The January 14,2010 Issue of The Capitol

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aninconvenientsiting

By far the most terrifying film you will ever see.

www.nycapitolnews.com2 JANUARY 2010 THE CAPITOL

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS

In 2009, the Legislature passed a tax hike on wealthier New Yorkers, re-formed both the state’s pension and

public authorities systems and approved a series of one-shots and temporary rev-enue generators designed to compensate for the state’s billion-dollar budget short-fall—all while sparing serious cuts to the health and education programs.

But this year, with the economy still struggling to recover and federal stimu-lus money scheduled to expire, legisla-tors and budget experts are predicting that the axe will fi nally fall on many state programs.

And, according to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, everything is on the ta-ble.

“The reality is that more spending cuts will be necessary,” Silver declared in a post-State of the State speech statement. “No program or policy will be exempted from consideration.”

In the past, though, legislators have shown their willingness to slough off se-rious cuts in favor of short-term revenue generators, like asset sales and authority sweeps, in the hopes that the economy will rebound and revenues will return. Last year, the Democratic-controlled Sen-ate balked at slashing health and educa-tion spending, which together comprise two-thirds of the state’s budget and are closely guarded by politically potent in-terest groups.

In the face of a $6.8 billion budget defi cit this fi scal year, and a $44 billion gap over the next fi ve years, some in the Legislature are saying they are wising up to the state’s bleak fi scal outlook and the enormous task ahead of them as they at-tempt to bring the state’s fi nances in bal-ance.

“People are starting to understand that, yes, it’s a recession, and a damn se-rious one,” said State Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat and vice chair of the Finance Committee. “A damn, damn serious one.”

If the government continues to spend more than it earns in revenue, Krueger said, credit agencies could lower the state’s credit rating. This could adverse-ly affect loan procurement and interest payments for future bondholders.

But already there is dissent within the ranks over spending reductions. After the passage of last year’s defi cit reduction plan, Senate Finance Chair Carl Kruger boasted that the Legislature was able to avoid making signifi cant cuts to health and education spending, despite Gov. Da-vid Paterson’s demands for reductions.

This year, Kruger pledged to continue

his efforts to block major spending reduc-tions.

“We don’t solve it by cutting, we don’t solve it by taxing, we don’t solve it by fees,” Kruger said. “We solve it by re-form.”

The Brooklyn Democrat, who leads the dissident Amigo faction in the Senate,

said his priorities in the upcoming ses-sion include consolidating local school districts, reducing the number of out-side consulting contracts and reforming the state’s bloated Medicaid system. He also plans on taking a close look at state employee payrolls, as well as how gov-

ernment agencies purchase goods and services and how the state manages its information technology services. And, as always, there will be the senator’s ongo-ing quest to collect taxes from cigarette sales on Indian reservations.

“The list goes on and on,” Kruger said. Budget experts are warning, though,

that even with an election looming in No-vember, nothing short of serious spend-ing cuts will suffi ce.

“The time on the clock has run down and they don’t have another year to not deal with it,” said Elizabeth Lynam, depu-ty research director at the Citizen’s Bud-get Commission. “The critical component is going to be how much they’re willing to put on the table in terms of recurring savings.”

Lynam proposed an extensive review of core government services, as well as paring back Medicaid benefi ts for above-poverty-income residents and overhaul-ing eligibility requirements. Planned increases in education aid, such as pay-ments from the Campaign for Fiscal Eq-

uity settlement, may need to be delayed as well, she said.

“In school aid, we really do need to reconsider the increases that were planned,” Lynam said. “There may be need for a plan that keeps the districts to their current spending level for the next few years, until the state is recovered.”

Other analysts believe that something far more radical is needed. The Empire Center for New York State Policy, a con-servative think tank, recently released a 30-point plan which would purport-edly save the state $30 billion over three years. The plan, which has been champi-oned by editorial boards and newspaper columnists, would freeze wage increases for state workers and teachers for three years.

Lise Bang-Jensen, a senior policy analyst at the Empire Center, said such a move would obviously be intensely re-sisted by the state’s public-sector unions, but that there were few other options left.

“The unions need to think this through carefully,” Bang-Jensen said. “The alter-native is massive lay-offs.”

Some lawmakers are calling for cuts in pork barrel spending, which they claim are more diffi cult to justify during a tough fi scal climate.

“These are discretionary-type items that in hard times we should think twice about,” said Assembly Member Will Bar-clay, a North Country Republican. “I don’t understand the resistance to that.”

Paterson appears to be taking a dif-ferent route, calling for a cap on state spending in his State of the State speech, a move championed by Republicans but opposed by Democrats, unions and even his own lieutenant governor, Richard Ravitch.

He also announced that he had charged Ravitch with developing a four-year fi nan-cial recovery plan for the state, an outline of which should emerge as the governor submits his 2010-11 executive budget in mid-January. But legislators say they are ready to start working on signifi cant structural changes to the budget right now.

At a recent hearing in Lower Manhat-tan of the Senate Committee on Budget and Tax Reform, Krueger, presiding over a mostly empty room, heard several hours of testimony from a revolving cast of bud-get experts about what should be done to repair the state’s budget.

One expert, Ron Deutsch, the execu-tive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, bluntly assessed what he rec-ommended for the Legislature’s budget process, summing up his thoughts in just two words: “Have one.”

“We don’t solve it by cutting, we don’t solve it by taxing, we don’t solve it by fees,” said Senate

Finance chair Carl Kruger. “We solve it by reform.”

Legislators Gear Up For Tough Budget Fight As Fiscal Outlook WorsensWhile some legislators advocate broad cuts, others push for structural reforms

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BY SAL GENTILE

Lawmakers and business owners are readying for the battle over Gov. Da-vid Paterson’s economic development

agenda, which calls for scrapping the Empire Zone program in favor of a new plan aimed at promoting growth in high-tech jobs.

New York has sunk more than a half-bil-lion dollars into the decades-old Empire Zone tax incentive program in the last year only to see the private sector shed more than 200,000 jobs. That dismal success rate has prompted Paterson’s renewed call for replacing the pro-gram with a proposed “Excelsior Jobs” plan, which would steer millions toward companies that promise to create jobs in industries such as nanotechnology and fi nance.

But business advocates and even the ad-ministrators of regional Empire Zones are concerned about the Legislature’s ability to implement a smooth transition without shed-ding thousands of businesses that currently thrive on state tax credits. And they say Pa-terson’s plan should be expanded to include many of the old-line businesses that benefi ted from the troubled Empire Zone program.

“We have Main Street businesses that are really suffering,” said Brenna Robinson, the coordinator of a local Empire Zone in Kings-ton, one of the last regions to enroll new businesses in the program. “Our uptown and downtown business districts are suffering too, and they’re not in any of those signifi cant clusters that the governor announced.”

The business lobby also intends to fi ght for an amendment that would create a tax credit program for capital investment, which they say was left out of Paterson’s proposal. The plan he announced in his State of the State address would award payouts to companies that promise to create at least 50 new jobs, but not to companies that invest in capital improvements in order to retain the jobs they already have.

“We were told fl at-out by the administra-tion: This is a job creation program, not a job retention program,” said Ken Polasky, a lob-byist for the Business Council of New York. “That’s the disconnect. It’s a lot easier to re-tain the companies you have than attract the new ones.”

There appears to be considerable sympa-thy for that argument among key lawmak-ers, especially those from distressed regions upstate, where the program will be focused. Amendments adding payouts for small busi-nesses that create less than 50 jobs—as well as for capital investment—are likely.

“A 50-job minimum threshold discriminates against medium and small fi rms, which may be doubling their employment, going from 20 to 40, but only creating 20 new jobs,” said Assembly Member Robin Schimminger of Tonawanda, who chairs the Economic Development Committee. “Say what you want about the Empire Zone program, but it was certainly small business-friendly.”

Critics of the Empire Zone system, which was estab-

lished in 2000 as a modifi ed version of a previous tax in-centive program, warn against muddying the debate by proposing new amendments to the Excelsior Jobs plan. Hundreds of fi rms have been shed from the program in recent months, for example, because they were found to have learned how to game the system, claiming they were retaining jobs in order to collect generous tax cred-its.

“The Legislature and the public have to be as thorough as they can be to make sure that it doesn’t have these kinds of loopholes that can be exploited,” said Frank Mauro, the executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute. “Because once you create a loophole, somebody who benefi ts from it sees it as their divine right.”

Lawmakers and offi cials at the Empire State Development Corporation suggest that even if the Legislature manages to iron out the loop-holes and reach an agreement with the admin-istration on the Excelsior plan, a number of variables could make the transition messy.

For one, hundreds of businesses that receive

tax credits under the current system are sched-uled to continue collecting those payments for as many as 10 more years. If the Empire Zone program folds, local businesses and adminis-trators say they are unsure how those credits will be administered—meaning ESDC, which has already experienced considerable turmoil, may fi nd itself implementing two complex eco-nomic development programs at once.

The changes come at a time when many lawmakers and advocates are grumbling that Paterson’s broader economic development agenda is in disarray. Organized labor has been fi ghting to enact far-reaching reforms to the state’s patchwork of Industrial Development Agencies, which award state subsidies to de-velopers. Unions want protections that guaran-tee prevailing wages at construction sites built with taxpayer money, but the business lobby has aggressively fought that legislation.

After initially leaking word of his support for prevailing wage laws last year, Paterson has re-mained largely silent on the issue, and did not mention the topic in his State of the State ad-dress. Many lawmakers have taken that as a sign that the bill will be watered down signifi cantly in the coming months, if it even passes at all.

“I don’t anticipate that the bill that I’ve introduced, and that has passed the Assembly three times in the past, will be the bill that becomes law,” said Assembly Mem-ber Sam Hoyt of Buffalo, who has sponsored the prevail-ing wage bill.

He added of the administration: “They need to show us exactly where they stand.”

[email protected]

“We were told flat-out by the administration: This is a job-creation program, not a job-

retention program,” said Ken Polasky, a lobbyist for the Business Council

of New York. “That’s the disconnect. It’s a

lot easier to retain the companies you have than

attract the new ones.”

Building Battle Over Empire Zone To Excelsior Shift, Prevailing WageFights expected over short-term passage, long-term consequences of Paterson plans

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said. “I’m extremely interested in qualify-ing for that money.”

Further down the road, Oppenheimer said she would also be interested in re-evaluating the funding formula for char-ter schools, which currently receive some combination of public and private funds, depending on the school.

“My long-term objective is to change the way we fund charter schools,” she said. “We have to offer some relief to property taxpayers.”

The state’s “Phase 1” application for Race to the Top funds is due on Jan. 19, with winning states to be announced in April 2010. Legislators not only risk los-ing the money to other states, advocates say, but also exacerbating the state’s dis-mal fi nancial situation by not moving for-ward on these reforms.

If the Legislature stalls on the pro-posed changes, “New York State will have missed its best chance to do something profound in education that we have had in decades,” said James Merriman, CEO of the NYC Center for Charter School Ex-cellence.

But with little money left in the state’s coffers for any major new projects, edu-cation advocates and unions said they are preparing for a session that will likely be defi ned by minimalism.

“We know we’re not going to be deal-ing with a lot of money,” said Alan Lu-bin, the retiring executive vice president at the New York State United Teachers union. “So that pushes our agenda back, as far as improving education.”

Both chambers’ Education Committee chairs said they hoped 2010 would not be a repeat of 2009, when the extended de-bate over mayoral control and the Senate coup left little time to address substan-tive policy issues.

Oppenheimer, a Democrat from West-chester County, said an important issue for upstate New York is reforming the state’s Boards of Cooperative Educational Servic-es (BOCES) network, as well as eliminat-ing some of the red tape at the state Educa-tion Department—something she believes could save the state millions of dollars.

“State Ed department requires so many reports, many of which are almost com-pletely duplicative,” Oppenheimer said. “It’s foolish to spend all that effort.”

Nolan said she was interested in hold-ing hearings on the “embarrassing” dis-crepancies between the way New York students score on state and federal as-sessment tests. While state test scores show signifi cant improvements among fourth- and eighth-grade students, federal scores have been statistically fl at for al-most three years.

Both legislators, though, said they in-tended to spend this session fi guring out how to mitigate the impact of expected cuts to school aid.

“We spend billions on education,” No-lan said. “How do we manage less?”

[email protected]


Last year, the education discussion was all mayoral control, all the time. This year, education analysts

are predicting the debate over charter schools and the federal Race to the Top program will cast a similar shadow over the 2010 legislative session.

Education reform advocates, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Chancellor Joel Klein, are bet-ting that this month the Legislature will take up several reforms proposed by Gov. David Paterson and his new state educa-tion commissioner David Steiner, such as

lifting the cap on the number of allowed charter schools and tying teacher tenure to test performance, in order to qualify for up to $700 million in Race to the Top funds.

Immediately following his State of the State speech, Paterson introduced a program bill that included many of the changes needed to spruce up the state’s Race to the Top application.

But several key legislators have ex-pressed skepticism, saying they would prefer to fi nd savings for education within the system rather than chase after federal dollars.

“I think it’s garbage,” said Bronx As-

sembly Member Michael Benedetto, chair of the Special Education Sub-committee and a 30-year veteran of New York City schools, of the gover-nor’s proposal to phase out the law that limits the use of test performance data in teacher tenure decisions. “I get really annoyed when I hear they need to rate children’s teachers based on standardized tests.”

Benedetto said that the push to win Race to the Top money reminded him of the congestion pricing debate of 2007, when advocates of Bloom-berg’s failed traffi c reduction plan stressed a ticking clock for federal dollars in order to push their plan through the Legislature.

“I don’t believe that we have to run after this money just because this money’s out there,” Benedetto said.

Catherine Nolan, the Assembly’s ed-ucation committee chair, said she was disturbed by what she perceives to be a lack of parental input in many of the discussions over education policy.

“Since all these policymakers—the mayor and Joel Klein and many other people—don’t have any chil-dren in public schools, I try to always see from the perspective of a parent,” Nolan said. “I think sometimes it gets lost in the power plays of politics.”

Nolan did say she thought that school administrators were focusing too much on fl ash-in-the-pan issues like Race to the Top, and not enough on other pressing matters, such as overcrowded schools.

Most members in the Assembly will likely take their cues from Speak-er Sheldon Silver, who has vowed to review the reforms. But given Silver’s closeness with the state’s powerful teachers unions, which have pro-fessed some skepticism of charters,

advocates predict that Silver will ulti-mately stymie those efforts.

Senate Democratic Conference Lead-er John Sampson has made comments in support of lifting the cap on charter schools, but has yet to say how he plans to handle Paterson’s program bill that would enact many of the reforms.

Senate Education Committee chair Suzi Oppenheimer said her goal is to con-vince the Assembly to pass legislation to lift the cap.

“I think we have to sit down, both houses, and have a serious discussion about what will be necessary to qualify for Race to the Top money,” Oppenheimer

‘Race To The Top’ Tops Education Agenda, With Funding Concerns A Close SecondSenate, governor eager to lift charter cap, while Assembly still skeptical

7777

FAIRNESS

Representing more than 600,000 professionalsin education and health care

New York State United Teachers Affiliated with AFT • NEA • AFL-CIO

Richard C. Iannuzzi, President

AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM NYSUT TO LEGISLATORS:

Don’t believe the hype and replace one flawed law with another.

New York state is well qualified for Race to the Top funding and would be even better positioned by enacting meaningful charterlaw reform that benefits all your constituents and the children we serve.

The governor’s program bill would lift the charter cap without making any of the reforms needed to ensure fairness for taxpayersand for students in both charter and regular public schools.

Before the cap is lifted, the law must be fixed to provide:

� FAIRNESS FOR STUDENTS Level the playing field to ensure charter operators serve the same population as regular publicschools, including students with disabilities and students who are English language learners so that we can end the achievementgap for all our children.

� FAIRNESS FOR SCHOOLS Ensure that schools are fairly funded, not disadvantaged or penalized by an influx of new opera-tors. All children deserve a quality public education in a safe and healthy learning environment, whether they attend a charterschool or a regular public school.

� FAIRNESS FOR TAXPAYERS Require charter operators to fully disclose how and where they spend taxpayer money, whereother support comes from and who is enriched from their operation. Not all charter schools are created equal. “Charter corporate” is fighting tooth and nail to avoid the audits and disclosure requirements that govern regular public schools. That needs to end.

More than 10 years have passed without meaningful reform. It’s time to do it right.

Support CHARTERING FAIRNESS

REJECT the governor’s program bill

For more information on “CHARTERING FAIRNESS” and on supporting New York state in the “RACE TO THE TOP” go to WWW.NYSUT.ORG.


BY SELENA ROSS AND ANDREW J. HAWKINS

Like just about everyone involved with health policy around the coun-try, those in Albany are looking to

Washington for answers to what this year will hold.

Lawmakers, advocates and indus-try insiders all say that until the federal government fi gures out what to do with health care, any reforms in New York are put on hold. If it passes, that bill will like-ly include changes to Medicaid eligibility, requirements for electronic record-keep-ing, and new insurance laws, all of which could dramatically alter the way New Yorkers receive health care.

Some are saying that New York stands to lose a signifi cant amount in federal aid if the reform bill passes. Both Gov. David Paterson and New York City Mayor Mi-chael Bloomberg have written to Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand to say that the Senate version of the bill shortchanges the city and state on Med-icaid funds by offering far more federal funds to states that have less generous Medicaid coverage.

But State Sen. Kemp Hannon, a Nas-sau County Republican and former chair of the Health Committee, said that New Yorkers need more letter writers to help mitigate the impact of the federal health care reforms.

“We do have an obligation to try to get [the federal government] to write the provisions so New York is not constrained and is given the same type of reward as any other state,” Hannon said. “We can make sure our citizens get health care along the way the rest of the nation is going to get it.”

Meanwhile, health care advocates are keeping a close eye on Paterson’s impending budget proposal, with the expectation that it will contain se-vere cuts in health spending.

Daniel Sisto, president of the Health-care Association of New York State, said that this session, health care lobbyists will be focusing on individual members of the Legislature with appeals to prevent any more cost-shifting that could adversely affect hospitals and patients.

“This is going to come down to individ-ual legislative districts,” Sisto said. “The leaders can say whatever the leaders want to say. If they continue to dismantle the health system while pretending that they’re expanding access and reducing costs when they’re really just cost-shift-ing to the private paying patient, the pub-lic eventually will comprehend what’s go-

ing on, and they’ll pay a price.” The overwhelming task already fac-

ing the state in recent years was to re-structure and streamline its medical services—a cost-saving strategy that has become more important as cuts got deeper. Before the idea became a top issue in Washington, New York was ex-perimenting with new delivery systems, especially ways to increase the availabil-ity of primary care. The state launched a model primary care project in the Ad-irondacks that legislators say they hope to spread statewide.

Regardless of what eventually pans out in Washington, state lawmakers say New York will also move ahead with plans to encourage “accountable care” organizations that measure health out-comes by quality instead of the volume of services provided.

But as cutbacks and other changes grow closer, health care advocates say they have come up with some simple, immediate cost-saving goals that would help ease the impact on patients. Sever-al lobbyists are preparing to push a plan to give Medicaid recipients two years of eligibility when they are accepted for benefi ts instead of one.

Right now, according to Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initia-tives at the Community Service Society,

Medicaid loses 40 percent of its recipi-ents each year because of the diffi culty of applying for eligibility. Benjamin said they would be pushing for increased ac-cess to insurance for small businesses and prior government approval of pre-mium hikes.

Advocates and lobbyists also say they will push the state to create a formal body to coordinate the implementation of fed-eral reforms. Dick Gottfried, who chairs the Assembly’s Health Committee, said the state was considering putting togeth-er a committee of stakeholders, but was keeping its options open until the fi nal bill is approved.

“At this point we have no idea what

Health care lobbyists will be focusing on individual members

of the Legislature with appeals to prevent any more cost-shifting that could adversely affect hospital and patients.

New York Preparing ToSwallow DC Health Reform PillBracing for impact, while pet projects like legal pot remain in play

THE CAPITOL JANUARY 2010 9www.nycapitolnews.com

the timetable will be for implementation or what state obligations and opportuni-ties will be,” he said. “We have a long his-tory in New York of taking an enormous amount of constant input from providers and advocates and the insurance carri-ers and everyone imaginable when we’re dealing with health policy issues.”

Regardless of what Washington de-cides, several longstanding pet projects remain on the agenda, including a push to legalize medical marijuana and an 18-year-old bill that would give decision-making power to families of incapacitat-ed patients.

The medical marijuana bill has passed in the Assembly, and Gottfried, its spon-sor, says he will push to move it further this session. A handful of Republican senators are said to support the measure,

which would allow certain pre-screened patients to buy or grow marijuana to manage chronic pain.

“I think it now has enough support in the State Senate to pass and I’m pretty certain Governor Paterson would sign it,” Gottfried said.

The Family Health Care Decisions Act

has been in limbo since it was fi rst draft-ed in 1994, but both Gottfried and Senate Health Committee Chair Tom Duane say it is a priority for 2010. The bill would give end-of-life and other decision-making power to the families of patients who are medically deemed incapable of making decisions. New York and Missouri are the only two states that deny the authority to immediate family or spouses without a proxy signed by the patient.

[email protected] buffalo new york c ity panama c ity , panama

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BY CHRIS BRAGG

When Democrats took con-trol of the State Senate a year ago, Sen. Kevin Parker

briefl y assumed the chairmanship of the Senate Energy Committee—only to have the title stripped after he alleg-edly assaulted a New York Post pho-tographer.

Sen. Darrel Aubertine then took over the chairmanship. But only a month in, his committee’s work was derailed by the Senate coup.

Now, Republican Sen. George Mazi-arz, who held the energy chairmanship for the last months while the Repub-licans were in the majority, will take another crack at the job.

“I would like to stick around for a little longer than either of those two,” said Maziarz, who recently regained the top spot in a concession from the Senate Democratic leadership.

Maziarz said that the fi rst order of business for him and his Assembly counterpart, Kevin Cahill, is reviving the Article X power plant siting law that expired in 2003. Since then, the once-streamlined process to build power plants in New York has been mired in ineffi ciencies: instead of go-ing through a single process at the state level, power providers now must deal with local governments that have widely differing protocols.

Gov. David Paterson addressed the issue during his State of the State ad-dress, and in a follow-up interview, Paterson’s deputy secretary for en-ergy, Tom Congdon, fl eshed out the proposal, assuring that it would dif-fer signifi cantly from an unsuccessful proposal put forth in 2007 by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer’s plan would have renewed the siting law only for renewable-en-ergy producers, to the exclusion of nuclear and coal power plants. The Spitzer administration believed this would incentivize the building of pow-er generators using new technologies.

But Congdon argued that Spitzer’s approach instead offered the worst of both worlds: coal and nuclear plants could still be built, but with greater bureaucratic hur-dles. At the same time, money was withheld from com-munities to do their own environmental impact studies on coal and nuclear under the Spitzer plan, a move that angered environmental activists.

“Nobody ended up liking that approach,” Congdon said.

Instead, Congdon said, Paterson’s proposal would be “fuel-neutral,” or apply equally to all types of proposed power plants.

Gavin Donohue, president of the Independent Power Producers of New York, said the power industry favored

an approach that would not discriminate against tradi-tional power producers. Nonetheless, Donahue said he was not optimistic Pater-son would be able to push a new Article X law through this year with the economy down and no immediate need for more power in the state.

“There’s no need to wor-ry about the lights going off this summer,” Donahue said, “and stalling on a dif-fi cult vote, especially in an election year, is a real hall-

mark of this town.”Other details also remain

to be worked out between the power industry and the environ-mental lobby, such as to what extent communities should have veto power over the building of power plants.

Also on the agenda this year: a revamping of the Power for Jobs program, which offers reduced-price power to manufacturers that create jobs. The program for years has been passed in piecemeal, one-year extensions at the end of legislative sessions, creating an uncertain business environment for employers en-rolled in the program. Last year, however, the law was intention-ally created to expire this May, a month and a half before the end of the session, in order to create an incentive to pass a longer-term bill.

Cahill said that as the state looks to create a longer-term law, it should also seek to reform the program. He believes many of the companies currently en-rolled are not actually creating much of an economic benefi t in exchange for government-subsi-dized power and must be weed-ed out.

Meanwhile, environmental advocates are concerned that proceeds from the state’s cap-and-trade program, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, once again will be transferred into the state’s general fund to fi ll a bud-get gap instead of promoting the building of a green energy econ-omy, as was promised.

In the most recent Defi cit Reduction Package, $90 million was swept from the RGGI pro-gram. An additional $300 million is expected to be generated over the next three years, and this pot

of money could prove attractive for legislators looking to avoid cuts elsewhere.

“We’re afraid the DRP fore-shadows this budget,” said Marcia Bystryn, president of the New York League of Con-servation Voters. “China and the whole rest of the world are leading the way in renewable energy, and New York has to re-main competitive with them and the rest of the country. This un-dermines the intent of the whole thing.”

[email protected]

aninconvenientsiting

By far the most terrifying fi lm you will ever see.

“There’s no need to worry about the lights going off this summer,” said Gavin

Donahue of the Independent Power Producers of New York, “and stalling on a

difficult vote, especially in an election year, is a real hallmark of this town.”

A New Energy Chair Powers New Look At Passing Long-Expired Article XPaterson revises and redirects from Spitzer approach to ‘fuel-neutral’ push


other side to come up with a solution. And at least one law-maker has fl oated a somewhat radical solution to the MTA’s perennial fi scal problems.

State Sen. Martin Dilan, the chair of the Transporta-tion Committee, said that he is seriously considering a pro-posal to dismantle the MTA and break it up into smaller agencies that service specifi c regions, such as New York City Transit and the Long Is-land Rail Road. Such a pro-posal, he said, would allow each department to address its own fi scal needs individu-ally, rather than rely on an an-nual bailout from the state.

“Each region should be able to take care of its own transportation needs, and whatever state subsidy ex-ists would be apportioned ac-cordingly,” Dilan said. “I think that would stop the political fi nger-pointing.”

Dilan said he hoped to in-troduce the proposal this ses-sion and hold public hearings on it, adding: “If it takes the whole year to do that, I’m willing to do it.”

Critics claim the mea-sure would only add to the agency’s fi scal woes, by duplicating services that have been consolidated under the unifi ed MTA. New funding streams would also have to be de-signed to fi nance each of the individual agencies, and dislodging the outer-ring counties from their regional nexus—New York City—would also cut them off from the billions in tax dollars the city provides to fund MTA operations each year.

“I think he would fi nd that that has se-rious negative consequences,” said Mitch-ell Pally, an MTA board member from Suf-folk, of Dilan’s proposal.

But the bill could help Democrats head off a looming and potentially divisive de-bate within the conference over the pay-roll tax, which has earned the enmity of business groups and local lawmakers in each of the seven suburban counties served by the MTA.

State Sen. Brian Foley of Suffolk has introduced a bill to signifi cantly reduce the burden of the payroll tax on those counties, attracting the support of both Republicans and Democrats.

Some Senate Democrats, particularly those from the city, have expressed skep-ticism that the measure will become law. But Foley’s aides, as well as the bill’s Democratic and Republican co-sponsors,

say the Senate leadership has made an ironclad commitment to revisit the pay-roll tax. Dilan did not discount the pos-sibility that the bill will reach the Senate fl oor for a vote.

Foley’s effort will likely only worsen what has already become a tense back-and-forth over the agency’s fi ve-year capi-tal plan. The plan as initially designed would have been fi nanced in part with revenue from the payroll tax.

State offi cials rejected the MTA’s origi-nal proposal, which had a funding gap of $10 billion, late last year, calling it too costly. As a result, the agency is likely to submit a slimmed-down plan that cuts out new capital projects and focuses mainly on safety and maintenance im-provements.

MTA offi cials and board members want the Legislature to change the law in order to approve just a portion of the larger capital plan and come up with the rest of funding later. But key lawmakers have already expressed their reluctance to vote on yet another unpopular fi nanc-ing package for the MTA.

“My concern is: Is this really a wish list from the MTA rather than the reality?” said State Sen. Craig Johnson of Nas-sau, who sits on the Capital Plan Review Board—which rejected the MTA’s initial

proposal. “It seems to me that they are taking the viewpoint that it’s okay to ap-prove a spending plan even if you don’t know where the money is coming from.”

Meanwhile, the MTA debate threatens to overwhelm the rest of the Legislature’s transportation agenda. Dilan said that be-fore moving on any other item he would like to approve a capital plan for the state Department of Transportation, which provides funding for road and bridge projects across the state and is usually paired with an equitable capital plan for the MTA. Gov. David Paterson has already come out against the DOT plan.

Without a deal, the Senate’s transporta-tion agenda could be stalled for months, reaching a standstill just as contentious state budget negotiations heat up in March.

“I don’t think that we can move for-ward on anything else at this time for the MTA, until we resolve roads and bridges,” Dilan said. “Nothing else is going to hap-pen until that is done.”

[email protected]

BY SAL GENTILE

The Senate Transportation Com-mittee has compiled a long list of priorities for the current legislative

session: Raise money for high-speed rail, safeguard a fund for bridge and highway projects, enforce a newly enacted ban on “distracted driving.”

But the Legislature may not get to any of that if one perennial crisis remains un-resolved: the MTA.

“That’s sort of the huge gorilla in the room,” said Bill Henderson, executive di-

rector of the agency’s Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee.

The MTA board approved a bare-bones budget in December in order to fi ll a near-ly $400 million defi cit. That gap is a result of funding cuts at the state level and a shortfall in revenue from the much-ma-ligned payroll tax, which was passed ear-lier this year as a way to save the agency from fi scal ruin.

So far, the Hail Mary has not worked.Now, state lawmakers and transpor-

tation offi cials have engaged in another round of fi nger-pointing, waiting for the

Dilan Lays Tracks On Dismantling MTA In Response To Ongoing Fiscal Crisis Debate over capital funding threatens to overwhelm transit agenda

State Sen. Martin Dilan, the chair of the Transportation

Committee, said that he is seriously considering a proposal to dismantle the MTA and break it up

into smaller agencies that service specific regions.


BY CHRIS BRAGG

With much of their wide-ranging agenda thwart-ed last year, union leaders are hoping an elec-tion year will prod Senate Democrats in the

coming months.If not, union leaders say, their support for Democrats

in the 2010 elections is not a given.“Democrats need to pass things if they want to be

back in the majority,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

For both the RWDSU and 32 BJ, two powerful pri-vate-sector unions, the top legislative priority remains Industrial Development Agency reform. Appelbaum says that in exchange for the over $400 million a year in tax incentives and subsidies the state gives to developers

and corporations each year, these entities should be re-quired to pay a “living wage” to their employees.

Labor’s efforts gained some traction at the end of last year, when Gov. David Paterson’s administration entered into negotiations with union leaders. But more recently, talks have stalled, with the business community push-ing back over union insistence that there be strong wage standards in the legislation.

Another top labor priority, meanwhile, is an increase in unemployment benefi ts, which are currently among the lowest in the country relative to the cost of living. An increase in these benefi ts is being pushed in partic-ular by the AFL-CIO, whose leadership argues that an increase in unemployment benefi ts would offer much-needed economic stimulus.

Last year, gaining support for the legislation proved

diffi cult in part because several other measures per-ceived as anti-business were higher on the agenda. This included the millionaire’s tax and the MTA bailout, which increased the payroll tax, said State Sen. Diane Savino, chair of the Civil Services Committee.

“There was a feeling that they couldn’t get hit three times in one year,” Savino said.

As for public-sector unions, Savino warned that mas-sive budget cuts to agencies could create layoffs. Al-though public employee unions and Paterson reached an agreement not to lay off workers last June, Savino said that a number of agencies have not seen as many employees accept buyout packages as expected.

In light of this, Savino suggested one possibility would be for public-sector unions to renegotiate their contracts early—they do not expire until 2011—and put off a por-tion of their automatic 4-percent salary increases this year, back-loading a new contract with fully restored in-creases when the economy picks up.

Savino noted this approach has worked for New York City, and that it would help avert some cuts to state agencies.

But Darcy Wells, spokeswoman for the Public Employ-ees Federation, said such an approach was a non-starter.

“A contract is a contract, and for us to set a precedent like that is something we couldn’t allow,” Wells said. “When does that end? If that’s done once, it can be done again, and there will always be another crisis.”

Instead, Wells said the PEF would again push for a reduction in outside contracts in state government. She cited a study recently performed by the union showing $480 million in savings this year if certain outside con-tractors—particularly bridge inspectors and IT work-ers—were replaced with state workers.

Meanwhile, the other large public-employees union, the Civil Service Employees Association, is pushing back hard against recent policy changes at the Offi ce of Children and Family Services.

Last year, the OCFS was the target of a scathing De-partment of Justice report fi nding that juvenile inmates were often mistreated at upstate detention centers.

The offi ce’s commissioner, Gladys Carrión, is now seeking to close many of the upstate facilities and in-stead to transfer juvenile inmates to community-based detention centers in New York City.

But Stephen Madarasz, spokesman for the Civil Ser-vice Employees Association, argued that OCFS staff had received scant training and resources to deal with their new mission and that Carrión’s policies had created safety concerns for the union’s members.

“She talks a good game and fails to deliver in every single way,” Madarasz said. “The way they are going about this is reckless and irresponsible.”

[email protected]

One possibility would be for public-sector unions to renegotiate their contracts

early—they do not expire until 2011—and put off a portion of

their automatic 4-percent salary increases this year.

Unions Hope Election Politicking Creates Movement On Policy AgendaWith endorsements in play, IDA reform, unemployment insurance top priorities list

555513131313

$1.6 Billion Dollar SolutionHow to keep valued services without raising taxes

STATE’S FISCAL BIND: Governor Paterson’s budget calls for cuts in services while adding nuisance fees and new taxes. As our middle class exodus continues, he ignores the billions of dollars of legal and mandated taxes due from the sales of cigarettes to New Yorkers from our Native Americans. Why?

SHOCKING TAX DEPARTMENT DATA: According to tax records, during 2005, New York Tribal retailers purchased 47 million cartons of cigarettes from several New York distributors: The result of these suppliers becoming more emboldened by the policy of forbearance. As taxes have risen, untaxed purchasing increases!

BLOOMBERG URGES ACTION: New York City Mayor has urged Governor Paterson to start collecting taxes on Indian sales of cigarettes to non-Indian in order to generate the additional revenues for New York City.

CONGRESSMAN PETER KING WARNS OF TERRORIST FUNDING: “For years, the state has refused to collect taxes on cigarettes sold to non-residents of Indian reservations - despite a 1994 US Supreme Court ruling that states have the right to collect these taxes. Failure to collect the tax not only hurts public health, it hurts the rest of the state’s small businesses, who must sell cigarettes at far higher prices. Worse, there’s reason to believe that tobacco smugglers are funneling pro ts from Indian reservation sales to terrorist organizations overseas…”

Calendar 2009 Actual Collections: State Excise Tax: (46 million cartons x $27.50) = $1,265,000,000 City Excise Tax: (11 million cartons x $15.00) = $165,000,000 Average Sales Tax: (46 million cartons x $6.00) = $276,000,000 -----------------------

$1,706,000,000

Calendar 2009 Collections should have been:* State Excise Tax: (86 million cartons x $27.50) = $2,365,000,000 City Excise Tax: (28 million cartons x $15.00) = $420,000,000 Average Sales Tax: (86 million cartons x $6.00) = $516,000,000 -----------------------

$3,301,000,000

A $1.6 Billion dollar give-a-way alleviated by simply requiring the tax stamping of all cigarettes that are sold in New York, as prescribed by our existing tax law!

*National demographics of cigarette consumption and New York tax rates, New York consumers are estimated to smoke 96 million cartons. By collecting the taxes on Native American sales to non tribal members as prescribed by law and increasing our enforcement of tax collection, we will tax 86 million of the 96 million cartons this year.

666614141414

Breaking News!Overpaid and Overstaffed Top Prison Administration Costs New York $75,000,000 Annually!Is the New York State Department of Corrections being run appropriately? Look closely at the excessive salaries and benefits of New York’s prison administrators on this chart.

What you don’t know:

While the rest of New York State is being forced to deal with budgetary issues and savings, the New York Prison administration in Albany continues to maintain luxurious salaries, benefits and lifestyles with your tax dollars for their administrators in Albany.

The New York State Department of Corrections continues to under staff the security in prisons and yet he also continues to overstaff the administration building in Albany with 907 over paid employees and more around the state in each of the correctional facilities.

Donn RowePresident

New York State Correctional Officers & Police

Benevolent Association102 Hackett Boulevard

Albany, NY 12209(518) 427-1551

www.nyscopba.org

•Duplication of services •Excessive salaries and benefits•Subsidized Housing (Executive Team)

•Free cars •Free gasoline•Free property taxes •Many more benefits that they won’t make public

The NYS Dept. of Corrections is fond of reporting a declining inmate population since 1999. The Dept. of Corrections eliminated 2,500 Correction Officers since 1999. YET, the New York State Department of Corrections continues to increase their high level of very well compensated administrators to oversee less staff and less inmates? Does that make sense to you? Call your Senator (518-455-2800)and Assemblyperson (518-455-4100) today and ask them why this “cash cow” exists at a time when many New Yorker’s are experiencing soaring property taxes, bankruptcies and foreclosures. Historically, making cuts at the bottom to maintain the top has never worked.

Can New York really afford $75,000,000 in just one building? Call 518-457-8126 and ask one of them personally.For additional information, please visit www.nyscopba.org

Note: Salary information was received directly from DOCS on April 29, 2009 via FOIL request 09-0696

777715151515

Breaking News!Overpaid and Overstaffed Top Prison Administration Costs New York $75,000,000 Annually!Is the New York State Department of Corrections being run appropriately? Look closely at the excessive salaries and benefits of New York’s prison administrators on this chart.

What you don’t know:

While the rest of New York State is being forced to deal with budgetary issues and savings, the New York Prison administration in Albany continues to maintain luxurious salaries, benefits and lifestyles with your tax dollars for their administrators in Albany.

The New York State Department of Corrections continues to under staff the security in prisons and yet he also continues to overstaff the administration building in Albany with 907 over paid employees and more around the state in each of the correctional facilities.

Donn RowePresident

New York State Correctional Officers & Police

Benevolent Association102 Hackett Boulevard

Albany, NY 12209(518) 427-1551

www.nyscopba.org

•Duplication of services •Excessive salaries and benefits•Subsidized Housing (Executive Team)

•Free cars •Free gasoline•Free property taxes •Many more benefits that they won’t make public

The NYS Dept. of Corrections is fond of reporting a declining inmate population since 1999. The Dept. of Corrections eliminated 2,500 Correction Officers since 1999. YET, the New York State Department of Corrections continues to increase their high level of very well compensated administrators to oversee less staff and less inmates? Does that make sense to you? Call your Senator (518-455-2800)and Assemblyperson (518-455-4100) today and ask them why this “cash cow” exists at a time when many New Yorker’s are experiencing soaring property taxes, bankruptcies and foreclosures. Historically, making cuts at the bottom to maintain the top has never worked.

Can New York really afford $75,000,000 in just one building? Call 518-457-8126 and ask one of them personally.For additional information, please visit www.nyscopba.org

Note: Salary information was received directly from DOCS on April 29, 2009 via FOIL request 09-0696


BY CHRIS BRAGG

In tough economic times, New York faces a prison policy conundrum.

On one hand, closing more prisons could save tens of millions of dollars a year and help relieve the state’s yawning budget gap.

But prisons in many upstate areas serve as a steady supplier of jobs and their closures could devastate already struggling economies.

Senate Codes Committee chair Eric Sch-neiderman said these contradictory outcomes would color the debate over the likely closure of prisons this year.

“We have to frankly deal with the economic implications in communities that were willing to accept prisoners when others weren’t,” Sch-

neiderman said. “At the same time, in a few years, we’ll see the benefi ts of a reduced prison popula-tion, especially on the state’s balance sheet.”

Over the past decade, New York’s prison population has dropped by 17 percent, and the state now has an excess of about 6,000 beds in its prison system, according to the State De-partment of Correctional Services. Given the shrinking prison population, which is only ex-pected to accelerate with the repeal of many of the state’s Rockefeller drug laws, excess prison space could again be on the chopping block during budget negotiations.

Criminal justice reform advocates say they sympathize with the fact that closing prisons costs jobs. Nonetheless, they say incarceration should not be an economic engine for struggling

Rock Reforms May Result In Prison Closures—But Results Of Closures UnclearConfl icts over shifting money, preserving upstate jobs and gerrymandering districts

Keeping New York Strong—It’s Our BusinessThe American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC New York)

supports Governor Paterson’s efforts to reduce the budget deficit in New York State:

NYS can lower engineering costs on infrastructure projects 14 percent by using private sector engineers to design public works projects—saving the state taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.*

Private sector engineers are paid only for the time they work on a project, not for life. Once the project is complete, payment stops.

Competition keeps private sector engineers efficient, cost effective and at the top of their game.

Private sector engineers assume risks in design contracts otherwise borne by the state.

* Results are based on a side-by-side comparison of salary, work hours, fringe benefits and overhead of New York State engineering employees vs. private engineering firm employees, “NYSDOT Engineering Design Costs: In-House Versus Outsourced Design,” Polytechnic Institute of NYU, October 30, 2008.

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upstate economies. “Our prison policy should not be eco-

nomic development policy,” said Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correc-tional Association of New York.

Instead, Gangi said funds from prison closures should be used for drug rehab programs, which are likely to attract an increased number of patients, given that under the Rockefeller reforms, more people are likely to go to rehab instead of prison. Meanwhile, $19.3 million was cut recently from the Offi ce of Alcohol-ism and Substance Abuse Services’ bud-get in the Legislature’s defi cit reduction package.

But at the same time, Assembly Mem-ber Addie Russell said that in her North Country district, the local economy would be devastated if local prisons were closed. She wants Gov. David Paterson to look fi rst at cutting the growing number of administrative positions in the Depart-ment of Correctional Services, rather than focusing on closing prisons.

“I believe they’re very top-heavy ad-ministratively,” Russell said.

The New York State Correctional Of-fi cers, which represents the state’s prison guards, and The Police Benevolent As-sociation have also fought back against prison closures. They argue that further consolidations could create unsafe work-ing conditions for guards, and say that the Rockefeller drug law reforms have so far not translated into a large decrease in the state’s prison rolls.

“There was this myth that Rockefeller-related crimes were infl ating the inmate population more than they really were,” said Chris Leo, the union’s legislative di-rector.

There are also political considerations to closing prisons. With both a census and a redistricting coming up, prison popula-tions are expected to again play a major role in providing the necessary popula-tion in putting together several gerryman-dered upstate State Senate districts. If the

“We have to frankly deal with the economic

implications in communities that

were willing to accept prisoners when others weren’t,” said Senate

Codes Committee chair Eric Schneiderman.

“At the same time, in a few years, we’ll see the benefits of a reduced

prison population, especially on the state’s

balance sheet.”

prison population in some of these dis-tricts were reduced, more liberal, down-state population would have to be added.

Meanwhile, also in the works for this session is an “Actual Innocence” bill in-troduced by Schneiderman, which would eliminate procedural hurdles for the po-tentially wrongfully convicted. The bill would allow inmates to seek a new hear-ing if new evidence in their case comes to light, even if it does not involve DNA evidence.

And Assembly Member Jeff Aubry, chair of the Assembly Corrections com-mittee, said he would continue to push a bill that would allow for expunging of a wider range of criminal records.

In the Rockefeller reforms passed last year, those convicted of drug-related of-fenses gained the ability to have their records sealed if they successfully fi nish drug treatment.

But currently, New Yorkers do not have the ability to ever have their record

cleared for almost all types of non-drug-related offense.

Anita Marton, vice president of the Legal Action Center, said that reforms en-acted last year should now be extended to those convicted of non-drug-related crimes.

“As the law is written now, these re-cords forever are opened,” Marton said. “What we’re asking is that they be sealed after a certain period of time.”

[email protected]

On October 24 1910, a small group of New York State employees came together at the state Capitol to form the Association of State Civil Service Employees. Their purpose was simple: Advance the concept of merit and fitness in the state civil service system to improve the working lives of New York State employees.

In 1910 New York’s civil service system was rife with corruption and favoritism. There was good reason for well-intentioned state employees to band together for change.

The association’s first President, William Thomas was a hearing stenographer for the State’s Attorney General. He had first taken a civil service exam on January 1, 1882 and began work for the state Attorney General in 1901.

Thomas set the standard for dedicated service and focus as president of the association until 1918 when he was appointed a member of the New York State Pension Commission. In that role, Thomas was instrumental in the establishment of the state Retirement system in 1920, giving the association a significant early achievement that endures to this day.

Thomas retired from state service in 1922 but continued to serve

as a commissioner of the pension system, regularly working out of the Association’s cramped office on the first floor of the state Capitol in Albany. Thomas passed away on June 14, 1932.


ISSUE FORUM ENVIRONMENT

BY STATE SEN. ANTOINE THOMPSON

From thundering Niagara Falls to bustling Manhattan, the climate of New York is changing.

Records show that spring is arriving earlier, summers are growing hotter and winters are becoming warmer. These changes are consistent with global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

According to researchers, if green-house gas emissions in New York contin-ue to grow unabated, the State can expect dramatic changes in its climate and sub-stantial negative impacts on its economy. Climate change in New York poses risks to human health and to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Important economic resources such as agriculture, forestry, fi sheries and water resources are vulner-able to climate change because they are weather-dependent.

The New York State Senate’s Stand-ing Committee on Environmental Con-servation acknowledges that in order to slow global warming, effective adapta-tion strategies are needed to help reduce emissions.

For decades, New York has been a national leader with regard to meeting

the nation’s most pressing environmen-tal challenges. New York’s commitment to environmental conservation is illus-trated through its role in establishing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)—the fi rst multi-state, market-

based plan to reduce emissions from power plants. Continuing down the path of environmental conservation and en-ergy interdependence, I proposed Senate Bill 4315, “The Climate Change Pollution Act,” to lower greenhouse gas emissions within New York State. In addition to protecting “environmental justice” com-munities, this bill will give a tremendous boost to New York’s green economy, as many jobs will be created in the transi-tion to our clean-energy future.

Under Senate Bill 4315, the New York State Department of Environmental Con-servation (DEC) is authorized to pro-mulgate rules and regulations aimed at decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. However, Senate Bill 4315 strictly pro-hibits the DEC from adopting regulations or promulgating rules that place dispro-portionate burdens on environmentally vulnerable communities. Specifi cally, the DEC will establish limits on greenhouse gas emissions, require annual green-house gas emission reports from emis-sion sources and issue an annual report on the progress of New York’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Researchers predict that if the rate of greenhouse gas emissions is lowered, the projected changes to New York’s climate

and economy will be far less dramatic. Un-deniably, the environmental choices we make today—in New York, the Northeast and worldwide—will shape the future of our nation’s economy, environment and quality of life, and determine the climate that future generations inherit.

Senate Bill 4315 ensures that New York stays on the path to achieving a sustainable environmental future while strengthening the State’s legacy as an environmental leader. By reducing emis-sions today, New York has an opportunity to help protect future generations from the severe impacts of global warming.

As a global leader in technology, fi -nance and innovation, and a major source of heat-trapping emissions, New York is well positioned to drive national and in-ternational environmental progress in slowing down global warming. Although New York’s efforts alone will not be suffi -cient to completely avoid global warming, our state is proud to do its part in preserv-ing humanity’s most important renewable resource, planet Earth.

Antoine Thompson, a Democrat rep-

resenting parts of Erie and Niagara

Counties, is chair of the Environmental

Conservation Committee.

Setting The Record Straight On The Climate Change Pollution Act

BY ASSEMBLY MEMBER ROBERT SWEENEY

Each citizen in New York has an interdependent relationship with the environment. We thrive

and grow from the environment’s natural treasures, and simultaneously impact the earth’s health with our actions.

Two major initiatives to protect the environment have passed the New York State Assembly and have considerable support in the State Senate. The bills will help to clean up and protect our environ-ment.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there were approximately 1.2 billion pounds of electronic equip-ment sold in the United States in 2004. As new devices are purchased, the replaced equipment frequently ends up in landfi lls where its chemical components, including mercury, lead and cadmium, can contrib-ute to pollution. This legislation (A.9049) would establish an electronic equipment recycling program to allow consumers

to return unwanted electronic devices to manufacturers for reuse or recycling.

Manufacturers of electronic equip-ment, including computers, televisions, printers, keyboards, portable digital music players, video cassette record-ers, digital video players, electronic game consoles and any cables, cords or wiring are covered under the act. The disposal of devices would be free for consumers. Manufacturers would be required to collect a minimum amount of waste based on the state reuse or re-cycling goal, initially determined on a per capita basis, beginning in July 2010. In July 2013, each manufacturer would be assigned a share of the statewide reuse or recycling goal based on the collection rate of the preceding three years. Each manufacturer’s share would be deter-mined by their market share of sales. This legislation passed the Assembly by a vote of 130 to 10. The Senate has not yet taken action on this legislation.

New York State consumers and busi-

nesses represent nearly 20 percent of the national heating oil market. When No. 2 home heating oil is burned, sulfur diox-ide, a known greenhouse gas, is released into the atmosphere. Estimates have shown that reducing the sulfur content of home heating oil is an important and critical step in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Exhaust particles formed by using home heating oil can exacerbate aller-gies, trigger asthma attacks, decrease lung function, cause heart attacks and shorten life expectancy.

This legislation (A.8642 Sweeney) would prohibit the use of No. 2 heating oil with a sulfur content in excess of 15 parts per million in residential, commercial or industrial heating after July 1, 2011.

The use of the ultra-low sulfur fuels will save consumers and business money by reducing the need for maintenance and service of their heating equipment. The use of this cleaner fuel will also permit the installation of newer higher-effi ciency

Electronic Waste, Heating Oil Reforms Needed To Protect Environment

The publication for and aboutNew York State Government


equipment that can further reduce costs. It is estimated that the lower maintenance and service costs would save New York-ers $40 million dollars annually.

The bill is supported by consumer and environmental groups and was passed in the Assembly by a vote of 146 to 1. The Senate has not yet taken action on this legislation.

Robert Sweeney, a Democrat who rep-

resents parts of Suffolk County, chairs

the Assembly Environmental Conserva-

tion Committee.

333331111111119191919

New York Needs Ultra Low Sulfur Heating Oil

Senate Action Needed!

• ULS Heating Oil is Much Cleaner And Can Replace New York’s Nearly 2 Billion Gallons of #2 Heating Oil

• ULS Heating Oil Is Better For the Environment and Public Health- It Contains 99% Less Sulfur, Dramatically Reducing SOx Emissions and Fine Particulate Matter

• ULS Heating Oil is Affordable – Often the Same Price as Regular Heating Oil. It’s More Efficient and Requires Less Equipment Maintenance

• ULS Heating Oil is Readily Available – It is Already Used in the Trucking Industry and East Coast Inventories are 35% Ahead of Last Year

This Reform is Overdue. Pass S1145: The ULS Heating Oil Bill Today!

New York Oil Heating AssociationOil Fuel Institute of Central New YorkOil Heat Institute of Eastern New YorkOil Heat Institute of Long IslandTeamsters Joint Council 16Teamsters Local 553UPROSEWE ACT for Environmental Justice

American Lung Association in New YorkEmpire State Petroleum AssociationEnvironmental AdvocatesEnvironmental Defense Action FundHudson Valley Oil Heat CouncilNatural Resources Defense CouncilNew York League of Conservation Voters

444441212121220202020

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Assistant Commissioner for Intergovernmental AffairsThe New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), the nation’s leading local public health department, seeks a dynamic leader to be its Assistant Commissioner for Intergovern-mental Affairs. This position is an integral part of the DOHMH leadership team and plays a central role in improving the lives of New Yorkers by developing and advocating for the agency’s city, state and federal legislative agenda and coordinating policy development on related legislative issues.

As Assistant Commissioner, you will be responsible for the following:• Manage all interactions with city, state and federal legislative offi cials• Prepare for and coordinate the Department’s appearance at public hearings, including drafting testimony• Oversee relationships with community boards and civic organizations• Provide guidance on policy development and strategy to the Commissioner and Department’s six health and mental hygiene divisions• Track and analyze legislation and proposed policies and coordinate the Department’s response with legal, program and budget personnel• Develop and implement legislative strategies• Serve as the primary liaison to the Mayor’s Offi ce regarding the Department’s position on public health and mental hygiene legislation• Respond to elected offi cials’ requests for information regarding DOHMH services• Develop briefi ng materials for elected offi cials and their staff about health and metal hygiene is-sues and Department priorities• Manage a diverse staff of legislative and community specialists

The chosen candidate will have demonstrated success infl uencing decision makers on legislative and policy issues, preferably in New York City and New York State; developing relationships with key government and community leaders; and building coalitions to achieve desired results. The chosen candidate will preferably have public health and mental hygiene policy experience.

We seek candidates with at least seven years of experience in intergovernmental affairs, including supervisory experience; excellent oral and written communication, analytic, customer service, and group facilitation skills; an academic background in public health, public policy, political science, or related fi eld; Masters Degree preferred; computer profi ciency; self-motivation and skilled at simulta-neously managing multiple priorities and projects.

NEW YORK CITY RESIDENCY IS REQUIRED WITHIN 90 DAYS OF APPOINTMENT

Submit your cover letter and resume online at www.nychealthcareers.com; in the JVN search bar, enter 133559.

Introducing Monthly Industry Sections

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Political Issues Related to:

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EdUcatIon

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rEal EStatE/dEvElopMEnt

The Capitol’s increased editorial coverage of these critical areas will attract and lead to increased attention from the New York policymakers who will impact and decide the related issues.

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POLITICS • POLICY • PERSONALITIES


The Way to Reach Elected Officials

Look who’s readingThe Capitol...


BY SAL GENTILE

For the dozen or so candidates plotting campaigns for attorney general, the fi rst thing they must fi gure out is what the current attorney general will do.

Most expect that Andrew Cuomo will challenge Gov. David Paterson, leaving an open race for attorney general in his wake. But how that face-off plays out—whether Cuomo is crowned as the Democratic nominee, or faces a drawn-out primary—could have far-reaching implications for the Democrats and Republicans hoping to win a seat that has become known as “the Awaiting Governor.”

If Cuomo faces a contested race for the nomination, Democrats predict that he is more likely to stay out of the race to replace him. However, even if the governor’s race drags on, people close to Cuomo say he could name a favorite in order to shape a ticket that will appeal as broadly as possible to the electorate.

Cuomo is said to favor Nassau County District Attor-ney Kathleen Rice. While he has not publicly expressed support for Rice’s candidacy, Cuo-mo has appeared with her at sev-eral recent fundraisers.

Rice has kept a low profi le, even on Long Island, during her tenure. But her law enforcement creden-tials have been strong, observers say, and she has built a record of being tough on fi nancial schemers and drunk drivers. Her only obsta-cle may be the tense relationship she has developed with trial law-yers in Nassau County, a major con-stituency and patron of the Demo-cratic Party.

But Democrats say Rice may be the only woman in the race who could tap into the reservoirs of political cash downstate, where most of the money for a statewide race will likely be found. Earlier this month, she announced that she had $24 million on hand, more than any of her likely opponents. (The other woman considering running is Paterson’s deputy secretary for public safety, Denise O’Donnell, who is from Buffalo.)

“During most of her fi rst term in offi ce she sort of had a rocky relationship with the judges and the defense bar,” said one Democrat close to both Cuomo and Rice, adding, “she still comes into the race as the only woman who can raise enough money.”

Rice is likely to encounter fi erce competition from two other Democrats who have been gearing up for a poten-tial run: State Sen. Eric Schneiderman of Manhattan and Eric Dinallo, the state’s former banking superintendent and a deputy to then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Both have quietly reached out to Cuomo in an effort to gauge how active he will be in shaping the Democratic slate, according to people with knowledge of the conver-sations. Despite what some see as Cuomo’s apparent de-sire to settle on Rice early in the campaign, people close to Schneiderman—who, as chair of the Codes Commit-tee in the Senate, has a close working relationship with Cuomo—say they feel confi dent that Schneiderman can be competitive in a race against Rice.

Schneiderman and Dinallo have quietly begun carv-ing out their own constituencies in advance of a possible run. Dinallo has steadily transformed himself into an ally of Wall Street, courting one-time enemies of Spitzer such

as Kenneth Langone, the founder of Home Depot, who backed Spitzer antagonist Dick Grasso. That strategy, Democrats say, may help Dinallo distance himself from Spitzer’s now-toxic legacy, but it would also put him at odds with Cuomo, who has routinely attacked Wall Street for its excesses.

Schneiderman, meanwhile, has built himself as a hero from the progressive Upper West Side. He has burnished his credentials as a wrangler of the state’s tangled crimi-nal code, sponsoring a widely praised bill to protect patients from insurance abuses. And he has collected valuable chits from many of his colleagues for taking on diffi cult tasks, such as the investigation of convicted Sen. Hiram Monserrate.

Two other potential candidates, State Sen. Jeff Klein and Assembly Member Mike Gianaris, have both indicat-ed in recent weeks that they will take a pass on the race. Gianaris is now running for what will be the open seat of State Sen. George Onorato.

Assembly Member Richard Brodsky, who dropped out of the 2006 race in order to donate a kidney to his daughter, is also mak-ing moves toward a run, making an early announcement of a $1.3 mil-lion campaign fi nance fi ling—com-plete with a statement from a cam-paign spokesperson declaring that “there’s no secret that Richard will be prepared for any political even-tuality, and we will speak of those matters as events unfold.”

Brodsky said Cuomo personally assured him that he would stay out of the open race to succeed him.

“He has called me and told me he will not do that,” Brodsky said of Cuomo. “He said he’s got to make

his own decisions fi rst.”Schneiderman’s main advantage against Rice, Demo-

crats say, would be his ability to tap into the political ATM that is Manhattan more deeply than a little-known district attorney from Long Island. He has also cultivat-ed close relationships with the state’s infl uential labor unions and, crucially, engendered considerable goodwill among black and Latino leaders for his efforts to exoner-ate wrongly convicted criminals and reform the state’s drug laws.

“He is someone that has a clear grasp of the issues that impact Latinos,” said Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat of Manhattan, a close ally of Schneiderman. “He is someone that enjoys a lot of support in the Latino community.”

That support could prove especially attractive if for-mer U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, a Bush appointee, de-cides to run. Garcia, a favorite of former Sen. Al D’Amato, emerged last year as an early front-runner for the GOP nomination, but his candidacy fi zzled after he expressed little interest. Some Republicans have attempted to re-vive his candidacy in recent weeks, fearing the party’s inability to fi eld a strong ticket.

In Garcia’s absence, Republican leaders have been eyeing three up-and-coming district attorneys: Kathleen Hogan of Warren, William Fitzpatrick of Onondaga, and Dan Donovan of Staten Island. Hogan and Donovan have already met in recent weeks with state Republican chair-man Ed Cox, according to GOP offi cials.

Hogan has proven an especially attractive candidate,

Republicans say, because she would provide the GOP ticket with some geographical and gender diversity. So far, the only woman who has expressed interest in running as a Republican for statewide offi ce is Larchmont Mayor Liz Feld, who is mulling challenges to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

But Hogan is little-known beyond Warren County,

People close to Cuomo suggest that

he could decide very quickly on a

potential ticket even if he has not yet won the nomination, in order to appeal as

broadly as possible to the Democratic

primary electorate.

Attorney General Candidates Await Verdict On Paterson-Cuomo Match-UpRice, Schneiderman lead Democrats, while Hogan and Donovan lead GOP hopefuls


Lieutenant Governor Hopefuls Wait On Marching Orders, A GeneralSpeculation that Ravitch will run with Paterson as others keep powder dry


By just about this point in 2006, Eliot Spitzer had shocked most of the political establishment with his surprise announcement that David Paterson

would be his lieutenant-governor running mate. That decision crowded out the three people who already had full campaigns underway for the spot.

So far this year, the only candidate to announce a bid for the state’s number-two spot is Ramapo Town Super-visor Christopher St. Lawrence.

And he seems to be savoring having the spotlight all to himself.

“I guess I’m the only one on the list at the moment, huh?” said St. Lawrence, laughing.

But that will likely soon change, as the 2010 election season slowly grinds into gear and more candidates begin to emerge. With Paterson proving how much can come out of the job both through his own ascension and selection of Richard Ravitch, choosing a lieutenant gov-ernor—traditionally reserved for candidates who could provide balance, or to reward party loyalty—has taken on new importance and increased the likelihood that there will be a competitive race this year.

But aside from St. Lawrence, no one has taken the plunge.

Ravitch was appointed last summer in the wake of the failed Senate coup, a late-stage gambit by Paterson to clear up any questions surrounding a possible succes-sion. Ravitch has said he has no plans to run this year, even though many see him as the best possible running mate for Paterson, who is heading into his own very dif-fi cult primary season.

“What Ravitch brings, very importantly, is a sense of proportion and a sense of good government,” said vet-eran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. “He’d be a tremendous addition.”

But Ravitch’s aides were quick to tamp down specula-tion.

“The LG will not be a candidate for LG next year,” spokesperson Marissa Shorenstein wrote in an e-mail.

Politicos have speculated that minus Ravitch, Pater-son would be best served by picking a lieutenant gover-nor from the business world, preferably someone who can write a large check to his campaign committee and lend some fi nancial expertise to the administration.

In New York, lieutenant governors run independently of the governor in the primary, but the top of the ticket often makes his preference known before the vote.

Several candidates are said to be waiting in the wings for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to announce whether he intends to challenge Paterson in the Demo-cratic primary. Sources close to several possible candi-dates have said they are hesitant to speak publicly about any meetings or outreach until Cuomo’s candidacy is of-fi cial. Once that happens, many are predicting a fl ood of aspiring candidates to emerge.

“The problem is that people are going to wait and watch because things are so fl uid,” Sheinkopf said. “It’s

an incessantly changing environment.”Plus, throwing their hats into the ring before the top-

of-the-ticket questions are settled could create potential liabilities for the number-two hopefuls—doing so could lead to a torrent of questions from the press about whom they would prefer as their boss. Depending on their an-swers and the outcome of the speculation, they could anger the ultimate nominee.

However, several names have been fl oated as Cuomo running mates, primarily that of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, a former state senator and close political ally of the attorney general. Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy has also emerged as a possible running mate. And St. Law-rence, a four-term supervisor with experience in solid waste management, has been cozying up to Cuomo, hosting a breakfast fundraiser in mid-December that net-ted Cuomo’s campaign $100,000.

Some have said that Cuomo would be best served by adding a black candidate to the ticket as a way to smooth any lingering tension from his controversial run for governor in 2002 against H. Carl McCall, the state’s fi rst black gubernatorial candidate.

Other commentators have noted that an absence of prominent Latino politicians from statewide races could provide an opening for someone from that community to enter the race for lieutenant governor, either for Pat-erson or Cuomo. Gerson Borrero, a columnist and con-sultant for El Diario, said someone like Lorraine Cortés-Vásquez, the New York secretary of state, could make serious inroads in an open race if she so desired.

“She is well-known throughout the state, not to the public, but every nook and cranny of the structure of government,” Borrero said.

On the Republican side, several names are being con-sidered, including Larchmont Mayor (and current Senate challenger) Liz Feld; Andrew Eristoff, the former state fi nance commissioner; North Country Assembly Mem-ber William Barclay (who is also considering a run for Congress); and former MTA vice chairman and wealthy Republican fi nancier Andrew Saul.

But others have thrown cold water over the “ticket balance” argument, saying that those concerns are gen-erally overblown by the political class.

“I really think voters are not stupid,” said Al DelBello, who served as lieutenant governor under former Gov. Mario Cuomo. “What they’re looking for is competency.”

Because in New York lieutenant governor candidates run separately, some unusual pairings can occur. Neither DelBello nor Cuomo expected to be running alongside each other in the 1982 general election, which led to some animosity.

DelBello said one lesson to be learned from his expe-rience is how much the offi ce of lieutenant governor is defi ned by the governor, for better or for worse.

“I had very, very extensive government experience, having been a mayor and county executive,” he said. “Obviously Mario Cuomo was not of a mind to take ad-vantage of that. So he marginalized me.”

[email protected]

and she would likely have diffi culty raising money from downstate donors in a competitive primary.

As a result, Donovan has emerged as the early front-runner. He has already begun laying the groundwork for an attorney general campaign by courting GOP emi-nences such as Rudy Giuliani and state Conservative

chairman Mike Long. And he has made the rounds at Republican functions and, as a former head of the state District Attorneys Association, earned some media at-tention beyond his home borough.

“As much as people want an upstater on the ticket,” said longtime Republican operative Rob Ryan, the ques-

tion going into the convention will be: “Who has the most exposure in the New York Metropolitan Area?”

He added: “Whoever has the determination to be driv-ing around the State of New York in January or February probably has the lead.”

[email protected]


Target: Frank PadavanAfter cruising to easy re-elections for most of his 35-year career,

Frank Padavan squeaked out a 483-vote victory over Council Mem-ber Jim Gennaro in 2008, leading Democrats to immediately target him for 2010. Some Republicans attribute the close race two years ago to Obama’s coattails, but the largely middle-class district has a grow-ing minority population and a massive registration advantage favoring the Democrats.

Gennaro was recently sworn in for a third term as councilman and appears to be passing on a rematch. Democratic hopes instead have turned to failed mayoral candidate and former City Council Member Tony Avella, who is expected to throw his hat in the ring. Avella has been the bête noir of Democratic Party regulars for most of the last decade, but he beat Democratic nominee Bill Thompson in Padavan’s district in the September primary. Plus, Avella’s old Council district overlaps much more with the Senate district than Padavan’s did.

All of which might explain the support of the Queens County Democratic organization. Pa-davan is one of just three Republicans left representing New York City, and he has been criti-cized by Democrats for introducing a bill to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving care in state hospitals and for voting against the recent gay marriage bill.

Padavan remains popular in the district and will be running in a cycle that is predicted to favor Republicans. However, the biggest unknown of this race is going to be voter mobilization. If Democrats can take advantage of their registration majority with a candidate that energiz-es the party, Padavan is looking at another nail-biter. His campaign operation is already being put together.

Target: Craig JohnsonFor the fi rst time in memory, Craig Johnson’s district

has more registered Democrats than Republicans. And in North Hempstead, which makes up the bulk of his district, Democrats held on to the town su-pervisor’s post and control of the town board, de-spite a Republican tidal wave that swept through the rest of Nassau.

But none of that has stopped Republican leader Dean Skelos from trying desperately to unseat John-son, who in 2007 broke the Republicans’ iron grip on the Long Island Senate delegation. Democrats, and even some Republicans, describe Skelos as “obsessed” with the district, which borders on his own, and say he will stop at nothing to defeat Johnson.

Skelos has attempted for months to lure the mayor of Mineola, Jack Martins, into running, with Republicans in Nassau feeling Martins could make the race more competitive than Johnson’s 2008 opponent, Barbara Donno. The ideal candidate, some Republicans admit privately, would be Nassau County Clerk Maureen O’Connell, who ran for the seat in the 2007 special election to replace Mike Balboni but was edged out by John-son. O’Connell has been elected countywide and could attract women voters—crucial in the suburbs—but Republicans say she is unlikely to give up her current job for another crack at the seat.

District11

The calendar turning to a new year means that campaign sea-son has offi cially begun. In a body as closely divided as the

New York State Senate, every seat mat-ters, and every legislator can be a target. In the battle for the state Senate, two op-posing forces are headed for a collision: on the one hand, long-term demograph-ic and registration trends seem to favor Democrats; on the other, Republicans appear to be in ascendance as voters turn against the party in power in Wash-ington. Ten races that are supposed to be close are profi led below. Whichever par-ty can grab most of them will go a long way to determining whether or not it is donkeys or elephants who are smiling come November 2.

District7


Target: Ken LaValleUsually, lawmakers as entrenched as Sen. Ken LaValle get at least token opposi-

tion.In 2008, LaValle faced no one.That, LaValle’s supporters say, is a mark of how deep his support runs on Long

Island’s East End, where the 70-year-old incumbent has not faced a serious chal-lenger in at least two decades.

Democrats hope to change that this year with Regina Calcaterra, a 43-year-old corporate fraud lawyer who has been eyeing the race against LaValle for several years. She was recruited into the 2010 campaign by Bronx Sen. Jeff Klein.

Calcaterra claims a stirring biography: She was raised largely in homeless shel-ters and foster homes, fi nancing her own college education at the age of 17 and go-ing on to represent union workers who lost their pensions in a suit against big Wall Street fi rms. She hopes that background, along with public anger toward Albany, will help her overcome LaValle’s considerable advantages in November.

Until now, Democrats have chosen simply to wait out LaValle, attempting to lure him into retirement and elevate Assembly Member Marc Alessi, one of the fi rst Democrats to win in traditionally Republican Suffolk County. But Alessi, despite raising money, has shown little interest, and LaValle has turned down several op-portunities to leave the Senate for the education fi eld.

Target: Brian FoleyRepublicans have had Brian Foley in the crosshairs since his fi rst day on the job. Foley defeated State Sen.

Caesar Trunzo by close to 15 percentage points. But Republicans maintain an enrollment advantage in Foley’s Suffolk district and frustration among white, suburban voters has only increased as the economy tumbles.

Lee Zeldin, a 29-year-old attorney and Iraq war veteran, has emerged as the early favorite for the Republican nomination. Zeldin, who garnered 42 percent of the vote in a failed challenge to Rep. Tim Bishop in 2008, has won

some early momentum from the Suffolk Conservative Party and the so-called Tea Party activists, who prom-ise to give Foley the same epithet-shouting treatment they have given Bishop.

Republicans have targeted Foley for his votes on the 2008-2009 state budget and the much-ma-ligned bailout for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The payroll tax, a key feature of that bailout, is widely unpopular in Suffolk, which is one of the counties least-served by the MTA. Even fellow Democrat Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, has hammered Foley for the tax.

Still, there is evidence to suggest that Foley may not be as vulnerable as Republicans believe. In Brookhaven, which makes up the bulk of the district, Democratic Town Supervisor Mark Lesko

withstood the Republican uprising last year to coast to re-election. And hamlets such as Central Islip have grown increasingly diverse, with Latino immigrants from New York City moving into the area in large numbers.

Target: Kemp HannonAlmost immediately after the votes were tallied in 2008, Democrats promised to make

Kemp Hannon one of their top targets next time around. In what Nassau Democratic chair (and now state chair) Jay Jacobs called “a sleeper race,” Hannon just barely edged out local

attorney Kristen McElroy—by less than three percentage points.Republicans widely attribute that result to the Obama wave that swept through New

York, and say they did not realize the race was as close as it was until less than a month before the election. An internal poll, taken on a lark in early October, showed McElroy within striking distance, and Republicans subsequently poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race to shore up Hannon.

Now, Democrats are eyeing former County Legislator David Mejias as a challenger to Hannon. Mejias lost his bid for re-election last year, but Democrats say that should

only give Mejias more time to focus on the Senate race and raise the money necessary to take on a 20-year incumbent. Mejias is young and of Cuban descent, and could appeal to the district’s growing Latino population.

He ran a failed bid for Congress against Rep. Pete King in 2006, but garnered a surprising 44 percent of the vote. Democrats in Nassau have eyed him as a rising star ever since, but a local feud with Jacobs kept Mejias from challenging Hannon in 2008. Now, Republicans say he may have missed his best shot at taking out Hannon, who remains popular in his district.

District6

District1

District3


Target: Vincent Liebel The 40th Senate District, covering the suburbs north of New York City, should remain safely

in Republican hands in 2010. But who will hold the seat remains an open question. In November, fi rebrand Assemblyman Greg Ball abruptly dropped out of the race to take on

Congressman John Hal, clearing the way for wealthy ophthalmologist Nan Hayworth, and de-clared his intentions to take on incumbent state Sen. Vincent Leibell in a Republican primary.

The two have bad blood dating back to Ball’s fi rst campaign for Assembly in 2006, when he knocked out another longtime incumbent and Leibell ally, and they remained on opposite sides of political skirmishes throughout Ball’s tenure in the lower chamber. They were believed to have reconciled before Ball began his run for Congress.

Ball’s sudden announcement led many to speculate that Leibell would run for Putnam County executive, and, although he has met privately with local G.O.P offi cials, he has yet to make his intentions known.

Ball expects to have over $200,000 in the bank by the time the next fundraising numbers are released, but he still has not won over much of the state Republican establishment, and even if Leibell drops out, there is some speculation that another Republican may emerge.

No major Democrats have announced plans for their seat, although Westchester legislator Michael Kaplowitz has been said to be exploring a run.

Target: Darrel AubertineDespite a large Republican enrollment advantage, Darrel Aubertine

appears to not have serious opposition in 2010. Assembly Member Dede Scozzafava was previously mentioned as a potential challenger, but af-ter her controversial run for Congress last year, that prospect seems highly unlikely.

Aubertine is seen as an up-and-coming legislator in the Demo-cratic caucus and has maintained a centrist voting record. Refl ect-ing his conservative-leaning district, he voted against legalizing gay marriage, but was criticized for supporting last year’s budget, which included a new license plate registration fee. He has also voted for legislation allowing state residents to sell clean energy they produce back to utilities, and supports tax credits for solar power.

Right before the 2008 general election, polls showed Au-bertine’s race against attorney David Renzi tightening. But state Democrats infused his campaign with hundreds of thou-sands of dollars towards Election Day, and Aubertine won easily.

For now, no major challenger has emerged. But despite recent Democratic trends and wins in the State Senate and overlapping House districts, the area has strong Republican traditions. If a well-funded Republican emerges and November is as GOP-tilted as some have pre-dicted, Aubertine could still face a stiff fi ght.

District48

District58


Target: David ValeskyRepublicans have targeted David Valesky ever since he narrowly defeated State

Sen. Nancy Larraine Hoffmann in 2004. In 2006, he beat Assembly Member Jeffrey Brown by 18 points and won in a 29-point landslide over Jim DiStefano in 2008.

But State Republicans see opportunity.Jessica Crawford and Andrew Russo are the current Republican challengers to

Valesky. Crawford is a businesswoman running on a platform of lower taxes. Russo, director of music at Le Moyne College, faults Valesky for putting New York City inter-ests above Upstate issues. East Syracuse Mayor Dan Liedka is also considering throw-ing his hat in the ring.

The Republicans feel that Valesky’s Achilles heel in the race is his record on job-creation. There is continuing economic stagnation in the region, which the Republican candidates attribute to the Democratic agenda in the legislature. They maintain that Valesky is more interested in ascending the Senate leadership than attracting new businesses to the region.

The fact that Republicans have already attracted two candidates to run against Valesky could be a bad sign for Democrats. But Democrats maintain that Valesky is a good fi t for his working class district. They point to his record of siding against the powerful hospital union interests that are allied with his more liberal colleagues as evidence of his independence.

Target: Bill StachowskiRarely is a longtime incumbent targeted by both his own political party and an oppos-

ing party. But such is the case for Bill Stachowski.

Erie County Legislator Timothy Kennedy is opposing Stachowski in this fall’s Democratic primary—with the backing of Rep. Brian Higgins. Kennedy has made a change in leadership and disenchantment towards Albany the key themes of his candidacy. Erie County Legislator Daniel Kozub and Buffalo attorney Sean Coonery, both Democrats, are also running against Sta-chowski.

Republicans are eyeing the race closely but do not have an announced candidate yet. Some party leaders are encouraging a run by Assembly Member Jack Quinn III, son of former Rep. Jack Quinn, Jr. He would start the race with some infl uential name recognition, but would need to attract considerable support from disaffected moderate and conservative Demo-crats to prevail.

Stachowski has been a fi xture in Buffalo politics for three decades and has a staunchly conservative voting record. After years of nominal opposi-tion from Republicans, he narrowly defeated former Buffalo police detec-tive Dennis Delano by 6 points, despite the fact that Democrats hold a voter registration edge of nearly 65,000 in the largely blue-collar district.

He was wooed to join the Republican caucus last year and continues to enjoy the support of the Conservative Party. He has also been criticized for receiving

nearly $4 million in member-item appropriations last year. Supporters, though, say it speaks well of his seniority and infl uence.

Target: Andrea Stewart-CousinsIn 2008, then-freshman Andrea Stewart-Cousins got a pass from Senate Republi-

cans, who failed to recruit a viable challenger. After defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Nick Spano in 2006 by just 18 votes, Stewart-Cousins coasted to re-election over Yonkers City Council Member John Murtaugh by double digits.

Now, buoyed by big gains in Westchester and the election of a GOP county execu-tive there, Republicans have made Stewart-Cousins one of their major targets. GOP leaders have been trying to lure Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone into the race, and have

promised to pour millions into the campaign if he runs. Democrats have a steep enrollment advantage in Stewart-Cousins’

district, but Amicone has proven cross-party appeal in his four years as mayor. He has made gun control and environmental issues centerpieces of his agenda, fought the Democratic City Council on budget issues and even proposed tax increases to avoid cuts to the police force.

As the sitting mayor of the state’s fourth-largest city, Amicone would also be capable of raising a sizeable war chest on his own, which is crucial, given that Republicans have been at a fundraising disadvantage since los-

ing control of the State Senate. And he has experience battling Democrats in Albany: during the Senate stalemate last year, Yonkers was threatened

with insolvency after the Legislature failed to approve local tax extensions.

District35

District49

District40

1212121212202020202828

At a time when the state is facing severe fiscalconstraints, spending on consultants last year rose to

$2.9 billion, a $100 million increase. That’s the equivalentof 23,329 full-time consultants working for the state. It adds

up to over 2,500 more consultants than the previous fiscal year.

The savings can be found by having state employees do the workbetter and for less.

The state continues to pay thousands of consultants an averageof 62% more than public employees doing similar work, including thecost of their benefits.

The state can save as much as $480 million by replacing abouthalf the state’s expensive private consultants with state employees.

Our cost savings recommendations include:

�ENACT a cost-benefit requirement for contracting-out anda consultant reduction law, phased in over three years.

�REQUIRE a set savings target for each state agency.

�INSTITUTE a freeze on new and renewed state agencyconsultant contracts of more than $100,000 until acost-benefit analysis is completed.

�ENACT a law that the state Department of Transportationmust rely on state employees to do at least 90 percent of thebridge work.

Call 1-877-255-9417 today. Tell state lawmakers to support thesecost-saving measures and start putting our tax dollars to better use.

New York State Public Employees Federation, AFL- CIO

Representing 59,000 professional, scientific, and technical employeesKenneth Brynien, President Arlea Igoe, Secretary-Treasurer

www.pef.org

We’re all looking for

ways to cut costs,

so should the state.

Documents

The January 14,2010 Issue of The Capitol