Politics on the Hudson

Republican senators could barely contain their anger in session today when Democrats said they’d withdraw their support for a bill that would raise judges’ pay and establish a commission to routinely review judicial and legislative pay?

Democrats were on board Friday. But backed out Monday—Republicans said they were bullied by Gov. Spitzer—saying any deal had to include a campaign-finance overhaul.

“What did we find out? You can’t be trusted,’’ Sen. Bill Larkin, R-New Windsor, Orange County. “You’re saying: we have no self-respect. I will do what the governor wants.’’

  “Don’t be mice!’’ said Sen. Dean Skelos, R-Long Island.

  In a humorous moment, one Democrat said he was voting no—but was not sure why. Sen. Martin Connor, D-Brooklyn, left the impression he was asked (or told) to vote no, even though he didn’t want to.

“I can’t explain it,’’ Connor said. “I look around the room and I think my boyhood dream came true. At age 10, I wanted to run away and join the circus …”

Gov. Eliot Spitzer continued to resist questions about whether the death of state Trooper David Brinkerhoff would spur a move to pass a law allowing capital punishment for cop killers. Brinkerhoff was killed—accidentally by one of his fellow troopers—during a shootout in a Catskill Mountains farmhouse last week. Republicans have since called for reinstating the death penalty.

Without naming anyone specifically, Spitzer, a death penalty supporter, criticized their timing:
“There are a lot of politicians who I think, in almost a grotesque example of playing politics with a horrific event, seize an event like this to start putting out press releases. That’s wrong.�

Those remarks came after an event at an Albany middle school. Later, at “Law Day’’ at the Court of Appeals, the governor added: “I don’t like to link (the) debate to an individual incident.”

The highlight of today’s Assembly session, according to Democrats, will be a resolution urging President Bush not to veto the bill Congress recently passed calling for a timeline to withdraw troops from Iraq.

The Democrat-led chamber is supposed to take up the resolution early in the session, which is set to begin at 3 p.m. No word yet on how Republicans will react.

Now, state legislators are getting on the American Idol bandwagon. Next month, they will sing for charity in an upcoming “Legislative Idol’’ contest in Albany.

Rochester-area Sen. Joe Robach will serve as emcee for the event at the local branch of Jillian’s, about three blocks down the hill from the Capitol. Besides contestants, there will be a performance of the “Budget Blues Boys,’’ a recurring Assembly ensemble which these days include Richard Brodsky, D-Westchester, Bill Parment, D-North Harmony, Joe Saladino, R-Massapequa, and Dennis Gabryszak, D-Cheektowaga.

Benefits for the May 29 extravaganza will go to an Alzheimer’s association and a children’s fund.

No deal, says Joe Bruno.

The Senate majority leader says apparently there won’t be an agreement (today, maybe longer) on a campaign finance overhaul.

“While we made significant progress on a number of fronts, we could not reach a resolution or agreement on a proposal,’’ said Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County, in a statement. “The governor’s campaign finance proposal would ensure that only the wealthy and elite could compete in our electoral process and ensure that millionaires who self-finance their campaigns would have (a) built-in advantage over others seeking office.’‘

Gov. Spitzer says he’s handed a campaign-finance proposal to the Assembly and Senate, but they need to respond today.

Cheryl Buley, a member of the Public Service Commission, which regulates power and utilities, says a Spitzer official threatened her over efforts to investigate Consolidated Edison about last summer’s blackout.

Early this afternoon, the state Senate voted 58-0 for a bill that would allow parents access to treatment records of their children in residential-care facilities for the developmentally disabled.

The measure was prompted by the death this year of Jonathan Carey, a 13-year-old who was in care at a state-run facility in Schenectady. His parents say they were routinely denied access to Jonathan’s records at various facilities. The bill’s sponsor is Sen. Tom Morahan, R-New City, Rockland County, who has a 22-year-old granddaughter living in a developmental center in Sullivan County. 

The Assembly appears poised to back the measure also. But it’s unclear whether Gov. Spitzer will. Earlier this year, administration officials expressed a concern about workers’ privacy and about the possible chilling effect on reporting incidents of abuse.

This week marked the one-year anniversary of the escape from jail of Ralph “Bucky’’ Phillips. But officials still haven’t released an internal review of State Police’s performance during the five-month manhunt.

 The probe was triggered by allegations by rank-and-file troopers that top brass botched the manhunt.

 Westchester County is the highest taxed county in the nation according to a recent study. So when the N.Y. State Legislature put the finishing touches on a state budget Sunday, why did Westchester receive a paltry amount of aid for so-called “high tax’’ counties?

Politics. More specifically, the lack of Republican in the GOP-controlled Senate meant that Westchester effectively was bypassed while other New York metro counties gobbled up large chunks of supplementary aid. For instance, (more…)