and today’s announcement is a major step in the right direction.”

Schneiderman, who is serving his first term as attorney general, will co-chair the unit along with top officials at the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the IRS. Among them are Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami; and U.S. Attorney John Walsh, District of Colorado.

The new unit is charged with determining which institutions violated the law, compensating victims of the wrongdoing and helping provide relief to homeowners who are struggling as a result of the housing market collapse. It will work with state and federal law-enforcement agencies that are investigating and prosecuting financial fraud. The law-enforcement agencies are working with some of the largest banks in this country on a possible settlement over their misconduct.

Schneiderman played a role nationally on these issues by speaking out against a settlement with top banks in connection with the role they played in the mortgage meltdown. Other attorneys general joined him in opposing the deal, and it fell apart.

In a statement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka praised Obama for setting up the unit and appointing Schneiderman:

“Recognizing the need for accountability the President powerfully insisted on a more humble Wall Street subject to a thorough investigation of the misconduct in the mortgage markets that wrecked our economy by the full range of federal and state civil and criminal authorities. We applaud the creation of a new mortgage crisis unit to be co-chaired by New York’s Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman.”

The New York Racing Association just issued a statement responding to an audit released by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli this morning that criticizes the group’s finances, the third audit since 2010 that finds serious fault with NYRA’s practices. DiNapoli said NYRA still hasn’t done a “top-to-bottom review of its financial operations” and reduced staff and consulting contracts.

The association’s statement said it took seriously the recommendations from the two audits in 2010.

“NYRA has and will continue to maintain financial discipline. To implement all of the recommendations made in the 2010 audit reports inside of a year would have required more money and resources than NYRA could prudently spend at that time, but we fully understand the importance of this process and remain committed to completing it,” the association said.

NYRA highlighted parts of DiNapoli’s audit that said the association made progress in implementing the 2010 recommendations, for example cuts in staffing, terminating its integrity counsel and hiring another for less money and other measures.

The comptroller’s audit said NYRA expects a $19.7 million loss from racing operations in 2012. NYRA said the $19.7 million figure is “misleading.” The group anticipates its net income will be about $19 million in 2012. Operating income from current racing operations, not including video lottery terminal proceeds for operations and expenditure, is projected to be $1.4 million. The 2012 budget wasn’t within the scope of the state audit and wasn’t discussed with NYRA management.

“The comptroller’s statement expresses concern regarding how NYRA will use the money from VLTs. As a reminder, the use of VLT proceeds is regulated by statute and primarily allocated to purse money and capital expenditures,” the statement said. “NYRA conducts a rigorous annual budget review and approval process and NYRA’s budget is reviewed by the Franchise Oversight Board. Furthermore, NYRA’s financial results and internal controls are routinely audited. NYRA is committed to the highest standards of corporate governance, integrity and management.”

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand penned a letter today asking for public support against what she describes as a “vicious, sustained attack against reproductive rights and equal access to healthcare for women of all ages.” The Democratic senator gives as an example what happened last week when three state senators pushed for a resolution that would designate this week as Reproductive Rights and Justice Week.

“As 3 of only 8 female Senators, they hoped this resolution would encourage public awareness of the challenges all women face when making personal, private health decisions,” Gillibrand wrote in the letter, which was sent out by state Senate Democrats just after the Assembly passed the resolution. “In what can only be characterized as outright censorship, the GOP Majority not only refused to accept the resolution but returned it to the Senators with more than 90 percent of the language crossed out. They should be ashamed!”

Gillibrand asked people to sign an online petition telling Senate Republicans to accept the original resolution, and to join her in helping Democrats win control of the chamber in this year’s elections. She accused tea party “extremists” of leading the attack on reproductive health care. In New York, Senate Republicans are using “heavy handed, draconian measures” and backing “an agenda completely out of touch with the mainstream,” she said.

The three senators she referred to are Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers; Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, and Toby Stavisky, D-Queens.

The Senate Republican majority modified the resolution because it didn’t conform with Senate rules as was written, according to Mark Hansen, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County.

This afternoon, the Democrat-controlled Assembly adopted the Reproductive Rights and Justice Week resolution on a voice vote. A few weeks ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said one of his priorities this year is to get the Reproductive Health Act adopted by the Legislature. The legislation, first proposed in 2007 by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, would modify the state’s abortion law, which dates from before Roe v. Wade, to ensure it remained legal if the event federal law was changed.

“I never thought this despicable cause would rear its ugly head in a state like New York, but Republicans in the State Senate have swung open the doors of our government and invited in the worst offenders,” Gillibrand wrote.