Politics on the Hudson

Joseph Martens, the commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, took a measured approach this morning when it comes to whether the state would proceed with hydrofracking.

He said the state is still going through more than 60,000 comments it has received on its preliminary environmental report and it would take “months, not years” to go through them.

Gannett’s Albany Bureau wrote last week about how the comment review has been slowed by the development of “scanning shoulder” by the workers charged with recording the thousands of documents.

Martens also wouldn’t commit, when asked by lawmakers, if and when hydrofracking would commence.

“I don’t want to be presumptuous that hydrofracking is going forward or not,” Martens said.

He said there is no money for hydrofracking in this year’s budget because it hasn’t been determined when it would proceed. But if it does, he said the DEC would need 140 new positions and more than 200 positions by year five.

Here’s the live stream of his ongoing testimony, which started at 9:30 a.m.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo may be effectively closing state budget gaps with few fiscal gimmicks, but he’s also proposing to expand his executive powers in how it gets done, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said today in a report.

In his review of Cuomo’s budget, DiNapoli applauds Cuomo’s ability to stabilize the state’s finances. The Democratic governor’s proposal would close a $3.5 billion deficit for the 2012-13 fiscal year without the bevy of risky moves that had previously wrecked the state’s finances, DiNapoli said.

But DiNapoli warned that Cuomo wants to shift oversight of contracts away from the Comptroller’s Office, give the governor’s office broad powers to unilaterally make spending decisions and shift billions of dollars to scandal-scarred public authorities.

DiNapoli said the proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts April 1 continues the state’s recent trend of aligning revenue with spending.

“This year’s executive budget proposal continues that trend and substantially reduces out-year deficits,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “However, this progress should not be made at the expense of transparency, appropriate checks and balances, and the realistic and necessary safeguarding of public dollars.”

DiNapoli said the budget plan does offer the state long-term financial viability, limiting future-year budget gaps.

But DiNapoli warned that the state’s fiscal condition remains tenuous, citing the state and nation’s weak economic recovery and the European debt crisis. Those factors could result in a decline in federal aid and lower-than-expected state tax revenue.

DiNapoli also said that some of Cuomo’s budget estimates, such as about $1 billion in savings from agency consolidations, isn’t clear.

In the 70-page report, DiNapoli, a Democrat, contended that the authority Cuomo is seeking would increase his hand over the budget process and how and where taxpayer dollars are spent.

The report says that the budget “includes provisions that reduce financial transparency, accountability and oversight.”

Cuomo’s budget, which would require legislative approval, would exempt many agency contracts from the comptroller’s review and approval, which is currently prescribed in state law. Contracts would be centralized within the state Office of General Services.

In another proposal, Cuomo would bypass the Comptroller’s Office review of bidding for at least five major health-related contracts. Some state agreements with Cornell University’s land grant program would be exempt from state finance law, the report said.

The budget, DiNapoli’s report said, also includes language that would give the governor the ability to shift spending among agencies with “minimal oversight or legislative input.”

Here’s the report:

2012 Review of Executive Budget

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith summed up Vice President Joe Biden’s re-election message at a campaign fundraiser in Tallahassee earlier today.

“If you want to know in 2012 what we’ve got to say, it’s very simple – General Motors is hiring and Bin Laden is dead,” Smith was quoted as saying in a media pool report filed by the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper.

Despite a continued stalemate with the federal government, County Executive Rob Astorino says Westchester remains well ahead of schedule on its affordable housing settlement.

In its quarterly report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the federal monitor that was released today, the Astorino Administration maintains that 540, or 72 percent, of the required units are at some point in the planning pipeline. Read the report here.

“The county has made extraordinary progress and it is the result of our approach to work closely and cooperatively with municipalities, developers and non-profits around common goals,” Astorino said in a statement. “This will continue to be the county’s approach until we have fully met our obligations under the settlement. The numbers tell the story.”

The federal housing settlement was reached in 2009 and mandates that Westchester spend $52 million to help build 750 units in mostly wealthy and white communities over seven years. It also sets benchmarks along the way, notably that 200 units have financing and 125 have building permits by the end of 2012; the county expects to meet those goals by Spring.

So far, 15 communities including Ardsley, Briarcliff Manor, Cortlandt, Hastings, Larchmont, New Castle, North Castle, North Salem, Pelham, Pleasantville, Rye Brook, Rye, Somers, and Yorktown are at various stages of approval or in construction.

One three-family house in Pelham has residents living in the units.

More than 200 site reviews have taken place across all 31 communities, according to the report. The county has also set up a $2.5 million revolving loan fund to acquire and rehabilitate foreclosures in eligible municipalities. The county expects to an additional 14 units under this program.

But progress hasn’t been easy, in part, because of disagreements with HUD and the federal monitor, James Johnson, on a range of issues, including local zoning and an income discrimination law that Astorino doesn’t support. HUD has also held back millions in community development block grant monies because of differences.

Those disagreements are now being addressed in court.

“Even though that’s going on, we’re continuing to make progress,” said Ned McCormack, Astorino’s senior advisor and director of communications. “It’s important to keep moving … The process is working.”

HUD had no immediate comment today.

 In an act of protest, the Board of Legislators today opposed County Executive Rob Astorino’s cancellation of a bus route in Rye.

Lawmakers, in a meeting that was called to address this matter, won’t back Liberty Lines application to the state to reconfigure a route that covers some stops lost with the elimination of Route 76 line.

The resolution, which passed 10-5 with one Republican supporting it an a Democrat voting against it, merely sends a message to the state Department of Transportation that the county board doesn’t agree with any route changes that don’t encompass all of the lost stops.

“It eliminates bus service to an important area in Rye,” said Legislator Judy Myers, a Democrat from Mamaroneck who represents part of Rye. “There is a great need for this (bus). This is definitely an area that needs to be served.”

Myers and other legislators don’t like that the county executive cancelled a contract with a smaller carrier operating the Route 76 line and that Liberty Lines, the operator of the county-wide system, would only cover part of the line with its changes to the Route 13 line. They were also upset that there was no public hearing.

All the legislators want is for some excluded areas, notably Milton Point, to be covered under a new route, they say.

Legislator Sheila Marcotte, R-Tuckahoe, said while she understood their concerns, this resolution may hurt riders because it could jeopardize all of the modifications. She said the wise thing to do is to talk with Liberty Lines to see if they’ll cover the entire route.

“(It’s) going to hurt the residents they’re actually trying to help,” she said.

Democrats, however, also feel snubbed that Astorino made the changes without consulting them and after they added the roughly $243,000 back into the county’s $1.8 billion budget to continue this service.

Any changes should have been discussed with them, they say.

“The law says there is a process for that and that was not followed,” said Majority Leader Peter Harckham, D-Katonah.

The state Senate today passed a bill that will increase penalties for those using credit cards to fund terrorist activities. Sponsored by state Sen. Greg Ball, R-Patterson, the new legislation makes it a more serious felony for those “soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism” where “the soliciting or providing involves the use of a credit card.”

“This piece of legislation is a preventative measure to ensure that New York state continues to maintain its commitment to discourage terror funding and acts of terror,” said Ball, who chairs the Senate’s Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee.  “New York state must continually assess what preventative measures are in place against terror and what new initiatives can be put in place to ensure our continued safety.”

The bill was sent to the Assembly.

The state Senate’s breakaway Democratic caucus has its eyes on the state’s regulatory systems, issuing a report today they say highlights the need to reform the rule-making process at the state’s agencies and departments.

The Independent Democratic Conference is pushing a set of bills they say would lessen the impact of state regulations on local governments and small businesses, putting a greater emphasis on electronic records and allowing outside business groups to petition state agencies on rule proposals.

In its report, the IDC found that of the 794 rules and regulations—not laws—proposed by the state the past three years, 745 were adopted. Of those, 10 percent had “some monetary impact on small business,” Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, said.

“That’s something we need to take a close look at,” Klein said. “When legislation passes or legislation is introduced, everyone takes a good look at those bills to see what industries are in favor, whose opposed, what’s the fiscal impact … I think, first and foremost, we need to have state agencies do that as well.”

Among the regulatory reforms proposed by the IDC:

• Cutting the review period of substantial regulations from five years to two years


• Mandating agencies to seek input from industries and groups before drafting rule change


• Expand electronic filing


• Eliminating a requirement to send the state register to local governments

Klein, whose district stretches into southern Westchester County, was asked about his support for a higher minimum wage, which is opposed by several business groups. That includes the state Farm Bureau, which stood behind Klein at the IDC press conference today.

“I have the utmost respect for the Farm Bureau, but I beg to differ on this issue,” Klein said. “I think it’s outrageous right now that are making less than a fancy cup of coffee. I think we can do better.”

Here’s video of Klein and Sen. David Carlucci, D-Clarkstown, Rockland County, discussing their regulatory proposals:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was in her hometown Capital Region today, holding a meeting with business groups and meeting behind closed doors with the Assembly Democratic conference in the Capitol.

She spoke briefly with reporters as she headed into the conference meeting, saying she’s looking forward to her re-election bid this fall.

A Siena College poll today showed that the junior senator, who was appointed to the seat in 2009, was well ahead of potential rivals. Gillibrand, a Democrat, had a 52 percent to 20 percent favorability rating, and 53 percent of voters were prepared to re-elect her. Twenty-seven percent preferred someone else.

“I’m going to run on the ideas and the priorities that I’m fighting for for New York, specifically the economy, fighting for our middle class, less taxes for the middle class, more investment in job creation and small businesses and manufacturing,” said Gillibrand, who was elected in 2010 to the remainder of Hillary Clinton’s term.

Gillibrand remains a top target for Republicans this year, but so far no well-known GOP candidate has entered the race. And two who may have been formidable—TheLadders.com CEO Marc Cenedella and Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks—said last week they won’t run against her.

Gillibrand, who had $8.1 million in her campaign account, had more than a three-to-one lead against her only announced opponent, Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos, Siena found.

Gillibrand, a former House member from the Albany area, said she’s shown an ability to work with Republicans, such as fighting for 9/11 responders, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell or passing the STOCK Act last week.

“I’m going to talk a lot about how to work on a bi-partisan basis.” she said. “One of the things that’s so important is that most people around our state, they look at Washington and they believe it’s broken. So how do you bring people together on a bi-partisan basis to get things done … I’m going to talk to New Yorkers why I made it a priority to get things done and to work on a bipartisan basis.”

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said this afternoon that he has serious concerns about a bill to be approved today in the state Senate that would authorize the use of school buildings for religious meetings and worship.

“I think the way the Senate is taking it up is seriously flawed,” Silver told reporters briefly. “It would open up the schools to anybody. It might include the Ku Klux Klan.”

The Senate bill is in response to a New York City case in federal court that upheld the city’s right to bar religious services in public schools when school is not in session. New York City schools have told religious groups their ability to use school facilities will end Sunday.

The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Martin Golden, R-Brooklyn, and sponsored by some Democrats in the Assembly, would prevent school districts from excluding groups from meeting on “school property because of the religious content or viewpoint of their speech, including allowing religious worship services.”

Silver said, “I think it has to be done appropriately if it’s going to be done. I think the Senate bill opens it up to too many groups that should not be exposed to children.”

The bill argues that school property can be used for “social, civic and recreational meetings and entertainment” and prohibiting religious groups would be an intrusion on their First Amendment rights.

“Some school districts have excluded groups and have thereby acted to regulate free speech and the conduct of such members of the public, potentially in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” the bill states. “This bill seeks to protect such organizations from these actions.”

Some lawmakers expressed concern today about an inter-agency agreement that allows the New York Department of Taxation and Finance to share state employees’ and legislators’ tax records with the Inspector General’s Office in connection with investigations.

Commissioner Thomas Mattox told legislators at a joint Assembly/Senate budget hearing that the state agencies have had a formal working relationship in this area since at least 1996. Following a reorganization of the Inspector General’s Office last year, the Department of Taxation and Finance no longer has on staff a deputy inspector general, who automatically came under the requirement to maintain secrecy.

The two agencies signed a memorandum of understanding specifying that dozens of employees of the inspector general would have access to the records, provided they received special training.

That didn’t sit well with Senate Finance Committee Chairman John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, a lawyer. He believes the memorandum of understanding provides overly broad authority to investigate state employees, without needing to go through the court system to get subpoenas.

“The inspector general is allowed to ask for information that he or she feels is necessary for an investigation. There’s nobody that there to have a check and balance over that request,” he said.

The Department of Taxation and Finance and the Inspector General’s Office just released a statement defending the memorandum of understanding, which the agencies have not released publicly. The Times Union published a story on the memorandum of understanding today.

“The story that appeared this morning in the Albany Times Union was misleading and inaccurate. The Department of Taxation and Finance’s Office of the Deputy Tax Inspector General previously reported directly to the State Inspector General, but was housed within DTF. To promote efficiency, the Office of the Deputy Tax Inspector General was consolidated into the Office of the New York State Inspector General. In light of this consolidation, the agencies entered into a memorandum of understanding to ensure that the Deputy Tax Inspectors General maintained the same authority and function as they always had. The MOU does not and was not intended to expand or diminish any authority or function, and to assert otherwise would be wrong.”

Commissioners Mou