Politics on the Hudson

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, emphasized on Talk 1300 AM radio today that his chamber has already passed all the budget bills. The Senate has not, “and we’re here to see what we could do to help to make sure that the Senate can get that bill done.”

The one piece of legislation the Senate didn’t pass before leaving town for the July 4th weekend was the revenue bill. A number of members of the Democratic majority in the Senate want it to include the Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act, or at least a part of it that would allow the State University of New York to set tuition rates without legislative approval. Silver and the Assembly are strongly opposed to giving the authority to set tuition, saying that could price poor students out of public colleges and universities. Now a faction of the Senate is against giving tuition-setting authority for the same reason.

When asked on Talk 1300 whether the Assembly was willing to move on SUNY and some other issues, Silver said. “In order for them to do the one bill, they now need some modifications of some other things. I am willing to work with them in order to do something to make it easier for them to pass,” he said.

Regarding the governor’s threats to call special sessions every day, the speaker said he is focused on getting an agreement in the next few days and ”I think that’s something that’s off to the future, maybe that’s a threat with the Senate. He’s done it with the Senate before. Again, the Assembly has acted.”

Silver said he hopes senators get that “the governor is serious and I’m serious about finally putting this budget to rest. It is long overdue.”

Silver noted that not every member of the Senate Democrats (who hold 32 seats to the GOP’s 29) wants the SUNY legislation passed. Until now, “tuition has gone up and it’s been used for budget relief for the state, not to provide opportunity at those schools, not to make more classes, not to make more permanent professors. That’s what the problem is with this program, and to put the cost of the university education out of the reach of New Yorkers is something we do not want to do,” he said.

The speaker said legislative leaders and the governor’s administration are close to an agreement on a contingency plan for Medicaid money. ”We are prepared to take some action on it. Obviously to forestall any final decision, but still put in place a method by which if we don’t get the money that we will automatically be able to know where we’re cutting the budget, by how much,” he said.

Lawmakers may be spending their summer vacations in Albany. Gov. David Paterson said on WOR-AM talk radio in New York City that he is frustrated with legislators and will take action if they don’t accomplish anything in special session today.

“My patience has run out and I’ll see what they do today and the next time I call a special session, which I would believe would be next week, it will be for every day until a budget is passed,” Paterson told John Gambling on WOR, adding his administration would go to court on the matter if necessary.

The Senate left for the July 4th holiday weekend without having passing the revenue part of the budget, which the governor criticized them for on WOR. The Assembly completed passage of budget bills. However, negotiations continue about incorporating a contingency plan in the budget for about $1 billion in federal Medicaid funds that likely will not materialize and about letting the State University of New York set its own tuition without needing the Legislature’s approval. The fiscal year began April 1. Passing a budget this year has been difficult because of a $9.2 billion deficit.

Paterson said there always seemed to be a reason why lawmakers could not return to Albany, so he called a special session. He can’t make them complete the budget, but he can call them into session. The governor said he doesn’t have sympathy for lawmakers who are on vacation and can’t make session.

“Since when is an incompleted assignment not addressed because people have vacations? I think you should be standing ready to come back as soon as it’s necessary,” he said. “And what I wanted to do by calling a special session is let everybody see that there are people who actually think that they are elite enough that they don’t have to follow the rules. And if they keep it up, we’re going to go to court, which can compel them by contempt to follow the rules.”

The governor said the bills he put on the agenda for the special session were delivered to the Senate yesterday afternoon, but the Senate wouldn’t accept them and they were left at the door. The Assembly put the bills on its calendar, but the Senate did not.

Paterson was asked about Judith Kaye’s decision yesterday that recommended the governor not face any criminal charges for his role in a domestic-violence case involving a top aide. Kaye said the governor is guilty of “errors in judgment” for contacting the victim in the case. The governor said he had regrets about dropping out of the gubernatorial race earlier this year but is trying to make the most of his last year in office.

“I am very happy to see that the gubernatorial candidates who are running now are pretty much doing what I have been doing all along, which I think validates that I would have been a strong contender in that race. But it was four months ago … and you know you make a decision but there’s no such vacillating or thinking about what went on before. I have a new goal and that goal is to leave this state with the best possible financial picture that it could have and giving new meaning to your last year of service, which the others equate with being a lame duck. But I would suggest that this duck is quacking, this duck is swiming.”

The New York State County Executives Association plans a telephone press conference tomorrow to urge state senators “to get back to the people’s work” and deal with “end of session priorities pending before the New York State Legislature.”

Those expected to participate include:

Andrew Spano, Westchester County Executive

Scott Vanderhoef, Rockland County Executive

and

Putnam’s Deputy County Executive John Tully

   There are just two days to go until the start of a new legislative term, and three Democratic senators from New York City have not publicly said who they will support to lead the upper chamber. Democrats won a majority of Senate seats for the first time since 1965. But members of the so-called ”Gang of Three” (originally a “Gang of Four”) have considered backing Sen. Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, so the GOP leader would continue as head of the Senate. They forged a deal with Sen. Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, to get some prestigious leadership posts in the Senate, but that quickly fell apart. The trio’s votes are so important because the margin between Democrats and Republicans is so close (32-30).

   Sen. Ruben Diaz, D-Bronx, who is one of the three, said today that he didn’t know who he was going to support as leader. “By Wednesday, maybe I’ll know what I’m going to do,” he said.

   Sen. Carl Kruger, D-Brooklyn, and Pedro Espada, D-Bronx, could not immediately be reached for comment today.

   Smith met with Diaz, Kruger and Espada on Sunday. Democrats and Republicans are scheduled to hold conference meetings tomorrow night. The session begins Wednesday in Albany.

   Gov. David Paterson touched on a range of topics in answering questions from the news media at the National Governor’s Association meeting in Philadelphia this week.

  —On U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has been nominated to be President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of state, Paterson said taking time to select a replacement does not deprive New York of seniority in the Senate. Characteristics he wants in a successor include seeing the imagination as being more important than history, and thinking in terms of what is possible rather than what isn’t possible.

   “One thing that any business leader, any government official or any bride or groom every learned is it never hurts to take a little more time in the selection process,” he said.

   Paterson said he has been receiving calls from “concerned citizens that think they can lead.” One person interested in the position waited for him outside an event at a local university (he did not say which one).

  —On the president-elect, Paterson said he was impressed that Barack Obama spent 1.5 hours speaking with governors and there were no restrictions on questions. Obama made a point to speak out to GOP governors and tell them that he thinks disagreement enhances the political process.

   Paterson said he spoke with Obama after the meeting about the economy, and that President Franklin Roosevelt reversed the deflationary problem during the Great Depression through an economic-stimulus package. New York has nearly 100 wastewater-treatment and road and transportation projects that could benefit from federal funds, he said.

  —On Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who ran unsuccessfully for vice president on the GOP ticket, the governor said he spoke with her about oil drilling and natural resources. Palin believes oil companies sometimes squander oil, Paterson said, but he thinks the tax code drives what they do. They’re not always holding oil back to drive prices up, but to get a better tax deal, he said.

   The governor described Palin as “very forthright, very outgoing and very direct.” (more…)

   The Capital District Green Party just issued a statement opposing Hillary Clinton’s nomination for secretary of state. The group is criticizing President-elect Barack Obama’s selection, saying it “contradicted the anti-war rhetoric he initially based his campaign on.”

   The party described Obama’s foreign-policy team as “hawkish,” “right of center” and not in line wiht the views of most Americans.

   “When Senator Obama launched his campaign, much of his appeal to voters in the primaries was his initial opposition to the invasion of Iraq during his time as a state senator. During the presidential primaries, Obama positioned himself as a peace candidate despite his consistent votes for furing the Iraq War during his time in the U.S. Senate. Senator Clinton has refused to admit that her support for the invasion of Iraq was a mistake,” said Howie Hawkins, New York Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate in 2006. 

   The party said it wants Gov. David Paterson to appoint a Senate replacement for Clinton who is “more in touch with New York voters on issues such as peace, combating climate change and supporting single-payer universal health care than Clinton was.”

   The party has other objections to Clinton, including that she embraced the Bush administration’s “propaganda campaign” for invading Iraq and she voted for the Patriot Act. The Greens also have problems with Robert Gates, President Bush’s defense secretary, who is being asked to stay on by Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and others. No one who opposed the war in Iraq is being considered for a cabinet post in the Obama administration, according to the party. (more…)

   Gov. David Paterson, who spoke after thanking volunteers prepping thousands of Thanksgiving meals in Albany this afternoon, said he doesn’t want to rush his selection of a successor to Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, presuming she does indeed get nominated to be President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of state. The governor said he wouldn’t want his selection to in any way force the confirmation process for Clinton.

   Paterson and first lady Michelle Paige Paterson were in Albany’s Empire State Plaza (across from the Capitol) to thank people helping prepare meals for the annual Equinox Community Dinner. There are more than 3,000 volunteers, and more than 8,000 people will receive meals. 

   Paterson, a Democrat, said his first thought was to get the selection over as quickly as possible so he could get back to working on the state’s budget crisis. But if Clinton gets nominated, she would remain in office during the confirmation process.

   “I am reconsidering whether or not I should interfere with that natural process and name a successor, which is also almost like forcing the process when perhaps I should just let it work itself out and make my selection then,” he said, adding that he may find a way to indicate his choice privately to the successor so the person could start preparing.

   There is a diverse group of talented, sensitive and hard-working people, including women, minorities and upstate residents, who could step in for Clinton, the governor said. He noted that there is no one in statewide office who is from upstate or is Hispanic, and if Hillary Clinton’s replacement isn’t a woman, New York wouldn’t have a woman in statewide office.

   “What I think that’s true about New York is we have a number of people who would be great senators, and you’re going to have to be great because filling the shoes of our senator, Hillary Clinton, should she move on, is going to be very difficult. I’m glad it’s not me, because I’m not appointing myself,” he said. (more…)

   Laura Anglin, Gov. David Paterson’s budget director, reminds the chief officials of the Senate and Assembly fiscal committees that the Division of Budget and the governor are open to suggestions about any proposals of their own for slashing $2 billion out of the state budget. The administration delivered copies of proposed legislation to the lawmakers last Thursday and has provided them and their staffs with nearly 50 “detailed briefings” on the proposal.

   Paterson has called lawmakers into special session tomorrow to cut spending. New York’s deficit is $1.5 billion and growing. Assembly and Senate leaders have not provided any of their own recommendations, and it’s possible that they may not get a lot done when they meet this week.

   Anglin reminded leaders that the process being used is the same one that was used for the “successful” budget-cutting session in August.

   “We remain available to discuss any questions. Additionally, as always, we will consider any alternative proposals or savings ideas you may have. We look forward to working together in cooperation to facilitate a consensus agreement that will bring our budget back into balance,” she wrote.

   More information is available about the governor’s proposed spending cuts at www.budget.state.ny.us.

   Judith Kaye, New York’s first woman and longest serving chief judge, will deliver her final annual State of the Judiciary report tomorrow in Albany. Kaye is stepping down Dec. 31 because she is “aging out” of the judicial system, which has a mandatory retirement age of 70.

 As leader of the state’s highest court for 15 years, Kaye has ruled on cases that put an end to the death penalty in New York and required the state to pour billions more dollars into the New York City school system. She has been unsuccessful, however, in securing pay increases for the judiciary. Lawmakers, who traditionally align their pay hikes with those of judges, have not taken up the cause. Judges’ pay has not increased since 1999. Judges have filed a lawsuit to force the Legislature into approving raises. The suit is pending.

   Kaye, a native of Sullivan County, speaks at 1 p.m. She will be at New York University to deliver her address, which will be webcast.

   A commission has been charged with vetting potential successors and recommending seven names to Gov. David Paterson by Dec. 1. The governor will announce his pick by mid-January.

(National Archives photo.)

For those craving more information on how what happens in Albany trickles down to your community, the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials has launched www.StopTheTaxShift.org. Its purpose is to educate policymakers, the media, the public and, more specifially, New York’s overburdened real property taxpayer.

With New York’s fiscal crisis, mayors and other local officials are preparing to fight back any potential threats to state aid they receive. Last week, members of the New York Association of Counties and the County Executives Association cautioned that reductions in state aid could negatively affect communities and result in property-tax hikes. Gov. David Paterson has asked lawmakers to hold a special budget-cutting session in Albany next week. New York faces a $1.5 billion shortfall this year, which is expected to grow, and $12.5 million in 2009-10.

“New York is at a crossroads,” Cohoes Mayor John McDonald, president of the Conference of Mayors, said in a statement. “Will our leaders repeat the near fatal mistakes of the early 1990s, when local aid was slashed, and from which many communities have never recovered? Or will the governor and state legislators take the right approach and protect municipal property taxpayers from the devastating effect of cuts in AIM (municipal aid) funding?”

Features on StopTheTaxShift.org include a blog by “Joe Taxpayer” and a “Mandate of the Week” section.