Politics on the Hudson

Democratic State Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ Republican challenger Liam McLaughlin issued a press release today that seems to send mixed messages.

In his headline McLaughlin accuses Stewart-Cousins of collecting per diem payments while programs are cut. Then in the body of his release he claims the senator and her fellow Democrats refuse to cut “wasteful spending.”

For the record, Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, has vetoed thousands of spending projects as part of his effort to close the state’s deficit, though that hasn’t yet been achieved.

UPDATED on 4:20 p.m., July 8, 2010

McLaughlin said this afternoon that  legislators should not get stipends while not getting their jobs done, namely passing a budget by April 1.

“The point is they should forgo the stipend,” McLaughlin said.

As for cutting costs, McLaughlin noted that the Democrats still haven’t cut billions from the deficit, other than programs that were dear to some homeowners.

“There is obviously a difference between cutting good projects and bad projects,” McLaughlin said. “They’ve cut good projects like the STAR property tax rebate.”

Here is McLaughlin’s release:

McLAUGHLIN: GIVE BACK THE $$ SENATOR!
$tewart-Cousins Takes Home Thousand$ While Programs Are Cut
[YONKERS, NY, July 8, 2010]- Liam McLaughlin, the conservative Republican candidate for New York State Senate (35th S. D.), today called on his opponent, liberal State Senator Andrea $tewart-Cousins to “return all per diem payments to New York State and waive any future payments she is scheduled to receive during the course of the New York State Budget crisis”.

A “per diem” is an allowance received by legislators to help defray travel, food and living expenses while the Senate is in session. It is paid in addition to their salaries at the current rate of $171 per day.

Liam McLaughlin said, “Today, I am calling on Senator Andrea $tewart-Cousins to return any per diem payments she has received since April 1, 2010 to the state coffers and waive any future payment until New York’s budget crisis is settled. Ms. $tewart-Cousin’s is currently receiving this personal perk despite the fact that she, Pedro Espada, Carl Kruger and the rest of the big spending Senate Democrats refuse to do the right thing and cut wasteful spending so that government services in New York can continue to function.

She is currently collecting $171 dollars per day on top of her already generous state salary. New Yorkers are suffering. Government workers face lay-off, critical programs for the young and the elderly are being closed down, and yet, Andrea $tewart-Cousins continues to collect her daily stipend, pumping up her take home pay by thousands of dollars over the course of 3 months the budget has been late. It’s obvious; Andrea $tewart-Cousins is as liberal with your tax dollars as she is with her politics. “

It’s not unusual for Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone to have a different view than his three fellow Republicans on the City Council.

Earlier today the council’s three Republicans issued a press statement supporting schools Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio’s call for a wage freeze for school employees.

The council Republicans upped the ante by calling for a wage freeze and wage cut for all municipal and school employees.

Yesterday The Journal News spoke with Amicone about the Yonkers unions’ rally and march on Friday that ended in his office.

“I’m not asking for cuts in salaries, but there are things in their contract — that if they would agree to changes in their contract — even if they’re only for one year, those changes can save millions of dollars and those millions of dollars can save hundreds of jobs.”

Here is Amicone’s longer response to a question on whether his Friday meeting with the unions was productive: (more…)

Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone spoke to The Journal News yesterday about his meeting last week with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY.

Last month the Republican mayor traded press releases with Gillibrand and state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins over a crime forum the senators held in Yonkers. At the time, Amicone accused Gillibrand of “grandstanding” and complained that she had never met with him or even spoken to him since her appointment in January of 2009.

Amicone said much of last week’s discussion was about helping Yonkers find money to overcome a $109.5 million gap that will lead to massive city and school layoffs and service cuts at the beginning of the city’s 2011 fiscal year on July 1.

Yesterday Amicone described his meeting, which occurred in Yonkers.

It was interesting. I expressed to her my concern about what had happened down here and she apologized for the fact that we got such late notice, that it wasn’t intended to be an upstaging of anybody.

I explained to her that if she can deliver money for our police department and enable us to keep many of the police officers here, it would not only be appreciated, but critical to continuing with the good safety record that we have in the city of Yonkers.

I’m not sure that’s going to be the case because of the way budgets run. The federal budget doesn’t really start until the end of September, so what might be is additional monies we could conceivably get between the beginning of our fiscal year and theirs, and that will allow us to bring people back. What I’m hoping is that she can at least give us the confidence that we’re going to be getting some monies for our police department that we can at least put in our budget and argue to keep in our budget with state comptroller even though it hasn’t arrived yet.

Beyond that she asked if she can work together with us on other types of money that can be used for all our departments, not only police, but our planning departments and our social-service type of issues, which of course we welcome.

I’d say it was a good meeting, a productive meeting, and now it’s a matter of seeing how things work out. If she can secure funds for our city that enable us to get through these very tough times and accomplish some of the goals we have, then it will be worthwhile having met with her.

Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, just issued a statement on the Yonkers unions’ march from in front of her office to City Hall and the office of Mayor Phil Amicone.

“Today, my colleagues and I joined City workers in an impromptu march to bring a unified message to City Hall that the Yonkers State Legislative Delegation wants to work with all of the stakeholders to save our City from devastating cuts to the municipal workforce, and will continue to fight for every State resource available. After a productive hour-long meeting between all of the leaders of the municipal workforce and members of the Yonkers State Legislative Delegation, everyone concluded that we must work together to ensure that the City of Yonkers weathers this fiscal crisis without decimating our workforce, or the essential services that our hardworking men and women provide. During this difficult economic time, name-calling, finger-pointing or passing-the-buck will only distract us from what is really important, which is serving the people of this City. I was pleased to sit down with all of my Assembly colleagues, municipal labor leaders and, eventually, Mayor Amicone to discuss how we can move forward in an honest and productive dialogue. I believe that we must continue this open and inclusive conversation throughout this budget process to ensure that the people we collectively serve get the information and the respect that they deserve.”

About 200 people attended an afternoon rally today that started in front of state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins office on Wells Avenue and ended with a march through downtown to Mayor Phil Amicone’s office.

Yonkers Police Benevolent Association president Keith Olson said that his group marched to get a dialog going among the unions, the mayor and the city’s state delegation in Albany.

“I wouldn’t say we were protesting,” said Olson after the City Hall meeting. “We were rallying out there to bring attention to our crisis.”

Olson said the union members then marched to Amicone’s office to demand that he “revamp” his budget. Olson said that Amicone needs to go through his budget line-by-line and eliminate perks like the lack of health care contributions by non-union City Hall employees.

Olson also pointed to the city’s television programs on Channel 78 as a luxury in a time of fiscal crisis.

Amicone had to close a $109 million gap in the 2011 budget that begins on July 1, and the proposed budget calls for reducing the Yonkers Police by 91 officers at a time when the police union notes rising crime downtown. The budget also proposes significant cuts in services and large layoffs in the school district.

Amicone’s spokesman David Simpson said that some of Olson’s complaints about health insurance and Channel 78 would not save a significant amount of money, but that they will be considered.

“These are nice things to point out, but they don’t total much savings,” said Simpson, adding that city residents are divided about what is a necessity.

For instance, Simpson noted that Councilman John Murtagh, R-5th District, has said that at community meetings when he’s asked about eliminating pre-kindergarten, as the school district has proposed under the current budget scenario, half the people say it’s necessary and the other half say it isn’t.

Simpson said that the state needs to pass a budget that is fair to Yonkers before Amicone can change his proposed budget or begin negotiations with unions about give-backs or concessions.

Assemblyman Mike Spano, D-Yonkers,  spoke at the rally and marched to Amicone’s office. Spano said that the state and the city have difficult choices to make and the longer the delay in making such choices the more painful they will be.

“I think it was a very positive meeting,” Spano said. “We brought everyone together and got rid of the rhetoric.”

Spano said that the city’s unions have put “an extreme amount of pressure” on the state delegation and that they are helping the city’s cause through their lobbying in Albany.

“One of the reason’s here is no (state) budget is because we’re objecting to the cuts in aid made specifically to the City of Yonkers,” said Spano.

Assemblyman Mike Spano, D-Yonkers, released a statement today on his and his colleagues’ decision to storm the offices of Gov. David Paterson yesterday.

“Yesterday, several of my Assembly colleagues and I stormed the governor’s office and demanded that he speak to us about the lateness of the state budget. The governor hasn’t spoken to Assembly Speaker Silver in over a week. The governor’s silence, when so much is hanging in the balance, is unacceptable and as Yonkers’ representative, I feel that we need answers now.

“Pilfering from the pockets of state employees with furloughs and passing weekly budget extenders is not a long-term, workable solution, and my colleagues and I wanted to make this clear to him. We’re going through the same motions every week, for 43 days now, and still no budget, no progress in closing a $9.2 billion deficit. The governor is still the leader of this state and in order to make real progress we need him fully engaged in the process making responsible and productive decisions. We felt it was necessary to shake up the process and speak with him face-to-face.

“Only the future will determine the success of our meeting with him, but I believe we made progress in that the Governor has agreed to begin public leaders meetings and has also offered to join his budget staff with the Assembly’s staff to help reach a joint budget agreement – something that has never been done in the past.

“The hard decisions must be made – the same hard decisions that Yonkers families are making every day to cut their own budgets in this tough economy. I understand that the solution will not be easy but I continue my call to remain in Albany until the job is done.”

Yonkers schools Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio returned earlier today from a lobbying trip to Washington, D.C.

Pierorazio said earlier today that he’s leaving “no stone unturned” as he searches for funding that will help the district overcome a projected $48 million funding gap due to Gov. David Paterson’s proposed cuts to school aid.

Pierorazio said that his big push in DC was to get education service industries restored to a jobs bill in the senate. Another lobbying goal was inclusion in any new recovery program.

Pierorazio said that in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009  federal money for capital improvements to school buildings only went to New York’s three largest school districts.

“I let our Washington representatives know that it’s significant,” he said. “With the aging infrastructure in our city…we need assistance.”

Pierorazio also said he brought up the issue of English language learners with the city’s Washington delegation because Yonkers has the highest percentage of English language learners in the state. The district spends about $14 million on English language learners and bilingual education, he said, and it is not fully reimbursed for that obligation, he said.

In his State of the City address tonight, Mayor Phil Amicone described a city government that is failing residents and business.

Amicone said the economic recession and inadequate state funding is threatening Yonkers’ financial solvency and next week he’ll outline the “grim” reprecussions of falling revenues that are not expected to improve “any time soon.”

Amicone warned that there is no more “waste” to cut from the city’s operations to make up for falling revenues. He said the city’s workforce is smaller today than when he took office six years ago.

“When we cut further — and we will — those cuts will hurt and they will hurt a lot. They’ll hurt because we will have no choice but to cut in areas of the municipal budget that can produce real savings, again: police, fire and public works. And this year, you can add education to that list,” Amicone said.

The financial shortfall will force the city’s unions to end the “old ways of extravagance and largess with the public’s money” when they renegotiate their contracts this year.

Here is the full text of his speech: (more…)

Halfway through its fiscal year, Yonkers faces a projected deficit of $3.4 million that could lead to lay-offs and service cuts for residents next month.

Yonkers’ Finance Commissioner James LaPerche outlined the city’s financial health last night during the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee meeting. The projected deficit for the fiscal year, which runs through June 30, is due to less-than-expected revenues of $6.6 million from sales, real estate, mortgage, income and utility taxes, among other revenues.

Expenditure problems identified by LaPerche included $1.8 million in police overtime and $2.8 million in fire overtime.

Mayor Phil Amicone’s spokesman David Simpson said that Amicone has put police and fire commissioners on notice about controlling overtime. Simpson said the city is also developing contingency plans, including lay-offs.

“The mayor is waiting to see how the rest of the month pans out,” said Simpson this afternoon. “He’s ready to make the tough choices.”

LaPerche noted that the deficit is not as bad as it was at this time last year, when the projected deficit was $16 million. Amicone plugged that hole through a combination of lay-offs, service reductions, police redeployments and other measures.

Here is LaPerche’s report: (more…)

State Assemblyman Mike Spano (D-Yonkers) said he and other members of the city’s legislative delegation helped the city dodge a $15 million cut in state aid. Here is his press release: (more…)