Politics on the Hudson

   Gov. David Paterson signed a bill today to help livery cab drivers in New York City, Westchester and Nassau County. It establishes clear rules to determine when the drivers are considered employees or independent contractors of livery bases—cab companies that dispatch drivers across New York City. The current system blurs the line between the two, which has jeopardized compensation for workers who get injured, prompted lawsuits and affected pay for other non-driver employees taxi companies, the governor said.

   The legislation also creates a fund to give independent contractors in the taxi business and their families workers’ compensation benefits in cases of severe injury or death. It will kick in when no-fault automobile insurance does not provide any or sufficient coverage. The law will cover more than 40,000 livery drivers.

   The new law “will reform a system that has been bogged down by bureaucracy for too long …” Paterson said in a statement.

   “Unfortunately, for years these drivers had no coverage whatsoever, and many have suffered hardships due to injury, assaults, robberies and even murder on the job,” said Fernando Mateo, founder and spokesman for the state Association of Tax Drivers.

   Until now, there has been no system in place to make clear when livery cab bases should classify drivers as employees or independent contractors. The result could be years without compensation for seriously injured drivers who cases bounce between the no-fault insurance and workers’ compensation systems.

Larchmont Mayor Liz Feld, a Republican candidate for State Senate in Westchester County’s 37th District, yesterday ripped The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s plan to increase tolls and transit fares.

In a release, Feld said raising rates is “yet another example of New York taxpayers being stuck with the bill for Albany’s lack of fiscal discipline and planning.”

“New York State government is totally unprepared for an economic down cycle that virtually every economist in America has been predicting for the past four years,” Feld wrote. “New York has a $122 billion budget; how is it possible that we have no rainy day fund to help weather tough economic times?”

The transit agency this week proposed raising the fares and tolls 8 percent in July 2009 to help close a projected budget shortfall of $900 million.

Feld is running against longtime Democratic State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer. The 37th State Senate district includes Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, Chappaqua, New Castle, North Castle, Port Chester, White Plains, Rye, Rye Brook, Harrison, Mamaroneck, Larchmont, Scarsdale, and New Rochelle.

Read transportation reporter Ken Valenti’s story here.

   New York and five other Great Lakes states, along with several environmental groups, won a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today over commercial ships dumping contaminated ballast water into the lakes. The court decision prohibits large vessels and other oceangoing freight ships from discharging water without a permit from the EPA, starting Sept. 30. The federal agency previously had exempted ships that dumped untreated water from having to comply with the federal Clean Water Act.   

   One of the legacies of the polluted ballast water was the introduction of the zebra mussel invasive species into American waters in the late 1980s. The zebra mussel is now found in all five Great Lakes and other waterways in North America, according to state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office. In some areas, there are up to 1 million of them per square yard, and they clog intake pipes at water and power plants. The discharges have introduced more than 180 aquatic invasive species into the Great Lakes and have affected other American bodies of water. Some native species are nearly extinct as a result

   “Today’s decision is a huge win in protecting New York State’s Great Lakes from invasive species and pollution that for too long have threatened our local ecosystems, economies and our health,” Cuomo said in a statement.

   A study by the federal General Accountability Office estimated that invasive species led to $137 billion a year in economic losses and other costs, more than two times what natural disasters in the United States cost each year. 

   In one of two advisory opinions released today, the state Commission on Public Integrity found that state officials or employees who travel on state business may be allowed to personally use rewards or bonus points accumulated from airlines and hotels. They can be used “on the basis that travel rewards or points, which are offered to the general public, could not reasonably be seen as an attempt by the offerer to influence any governmental decisions or to reward any state officer or employee for any official action.”

   On the flip side, state employees whose job requires them to buy supplies and services for their agencies cannot personally bank reward points they get as a result. Since vendors are approved by the state, accepting rewards can be viewed as a way for the agency to influence the employee, and the rewards would be considered gifts under state ethics laws, the commission said.

   A second opinion issued today prohibits a state Thruway Authority employee approaching retirement from being employed as an office engineer or inspector on any Thruway project contracted out by the state for two years after retirement. The decision turned on the contractor having to submit a the former employee’s resume and credentials as part of the application for the job. The majority of commissioners—eight—said that would violate ethics laws. (more…)

   New York is providing the Army National Guard’s specially equipped Firehawk Helicopter to help fight fires in California, Gov. David Paterson just announced. The state has one of five Firehawk helicopters in the country.  

   A number of states are assisting with efforts to fight fires in California, which have burned nearly 1,000 acres in the last two weeks. Florida is providing a six-person crew to fly the Firehawk to California tomorrow and, once there, help fight the fires. New York’s Firehawk-trained pilots were not available because they are preparing for deployment to Iraq.

    “No matter the state you are from, we have a responsibility to protect our citizens. We also have the moral obligation to provide assistance to other states when the need arises,” Paterson said in a statement. “This is such a time.”

  (more…)

 The MTA faces a new budget gap of between $500 million and $700 million next year because of a slowdown in tax collections, MTA boss Elliott Sander said today at a hearing in Albany.

When asked if that means tolls and train, bus and subway fares might go up, he said not if the state increases its aid to the transit  system. “It’s too early to say,’’ he said.

“I am asking the Legislature and the governor for more financial support,’’ he said at the hearing, conducted by Assembly Authorities Committee Chairman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh.  That’s considered unlikely since the state, too, is under intense fiscal pressure.

One more bit of bad news from Sander: the $20 billion MTA capital plan is “badly underfunded.’‘

   Matthew Lamb, a Lake Carmel, Putnam County, emergency medical technician who died in the line of duty last year, will have his name added Thursday to a state memorial that honors EMTs who have died while on the job. Lamb was a 25-year-old EMT with Empire State Ambulance Corp. of Fishkill, Dutchess County, and a volunteer firefighter in Carmel. He died last November when the ambulance he was riding in went off the road and crashed into a tree in Garrison.  

   The late Deborah Reeve of the Fire Department, City of New York EMS, will also be added to the list of names on the memorial. Reeve, who was 43, died from an illness contracted during the Sept. 11, 2001 recovery operations.

   The two additions will bring the total honored on the memorial to 34 since it was constructed. The memorial, located in Empire State Plaza across from the Capitol, is a large granite stone with the carving of a Tree of Life on it. The person’s name, EMS service and date of death are carved into a leaf shaped like the Star of Life, the traditional EMS symbol. A separate star is given to the family. Annual memorial services began in 2004.

   “I am saddened for their loss, but grateful to them and to all emergency medical service personnel for their commitment to their profession and to the lives of all New Yorkers,” Gov. David Paterson said in a statement. “This memorial stands as a permanent testimony to this commitment.” (more…)

   New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s traffic-reduction plan failed to win approval today from the state Legislature, the last day possible to obtain state permission and still access $354 million in immediate federal funds (which now will go to another state). The plan, which faced fierce opposition, particularly from the Assembly, would have charged cars entering Manhattan below 60th Street $8 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays.

   In a statement released this evening, Bloomberg slammed the Assembly. These are excerpts from his remarks:  

   “Today is a sad day for New Yorkers and a sad day for New York City.  Not only won’t we see the realization of a plan that would have cut traffic, spurred our economy, reduced pollution and improved public health, we will also lose out on nearly $500 million annually for mass transit improvements and $354 million in immediate federal funds.”

   “It takes true leadership and courage to embrace new concepts and ideas and to be willing to try something.  Unfortunately, both are lacking in the Assembly today.” (more…)

A plan to charge motorists to drive into New York City is dead in the state Legislature, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said today.“The overwhelming majority of the conference opposed it,’’ Silver, D-Manhattan, said after emerging from a closed-door meeting of Democratic lawmakers. “I think people didn’t like the concept.’’The Legislature had to approve the plan, supported by Gov. David Paterson, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Council by midnight tonight for the city to be eligible for $354 million in federal aid to help implement the plan.”The mayor is entitled to his vision,’’ said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, Westchester County, a leading critic of the plan. “And the Legislature is entitled to say, ‘we don’t think this is in the public’s interest.’‘’Bloomberg has been pushing a plan to charge motorists $8 to drive below 60th St. in Manhattan between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. The money from the charges would be used for mass-transit upgrades. Bloomberg said the plan would also result in cleaner air in the city and less time lost in snarled traffic for those paying the fee.But Brodsky and other opponents saw the plan as an unfair tax on middle-class commuters into Manhattan from the outer boroughs and the suburbs. Brodsky said he favored a higher income tax on millionaires to pay for transit improvements. The Senate and Gov. David Paterson oppose that idea.

The state Assembly will vote on the Manhattan congestion-pricing plan on Monday if there is enough support to approve it, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said today.

Monday is the deadline for the Legislature to act on the plan and retain New York City’s eligibility for about $350 million in federal transportation aid. The plan calls for cars to pay $8 to travel below 60th St. between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays.
In an interview on Talk-1300 Radio in Albany, Silver said he thinks personally that something needs to be done about congestion, but wouldn’t say what he expects the other 106 Democrats in the Assembly to do.

“A number of members have serious concerns about it,’’ he said, understating the fierce opposition to the plan by some lawmakers from the outer boroughs and suburbs.

The idea also has to be approved by the Senate. Common wisdom is that the Republicans who control that chamber will do the bidding of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supports it. But some Long Island Republicans don’t like the plan.