This is it – verbatim:

Response to Carlucci Personal Attack Piece.

“Senator Carlucci has placed politics above the interests of Rockland County residents and has not shown an ability to lead, which has been demonstrated by his total inaction and disinterest in working in a bipartisan manner with the County Executive and the leadership of the Rockland County Legislature. Instead he has resorted to personal attacks and caustic rhetoric. Sarcasm is not a solution. The Senator simply has no plan.”

“Yesterday, the County Executive proposed an $8 million dollar gimmick to an $80 million dollar problem. Hardly well thought out, and with no support from the county legislature, this ill-conceived plan would enact troubling new measures for Rockland residents. Vanderhoef’s plan will implement an outrageous new energy tax on families who are simply trying to heat their homes in the cold winter months. What’s next – a tax on breathing? Scott Vanderhoef now has a new tax increase for every day of the week – plus one for good luck.

“It’s clear that the County Executive is not serious about ending the fiscal mismanagement that has betrayed our taxpayers for too long. They have resorted to more of the same tax and blame policies that have gotten us into this mess, instead of working to bring the unions, the legislature, and department heads together to find greater efficiencies and cost-cutting measures.

“I will work with anyone, of any party, to put the county’s fiscal house in order without raising taxes on residents. However, I will not and cannot be a part of making Rockland County the tax capital of New York State.”

The U.S. Department of Justice gave the Assembly maps what is known as “pre-clearance” today, according to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan. That means the maps will officially be in effect for the 2012 elections, barring unforeseen circumstances.

Here’s the statement from Silver:

“The United States Department of Justice has pre-cleared the Assembly’s redistricting plan. This action validates the Assembly’s efforts to craft fair and responsible districts based on the input from many individuals and organizations at two dozen hearings held across the state over the past year. Securing pre-clearance means the 2012 election cycle will move forward using the new district boundaries passed by the Assembly and Senate and signed into law by the Governor.”

By law, the Justice Department reviews the state’s once-a-decade redistricting plan to ensure compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act. It already gave clearance to the state Senate maps earlier this year.

According to the data, instances of juvenile crime dropped from 14,864 outside of New York City in 2010 to 12,325 last year. Within New York City, formal arrests were down 3 percent in 2011, while felony arrests dropped by 11 percent, according to the New York Police Department.

Meanwhile, juveniles held as state detention facilities dropped last year, as well. Outside of New York City, there was a 10 percent drop in admissions to the youth facilities, from 3,327 in 2010 to 2,992 last year.

The state budget, passed in March, implemented significant reforms to the state’s juvenile justice system for downstate offenders. Under the “Close to Home” initiative, New York City children in upstate facilities would be moved to new programs within the city’s borders. As a result, some upstate facilities classified as “secure” or “limited secure” could close.

Here’s OCFS’DCJS’ annual report, which was released earlier this week:

OJRP DATA Presentation 05-15-2012

DiNapoli said the investment in the Nassau County-based Sleepy’s in his home county was made by Hudson River Co-Investment Fund managed by Hamilton Lane. The deal was led by San Francisco-based Calera Capital.

“The state pension fund is investing in New York’s economic future,” said DiNapoli. “Sleepy’s has been doing business in New York for more than half a century and this investment will help them stay here and continue to expand. This company provides a great example of how the In-State Private Equity Program partners with New York businesses to obtain the capital they need to grow and create jobs while generating significant returns for the state pension fund.”

The state Comptroller’s Office spreads some of its $147 billion pension fund into in-state investments. DiNapoli said nearly $1 billion committed to the in-state program since 2001.

DiNapoli’s press release says he plans to visit Rochester soon to look at an investment there.

A report from the state Budget Division shows that state and local government contributions to the pensions of public workers are estimated to grow 40 percent between 2012 and 2015. The contribution rates for public workers was 16.5 percent of salary in 2012 and it could rise to 23.1 percent of salary in 2015, the state’s estimates show. For police and fire workers, the pension increases would go from 22.3 percent of salary to 31.3 percent.

The latest numbers show that pension costs in New York are expected to continue their upward trend as more workers retire and as Wall Street is still recovering the financial meltdown in 2008 and 2009. They will begin to fall in 2016, the estimates show.

The higher costs could be blunted, the report shows, if governments chose to amortize their pension costs—essentially borrowing off the pension to pay their growing costs. The state does it, as well as 128 local governments.

Here’s our database of the pension costs for every government in New York.

Also, the cost of health benefits for retirees has grown. It’s increasing from a total obligation of $55.9 billion as estimated in 2011 to $72.2 billion now, a 29 percent increase. Bloomberg News reported on the rising health-care costs yesterday.

Budget officials said the higher figures for health-care costs are the result of the first recalculation of the expense since 2008, and New York pays its health-care costs for retirees on an annual basis, roughly $1.2 billion a year.

As for the growing pension costs—which have crippled local budgets—state budget spokesman Morris Peters said the expenses would have been even higher if the state didn’t this year implement Tier VI, a less generous pension program for new public employees.

“This is why Tier VI was so important,” he said.

2012_AIS

The League of Women Voters of Westchester is very concerned about recent decisions regarding the dispute between Westchester County and the federal government over the continued implementation of the Housing Settlement Agreement and wishes to submit this brief statement in response. We encourage continued dialogue among all of the parties in the current dispute, including within County government, and it is our belief that the time for compromise has come.

We have read the U.S. District Court’s decision finding the County in violation of the Housing Settlement Agreement due primarily to its failure to promote Source of Income legislation. No fines have been imposed as of yet, but that is clearly within the Court’s jurisdiction to do so. We also note that for the second year in a row, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has withheld Community Development Block Grants from the County, including to those municipalities unaffected by the terms of the Stipulation and Housing Settlement Agreement – apparently based entirely upon HUD’s perception that the County has not promoted this Source of Income legislation.

While the County Executive’s Office has announced its intent to appeal the District Court’s decision, we feel strongly that the better course of action is for the members of the Board of Legislators and the County Executive’s Office to immediately take steps to collaborate on the passage of a new Source of Income bill that will be acceptable to all parties.

Our perspective is that the best interests of our County lie in positively moving forward on this issue. Our legislators and the County Executive, acting together, need to demonstrate to the Court and thereby to HUD, that the County takes all of its responsibilities under the Housing Settlement Agreement seriously, not just those related to the construction of new housing units.

We strongly encourage our legislators and County Executive to work together to craft a piece of legislation dealing with Source of Income and believe that they should so notify the Court, the Monitor and HUD of their intention to do so.

Sharon Lindsay, President

League of Women Voters of Westchester

Overall, the newly released schedules don’t reveal much that wasn’t already known, but there are some interesting tidbits scattered throughout. They cover Cuomo’s meetings from January through March of this year.

Here’s what stood out:

• Cuomo spoke via phone with Xerox CEO Ursula Burns on Jan. 20. Six days later, Cuomo and Xerox announced that the company would establish a call center in Webster, Monroe County, in exchange for $6 million in the form of tax credits and a grant. The move is expected to create 500 jobs, according to the governor’s news release.


• On March 5, Cuomo spoke with Katherine Sibelius, President Obama’s Health and Human Services secretary, by phone. The subject of the call wasn’t revealed, but Cuomo’s had a prep meeting with staffers before the call took place.


• Cuomo had a morning phone call with U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on March 30. Again, the subject of the call wasn’t revealed. Later in the day, he had a photo shoot in the Red Room of the state Capitol with TIME Magazine. That photo shoot produced this photo for the magazine’s 100 most influential people issue.

2012 March

The fingerprinting of food-stamp recipients had been largely abolished in 2007 under then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, but the requirement had continued in New York City and in some counties for some people.

The criticism of the program had been focused on New York City, but Cuomo officials said the new regulation would affect all the counties that had the fingerprinting requirement.

Arizona is the only other state in the country to require fingerprints to receive food stamps. The new regulation in New York will be formally proposed on May 30 and go into effect 45 days later, officials said.

“As of today, that stigma is removed,” Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy said at a Capitol news conference. “There is no doubt that those that made these rules didn’t go to bed hungry, didn’t face these same challenges, so it really is important that we have a governor who gets it.”

Monroe County was the only county in the state to fingerprint group-home residents, state officials said. In addition to New York City, Delaware, Livingston and Schuyler counties fingerprinted all applicants over the age of 60.

Delaware, Greene, Livingston, Monroe, Otsego, Schuyler, Steuben and Wyoming counties all fingerprinted people aged 18 to 21 who were not the head of a household or married.

Otsego, Delaware, Schuyler, Wayne, Wyoming and Tompkins counties fingerprinted people ages 18 and older who were temporarily or permanently disabled.

Cuomo said the removal of fingerprinting would help increase participation in the food-stamp program, a pledge he made during his State of the State address in January.

“I think it’s important that government, like all of us, leads with its head and its heart,” Cuomo said in a conference call during the news conference. “It is not necessary to use finger imaging to prevent fraud. Poverty and hunger are not crimes so we shouldn’t treat the poor or the hungry as criminals, and that’s what we’ve been doing, and that’s what’s going to stop.”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the practice as a way to prevent fraudulent acquisitions of the stamps and save the city millions of dollars in unnecessary handouts of stamps.

UPDATE: The Assembly maps were still awaiting clearance from the Department of Justice, which they received Friday.

The trial over the various redistricting complaints will still move ahead, but won’t be completed by the 2012 elections.

The decision not to grant a preliminary injunction was a win for Senate Republicans, who had drawn the Senate map that had been the target of criticism from good-government advocates. It’s a blow to Senate Democrats, who had lost a state-level challenge on the addition of a 63rd Senate district and were hoping that the three-judge panel would step in on the separate challenge.

I am extremely pleased with this decision, and it ensures the state can administer an orderly and fair election this fall,” Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, said in a statement.

The panel of judges did toss a complaint from a Ramapo town councilman who had claimed that the new state Assembly districts unfairly marginalized the Hasidic Jewish vote in the Rockland County town. Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats jointly filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, which was granted yesterday in federal court.

Here’s the series of decisions that came out of Brooklyn yesterday:

12317567806

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the ban on Wedensday. It prohibits hydrofracking, though the gas-rich Marcellus and Utica shale formations are not believed to reach the state. It does, however, also prohibit the importing of hydrofracking waste for treatment.

Hydrofracking critics from New York hope the Vermont ban advances their cause. High-volume hydrofracking is on hold in New York as the state DEC works on an environmental review of the technique.

“When I went to VT to testify before the Senate committee it was refreshing to see legislators listening and asking important questions about the science,about the geology, the wastewater, and possible health impacts and showing real concern for their agriculture,” Wes Gillingham, Program Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, said in a statement. “We urge Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature to listen to the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who have called for a ban in order to protect New York’s communities from fracking’s unacceptable dangers.”

American Petroleum Institute Director of State Government Relations Rolf Hanson responded to the initial decision by the Vermont legislature to pass the ban: “The decision by the Vermont legislature to pass a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing follows an irresponsible path that ignores three major needs: jobs, government revenue and energy security.”

Advocates from Vermont who helped push for the ban were in Albany on Tuesday, partaking in a rally for New Yorkers Against Fracking, a coalition of hydrofracking critics.

Only 24 budgets were rejected on Tuesday, with 19 in districts that sought to override the cap.

About 50 districts sought to exceed the tax-cap limit, and that meant getting 60 percent of voters—a so-called supermajority—to pass their budgets.

“I am personally and professionally still struggling with the fact that I’m living in a state where a no vote counts more than a yes vote,” said Deborah Haab, superintendent in Highland, Ulster County, where the override failed, but was approved by 51 percent of voters.

“I don’t understand how that is constitutional or democratic,” she said.

In New Paltz, the budget was passed by 59 percent of voters. If eight voters had voted yes instead of no, the budget would have passed, said superintendent Maria Rice.

The schools that sought an override and failed are now left to decide whether to again seek an override or to lower their budgets to fall in line with their tax cap amount.

The decision is critical. Under the tax cap, if a budget fails twice, they cannot raise taxes at all in the coming school year, which starts July 1.

The next budget vote is June 19.

New Paltz’s budget was proposed with a 4.4 percent tax levy increase. Rice said the district would now likely seek a budget at its cap limit of 3.4 percent—a move that would only need a simple majority to win voter approval.

“As a superintendent, I can’t in good conscious recommend that we would go above the 3.4 percent tax-levy limit,” Rice said. “The stakes are way too high.”

Elmira had its override rejected Tuesday when the budget was approved by 55 percent of voters. The district was seeking a 5 percent property tax levy increase to stave off additional cuts in staff and services. It was already proposing to cut 111 staff positions.

Its cap limit was 2.6 percent, said Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter.

“Legislators passed a law that allows the minority to control the majority,” Hochreiter said Wednesday. “Fifty-five percent of our public supports what we are trying to do, yet 45 percent of the public wins.”

The rally, organized by the Hudson Valley Area Labor Coalition Civil Service Employees Association, comes after Carlucci and Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef engaged in a very public tit-for-tat last week after Moody’s downgraded the county’s credit rating. (Carlucci, a Clarkstown Democrat, defeated the Republican Vanderhoef in the race for the senate seat in 2010.)

Vanderhoef blamed Carlucci for the downgrade, citing his unwillingness to carry a bill in the Senate that would allow Rockland to increase its sales tax by 3/8 of one percent. Carlucci fired back, saying he wouldn’t be “bullied” into supporting the tax. “It’s obvious that the county would rather blame me than be serious about getting at the real problems,” Carlucci said at the time.

The unions, apparently, disagree with Carlucci. The event has been dubbed the “Rally for Rockland,” and the flier (pictured at left) urges Carlucci to “put Rockland over politics.”

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, who serves as chair of the Assembly Health Committee, said the bill currently being discussed would have some of the most restrictive regulations to acquire medicinal marijuana in the country. Currently, 17 states allow medical use of marijuana.

At a news conference on Wednesday attended by Gannett’s Aaron Scholder, Gottfried said the bill received favorable support in a Health Committee meeting on Tuesday, with four of the committee’s seven Republicans supporting the measure.

“Thousands of New Yorkers suffer from serious debilitating and life-threatening conditions whose lives could be made more livable and longer in many cases if we allow them to be treated under medical supervision with the use of medical marijuana,” Gottfried said.

But Senate Republicans have been lukewarm to the bill, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last month he’s opposed to it—leaving little chance of its passage this year.

The bill would require patients to secure a certification from a doctor who has determined that marijuana would help with the symptoms of their condition. The patient would then have to send that certification to the state Department of Health, which would issue a card to be used at a specially registered hospital or pharmacy.

If there were no hospital within 20 miles of the patient’s home, a small amount of home production would be allowed, officials said.

The most amount of the drug that any patient could possess at one time would be 2.5 ounces.

The legislators said were confident that the measure would prevent people from trying to secure the drug for recreational use because of the tedious process necessary to acquire it.

A Siena poll released on Wednesday that showed big support from New Yorkers for passing it. The poll found that 57 percent of New Yorkers support passing the bill with 33 percent opposed.

James Johnson of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York said the county’s analysis, submitted Feb. 29, is inadequate and the county needs to delve deeper to assess whether the zoning districts on the books are exclusionary. He is giving the county until July 2 to provide the analysis and to lay out a clear strategy to overcome exclusionary zoning. Separately, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has already declared the analysis inadequate and provided a long set of directions to the county on how to correct it.

County Executive Rob Astorino has resisted providing a strategy that includes the possibility of suing municipalities, saying there’s no justification for the demand. Astorino has focused on the county’s progress toward building the 750 affordable housing units in mostly white towns that is a centerpiece of the settlement.

For the first time, the monitor is also invoking his right under the settlement to interview county staff who helped prepare the zoning submission. In a letter dated May 14 that outlined his deadlines, Johnson also requested a long list of documents related to the zoning analysis, including all preliminary drafts, all communication between county officials and employees and others about the zoning submission. He has also asked for a tabulation for each municipality of the number of applications for permits to develop affordable housing from Jan. 1, 2007 to May 9, 2012 and copies of all rejected applications for permits to develop affordable housing for the same period. The documents are due July 9.

Zoning is only one of the topics in dispute between HUD and the monitor on one side and the county on the other. Astorino has also been taken to task for vetoing legislation that would prohibit landlords from discriminating against tenants who use Section 8 or other government income to pay rent. Click here for a story on the latest in that dispute.

Yesterday, Senate Deputy Majority Leader Thomas Libous’ office acknowledged receiving a “letter of inquiry” from the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, known as JCOPE, regarding allegations that he used his influence to get his son a job at a politically connected law firm. The allegations first surfaced in a Westchester County corruption trial earlier this year, and Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan—a Democratic political rival who had considered a run against Libous—filed a formal complaint with JCOPE.

The letter was first reported by the Times Union of Albany on Tuesday, before Libous’ office had acknowledged receiving it. Skelos said he’s convinced the leak came from within JCOPE—which would be a misdemeanor crime, according to the law creating the ethics board passed last year by lawmakers.

“I think it’s unfortunate that the confidentiality has been broken, and obviously somebody within JCOPE has committed a misdemeanor crime,” Skelos said Wednesday.

He said lawmakers need to look at tweaking the law, which was heralded last year for establishing an ethics board independent of the Legislature and governor’s office. But the law had its critics, particularly for its quirky voting rules that would allow the vote of just three board members to scuttle an investigation in some cases.

“I think that we have to look at the ethics laws, see if we can tighten it up a little bit,” Skelos said. “Again, for the first political accusation made, you have a misdemeanor crime being committed by someone who violated the confidentiality.”

Skelos said he is “thinking about” launching an investigation into the source of the leak. “I don’t know how you would really find who committed the crime, but I think we have to look at and see if anything that has to be done to tighten up the process,” he said.

State officials said in a news release that taxpayers should visit the Web site of their city or town to find their property assessments. State law requires towns and cities to make assessment rolls available on the Internet and provide a link to the information from their homepages.

There’s also information about property-tax assessments on the state’s site: www.tax.ny.gov.

The state said that assessment rolls should list each property’s assessed value, estimated market value and exemptions. If a property owner takes issues with the information, the state taxation department offered some steps to take from their news release:

1. Determine the market value of the property

2. Talk with the assessor

3. File an assessment grievance

And to be clear: Grievance Day is not related to the airing of grievances on Festivus.

Voters approved 96 percent of school district budgets, according to an analysis by the School Boards Association.

“Today’s results are a ringing endorsement by voters of their public schools and place an exclamation point on the fact that local school governance works,” Kreme said in a statement.

While 651 of 675 school district budgets passed, 24 failed—and 19 of those were in districts that sought a cap override.

The resolution honors Yauch, who died last week, for his major contributions to music and as a true rap pioneer.

“Yauch grew up in Brooklyn Heights and the Beastie Boys grew to prominence via the East Village and Lower East Side music scene,” Squardon said in a statement.

Here’s the resolution: (And if you don’t know, the headline is MCA’s line in “No Sleep Till’ Brooklyn”.)

LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION mourning the death of famed rapper and activist
Adam “MCA” Yauch
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to honor and pay trib
ute to those individuals whose commitment and creative talents have
contributed to the entertainment and cultural enrichment of their commu
nity and the entire State of New York; and
WHEREAS, Adam Yauch, also known as MCA, the rapper, musician, activ
ist, film director and founder of the pioneering New York hip-hop group
the Beastie Boys, died on Friday, May 4, 2012, in Manhattan at age 47;
and

WHEREAS, Adam Nathaniel Yauch was born on August 5, 1964, and raised
in Brooklyn Heights; he was the son of Frances Yauch, a social worker,
and Noel Yauch, an architect and painter, and attended Edward R. Murrow
High School in Midwood; and
WHEREAS, Adam Yauch taught himself the bass guitar while growing up
and joined the Beastie Boys, originally a hardcore punk outfit, playing
his first show with the group when he was just 17 years old in 1981; and
WHEREAS, The Beastie Boys became well-known in the innovative music
scene in Manhattan’s East Village and Lower East Side with a sound and a
style all their own; and
WHEREAS, The album “Licensed to Ill” was the first hip-hop album to
top the Billboard chart; and
WHEREAS, The music and message of the Beastie Boys evolved over the
years, but they can’t, they don’t, they won’t stop changing the face of
hip-hop, of music, and of our culture; and
WHEREAS, The Beastie Boys exemplified New York through a period in
which grassroots creativity and a community of iconoclastic artists
helped redefine and rejuvenate a city on the ropes, with iconic imagery
from Brooklyn to Ludlow Street; and
WHEREAS, Having consistently produced multi-million selling albums and
receiving Grammy awards, in April 2012 the Beastie Boys were inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Adam Yauch was unable to attend
due to deteriorating health; and
WHEREAS, In addition to his contributions to music, Adam Yauch was an
activist and founder of the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization
dedicated to promoting awareness about abuses in Tibet and against Tibe
tans, and later in life became a successful filmmaker, founding Oscillo
scope Laboratories, an independent film distribution company; and
WHEREAS, A man of colossal talent and charisma, Adam Yauch is survived
by his wife, Dechen Wengdu, and their daughter, Losel; he will be missed
by his family, his fans and all who knew him; his dedication to his
music, his activism, and his heritage leaves an indelible legacy of
inspiration for all other artists; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
mourn the death of famed rapper and activist Adam “MCA” Yauch; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran
smitted to the family of Adam Yauch.

Sixty percent of school districts that sought to override the cap—which required a 60 percent supermajority—passed their budgets. Overall 24 budgets failed, mainly those who sought to override the cap.

The state School Boards Association said 48 districts sought an override.

While a 60 percent passage rate for districts that sought an override may seem like a success, it is far below what districts are accustomed to. Last year, 93 percent of school district budget passed, and the average since 1969 is 84 percent.

“The voting public has once again shown its strong support for education. Voters recognized that school leaders did everything they could to comply with the spirit and intent of the property tax levy cap,” said Timothy Kremer, executive director of the state Schools Boards Association, in a statement. “They were responsive to their communities.”

In school districts where the budget failed, a second vote can be held June 19. If it fails again, a district can’t increase taxes at all—a key piece of the new tax cap.

The 60 percent supermajority to override the cap wasn’t easy for some schools. In Elmira, the budget actually passed 1,885 to 1,573. But it was only passed with 55 percent of the vote—falling short of the 60 percent needed to override the cap, as the district sought.

Here’s the districts, according to NYSUT, where budgets failed; 19 of the 24 sought overrides:

BOLIVAR-RICHBURG CSD (no override sought)
ELMIRA CITY SD
UNADILLA VALLEY CSD
PLATTSBURGH CITY SD
GERMANTOWN CSD
CHEEKTOWAGA-SLOAN UFSD (no override sought)
OPPENHEIM-EPHRATAH CSD

FONDA-FULTONVILLE CSD
ELMONT UFSD
FLORAL PARK-BELLEROSE UFSD
NIAGARA-WHEATFIELD CSD
EAST RAMAPO CSD (SPRING VALLEY) (No override sought)
STILLWATER CSD
COBLESKILL-RICHMONDVILLE CSD
THREE VILLAGE CSD
BROOKHAVEN-COMSEWOGUE UFSD
MT SINAI UFSD
CENTER MORICHES UFSD
EAST ISLIP UFSD
TUCKAHOE COMN SD (No override sought)
OYSTERPONDS UFSD (no override sought)
HIGHLAND CSD
NEW PALTZ CSD
WYOMING CSD

The Siena College survey found 57 percent of New York voters support legalizing medical marijuana, with 33 percent opposed. Support is high among all regions of the state, while 62 percent of Democrats are in favor. (Forty-four percent of Republicans are supportive, with 46 percent opposed.)

“Over two-thirds of voters are paying attention to the debate over legalizing medical marijuana in New York State,” Siena Research Institute Director Don Levy said in a statement. “Democrats and independents strongly support legalization and at least a majority of every demographic agree except Republicans and self-described conservatives, who are divided on the issue.”

The support appears to be naught this year. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he’s studying the issue, but that it likely won’t be taken up this legislative session. That hasn’t stopped its supporters in the Legislature, however, which are currently holding a news conference touting the benefits of medical marijuana.

Voters are mixed on two other hot topics in Albany—hydrofracking for natural gas and whether to legalize mixed-martial arts bouts. There’s still a very clear split on hydrofracking, with 37 percent in favor of the technique used with gas drilling, 36 percent opposed and 25 percent undecided.

Support is weakest upstate, with 31 percent OK with hydrofracking and 45 percent opposed. Somewhat surprisingly, more New York City voters are in favor, according to the poll, with 35 percent supportive and 31 percent opposed. (44 percent in the New York City suburbs support it.)

Meanwhile, only 25 percent of voters have been paying attention to the debate over mixed-martial arts. MMA bouts are currently banned in New York, and Ultimate Fighting Championship officials have lobbied aggressively to have that ban overturned. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said the bill to overturn the ban won’t be put to a vote this year.

In total, 38 percent said they need more information on legalizing mixed-martial arts. 32 percent are in support; 26 percent are opposed.

Here are the crosstabs from today’s poll:

SNY051612 Crosstabs

The overwhelming result of support for school budgets came as 92 percent of districts kept within tax increases prescribed in the state’s new tax cap, which took effect for the first time this year.

Based on preliminary results, the New York State United Teachers union estimated that voters Tuesday approved 597 school budgets and 24 budgets were defeated.

The defeated budgets were mainly in districts that sought to defy the cap and receive 60 percent of the vote – a supermajority – to override their cap amount.

Of the roughly 50 school districts that exceeded the property-tax cap, only 24 districts returned a 60 percent supermajority, the union said based on its review.

Schools sought an average a 2.2 percent property-tax increase for the 2012-13 school year, which starts July 1, according to the state Education Department.

NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi said voters recognized that school districts make cuts in staff and programs to contain costs and taxes.

“New Yorkers see their public schools are doing a terrific job, producing excellent results amid budgetary challenges resulting from the undemocratic tax cap and from the state’s failure to invest in public schools,” he said in a statement.

Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, Niagara County, said today that the Republican-led Senate plans to pass legislation that would block a proposal for the Champlain-Hudson Power Express transmission line. The proposal calls for a 1,000-megawatt transmission line to run from Canada to New York City.

Maziarz said the state has 37,000 megawatts of unused power, but not enough updated transmission lines for the power to be properly utilized.

“We have the generating capacity here in New York,” Maziarz, who heads the Senate Energy Committee, said at a news conference. “We have to fix the transmission system; we have to fix the infrastructure in New York state.”

The bill doesn’t have a sponsor in the Democratic-led Assembly. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said he has yet to review the legislation.

The project, proposed by Champlain Hudson Power Express Inc., has been discussed for years. It would bring hydropower and wind power from Canada to New York City, running under the Hudson River.

The company defended the project Tuesday, saying the 333-mile line has more than $30 million in private investment already secured and would reduce power prices by $650 million a year.

“The Champlain Hudson Power Express is an overwhelmingly positive project for the people of New York, addressing the state’s dynamic energy needs now and into the future,” said Donald Jessome, president of Transmission Developers, which is based in Albany, in a statement.

Assembly Democrats today passed legislation to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour in January and tie future increases to the rate of inflation.

“I think that when push comes to shove, this is a moral issue,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said. He cited a Siena College poll Monday that showed 78 percent of New Yorkers support an increase.

Senate Republicans indicated they do not plan to support the increase, saying it would be bad for businesses. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, said the Republican-led Senate doesn’t back Silver’s bill, but stopped short of completely shutting the door on any increase at all.

“Our focus in terms of a moral imperative is about creating jobs,” Skelos said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he has supported increasing the minimum wage, but he hasn’t indicated he backs Silver’s bill.

“The governor supports raising the minimum wage, as we have made clear repeatedly,” Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said. “Unfortunately, we do not believe there will be an agreement this session as we have also said repeatedly.”

Hannah Buckler, 12, of New City, Rockland County, joined Silver at a news conference to announce plans to pass a minimum-wage increase. She is a Girl Scout seeking the group’s Silver Award by promoting the need for a higher minimum wage.

She spoke at the Capitol event as her family looked on, saying that a minimum wage increase would benefit the economy because it “will give people more money to spend on basic necessities.”

Jacobs, of Nassau County, was appointed by then-Gov. David Paterson in 2009. As the top elected Democrat in the state, Cuomo is the de facto head of the party.

“With my current term due to expire this coming September, which would fall in the midst of what will surely be a hotly contested Presidential Election, I have decided that you, the Party and our candidates would best be served by my effecting an earlier resignation,” Jacobs wrote. “This would allow for a smoother transition and place the Party in a position of stability and strength going into this fall’s robust election cycle.”

A new chairman will be selected with the New York Democrats meet in Albany on May 23 and 24, Jacobs told Gannett’s Joseph Spector.

(H/t to The New York Times.)

Here’s Jacobs’ resignation letter:

State Chair Resignation Letter

Ravi Batra, the Senate Democrats’ appointee on the commission, released a statement today knocking a report in the Times Union today that cites sources that Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, is under investigation.

“Without confirming or denying the contents of Jim Odato’s story in Times Union today, what is clear is that JCOPE needs confidentiality to be able to freely and honestly deliberate in private so as to function as an independent and impartial ethics watchdog, capable of living up to its promise and to deter public corruption,” Batra wrote in an email.

Batra said JCOPE should be probed for leaking information about a potential inquiry into Libous, citing the troubled tenure of the Suffolk County Ethics Commission.

“An investigation is needed to identify the primary and secondary sources of any leaked confidential information, and if s/he or they be an illegal source, as opposed to a legal source, then take whatever action is necessary, including, criminal prosecution, to plug the leak-hole and restore public confidence in the public ethics watchdog, that is JCOPE,” Batra wrote.

“Otherwise, let’s shut down JCOPE; for public ethics are too important to be a farce or JCOPE to be a political tool.”

JCOPE earlier declined comment, but said: “Information published in today’s Times Union newspaper is inaccurate and misleading.”

Skelos, a Long Island Republican, previously labeled a minimum wage increase as “a job killer.” He took umbrage with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s characterization that New York has a “moral imperative” to raise the minimum wage, which currently sits at $7.25 an hour.

Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, sponsors a bill to increase the rate to $8.50 an hour while tying increases in future years to the rate of inflation.

“Our focus in terms of a moral imperative is about creating jobs, and if somebody gets a slight bump in income and somebody else loses a job—if somebody else has lost a job, that’s the moral imperative that I’m trying to protect,” Skelos said.

Skelos outlined a series of taxes that would increase for a family with two minimum-wage earners, something he said Silver isn’t taking into account. Business owners are uniformly opposed to an increase, Skelos said.

“Every single small businessperson that I’ve had the opportunity to meet with and talk to said that they would have to lay off people because of these additional costs,” he said.

But when asked if he is shutting down any potential increase, Skelos would only say the Senate won’t vote on Silver’s proposal. He rejected the notion that Senate Republicans could suffer political harm by rejecting a minimum wage increase when it’s polling at an incredibly high rate.

“It’s not about governing by polls,” Skelos said. “It’s about doing what you think is the correct thing to do, and then you face your voters and they make the decision.”

Here’s video of Skelos discussing the minimum wage:

“It’s not supposed to be made public. It’s a misdemeanor,” Skelos told reporters. “So whoever from JCOPE is leaking this is committing a crime. They’re committing a crime.”

Skelos defended Libous, saying “Tom is a great senator, a good person and I’m sure it’s all garbage. But anybody think about the confidential aspect of JCOPE, that they’re not supposed to make this information public, just a mere request for information?”

The statute that created the commission says that JCOPE must notify the target of a complaint in writing—which appears to the letter that Libous received, according to Skelos’ comments. Libous, the Binghamton Republican, wouldn’t comment about the contents of the letter.

Skelos ripped the allegations against Libous, calling them political and filed by the Democratic mayor of Binghamton, Matt Ryan, who contemplated a run against Libous.

“Certainly I didn’t leak it,” Skelos said. “Obviously, there is a letter that goes out that is required by law. Look who sent the initial letter: the mayor of Binghamton, D, Democrat, who was looking to run against Tom Libous. So if this is a political stunt, that’s all it is.”

Led by Michael Carey, the father of a autistic teenage boy from the Albany area who died under the care of aides from a state-run care center, the group voiced their complaints over what they said was a measure that would hurt instead of helping the disabled.

The group called into question the creation of the Justice Center, a 400-person agency that will set standards in reporting and responding to abuse allegations. Carey said the agency does not provide necessary independent oversight and would violate constitutional rights of the disabled.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” Carey said. “It’s basically trying to shift what they already have into another name and the main motivation is to protect important documents from being released as well as alleged crimes against the disabled from getting to 911, independent law enforcement and district attorneys.”

Carey said the agency would not allow for documents that might reveal abuse or neglect to be released, something he said was critical to the protection of the disabled.

“It has to be a private entity. The state has to get out of almost all of this. But they want to control everything, and this bill has nothing to actually stop abuse from happening before it happens,” Carey said.

Carey said he gave more than 20 recommendations to Cuomo’s office of safety measures he believed should be included in the governor’s programs, but that they went unheard.

The study focused on 2,988 violations from close to 4,000 natural-gas wells filed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection from Jan. 2008 through Aug. 2011. Of those, 25 violations were considered “major,” which include events like blowouts at gas wells, land spills and water contamination.

New York’s proposed permitting guidelines for high-volume hydrofracking would have helped “avoid or mitigate” the “major” violations, according to the report.

“To me, New York has the adequate understanding and experience to manage this industry,” said John Martin, director of the university’s Shale Resources and Society Institute.

The peer-reviewed report was the first released by the school’s shale institute, which was launched in April to study shale-gas drilling. The study was funded entirely by the University at Buffalo and did not receive industry funding, according to Martin, one of the report’s authors. Co-authors Timothy Considine of the University of Wyoming and Pennsylvania State University professor Robert Watson have received funding from gas companies for previous studies.

Overall, the researchers found that the percentage of gas wells in Pennsylvania that have received environmental violations dropped from 58.2 percent in 2008 to 30.5 percent in 2010.

The majority of “major” environmental impacts were “due to operator error, negligence, or a failure to follow proper procedures when drilling,” according to the report. “This suggests that the industry has room for improvement, and the frequency of environmental events can be reduced,” the authors wrote.

UPDATE: The New York Water Rangers—a coalition of environmental groups and hydrofracking critics—offered this response to the report:

“The report’s emphasis on fracking’s purported economic benefits indicates that it may not be an objective assessment of the efficacy of government oversight of fracking. The report attempts to deflect concerns about the documented dangers associated with fracking by focusing on only one indicator of fracking-related pollution – violations – and drawing rosy conclusions based on that limited information.

The report fails to consider other complex problems, such as those related to wastewater treatment and disposal, public health impacts, degraded air quality, and industrialization of communities, among others, all of which cannot be captured by a review of known violations. While the report reviewed violations that are documented by state regulators in Pennsylvania, a large number of violations are never found, reported, or resolved. It is premature for the authors to presume that problems are declining or would not occur in New York, as scientific understanding of the impacts of fracking is just beginning to emerge and regulations have not been updated to address the current and planned scope of industrial activity.”

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation is in the process of finalizing its proposed rules for permitting high-volume hydrofracking, a technique in which a mix of water, sand and chemicals is injected into underground shale formations to unlock natural gas. That review was first launched in July 2008, and permits for the technique have not yet been issued in the state.

Meanwhile, a coalition of groups pushing for a hydrofracking ban will be in Albany today for a star-studded concert and rally today. You can read about that effort here.

UBSRSI Environmental Impact