Politics on the Hudson

The Republican primary didn’t just shake up the race for Yorktown supervisor.

It might well have triggered a move for new leadership of the Republican Town Committee, possibly putting a political staffer with ties to both the town’s state legislators at the helm of the local party.

Under county by-laws, the committee has 20 days after a primary to hold a reorganization caucus, which is set for Wednesday night. Chairwoman Serafina Mastro declined to comment on the ramifications of that vote, but Matt Slater said today he is vying for the post.

Slater, 25, works for state Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Yorktown, has worked with former Assemblyman and current state Sen. Greg Ball, R-Patterson, and was campaign manager for current Councilman Terrence Murphy in 2009. The vote will take place at Murphy’s, the restaurant Murphy co-owns.

A 2004 Yorktown High School graduate, Slater said he had met with Mastro and current party leadership about his intentions so they should come as no surprise.

“I made some phone calls as to whether people think it’s a good idea, and I’ve been getting a fair amount of support,” he said today. “So we’ll see what happens. Until then nothing is set in stone.”

The election is being billed by some as a potential rebuke of current Supervisor Susan Siegel, who was defeated in the primary by former town attorney Michael Grace after she was tapped by the GOP committee as its nominee.

“I really think it would be good for a change, and maybe they’ll elect Republicans for a change and not Democrats who change to Republican,” said Republican district leader Ed Ciffone.

Following a Journal News investigation showing how costly mistakes and overruns have pushed the cost of the Interstate-287 project to $63 million per mile, the state Assembly’s Westchester County delegation called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to launch his own probe of the project.

In all, eight Assembly members signed on to a letter to the governor, urging him to move swiftly.

“We believe the most effective, immediate review can be launched at your direction,” the letter read.

The effort was coordinated by Assemblyman George Latimer, D-Rye, who spoke with Assembly Transportation Committee Chair David Gantt yesterday about coming up with a game plan to attack the problems unveiled in the investigation.

Others to sign the letter were Assembly members Robert Castelli, R-Goldens Bridge; J. Gary Pretlow, D-Mount Vernon; Steve Katz, R-Mohegan Lake; Michael Spano, D-Yonkers; Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale; Sandra Galef, D-Ossining; and Thomas Abinanti, D-Greenburgh.

“The next phase of this project directly affects Harrison and White Plains neighborhoods,” Castelli said in a statement. “We seek not only an accounting of the project to date, but changes and improvements implemented for what is yet to come.”

The following statement was issued by Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Yorktown, who represents the 99th District.

While I am pleased the budget process has moved forward, and we now have agreements from three out of the 10 subcommittees, we must not lose sight of the most pressing fiscal concerns facing New Yorkers: tax and mandate relief.

The first step in this equation is to ensure that this year’s final state budget does not increase state spending. I have been urging my colleagues in the Assembly to adopt legislation imposing a state spending cap to address and hopefully curb Albany’s addiction to runaway spending.

Secondly, we must protect property taxpayers while also continuing our commitment to provide every child with a world-class education. To address this, I support a property-tax cap coupled with serious mandate relief. While I have solicited mandate-relief ideas from Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester counties and brought those ideas to the governor’s task force on Mandate Relief and Redesign, there has been no serious discussion about specific mandate reforms in Albany. While I support the task force’s initial findings, which propose generalities such as ending future unfunded mandates, we cannot fairly discuss local-government aid or school funding until we have a comprehensive and agreed-upon list of specific mandate-relief proposals – the two must go hand-in-hand in order to protect taxpayers.

Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Yorktown, issued the following statement Monday on mandated Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System regulations affecting municipalities.

In his ongoing effort to protect taxpayers from a $500 million federal mandate, Assemblyman Steve Katz (R,I-Yorktown) hosted a meeting in Albany today with the state Department of Environmental Conversation (DEC), local officials and state representatives to further discuss the MS4 storm water project. The project, which aims to protect New York City drinking water, is estimated to cost local governments on the eastern bank of the Hudson River at least $500 million.

“The state budget is looking to cut costs and part of those cost-saving initiatives has been a reduction in local aid. Coupled with the ongoing downturn in the economy, most of us believe that now is not the time to force a $500 million mandate onto the backs of already overburdened taxpayers,” said the assemblyman.

Brendan Tully, the Democratic candidate for state Assemblly in the 99th District, is proposing to close a loophole in state’s DWI law he says puts drunk drivers “back on the road with nothing more than a slap on the wrist and a few fines.”

Right now, Tully said, many drunk drivers are allowed to plea bargain down to a traffic infraction, such as rolling through a stop sign or parking on the pavement, keeping their licenses in the process. Tully is calling for barring such pleas where a driver’s blood alcohol content exceeds the legal limit of 0.08 percent and where the charge is driving while intoxicated.

“My plan will give New York some of the toughest DWI laws in the country,”  he said, “and more importantly, it will get drunk drivers off the streets and make our communities safer.”

He also calls for a lifetime “look back” period, “so drunk drivers don’t get a clean slate every five years as they do now,” and for a mandatory one-year license suspension for those convicted of DWI.

Tully and his Republican opponent, fellow Yorktowner Steve Katz, faced off in a debate in Mahopac Tuesday night. Contrasting his small business experience — he owns a Bronx veterinary practice — with Tully’s background as an attorney, Katz has unveiled a six-point plan for economic recovery.

Its tenets include transparency of government, pension reform for state legislators and term limits for legislative leaders.

“I have the experience of building a successful business from the ground up,” Katz said in a statement today. “If ever there was a time to tear Albany down and rebuild it again that time is now.  The sooner we start treating government as a business, the sooner it will start working for us.“

Former Southeast Town Justice James Borkowski is running for the seat on the Conservative line. The 99th District covers Yorktown, Somers and North Salem in Westchester County; Carmel, Southeast and Patterson in Putnam County; and Pawling in Dutchess County.

On the eve of tomorrow’s Republican Assembly primary in the 99th District, challenger Steve Katz continues to take issue with Jim Borkowski’s 2009 Working Families Party endorsement.

That was the only line Borkowski held in his run for Putnam County Sheriff after losing the GOP primary to incumbent Don Smith. Katz has hammered away at his opponent’s prior affiliation with the left-leaning party and its connection to the now-defunct community organizing group Acorn.

Citing reference to the issue in a recent debate, Katz called on Borkowski to release the questionnaire he filled out to secure the line.

“He cut deals with the local Democratic Party and proudly took the ACORN backed Working Families Party line,” Katz said. “Now in the desperate throws (sic) of a failing campaign, he is spending thousands of dollars trying to label himself as a ‘Conservative’.”

The Working Families Party was co-f0unded in 1998 by ACORN, which in April closed its offices and state affiliates in the wake of public criticism following the release of a series of sting videos. The videos showed ACORN workers across the country advising a pair of undercover conservative activists who claimed to be a pimp and prostitute looking to set up shop.

Borwkowski, who has the Conservative line in the November election, dismissed what he called a last-minute attempt by Katz to attack his conservative credentials.

“Steve Katz is a one-trick pony,” Borkowski said. “If he didn’t talk about the Working Families Party 24 hours a day, he’d have nothing to talk about.”

The Working Families Party has endorsed Democrat Brendan Tully of Yorktown, who will oppose the winner of Tuesday’s GOP primary.

UPDATED: The race, and this issue in particular, was the subject of a piece today by former ACORN employee Anita Moncrief, who in 2008 was a witness in a lawsuit alleging voter registration fraud by the organization. Moncrief, writing at the conservative website emergingcorruption.com, equates Borkowski’s endorsement by Republican leaders to the selection of  Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, R- in the 23rd Congressional District race in 2009.

Photo: Borkowski, left, and Katz at a League of Women Voters debate in Carmel last month. (Brian Howard/The Journal News)

Now an officially announced challenger for New York’s District 19 seat in Congress, state Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, has unveiled a new website titled Ball for Congress.

The new site is a first step in clearing up the fundraising muddle Ball had when using the same site to raise money for his Assembly campaign and his proposed challenge to U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains.

However, a quick tour of the site shows Ball has yet to follow the letter of the law.

At the bottom of the section called “Calendar of Events” Ball solicits funds but never lists which entity is paying for it. The “paid for by” is required by law so that the money raised can be tracked to know where it’s going

Another filing deadline looms for Ball. Candidates for federal office must now file a personal financial disclosure by May 15.

Until this year, the requirement affected only elected officials. Now candidates for Congress must also comply under the new open government reforms.

So in case you’re wondering why the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the voting, attendance and expenditure records of state Assemblyman Greg Ball, R- Patterson, here’s what they have to say about it: “We don’t comment on research strategy.”

That terse statement comes from Shripal Shah, the DCCC’s recently named Northeast Regional Press Secretary, in response to a volley lobbed several hours earlier by Ball’s press people.

“This unusual and early move (the FOIA inquiry) shows that National Democrats consider the potential candidacy of Greg Ball a serious threat,” a Ball staffer wrote.

Last month Ball launched an exploratory committee to pursue a possible challenge against incumbent Congressman John Hall, D-Dover Plains.

   A state Assembly member from Dutchess County is asking Gov. Paterson to reconsider his proposal to eliminate the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council and Hudson River Valley Greenway Heritage Conservancy and transfer liabilities, assets and responsibilities to the Department of State. Hudson Valley communities and groups have had “numerous successful endeavors” working with the council and conservancy, according to Assemblyman Marc Molinaro, R-Red Hook. The governor recommended eliminating the agencies in his 2009-10 budget plan, which he presented last week.

   The council was established as a state agency by the Greenway Act of 1991 to work with local and county governments on land-use planning. The Conservancy, also set up at that time, works with local governments, organizations and individuals to set up the Hudson River Valley Trail System, promote tourism and preserve agriculture.

   The success of the Greenway in “spurring intermunicipal cooperation and regional planning is a model for cost savings and consolidation at the local level,” Molinaro wrote in his letter. “Eliminating their independence to work with municipalities, skeptical of state interference, will significantly set back these efforts and diminish your stated desire to further local government sharing.”

   “The bottom line is I do not believe that a budget savings of less than $100,000 (assuming the loss of federal revenues for the management of the National Heritage Area and re-assignment of Greenway staff) is sufficient reason for elimination of these highly functional and successful organizations, shifting the responsibility for DOS,” Molinaro said. “Doing so would significantly limit the state’s ability to work with our local partners, hamper economic development and environmental stewardship in the valley and would signal the state’s abandonment of seeking consensus in order to confront the myriad challenges throughout the Hudson Valley.”

   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…)