january 2011: legislative preview

www.nycapitolnews.comSpecial iSSue January 2011

www.nycapitolnews.com2 january 2011 THE CAPITOL

2011legislative preview

EDITORIALEditor: Edward-Isaac [email protected] Editor: Andrew [email protected]: Chris Bragg [email protected] Nahmias [email protected] Editor: Andrew SchwartzInterns: Ismail Muhammed, Isha Mitra

ADVERTISINGAssociate Publishers: Jim Katocin, Seth MillerAdvertising Manager: Marty StronginSenior Account Executives:Ceil Ainsworth, Monica CondeMarketing Director: Tom KellyMarketing Coordinator: Stephanie MussoExecutive Assistant of Sales: Jennie Valenti

PRODUCTIONProduction Manager: Mark StinsonArt Director: Mitchell HoffmanAdvertising Design: Heather MulcaheyAssistant Production Manager: Jessica A. BalaschakWeb Design: Lesley Siegel

Editorial (212) 894-5417 Advertising (212) 284-9715Fax (212) 268-2935 General (212) 268-8600

President/CEO: Tom Allon

CFO/COO: Joanne Harras

Publisher/Executive Director: Darren Bloch

www.nycapitolnews.com

The Capitol is published monthly.Copyright © 2010, Manhattan Media, LLC

barry sloan

By Edward-Isaac dovErE

The room in the basement of the empire State Plaza Convention Center where new Gov. Andrew

Cuomo delivered his first State of the State was chilly, but the reception to the speech was unmistakably warm.

Positive reactions are standard fare for these speeches, but this year’s batch had a different tone than those of recent years—none of the underlying eye-rolling from the Paterson days, none of the bit-terness of the Spitzer days, none of the yawns of the end of the Pataki days.

if nothing else, few dared argue with Cuomo’s assessment of the State of the State: crisis. Between the budget deficit, the dysfunction, the paranoia and the political infighting (given a new wrinkle a few hours before the speech, thanks to the four senators who bolted the Demo-cratic conference), there is no shortage of pitfalls ahead that could throw every-thing off track.

And with so much money needing to be cut, there is little room for error.

As Cuomo acknowledged himself in his State of the State, the speech was in many ways just the prelude to his next major policy address, when he presents his executive budget on Feb. 1.

And his take on Wednesday remained as concise as it was throughout his cam-paign last year.

“The State of new York spends too

much money,” Cuomo said. “it is that blunt. it is that simple.”

With a $10 billion budget gap already projected for this fiscal year—which, as Cuomo pointed out in his presentation, under current rates of growth would then add another $14.6 billion next year and $17.2 in the year after that—there are few options. Cuomo has pledged not to raise taxes, to push for a property-tax cap and to begin lowering taxes in the years ahead, draining revenue. meanwhile, the medicaid redesign Team and mandate re-lief group he announced are not even due to submit their reports until April 1, the budget deadline.

That could put the onus for making up the $10 billion deficit on drastic cuts in health care and education, but few believe even a conciliatory Legislature would be willing to submit to these.

more likely, many legislators and gov-ernment observers believe, is that Cuo-mo’s State of the State laid the ground-work for a state budget process likely to run past the April 1 deadline and almost certain to include the selling-off of state assets to private entities. Cuomo has sig-naled his willingness to go over the dead-line if necessary to achieve the budget he wants, and some around him have been quietly discussing privatization since his transition.

Assembly Ways & means Committee chair Denny Farrell said that he has heard the privatization talk circulating, reflect-

ing on the year ahead shortly after Cuo-mo finished his speech. Though the idea makes him nervous, Farrell said he and his colleagues in the Legislature would be open to it, depending on the details of any proposals Cuomo makes.

“i wouldn’t say no to anything,” he said, recalling his support when then-Gov. mario Cuomo put roads and the At-tica prison up for sale to deal with budget shortfalls in 1992.

While speaking positively about the presentation of Cuomo’s speech, who took it out of its traditional venue in the Assembly chamber and opened it to the general public, Farrell said that he thinks the conversation could soon take on a dif-ferent tone.

“it’s nice to have the people in the state in the room, but when they go home and find out that the cuts mean larger class room size, my mother can’t get into the nursing home—when it starts to be those things, then the question is, ‘Are they going to be prepared to accept those things?’” Farrell said. “Because that’s going to be the price that we’re going to have to pay.”

of course, the budget will not be the only issue facing the state government in the year ahead. Some of the bigger ones were addressed directly by Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver in his introductory remarks at the State of the State, during which he came out in favor of redistrict-ing reform, authorities reform, a proper-

ty-tax cap and a general spirit of trans-parency that sounded like a significant departure from his previous positions. Whether any of those will come to be remains a very open question, especially as Dean Skelos, back as Senate major-ity leader, sorts through how to balance playing nice with Cuomo and keeping his conference in the majority through the 2012 elections.

That may prove easier with the Senate Democrats divided again, deep in debt for both their government budget and their campaign committee, and no clear route to a resolution for the four members of the new independent Democratic Confer-ence.

And everyone expects the govern-ment and political conversations to get increasingly tricky as the details are sort-ed through on Cuomo’s plan to cut and consolidate government. The fate of that plank of the new governor’s agenda may prove a microcosm for much of what is ahead in Albany.

Comptroller Tom Dinapoli, a man who knows Albany well, said there was reason to be hopeful, even on that, arguing that those structural changes could even be made in time to affect the budget deficit for this coming year.

“The time is now. it’s going to take resolve and will, which is something we have now,” Dinapoli said. “Yeah, it could be done.”

[email protected]

TheYear AheadThumbs up for Cuomoso far, but fears of politics and privatization run under surface

312

.75"

Trim

10" Trim

13" B

leed

10.25" Bleed

12.2

5" L

ive

9.5" Live

Scale: 1" = 1" CapitalAlmost There Ad10” x 12.75”

Altria1.4.2011Issue & ImageBill Lai [email protected]

Media:Ad:Trim Size:Live Size:Client:Date:Agency:Contact:

Production Approval: Date:

Client Approval: Date:

Ad No: AL010511

Paid for by the New York Association of Convenience Stores, and by Altria Client Services on behalf of Philip Morris USA

ENFORCE THE LAW - COLLECT THE TAX!Visit www.CollectTheTaxNY.com Today

Last June, the State Legislature and Governor Paterson enacted a law that fi nally solves an enormous problem with the cigarette tax system in New York – a problem that has resulted in millions of untaxed

cigarettes being sold through reservation outlets to non-tribal consumers. These untaxed cigarettes have cost the State billions in revenues, forced honest retailers throughout the State to cut jobs, and placed

a growing strain on law enforcement.

Not surprisingly, the people who profi t from these untaxed cigarettes are trying to block efforts to collect the tax.

New York needs to continue moving forward - for the law-abiding retailers who play by the rules and hard-working taxpayers who shoulder an increasingly heavy burden. In the years to come, enforcing the law will

provide billions of dollars of revenue for vital government services.

With the state’s on-going budget problems, let’s fi nish the job. It’s the right thing to do -and the right time to do it.

ALMOST THERE...Billions of Dollars for New York

Services are Finally Within Reach.

www.nycapitolnews.com4 JANUARY 2011 THE CAPITOL

gram, which provides lower-cost energy to businesses that cre-ate and retain jobs, should be made per-manent.

Cuomo has criti-cized the program for not being open to new businesses and not being adminis-tered effectively. In his “Power NY” pol-icy book, he vowed that Power For Jobs “will be reformed to ensure predictability and stability.”

Cahill and other Democrats hope to make the program permanent, and legis-lation to permanently fund the program has been stalled by dis-agreements over what reforms should be made.

“This legislation is near the top of our priority list,” Cahill said. “We want to make it a permanent economic develop-ment tool.”

Legislation to extend the program could create as many as 30,000 jobs, said Dayle Zatlin, assistant director of com-munications for the New York State Ener-gy Research and Development Authority.

While the Power For Jobs program gets top billing, legislators are looking at solar and wind energy incentives to help boost the state’s renewable energy gen-eration, as costs for fossil fuels rise.

Renewable energy from solar power has become popular in states up and down the eastern seaboard, from New Jersey to South Carolina, and advocates say that New York would do well to capi-talize on growing public curiosity about creating their own power.

One way to do that is a proposal to con-tinue to strengthen the state’s net metering laws, which allows New Yorkers to gener-ate their own power and sell the excess. Another proposal would require utilities to use a certain amount of solar power, and, if not, to compensate by buying solar power credits. Cahill said that initiative could cre-ate a market force for the energy.

Solar-power credit legislation has strong bipartisan support in the State Senate, Cahill said.

BY LAURA NAHMIAS

THOUGH HYDROFRACKING ANDgreen-job creation are still in play, Assembly Energy Committee Chair

Kevin Cahill is also hoping to refocus the conversation around investment in new power plants.

With the national and state economy at critical points, Cahill said, the revenue possibilities are enormous.

“We are leaving a period of a cooled-down economy and reentering a warmed-up economy,” he said, “in which case there should be renewed interest from private investors.”

That renewed interest could help propel several energy initiatives, Cahill said. The State Senate is still divided over whether the long-running, but tem-porarily unfunded, Power For Jobs pro-

ENERGY LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

Ethics AndBudget Reform

Last year, the Legislature passed a wa-tered-down ethics reform plan that was ve-toed by David Paterson, who criticized the fact that ethics would still be overseen by a legislatively appointed board rather than one independently selected.

Like Paterson, Cuomo proposed the es-tablishment of an independent state ethics commission with “robust enforcement pow-ers” that would not be appointed by the Legislature. He also called for the full dis-closure of all outside sources of income—including the disclosure of clients by the attorneys in the Legislature.

This was not included in last year’s eth-ics reform bill, and has for years been a sticking point for Assembly Speaker Shel-don Silver, who is of counsel at Weitz & Luxenberg and has argued that this would violate client privacy rights.

Cuomo has already issued an executive order requiring all executive chamber staff and top state offi cials to undergo extensive ethics training.

The incoming governor, meanwhile, has embraced some of outgoing Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch’s budget reforms, such as starting the state’s fi scal year on July 1 and transitioning to GAAP accounting. Howev-er, Cuomo has ruled out Ravitch’s plan to borrow $6 billion over the next three years to fund operating expenses—a valuable carrot in Ravitch’s plan that could make passing the other measures more diffi cult.

INTRACTABLES

Charged DebateHydrofracking, Power For Jobs, Renewable Energy, Article X and more in energy overload

tion that would require the federal gov-ernment to take part in the environmental review process.

As for nuclear power, Cuomo has promised to pass Article X, as well as close the reactor at Indian Point, a posi-tion that has many nuclear power advo-cates concerned about the effect on the state’s energy output. He made scant reference to his energy proposals in his State of the State speech.

The state has been without a power plant siting law since 2003. Legislators ar-gue the Indian Point plant, which provides up to 30 percent of the power used in New York City and Westchester County, cannot be closed unless the siting law is enacted. Even then, and even if all the dreams of renewable generation are realized, there is widespread skepticism the state would feasibly be able to produce enough energy to compensate for the amount of energy that would be removed from the market by closing Indian Point. Cuomo has long been a supporter of closing the nuclear plant, but has yet to sketch out an alterna-tive, devoting just a few sentences to the issue in his energy book.

But he did address the need for Article X, calling for a new law that is “rational, balances competing concerns, and re-sults in new projects getting built.”

“Without an adequate law,” Cahill said, “we’re frozen with what we have.”

[email protected]

Those kinds of initiatives—renewable energy, energy effi ciency and emissions reductions—will have to come hard and fast for the state to meet its energy goals for the year 2015, according to Cuomo’s policy books.

Gov. David Paterson vetoed a morato-rium on hydrofracking, calling for more study on the procedure. And there is little indication of how Cuomo will handle the issue. In his policy book, Cuomo writes that “the economic potential from the Marcellus Shale could provide a badly needed boost to the economy of the southern tier, and even many environ-mentalists agree we want to produce more domestic natural gas that reduces the need for environmentally damaging fuel sources such as coal.”

But the policy book also warns that Cuomo will not approve any drilling that could negatively affect the state’s drink-ing water—a verdict that could take more than six months to come from the state’s Department of Environmental Conserva-tion, a regulatory body anti-fracking advo-cates have said is far too understaffed to complete the review work and whose pre-vious environmental impact statements on the process were decried as inadequate.

The Independent Oil and Gas Associa-tion “opposes any legislation that would further delay increased natural gas devel-opment in New York,” IOGA spokesman Jim Smith wrote in an e-mail.

Some Democrats hope to pass legisla-

JOH

N DAL

Y

5

THE SOLUTION MAY LOOK GOOD ON THE SURFACE, BUT IS IT?

Safe. Secure. Vital.

Indian Point Energy Center

The NY Department of Environmental Conservation staff wants cooling towers to be built at Indian Point. They believe cooling

towers are necessary to protect fish eggs and larvae in the Hudson River. We at Indian Point share the goal of protecting the Hudson

environment, but have a smarter solution—a technology that is far more effective over time and far less disruptive than cooling towers.

The DEC and Indian Point share a common goal. But we also believe there’s a smarter solution—one that will protect the Hudson’s

environment and ensure the continued flow of 26 percent of New York City and Westchester’s power supply. Isn’t it obvious?

Visit SafeSecureVital.com/the-smarter-solution to find out more about Wedgewire screens.

Why cooling towers don’t make sense.

Each cooling tower would be 17 stories high, seriously

impacting our scenic Hudson shoreline. Cooling towers

would also release more than 100 tons of particulate

matter into the air, and they’d take at least 15 years

to permit and build.

Why Wedgewire screens are the smarter solution.

Wedgewire screens are installed underwater, so they’re not

visible. Wedgewire screens are non-polluting. And they

could be installed within 5 years—at least 10 years sooner

than cooling towers.

COOLING TOWERS VERSUS WEDGEWIRE SCREENS

10 X 12.75


MEET THE NEW MEMBERS LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

Jack Martins’s win over incumbent Democratic Sen. Craig Johnson was a sleeper surprise that handed

Republicans control of the majority. The too-close-to-call race slogged through the state court system for weeks, until fi nally ending in Martins’s favor.

His campaign operation, built around voter frustration with property taxes and the MTA payroll tax, got a leg up with funding from now-Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a fellow Long Islander for whom the Johnson seat had become a personal quest.

As mayor of Mineola, Martins dealt frequently with transit issues. His district has fi ve of the busiest train stations on Long Island. He also prioritized transparency in government, televising village meetings, and encouraged community and business forums. He favors a property-tax cap with a circuit breaker.

“New York State is in pretty tough shape,” Martins told The Capitol in August.

“The last two years have been a disappointment, with one scandal after another. I’m particularly disappointed with votes Craig took, approving the budget, eliminating STAR rebate checks. The way to come to terms with the budget is to cut costs.”

Of the rise of Tea Party populism, Martins said, “In 2008, the issues were secondary to the national mood. There was a clear decision on the part of the national public to move away from the Bush years and Republicans in general. Unfortunately, the issues still exist, and now people are more concerned with the realities of the economy and the effectiveness of government.”

He added, “They’re looking for honesty.”

DATE OF BIRTH: June 19, 1967

BIRTHPLACE: Mineola, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Mineola, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: lawyer

EDUCATION: J.D. St. John’s University,

B.A. American University

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: mayor of

MineolaFAMILY: wife, Paula, four daughters

It seemed natural that Mike Gianaris would take the reins of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, despite just being elected to the

chamber for the fi rst time. After all, Gianaris is a savvy political operator, and, like his predecessor as the chair of the committee, Jeff Klein, a powerhouse fundraiser.

But right out of the gate, Gianaris said he is going to be focused on policy—namely, ethics reform.

“I’ve been a leader in the Assembly in efforts to reform Albany and make it work more effectively,” he said, “and the Senate needs it as much as any institution in state government.”

Despite the fact that the majority of incoming legislators have signed Mayor Ed Koch’s reform pledges, Gianaris said the real work has yet to come. Independent redistricting, for one, is a priority for the newly elected Queens Democrat.

“I look forward to holding senators’ feet to the fi re to follow through on their

commitment,” he said.Gianaris said he is disappointed Democrats are

not in the majority this time around, but with his new job at DSCC, he hopes to change that in two years. And the only way to do that, he said, is through effective policies.

“The Republicans put politics over governing, and voted no on things they supported just to make life diffi cult for the Democrats,” he said. “I’m hoping we don’t take that course. We’ll have plenty of time for the politics of the next election on a separate track.”

DATE OF BIRTH: April 23, 1970

BIRTHPLACE: Astoria, Queens

RESIDENCE: Astoria, Queens

OCCUPATION: Assembly member

EDUCATION: B.A. Fordham; J.D.

Harvard University

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Assembly

memberFAMILY: single

Greg Ball, 33, won a resounding victory against Democratic Westchester County Legislator Mike Kaplowitz for the Senate

seat—vacated by the subsequently indicted State Sen. Vincent Leibell—as an outsider and a fi scal conservative.

Ball said the vote was a bellwether on social issues, including illegal immigration, an issue that whips his constituents into enough of a frenzy to vote for him en masse.

The former Assembly member, who says he grew up on the Kennedy estate as the child of its caretakers, has a bit of a reputation. He took to the fl oor to denounce former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno shortly after he took offi ce in 2006, irking his colleagues. But he may have mellowed a bit in the years since—though many Republicans still worry about how he will perform in the Senate, he has been

largely silent since he won the election in November, declining interviews and releasing chaste press statements on the Leibell indictment, despite years of very public bickering with his predecessor.

His focus is on changing Albany, he said. “I care about term limits, I care about pension reform,”

Ball said. After years as a minority member in the Assembly, he said he hopes he can be more pro-

active as a senator. “Being in the super-minority, it’s miraculous that I’ve been able to use my bully pulpit to

accomplish even a few things,” he said.

Gustavo Rivera is very mindful of regulations. For example, he would never talk on a cell phone while driving.

“I’m very, very observant of the law,” he said. “I’m kind of a lawmaker, so I have to be.”

Given what happened to the last senator from the 33rd district, Rivera is also hyper-aware of what happens when lawmakers do not follow the law. But he says he does not feel added pressure to outperform Pedro Espada, Jr., just energized to get to Albany.

“I can’t wait to get started,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting sworn in. There’s a lot of work to do.”

Rivera may have never run for offi ce before, but he is a seasoned political operative, having worked for Kirsten Gillibrand and a number of Senate Democrats over the years. His win over Espada was partly because of Espada’s own sordid reputation, but also because of a coalition

of activists, reformers and labor leaders that came to Rivera’s aid.

Rivera said he fully expected to be in the majority when he reached offi ce. Now that it is clear he will not be, he is concerned about his level of effectiveness.

Ever the operative, Rivera says he is already thinking long-term. He plans to make constituent services a top priority, in the hopes of elevating voters’ opinions of the Democratic Party enough to win back the majority in two years.

“There was obviously a lot of chaos,” he said. “I have very high hopes.”

JRepublicans control of the majority. The too-close-to-call race slogged through the state court system for weeks, until fi nally ending in Martins’s favor.

voter frustration with property taxes and the MTA payroll tax, got a leg up with funding from now-Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a fellow Long Islander for whom the Johnson seat had become a personal quest.

frequently with transit issues. His district has fi ve of the busiest train stations on Long Island. He also prioritized transparency in government, televising village meetings, and encouraged community and business forums. He favors a property-tax cap with a circuit breaker.

shape,” Martins told

Jack MartinsJack Martins (R-Nassau)

7thDistrict

Gsaid. “I’m kind of a lawmaker, so I have to be.”

from the 33rd district, Rivera is also hyper-aware of what happens when lawmakers do not follow the law. But he says he does not feel added pressure to outperform Pedro Espada, Jr., just energized to get to Albany.

looking forward to getting sworn in. There’s a lot of work to do.”

before, but he is a seasoned political operative, having worked for Kirsten Gillibrand and a number of Senate Democrats over the years. His win over Espada was partly because of Espada’s own

of activists,

Gustavo RiveraGustavo Rivera (D-Bronx)

33rdDistrict

Greg BallGreg Ball (R-Westchester/Putnam)

40thDistrict

It seemed natural that Mike Gianaris would take the reins of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, despite just being elected to the

chamber for the fi rst time. After all, Gianaris is a savvy political operator, and, like his predecessor as the chair of the committee, Jeff Klein, a powerhouse fundraiser.

going to be focused on policy—namely, ethics reform.

to reform Albany and make it work more effectively,” he said, “and the Senate needs it as much as any institution in state government.”

incoming legislators have signed Mayor Ed Koch’s reform pledges, Gianaris said the real work has yet to come. Independent redistricting, for one, is a priority for the newly elected Queens Democrat.

feet to the fi re to follow through on their

Mike GianarisMike Gianaris (D-Queens)

12thDistrict

DATE OF BIRTH: Nov. 19, 1975

BIRTHPLACE: Santurce, Puerto Rico

RESIDENCE: University Heights, Bronx

OCCUPATION: Director of outreach for

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

EDUCATION: B.A., University of PR, Rio

Piedras Campus; PhD, political science,

CUNY Graduate Center

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: none

FAMILY: “extra-single”

DATE OF BIRTH: Sept. 16, 1977

BIRTHPLACE: Pawling, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Carmel, N.Y.


EDUCATION: U.S. Air Force Academy

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: N.Y. State

Assembly, 2006-2010

FAMILY: dog, Hannah

THE CAPITOL JANUARY 2011 7www.nycapitolnews.com


Tom O’Mara, a former Assembly Member, steamrolled his Democratic opponent Pam Mackesey in the race to replace retiring

GOP State Sen. George Winner. O’Mara won a primary against Republican Assemblyman Jim Bacalles, whom he outspent in the race by three to one.

O’Mara wants a seat on the Senate’s Energy and Economic Development Committees, he said, citing his work as ranker on the Assembly Energy Committee. He is a strong supporter of drilling in the Marcellus Shale, and said he hoped an environmental impact assessment due out next year will clear the way for more drilling—providing more jobs for the region.

Job-creation is key to his new term, he said. To boost it, O’Mara wants something similar to the now-expired Empire Jobs program for his district. The Paterson plan helped create thousands of jobs, but the Excelsior program designed to replace it is lackluster by comparison, he said.

“We’re in such a dire fi scal position right now, that bringing up any funds for anything on this point is going to be diffi cult,” he said

of the possibility of reinstating the program. “We have to get our spending under control, get our taxes under control at all

levels.” Like other GOP Conference members, he was

cautiously optimistic about working with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on those needed budget cuts. Cuomo’s budget proposal, due out Feb. 1, just weeks after the legislators begin their fi rst session, must contain major cuts in order to balance the defi cit.

“We haven’t had a governor who’s been willing to follow through on those cuts,” O’Mara said.

“When Gov. Spitzer was elected, he campaigned on similar issues and had a similar mandate, but we didn’t get that follow-through. Cuomo’s message isn’t much different than what Spitzer’s was,” he said.

TGOP State Sen. George Winner. O’Mara won a primary against Republican Assemblyman Jim Bacalles, whom he outspent in the race by three to one.

and Economic Development Committees, he said, citing his work as ranker on the Assembly Energy Committee. He is a strong supporter of drilling in the Marcellus Shale, and said he hoped an environmental impact assessment due out next year will clear the way for more drilling—providing more jobs for the region.

To boost it, O’Mara wants something similar to the now-expired Empire Jobs program

Tom O’MaraTom O’Mara

53rdDistrictTony Avella is a stickler for titles. He

was irked when Dan Halloran, who succeeded him on the City Council,

began telling people to refer to him as “councilman” even before being sworn in. So after he defeated State Sen. Frank Padavan in the November elections, Avella insisted on being called “senator-elect” until offi cially taking offi ce in January. That is, until he heard Padavan shut down his district offi ce after conceding the election.

“At that point I thought, ‘Might as well,’” Avella said.

Avella’s victory marks the end of a long stretch of non-stop campaigning, fi rst in an ultra-long-shot run for New York City mayor, and then for Senate. But Avella said he has no intention of slowing down once he takes offi ce, where he will begin to push for major structural and ethical reforms to state government.

“Reform Albany, reform Albany, reform Albany,” he said.

Coming from the City Council, where he had a reputation for noisemaking and being a bit of a maverick, Avella will fi nd himself in a vastly different environment. No longer a member of a super Democratic Council majority, he will be a member of a slim minority, with fewer powers but more opportunities for bipartisan deal making. Avella said he is also looking forward to exerting more infl uence over the fl ow of cash and policy in the city from a state lawmaker’s perspective.

“The one thing I learned in the City Council was how little the City of New York controls its own destiny,” he said. “So in that respect I’ll probably have more power, even in the minority.”

Tbegan telling people to refer to him as “councilman” even before being sworn in. So after he defeated State Sen. Frank Padavan in the November elections, Avella insisted on being called “senator-elect” until offi cially taking offi ce in January. That is, until he heard Padavan shut down his district offi ce after conceding the election.

well,’” Avella said.

Tony AvellaTony Avella (D-Queens)

11thDistrict

DATE OF BIRTH: Oct. 27, 1951

BIRTHPLACE: Astoria, Queens

RESIDENCE: Whitestone, Queens

OCCUPATION: Senator

EDUCATION: B.A. in Political Science,

Hunter College

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: New York

City Council

FAMILY: wife, Judith

Very few political observers thought David Carlucci had much of a chance of winning this year. Running as a Democrat in a

Republican year against a well-known Republican candidate in a Republican district is not a recipe for success. But here he is, the youngest member of the chamber, ready to defy even more odds if necessary. And while he hopes to offer a fresh perspective in the Senate, he said he still intends to work with those older members with whom he shares values and perspective on policies.

“We’re not known for having the best operational government,” Carlucci said. “Just because I’m young doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who are older who have the same ideas as me. It’s all about your attitude.”

As one of the two Democratic pick-ups, Carlucci will have many eyes on him as he navigates his new job. Legislating in the minority is never easy, but Carlucci says he will focus on the needs of his district,

with re-election in two years never far from his mind.

Job creation tops his list of priorities, specifi cally ways in which to improve the business climate in Central New York, where companies such as Pfi zer employ over 200 residents. Specifi cally, Carlucci said he would like to develop an Excelsior Zone-type program to bring biotechnology jobs to New York.

“The polio vaccine was developed right here in Rockland County—the vaccine for smallpox,” he said. “We have such a talented workforce. So we should focus on that.”

VRepublican year against a well-known Republican candidate in a Republican district is not a recipe for success. But here he is, the youngest member of the chamber, ready to defy even more odds if necessary. And while he hopes to offer a fresh perspective in the Senate, he said he still intends to work with those older members with whom he shares values and perspective on policies.

operational government,” Carlucci said. “Just because I’m young doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who are older who have the same ideas as me. It’s all about your attitude.”

Carlucci will have many eyes on him as he

with re-

David CarlucciDavid Carlucci (D-Rockland)

38thDistrict


BIRTHPLACE: New City, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: New City, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: Clarkstown Town Clerk

EDUCATION: B.S. in Industrial Labor

Relations Cornell University

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: town clerk

FAMILY: engaged, Jan. 15 wedding

After 14 years in the Assembly, Adriano Espaillat hardly qualifi es as a new member. But according to the

politically savvy Democrat who fought his way through a tough primary to take over Eric Schneiderman’s Senate seat, that is exactly how he feels.

“I will have to reacquaint myself being in minority,” Espaillat said. “How do we approach issues and legislation and budget matters? In a sense, it’s a challenge.”

A native of Puerto Rico, Espaillat describes himself as a student of “opposition politics,” which he says make him well-suited to serve as a member of the Democratic minority in the Senate. He plans on being a vocal proponent of controversial issues, such as ethics reform and independent redistricting. Housing is also a hot-button issue close to Espaillat’s

heart. With Republicans in control of the chamber, he knows that he will have to fi ght even harder to get bills passed that are crucial to his urban constituents.

“Housing continues to be an important issue,” he said. “That’s why as we move to renew the rent-stabilization laws, it’s one I look forward to working on.”

Apolitically savvy Democrat who fought his way through a tough primary to take over Eric Schneiderman’s Senate seat, that is exactly how he feels.

in minority,” Espaillat said. “How do we approach issues and legislation and budget matters? In a sense, it’s a challenge.”

describes himself as a student of “opposition politics,” which he says make him well-suited to serve as a member of the Democratic minority in the Senate. He plans on being a vocal proponent of controversial issues, such as ethics reform and independent redistricting. Housing is also a hot-button issue

heart. With

Adriano EspaillatAdriano Espaillat(D-Manhattan/Bronx)

31stDistrict


BIRTHPLACE: Santiago, Puerto Rico

RESIDENCE: Manhattan, N.Y.


EDUCATION: B.A., Queens College

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Assembly,

district leader

FAMILY: two children

DATE OF BIRTH: May 31, 1963

BIRTHPLACE: Elmira, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Big Flats, N.Y.


EDUCATION: B.A. Catholic University;

J.D. Syracuse University College of Law

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: three terms

in State Assembly, former Chemung

County District Attorney

FAMILY: wife, Marilyn, three children

(R-Steuben/Yates/

Schuyler/Chemung)


ethics reform and mandate relief? In his State of the State speech, Cuomo said he would start with an “emergency fi nancial plan to stabilize our fi nances”—which would include a wage freeze for state workers, a spending cap and other mea-sures to close the gap without borrowing.

Memorably, he likened the budget pro-cess to “two ships passing in the night,” with a PowerPoint slide with images of himself and legislative leaders in nautical garb, standing on three different battle-ships.

Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver has said he is open to a property-tax cap, but many of his members, as well as public-employee unions, are still adamantly opposed. Also, neither Cuomo nor Sen-ate Republican Leader Dean Skelos has hinted at any plans to renew the $4 bil-lion “millionaire’s tax,” championed by the Assembly majority and set to sunset this year.

Fissures between Democrats and Re-publicans have already appeared in the form of competing budget hearings across the state. Democrats held an all-day Fi-nance Committee hearing on Dec. 12 in Manhattan that they billed as an effort to “put a face” on potential budget cuts. Meanwhile, Republicans met with local health providers in Syracuse to hear com-

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS

AS FAR AS BUDGETS go, last year’s set new records for unpredictabil-ity.

Who could have predicted that the negotiations would drag on months past the deadline? Or that Gov. David Paterson would use budget extenders to steamroll his spending cuts through the Legisla-ture? Or that he would veto $400 million in member items, one-by-one, in a theatri-cal two-day marathon?

The state is staring down a $10 billion hole for this year and another $14 billion in defi cit for next year, but now that the chaos of last year’s legislative session is in the past and a new governor and a new Republican-controlled Senate are both stressing fi scal austerity and bi-partisanship, optimists would like to believe that 2011 is bound to be better.

Carl Kruger, former Senate Finance Committee chair, is not among them. As Kruger sees it, the Senate Republi-cans will be in exactly the same posi-tion as the Democrats last year, hang-ing on to their majority by one seat.

“This is going to be a partisan bat-tle,” Kruger said. “It’s going to be a regionalized battle. It’ll be a battle of one group against the other. I see it as a very contentious period, in both the budget as well as the policy.”

Traditionally, the Legislature aims to play nice with the new governor by turn-ing in an on-time document with little hassle. But this year is shaping up to be different. Andrew Cuomo has sent signals that timeliness is not a factor, just as long as the fi nal product contains the spending cuts and formula fi xes he outlined in his policy books and is expected to outline in further detail in his executive budget.

The problem is, though, no one seems to know what kind of proposal Cuomo will release. A benign budget proposal? Or one rife with controversial measures, such as a property-tax cap, spending cap,

BUDGET LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

“This is going to be a partisan battle,” said

outgoing Finance Chair Carl Kruger. “It’s going to be a

regionalized battle. It’ll be a battle of one group against

the other.”

As a $10 billion hole gets deeper by the day, all eyes are on the Cuomo executive budget

Cash Crunch

plaints about how spending cuts would af-fect their ability to deliver services.

“My point was very simple,” said State Sen. John DeFrancisco, who will chair the Finance Committee. “‘That’s fi ne, we’ve heard this before. But you’re the professionals. You have to know areas where money is being wasted.’”

DeFrancisco said to expect this sort of “real talk” from the Republican majority throughout the budget season. Their ad-vice to recipients of state money: develop a list of cuts, deliver them to Cuomo’s

staff, or risk an across-the-board cut that would do more harm than good. DeFrancisco said he and his fellow Republicans were anxious to get to work rooting out two-years worth of Democratic budget policies, an effort he fully expects his colleagues from across the aisle to oppose.

“There’s no way you’re going to convince many of the New York City Democrats to cut a nickel,” he said. “They may become more emboldened to look like the saviors of those who

receive government benefi ts.” And if Cuomo wants an on-time bud-

get, he can get it, DeFrancisco said. He just has to ask for it.

“He can say, ‘No extenders,’” he said. “If you’re in that situation, then the blame would be totally on the legislative branch if the budget wasn’t on time.”

With hacking and slashing at the top of the list of priorities, reforming the state’s out-of-whack budget process is also like-ly to be lost in the shuffl e. Liz Krueger, former vice chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said she has no clue whether Cuomo has absorbed her report or outgo-ing Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch’s report on budget reforms. And she refused to say whether she believed Cuomo would make budget reform a priority.

“There was reference made in the orig-inal, 250-page whatever you call them, mega-something books,” she said. “There was reference to the importance of a bal-anced budget. But as far as the details, I don’t know that he’s come out with any-thing.”

Another late budget would result in further chaos around the state and rob lo-cal municipalities of their ability to plan effectively, said Carol Kellerman, execu-tive director of the Citizens Budget Com-mission. Kellerman said she hopes Cuomo and the Legislature will be able to tackle what she calls “the big three.”

“Compensation, Medicaid and school aid,” she said. “You’re not going to be able to balance the budget on just cuts in one of

them. You have to work on all three. So they’re all high priority. And they’re

all very diffi cult, because they have very strong constituencies.”

Before state leaders can even get that far, they have to agree on the size of the problem. Unions and fi scal watchdogs ar-gue that $9 billion is only the projected defi cit because of expected increases in general fund spending. And as long as the state is committed to increasing spend-ing, the cries for cuts and layoffs will strike many as disingenuous.

“This is not in the realm of reality,” said Frank Mauro of the Fiscal Policy Institute. “If the new governor continues on the David Paterson track of exagger-ating the situation and saying there’s a$9 billion gap—and uses that as a basis for radical solutions—we could see very bad things happen.”

[email protected]

Indian CigarettesTobacco and convenience store lobby-

ists are crossing their fi ngers that 2011 will be the year—and Andrew Cuomo the governor—to bring an end to the ongo-ing Indian tobacco tax debacle that they say has robbed the state of billions in tax revenue. So far, there has been no word from Cuomo on taxing tobacco products sold on Indian reservations. A quick glance at the tangled web of court orders and intersecting lawsuits could partly explain why the incoming governor has been silent on the issue. Back in Octo-ber, a federal judge extended his ban on the taxation of Indian-sold cigarettes, a boon to politically savvy tribes like the Senecas. But the judge also refused to hear some of the tribe’s key arguments, which could spell trouble for them fur-ther down the road.

Proponents of collecting the tax are hopeful that the judge will ultimately uphold the constitutionality of the state’s directive to begin collecting the tax. Tribal leaders have vowed to use every legal tool in their arsenal to fi ght against the tax collection. But if Cuomo does not weigh in soon, the whole issue could go up in smoke.

INTRACTABLES

JOHN DALY

9

There is a lot at stake this year.

Over 40 percent of New York’s roads and bridges are rated as substandard or deficient

At New York’s current rate of infrastructure spending,these problems will continue to get worse

Without adequate investment in our transportation infrastructure,how can we expect our economy to recover and grow

must make Transportation a this legislative session.

NEW YORKERS...

NEW YORK STATE

New York State needs to make Transportation a

18 CorporateWoods Blvd, Albany, NY 12211 • (518) 449-1715 • (800) 797-5931 • Fax: (518) 449-1621 • www.nysliuna.orgLECET

TransportAd4:Layout 1 1/5/11 3:31 PM Page 1


HEALTH LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

BY LAURA NAHMIAS

PATAKI, SPITZER, RAVITCH—the battle over health care dollars in New York has claimed its fair share

of prominent victims. Andrew Cuomo is determined to not be the next casualty.

Cuomo’s twin promises to cut from the state’s Medicaid program while holding the line on taxes will almost certainly put him at odds with the Legislature. That leaves powerful forces like 1199, advocates and health care lobbyists puzzling over how the new governor’s math will work.

In his State of the State speech, Cuomo announced that he would be borrowing best practices in Medicaid reform from Wisconsin, as well as that state’s Medic-aid director, Jason Helgerson. He said he would create a Medicaid redesign team to root out ineffi ciencies and waste in the program.

Though Cuomo focused on the issue throughout his transition in meetings with the various players, the state’s his-tory of battles and chaos over health care has kept the skepticism alive.

Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, chair of the Health Committee, worried the governor’s promise not to raise taxes would leave lawmakers with no choice but “to do serious damage to health care” in this year’s budget process.

“While there are ways you can mod-ify the Medicaid system that could save money, those proposals, whatever they may be, are not going to put much of a dent in the Medicaid budget for years to come,” Gottfried said, echoing the opin-ion of outgoing Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch,

Sorting out Paterson legacy and Cuomo proposals—plus coming federal health reform

who made rec-ommendations for changes to the state’s Medicaid system in a report he issued shortly before his term ended.

Part of the work of overhauling Medicaid will be implementing a law signed by Gov. David Pat-erson last year that turned over admin-istration of the program from the state’s counties and New York City to a single state-run program.

Though the legislation passed, local governments may push back against a state takeover, especially as it relates to elaborately designed systems to deter-mine a recipient’s eligibility and transpor-tation needs.

Michael Birnbaum of the Medicaid In-stitute at United Hospital Fund said the state’s assumption of all Medicaid admin-istrative responsibilities will involve a broad range of challenges.

“While centralizing activities like eli-

gibility determinations will yield effi cien-cies, the state will be performing some functions it has never handled in the past,” Birnbaum said.

Industry experts expect New York City offi cials to oppose handing over some re-sponsibilities too, arguing that the city al-ready has the technology to service Med-icaid recipients appropriately.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s offi ce did not return requests for comment.

Gottfried said that “a ton of technical cleanup pieces” of legislation might be needed to help implement the law.

The Legislature will also have to con-sider whether to pass a law to set up the insurance exchanges mandated by the

Obama health care reforms. Some other states are opting not to set up their own exchanges, instead waiting for the federal government to create them. New York’s health care offi cials are worried that the state has too little funding to set up its own. But the money may provide the per-fect opportunity for the state to address its many health care delivery problems.

“Billions of dollars are going to fl ow into the state from the federal govern-ment for national health reform. How can we apply those to redesign [Medicaid]?” said Stephen Acquario, director of the New York State Association of Counties and a member of Cuomo’s health care transition committee.

PrescriptionFor Problems

JOHN DALY

• Automotive Recyclers Association of New York

• Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association

• Metropolitan Package Store Association

• NFIB• NY Alliance for Environmental

Concerns• NY Association of Convenience Stores

• NY Farm Bureau• NY Hospitality and Tourism

Association• NYS Motor Truck Association• Northeastern Retail Lumber

Association• Rochester Builders Exchange• Support Services Alliance Inc.

194 Washington Avenue Suite 305Albany, NY 12210518.463.8103

THE CAPITOL january 2011 11www.nycapitolnews.com

Cuomo’s opening salvo was hiring a new health commissioner, Nirav Shah, who has specialized in comparing the ef-ficacy of different health care systems. Shah’s appointment was one of the first announced, perhaps signaling the degree of attention the governor expects to give health care in the term ahead. Lawmakers applauded Shah’s appointment, citing his

work on integrated health systems at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa.

That type of system, which coordi-nates all aspects of a patient’s care, will move closer to reality when the state cre-ates a unified system of electronic health records, an initiative that will be funded in part with federal money. The state already has regional health records sys-tems but funding is scarce, and critics of the program said it made communication between doctors in different parts of the

state difficult. The program is supposed to be up

and running by 2014—the same time the insurance exchanges for federal health care reform are to be implemented.

But the health care initiatives are on shaky federal ground, with challenges to the law’s constitutionality floating through federal courts. Here in New York, lawmakers seem to agree that the new Republican majority in the Senate will not look to obstruct the implementa-tion of the federal health reforms through their own actions.

Some new Assembly members may talk about shedding some of the state’s optional Medicaid services as part of the new spending cut doctrine being promot-ed by fiscal conservatives.

Kemp Hannon, who chaired the Sen-ate Health Committee until two years ago, said the state’s unusually large defi-cit may mean the committee will examine cutting those services.

Hannon said Senate Republicans will also address less broad topics such as cyber-bullying and head concussions in sports, both topics that have dominated the news cycle.

“I think when you’re having a $9 billion deficit,” Hannon said, “you’ll have to ask questions of the program that have never been asked before.”

[email protected]

HealtH legislative preview

The money from the federal health care

reforms may provide the perfect opportunity for the state to address its

many health care delivery problems.

Together we can turn New York State’s needs into opportunities for growth, employment and a better quality of life.

n Capital funding that meets NY’s growing infrastructure needs—for bridges, tunnels, energy, roads, transit, airports and water systems

n Cost-effective delivery of engineering services through greater use of private design firms

n A level playing field for NY’s engineering firms by allowing up to 25 percent ownership by non-licensed professionals

n Extension of Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) requirements to public authorities and public benefit corporations for higher quality design

n Development of a comprehensive energy policy, reducing bureaucratic stopgaps and encouraging Cleantech development

n Consideration of alternative project delivery methods— Design-build and Public Private Partnerships—to accelerate infrastructure projects, decrease costs and leverage private equity

Build a Better

Business Climate

An Agenda for Fiscal Responsibility and a Stronger New York:

Leaders in the business of engineeringwww.acecny.org

CALL TODAY! Free two week TRIAL-ID! (800) 356-6566 or (518) 455-7677

http://nyslrs.state.ny.us1450 Western Ave., Suite 310, Albany, NY 12203

Hi Frank, the final design has been approved!

Please send me the vectorized files of the logo,

including:

* With the grey text banner

* Without the banner (just the LRS)

* Black and white version

* Grayscale

* Inverse with box around it (for printing on dark

background)

Please send me an invoice for the $400 total payment

we owe you (it can be emailed to me). I have also

asked about you doing the lettering on our office

doors, and will let you know if that is a possibility.

Thanks again for all your help!

...Track Confidently!

The Legislative Digest is available On Time, On Line...

and ONLY On LRS.

Session is in the air...Are YOU ready for the newest LRS feature?



Former Erie County Sheriff Pat Gallivan has a to-do list for how to fi x New York State. “We want to create a climate that fosters

economic development, by controlling spending, taxes, regulation and eliminating the culture of corruption that we’ve seen in Albany,” he said. “Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?”

He laughs. Gallivan, formerly a registered Democrat,

won in a Republican primary against Erie County GOP-backed candidate Jim Domagalski for the seat being vacated by Democrat Dale Volker. Gallivan’s law enforcement background may have played a role in his election, he said, as residents looked for a new way to counteract the rise of corruption in Albany.

“The citizens in this district know that I’ve honored the public trust in a very physical fashion,” Gallivan said. “We have this constant spate of lawmakers committing crimes, getting indicted and going to prison.”

All of his legislative priorities for the

upcoming session seemed to center on economic development. Gallivan cited three projects of particular importance to Western New York: UB2020, continued monitoring of hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale, and maintaining funding levels for the state’s agricultural producers.

Gallivan said he was excited and eager to begin session, because it seemed Republicans, Democrats and the incoming governor have similar over-arching priorities. Of course, he added, “There is perpetual disagreement over the details.”

Before ousting Darrel Aubertine last November for the Senate seat that covers the sprawling North Country, Patty Ritchie

served as St. Lawrence County clerk for almost a decade. She established four regional DMV offi ces that she claims helped reduce long lines and improve effi ciency. And she has vowed to bring the same innovations to the State Senate.

Ritchie was buoyed by a strong anti-incumbency wave, as well as traditional demographics that heavily favored Republicans. Aubertine, a conservative Democrat, was always an anomaly in the North Country. Without the broad support from the Working Families Party that he enjoyed in his 2008 special election, Aubertine was easily defeated by Ritchie.

Ritchie touts her experience as president of the statewide association of county clerks. In that role, Ritchie vehemently opposed ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to grant drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants. She

also opposed the state’s plan to require new license plates for all motorists, which she says saved her district up to $7 million.

In a recent radio interview, she acknowledged the challenges of her new job, as well as her priority of protecting state workers that live in her district.

“I’m coming from a job where I’ve been able to make 99 percent of the people happy,” she recently told North Country Public Radio. “I’m going into a position with a huge defi cit, so there’s going to be some tough choices.”

BIRTHPLACE: Heuvelton, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Ogdensburg, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: St. Lawrence County

clerkEDUCATION: SUNY Potsdam

PREVIOUS OFFICES HELD: St.

Lawrence County clerk

FAMILY: husband, Thomas, three

children, one grandchild on the way


BIRTHPLACE: Buffalo, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Elma, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: sheriff of Erie County

EDUCATION: B.A. in Physical

Education, Canisius College; M.A.

Criminal Justice from SUNY-Albany

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: served two

terms as Sheriff of Erie County

FAMILY: wife, Mary Pat, two children

Bserved as St. Lawrence County clerk for almost a decade. She established four regional DMV offi ces that she claims helped reduce long lines and improve effi ciency. And she has vowed to bring the same innovations to the State Senate.

incumbency wave, as well as traditional demographics that heavily favored Republicans. Aubertine, a conservative Democrat, was always an anomaly in the North Country. Without the broad support from the Working Families Party that he enjoyed in his 2008 special election, Aubertine was easily defeated by Ritchie.

the statewide association of county clerks. In that role, Ritchie vehemently opposed ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to grant drivers’ licenses to

also opposed

Patty RitchiePatty Ritchie (R- St. Lawrence/Jefferson/Oswego)

48thDistrict

Feconomic development, by controlling spending, taxes, regulation and eliminating the culture of corruption that we’ve seen in Albany,” he said. “Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?”

won in a Republican primary against Erie County GOP-backed candidate Jim Domagalski for the seat being vacated by Democrat Dale Volker. Gallivan’s law enforcement background may have played a role in his election, he said, as residents looked for a new way to counteract the rise of corruption in Albany.

honored the public trust in a very physical

Patrick GallivanPatrick Gallivan(R-Erie)

59thDistrict

Lee Zeldin, the 30-year-old Long Island native who handily won his election against Brian Foley this year, also made a near-

successful attempt to knock off U.S. House Rep. Tim Bishop back in 2008, winning 48 percent of the vote. Zeldin, who served as an attorney for the U.S. Army in Iraq after graduating law school, attributes the win this year to “knocking on a lot of doors.”

He also had support from the anti-incumbent Tea Party insurgency, and major money from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, along with Long Island’s patron saint of the GOP, now-majority leader Dean Skelos.

Foley was particularly vulnerable because of his unpopular “yes” vote on the MTA payroll tax. Zeldin’s campaign was tight, and scandals were non-existent. The dirtiest label the Foley campaign could paint Zeldin with was a weak association to Sarah Palin.

Zeldin has fi scal issues on his mind. His number-one legislative priority will be working to reduce the state’s defi cit through the passage of a responsible budget.

“Our problems are very real,” he said, but he’s “eager to get to Albany.”

He seemed optimistic about working with Cuomo, and assured of the cohesion of the new Republican conference.

“We will be very disciplined,” he said. And a plurality of GOP members from Long Island

should make his freshman term easier, he said. “Fortunately, being a new state senator from

Long Island with eight other senators that are in our conference, I will be in a position that will allow me to fi ght for my constituents from day one,” he said.

DATE OF BIRTH: Jan. 30, 1980

BIRTHPLACE: East Meadow, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Shirley, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: attorney

EDUCATION: SUNY Albany, B.A. in

Political Science; J.D. Albany Law

SchoolPREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Student

CouncilFAMILY: wife, Diana, identical twin

daughters, Arianna and Mikayla

Lee ZeldinLee Zeldin (R-Suffolk)

3rdDistrictAfter surviving a grueling recount battle,

Mark Grisanti will arrive in Albany under unusual circumstances: he is a registered

Democrat caucusing with the Republican Party. The odd situation is a result of his decision to put his money where his mouth is and actually undertake bipartisan politics.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to beat Sen. [Antoine] Thompson in a Democratic primary.’ That’s when I was approached by the Republicans,” said Grisanti.

He saw his jump to the GOP as a way to effectively challenge Thompson on the issue that matters most to Western New Yorkers: jobs.

“It’s fi ve-to-one Democrat here, but our message resonated in the 60th District,” Grisanti said. “Democratic voters switched over and voted for my line. They realized that Sen. Thompson hasn’t brought jobs like he said he would. He maintains that he did, but people don’t know how he can say that.”

As such, Grisanti says the Republican leadership cannot expect him to tow the party line. He will work with anybody who he feels has workable solutions.

Grisanti says what he calls his “bipartisan drive for solutions” comes from his deep roots within the community he represents. Born in Buffalo, Grisanti practices law with Grisanti & Grisanti, his family’s fi rm since 1921. He witnessed fi rsthand the tragic effects of joblessness on Buffalo’s population.

“I talk to people, and they all say the same thing: we don’t have jobs,” he said. “There are kids on the street, and because there are no jobs, they’re getting into drugs and gangs. That’s why it’s important to bring jobs here, to prevent that.”

To that end, Grisanti comes to Albany with a concrete set of solutions. First on his agenda is to work to get UB2020 passed. He is also looking into ways to transform the Niagara Falls airport, which has the third longest runways in the world, into “a major cargo hub in the Northeast for distributing and storing goods” that could revitalize his district.

ADemocrat caucusing with the Republican Party. The odd situation is a result of his decision to put his money where his mouth is and actually undertake bipartisan politics.

Sen. [Antoine] Thompson in a Democratic primary.’ That’s when I was approached by the Republicans,” said Grisanti.

effectively challenge Thompson on the issue that matters most to Western New Yorkers: jobs.

message resonated in the 60th District,” Grisanti said. “Democratic voters switched over and voted for my line. They realized that Sen. Thompson hasn’t brought jobs like he

people don’t know how he can say that.” As such, Grisanti says the

Mark Grisanti Mark Grisanti (R-Erie)

60thDistrict

DATE OF BIRTH: Oct., 21, 1964


RESIDENCE: Buffalo, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: lawyer

EDUCATION: B.A. Canisius College;

J.D. Thomas M. Cooley Law School


FAMILY: married, three children



Aravella Simotas has big hopes for her legislative district in Queens, and big shoes to fi ll. Her seat used to belong

to Senator-elect Mike Gianaris, whose fi rst campaign she volunteered for, and who is replacing Jeff Klein as chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.

“That was 10 years ago, Mike Gianaris’ fi rst race,” she said. “It’s very sentimental that I ran for the seat.”

Simotas ran unopposed in her heavily Democratic district, where the highest priorities are saving local hospitals and preserving education funding, she said.

Hospital closures have polarized the city since the state began implementing the recommendations of the 2006 Berger Commission, and Simotas seemed ready to fi ght to save the one her borough had left—Mount Sinai Queens.

“We’re a growing community, with lots of families moving in with young children. We

don’t have a physical health community that can really service the residents, so I look forward to advocating for the hospital,” she said.

But not at the expense of other major priorities, such as schools funding. “Right now, it’s important we keep our priorities

straight. We have to make sure the budget stays intact for schools and teachers. We have to give them the resources we need to reform,” she said.

Simotas said she also hoped the Legislature could pass the ethics reform bill co-sponsored by Gianaris to support creation of an independent redistricting commission.

“This year, we saw how much people are fed up with government and yearning for change and reform. We need to make government more transparent and end gerrymandering, in order to restore people’s faith in government again,” she said.

Being the managing partner of his law fi rm means a lot of things to Andy Goodell, namely that when it’s time to shovel the

sidewalk or mow the lawn, the job is best done yourself.

Goodell says he will take the same approach to his job in the Assembly. He ran for offi ce because he believes New York was heading in the wrong direction on taxes and spending, and wanted to be part of the solution.

“Unfortunately, New York tends to rank the lowest of all states when it comes to being business-friendly,” Goodell said. “That’s refl ected in our anemic employment growth.”

He plans to take a close look at how the state spends money, especially mandates like Medicaid and welfare. He has already devised a number of recommendation for reforming the state’s bloated Medicaid program.

“These systems are rife with perverse fi nancial

incentives,” he said. “I’m sure they were put in with the right intentions, but have had unanticipated negative effects.”

Goodell was elected to a seat formerly held by retiring Democrat Bill Parment. As a new member of the growing Republican Assembly conference, Goodell said he hopes that both parties can put differences aside for the good of the state.

“I’ll be pitching to Republicans and Democrats alike,” he said. “If they make sense, I would hope they move forward with them.”

DATE OF BIRTH: Dec. 1, 1954

BIRTHPLACE: Jamestown, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Jamestown, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: managing partner,

Goodell & Rankin

EDUCATION: B.A. in Mathematics and

Political Science, Williams College; J.D.

Cornell Law School

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Chautaugua

County Executive

FAMILY: wife, four children

In November, Francisco Moya beat back a challenge from indicted ex-State Sen. Hiram Monserrate for the Assembly seat formerly

occupied by José Peralta, in a feat he describes as a “victory for reform.”

The 37-year-old Queens native says he is the fi rst elected offi cial of Ecuadorian descent in the country. His involvement in politics was a reaction to growing violence in his Queens community. The challenge from Monserrate made his race one of the most watched of the election cycle.

“We had the highest voter turnout in the history of the Assembly district,” he said. “The highest voter turnout out of all the state races in the city.”

Moya’s previous experience in government includes work for Rep. Nydia Velázquez and David Paterson, when he was a senator. Moya said those legislators taught him the fundamentals of community organizing.

“I’m trying to bring dignity and integrity back to the community,” he said.

Along with a group of Queens legislators he calls the Unity-team, Moya is hoping to use his position to fund anti-gang violence initiatives and support job creation. The area has lost major manufacturing plants over the past several years, he said.

“I’m raring to go to Albany,” he said.


BIRTHPLACE: Corona, Queens

RESIDENCE: Corona, Queens

EDUCATION: , B.A. in Asian Studies,

St. John’s University; M.P.A. from

Baruch College

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: district

leader, 2000-present

FAMILY: unmarried

Tim Kennedy is mad as hell. “Western New York has lost its voice

in Albany,” said the newly elected senator. “We’ve been treated like a doormat by the rest of the state. And we have to fi ght to get our voice back.”

Kennedy knows a few things about fi ghting. He not only defeated 29-year Senate veteran Bill Stachowski in the September primary, but he also knocked out his well-regarded general-election challenger, Jack Quinn III, who has a fair share of name recognition in the Buffalo district.

He plans to continue Stachowski’s fi ght to some degree, vowing to be a “relentless advocate” of the UB2020 plan, as well as for his own issues, like a ban on texting while driving.

A former Erie County legislator and occupational therapist, Kennedy said he plans to

continue to defy expectations in the coming session. He has already had conversations with State Sen. George Maziarz and other elected offi cials from the region about banding together to fi ght for Western New York’s needs, such as UB2020, job creation and tax relief, regardless of partisan loyalty.

“Fighting on behalf of Western New York is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s a regional issue,” he said. “We have issues that are very unique to the state.”



RESIDENCE: Buffalo, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: Erie County legislator,

occupational therapist

EDUCATION: B.A. in occupational

therapy, D’Youville College

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Erie County

legislatorFAMILY: wife, Katie, two children,

Connor and Eireann

T“We’ve been treated like a doormat by the rest of the state. And we have to fi ght to get our voice back.”

He not only defeated 29-year Senate veteran Bill Stachowski in the September primary, but he also knocked out his well-regarded general-election challenger, Jack Quinn III, who has a fair share of name recognition in the Buffalo district.

to some degree, vowing to be a “relentless advocate” of the UB2020 plan, as well as for his own issues, like a ban on texting while driving.

continue to defy

Tim KennedyTim Kennedy (D-Erie)

58thDistrict

Ato Senator-elect Mike Gianaris, whose fi rst campaign she volunteered for, and who is replacing Jeff Klein as chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.

race,” she said. “It’s very sentimental that I ran for the seat.”

Democratic district, where the highest priorities are saving local hospitals and preserving education funding, she said.

city since the state began implementing the recommendations of the 2006 Berger Commission, and Simotas seemed ready to fi ght to save the one her borough had left—Mount Sinai Queens.

don’t have a physical health community that can

Aravella Simotas (D-Queens)

36thDistrict

Ioccupied by José Peralta, in a feat he describes as a “victory for reform.”

fi rst elected offi cial of Ecuadorian descent in the country. His involvement in politics was a reaction to growing violence in his Queens community. The challenge from Monserrate made his race one of the most watched of the election cycle.

history of the Assembly district,” he said. “The highest voter turnout out of all the state races in the city.”

includes work for Rep. Nydia Velázquez and David Paterson, when he was a senator.

Francisco Moya (D-Queens)

39thDistrict B

sidewalk or mow the lawn, the job is best done yourself.

to his job in the Assembly. He ran for offi ce because he believes New York was heading in the wrong direction on taxes and spending, and wanted to be part of the solution.

the lowest of all states when it comes to being business-friendly,” Goodell said. “That’s refl ected in our anemic employment growth.”

state spends money, especially mandates like Medicaid and welfare. He has already devised

the state’s bloated Medicaid program.

Andy Goodell (D-Corona)

150thDistrict


BIRTHPLACE: Zimbabwe

RESIDENCE: Astoria, Queens

OCCUPATION: Corporate Attorney

EDUCATION: B.A. in Economics,

Philosophy, and Certifi cate in

Business Administration Fordham

University; J.D. Fordham Law School


FAMILY: husband, John Katsanos

14

Governor Cuomo “…seeks to restore confidence in government” and

“…to bring back the jobs to New York.”State’s Cigarette Tax Agents agree: The collection of up to $2Billion in yearly-lost cigarette tax revenue and

preserving jobs is an appropriate place to begin.

BackgroundDuring this past decade New York officials have repeatedly turned to excessive cigarette excise taxation looking for more revenue and for the expectation of discouraging teenage and adult smoking. Ironically, the net effects of this misguided policy has accomplished neither, while fostering an environment of lawlessness that grows with each new tranche of taxation and the corresponding governmental indifference directed towards effective enforcement.

Taxes Can Only Raise Revenue If People Pay Them!This July’s 60% raise in the rate of New York State cigarette excise tax is already demonstrating that this level of taxation is both past diminishing returns, (working out to be revenue negative when all components are identified) and also is a potent catalyst for criminals and terrorists to continue the untaxed distribution of contraband cigarettes more profitably and more organized.

The real solution to these mishaps is simply to lower the tax to levels that are within the ballpark of our surrounding states and finally empower law enforcement to take the gloves off. At this minute a crisis is underway that may become irreversible shortly. We recognize that Canada faced this challenge in the 1990’s and did just that, (i.e. lowered the rate significantly) and leveled the ‘big guns’ on offenders. Revenue rose and crime dissipated. But, great ideas also require the political will to achieve.

Killing The Golden Goose:The dysfunctional administrations in Albany that we have endured over these past years have created a present situation unknown in any other state. Although other big states have Native Americans, have immigration beyond current employment opportunities and are in trouble financially, only New York has raised cigarette and other tobacco products taxes to the highest in the land while having had a policy of forbearance and lately, a policy of ‘hands-off enforcement’ towards alternative channels of tax-free cigarettes sold to non-exempt New Yorkers. The passing administration has directed enforcement personnel to give our Tribes wide girth, (i.e. make no trouble) and enforcement personnel have been cut or redirected away from the logical recovery of $2billion in lost revenue. This unexplainable policy continues to accelerate consumer awareness and subsequent purchasing of untaxed cigarettes in New York. Worse, retailers who can no longer compete with this unabated illegal trade have succumbed to criminal elements and now sell untaxed product in explosively increasing numbers.

Where Law Dies Terrorism Lives:The supply of low taxed/untaxed cigarettes is not confined to the Native Americans who are the by far the most prolific sellers. When out of state purchasing by consumers, smugglers and counterfeiters are included, more than half of all cigarettes consumed in New York are untaxed! But, who are the criminals?

New York’s Native American stores are the largest suppliers of untaxed cigarettes. Some are purchased on the reservations for personal consumption. However, most are smuggled off the reservations by resellers who bring massive amounts of cigarettes to central locations and disperse the product to illegal street venders and complicit retailers alike.

Several terrorist organizations are funded through these sales. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly stated, in a speech before the United Nations, that the smuggling of cigarettes is the leading means of terrorist funding. Likewise, Congressman King of New York concluded an intensive investigation that exposed multiple terrorist organizations fattening their coffers from illegal cigarette selling. The BATF has also uncovered numerous cigarette smuggling schemes funding terrorism, as has NYC and NYS law enforcement. Unfortunately, each time the taxes go up beyond the other states, the incentive for criminality increases and law enforcement is overwhelmed. Unfortunately, the answer so far has been to give up!

How Are We Losing $2Billion Dollars Per Year In Untaxed Consumption?The wholesale price of cigarettes is the same throughout the United States. Consumer prices vary because of local taxation and retail pricing. Also, the smoking rate among adults is relatively consistent throughout the country, differing only slightly because of the degree of local excise taxes, as cigarette demand is quite inelastic to price. However, this assumes that the smoker cannot find his brand cheaper elsewhere, (which is not true in New York!) The national smoking rate is 21% of adults. Based on the high excise taxes in NYS/NYC, Industry econometrics finds that about 129 million cartons of cigarettes would be consumed yearly if New York pricing were at the U.S. average price and adjusted to 89 million cartons annually at current NYC/NYS pricing. Allowing for more severe smoking restrictions in New York than the national average, our association very conservatively discounts the Industry conclusion to 79 million cartons. New York State will only tax 39 million cartons in calendar 2011. 40 million cartons are consumed without taxes paid! Each NYS carton carries a $42.50 excise tax, an average sales tax of $6.50 and a MSA allowance of $3.24. Each NYC carton carries all of the above and $15.00 of NYC excise tax and $2.50 additional sales tax. The resulting math testifies to a loss in cigarette revenue of well over $2Billion dollars annually. (Substantial Cigar and Tobacco tax loses are not included)

By way of illustration: New York City taxed over 42 million cartons of cigarettes in year 2000 and will only tax 9 million cartons during 2011. Did 80% of smokers quit in just this past decade? No – they just buy alternatively without paying tax.

Where Have the Jobs Gone?As the consumer has been permitted to obtain his daily purchases of cigarettes and other items elsewhere, retail jobs have been lost and cigarette-relicensing statistics indicate that

countless retailers have gone out of business. The Tax Stamping Agents in New York have lost 90% of their members in the last few years, along with thousands of jobs; union and non-union alike. Worse, these jobs have been replaced with jobs in bordering states and underground economy criminals, terrorists and complicit Native Americans- none of whom pay

taxes. The true loss in revenue to New Yorkers is far more than the loss in cigarette taxes alone.

15

THE SOLUTION$2 Billion in Lost Cigarette Tax Revenue Needs Enforcement Now

The Department of Taxation and Finance cigarette enforcement division has been under orders to discontinue all undercover investigations at the very time that this past year’s 60% tax increase has caused tax evasion to metastasize. This politically motivated ‘penny wise and pound foolish’ approach to enforcement is ill conceived.

Cigarette Tax Agents Recommend Workable Plans for Effective Enforcement

• Take the handcuffs off of our state tax enforcement officers and direct them to police the illegal traffic coming from the reservations.

• Provide for the City and State enforcement divisions to reopen undercover operations.

• Establish a reward program that will pay $10 for each untaxed carton recaptured and thereby secure $50 -$70 in excise and sales taxes and $40 in the subsequent resale of contraband cigarettes back to the manufacturers.

• Publicize and enforce our state income tax return with regard to the line that asks if any cigarettes were purchased tax-free. (The tax is then due)

• Send out sales and use tax forms after gathering records from Internet sellers.

• Obtain federal subpoenas for Native American untaxed sales to New Yorkers for the past three years after a favorable ruling in the Seneca case.

• Join efforts with BATF to tighten up the ‘I95 Corridor’

• Utilize our ‘cops on the beat’ to report street sellers to tax enforcement. This will permit the ‘rolling up’ of much larger organized smuggling rings.

• Maintain a healthy relationship with our state’s Tax Stamping Agents through the ‘First Alert Program’.

• Recognize that the recalcitrant retailer who is caught with contraband is the best source of ‘upstream’ information. Issuing summonses and just moving on is neither a significant source of revenue or a productive use of limited manpower.

Governor Cuomo: restoring confidence in government requires fairness

It is blatantly unfair to tax lawful New York citizens at the highest rate in the land while allowing half of those who choose to smoke to get away with paying nothing. In America, our greatest triumph is adherence to the rule of law. Now is the time to take back control of this important stream of revenue, plug the leak in New York commerce and jobs and rekindle respect for the law.

New York Wholesale Marketers and DistributorsLicensed New York State Tax Agents

Arthur Katz, Executive Director


aid. One of the top priorities this session for Vito Lopez, who chairs the Assembly’s Housing committee, is to increase capital funding for affordable housing develop-ment to $500 million, more than double what it has been in previous years.

Lopez is also aggressively seeking to renew the 421-a property tax exemption program, which gives tax breaks to devel-opers who build affordable housing.

“To stimulate the economy, we need to save affordable housing throughout the state, from Buffalo to the Bronx,” Lopez said.

Affordable housing advocates agree. But some still worry that lawmakers will balk at any spending increases, even if they spur economic development. After all, funding for affordable housing has re-mained relatively fl at for the last 10 years.

“The challenge I see is educating offi -cials on how limited state investment can leverage signifi cant private investment

when it comes to housing,” said Alison Badgett of the New York State Associa-tion for Affordable Housing.

As an example, Badgett pointed to the recent success of the Hamilton, a 202-unit building in Rochester that was completed in 2009. Financed largely through state subsidies and tax breaks, Badgett said the Hamilton has helped drive the revital-

HOUSING LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

BY SHANE DIXON KAVANAUGH

THE STATE IS broke. The Senate has fallen back into the hands of the Republicans. And many are still

wondering whose side incoming Gov. An-drew Cuomo is going to be on as the new legislative session begins.

Aside from a brief mention of his own time as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Cuomo made zero refer-ence to housing, construction and rent control in his State of the State address.

This lingering air of uncertainty in Al-bany is of particular concern to those in the construction, affordable housing and real estate industries, whose fortunes largely hinge on the political outcomes of this year.

The recession toppled New York’s construction industry, which had reached dizzying heights in recent years. Since it peaked at $31.1 billion in 2008, construc-tion spending plummeted by 23 percent to $23.7 billion, according to the New York Building Congress’ 2010-2012 fore-cast. For the industry to recover, analysts say, the state must invest heavily in infra-structure.

“Albany has got to come up with mon-ey in a time when it doesn’t have money,” said Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress. “It’s a very big challenge. And the stakes are high.”

Today, more than 600 residential proj-ects remain stalled across New York City. Ten million square feet of commercial property remain empty. And more than 16,000 construction jobs have been lost.

With residential and commercial con-struction in a slump, the Building Con-gress and other industry associations are counting on the MTA’s capital program to fi ll the void. But the authority needs to come up with an additional $10 billion to fully fund its program over the next three years.

“It’s the biggest question mark we’ve ever had,” Anderson said.

The construction industry plans to continue pushing for more dedi-cated revenue sources for transit funding. The Building Congress, for example, favors congestion pricing, tolling the East River Bridges, or even re-newing a regional commuter tax, which, as polling indicates, a majority of resi-dents downstate support.

With the $9 billion budget defi cit, though, prospects for these proposals this year seem dim at best.

Smaller development projects might stand a better chance of receiving state

Infrastructure investment,affordable housing top development list

The construction industry plans to continue pushing for more

dedicated revenue sources for transit funding.

Soda Tax/Wine In Grocery Stores:

In search of additional revenue,Gov. David Paterson pushed for both a tax on soda products and the sale of wine in grocery stores—an idea that has been fl oating around since the days of Gov. Mario Cuomo—in his executive bud-get last year. But despite the state’s fi s-cal woes, the proposals were ultimately scuttled under intense lobbying efforts by the liquor and soda industries.

With Andrew Cuomo promising in his New NY Agenda to veto any types of sales taxes, the opportunity for the soda tax may well have passed—especially with the Senate Republicans now in the majority.

Cuomo did not weigh in on the wine in grocery stores proposal in his policy books. Advocates for allowing wine in grocery stores, meanwhile, are already renewing efforts to pass the legislation, touting it as a means to create further jobs in the upstate winery industry, while detractors say it would decimate mom-and-pop liquor stores.

INTRACTABLES

Building Support

ization of the Genesee River waterfront.To ensure the continued growth of af-

fordable housing development, affordable housing advocates want Albany to defeat a prevailing-wage measure that routinely comes before the Legislature each session. They are also calling for a low-income hous-ing credit, worth about $4 million, which was deferred last year, to be reinstated.

Both are possible, Badgett believes, be-cause of Cuomo’s prior experience as the secretary for Housing and Urban Develop-ment under the Clinton administration.

“By virtue of his background, we’re very optimistic,” she said. “He under-stands our issues. He understands now is not the time to place additional costs on the industry.”

That might not be the case, however, when it comes to New York’s rent-control regulations, which are set to expire this June. A report by the Citizens Budget Commission last June showed that in

addition to aiding low-income ten-ants, rent control in New York City also benefi ts tens of thousands of high-income earners.

Already, the issue is shaping up to be one of the biggest legislative battles this session. Housing and tenant advocates see an opportuni-ty for increased regulations, while

landlords and building owners hope to roll them back further.

Neither side really knows where Cuo-mo stands.

“The 800-pound gorilla is the gover-nor,” said Joseph Strasburg, president of the pro-landlord Rent Stabilization Asso-ciation, who acknowledged Cuomo’s vir-tual silence on housing policy throughout

his campaign. Strasburg predicted that Cuomo would opt not to step into this political battle until he has tackled the state’s fi scal crisis.

“He doesn’t really want to deal with this issue until he has a budget under his belt,” Strasburg said.

Direct letters to the editor [email protected].

JOH

N D

ALY


BY LAURA NAHMIAS

ASK ANY OF the nearly four dozen new legislators

elected to the statehouse this year to name their top priority, and the re-ply tends to take just one word: jobs.

Legislators around the state campaigned spe-cifi cally on promises to prioritize job-creation programs, hold the line on taxes and streamline business regulations. And many of them may fi nd an ally in the new gover-nor, who has pledged no new taxes and a series of policy proposals, from green jobs to business-tax credits, designed to revi-talize the state’s lagging economy.

Dennis Mullen, presi-dent and CEO of the Empire State De-velopment Corporation, is not slated to stay on for the new administration. Over the past several years, the agency has sustained several turbulent reorga-nizations that critics say have upended ESDC’s effectiveness. With most of the senior staff on its way out, Cuomo will be able to start with a blank slate.

In his State of the State address, Cuomo repeated his campaign promise of creating 10 regional economic devel-opment councils, chaired by Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy, with the mission of creating jobs and spurring private-sector growth through coordination, consolidation, competition and incentives.

“These plans are going to have to come from the bottom up,” Cuomo said. “Let’s empower the local commu-nities to plan their future and help them-selves.”

And in case the message would be lost about his business-friendly ap-proach, Cuomo included among his PowerPoint slides an enlargement of the two ships at the center of the state seal and a mock-up of an “open for busi-ness” sign with the outline of New York on it.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

To make more money, New York will have to spend money—even though the state is broke

“We have to relearn the lesson our founders knew, and we have to put up a sign that says New York is open for busi-ness,” Cuomo said. “We get it. And this is going to be a business-friendly state.”

Many Democrats and Republicans would like him to start by reinstating the now-defunct Empire Zone program. Outgoing Gov. David Paterson replaced the Empire Zones with the Excelsior program, a pared-down version of the original $500 million program that fo-cused on encouraging job creation in the clean-energy and technology sectors.

State lawmakers say that Cuomo can help drive economic growth by rolling back Paterson’s reform.

“The benefi ts under the Excelsior program pale in comparison to benefi ts under the Empire Zone program,” said Robin Schimminger, the chair of the As-sembly Economic Development Com-mittee. “To the extent that the new ad-ministration wishes to make changes in economic development programming, a boost to the benefi ts in the Excelsior program would be a step in the right di-rection.”

Schimminger added, “Of course, the capacity of the state to undertake an en-

richment in benefi ts will be a function of the capacity of the budget to sustain such costs.”

The Excelsior program, which has not designated any grant recipients yet, will begin with $50 million of incentives and eventually expand to the size of the Empire Zone program, said Peter David-son, Executive Director of the Empire State Development Corporation.

Davidson said that people pining for the return of the Empire Zones program should fi rst give the Excelsior program a chance.

“There was an exhaustive program to fi nd out what were the perceived and ac-tual fl aws of the Empire Zone program,” Davidson said, “with the key takeaway being that while Empire Zone did cer-tain things very well, it ended up fund-ing a lot of different things in a lot of different places.”

Excelsior, he said, has the potential to be much more targeted.

“Technology companies, clean tech, alternative power, solar things, batteries for new types of cars, biotech, potential inventions,” Davidson said, ticking off the types of industries Excelsior has the potential to create.

Tom O’Mara, who has now moved from the Assembly to the Senate, is an-gling for a spot on the Senate Economic Development Committee. He said he hoped the budget might allow for some expansion of Excelsior’s targeted incen-tive programs to include more indus-tries that were covered under the Em-pire Zone Program and whose benefi ts will soon expire.

“What the governor put forward isn’t enough,” O’Mara said of Paterson’s Ex-celsior program.

Dan Losquadro, an incoming Repub-lican member of the Assembly, agreed.

“The previous program needed to be tweaked in some ways, but I don’t think the baby should have been thrown out with the bathwater,” he said.

But the ballooning budget defi cit and Cuomo’s promise not to raise revenue through new taxes could make expan-sion of those programs diffi cult. Advo-cates say that more realistic job-growth measures could include eliminating tax-es that have had business leaders call-

ing New York State the least friendly place to do business in the country.

“As the state with the worst tax climate

in the U.S. and one of the most anti-business

regulatory regimes, we could miss out on U.S. economic recovery if we don’t make major lasting reforms as soon as possible,” said Ken Adams, president of the Business Council of New York State.

Adams said that the only way to make the state’s economy thrive is to reduce those obstacles that discourage private-sector employers from investing and hiring here.

Cuomo’s plans call for cluster-based jobs creation, focusing on the specifi c assets of the state’s different regions. That plan could dovetail nicely with the new Senate Republican majority, which is in a position to steer the agenda away from downstate, focusing instead on how to invest in and strengthen upstate industries like the biomedical and re-newable energy industries.

“It’s good news for us,” said Brian Sampson, executive director for Un-shackle Upstate, which has fought for greater investment upstate.

Davidson said the state’s other job-creation programs will also undergo a thorough review process.

“Gov. Cuomo is going to attempt to ra-tionalize and make more productive the existing economic development dollars being spent by the state,” he said. “The process is very complicated but neces-sary. It’s the type of thing that has to hap-pen now because there’s no new money for programs; the only way for successful programs to grow is to make these hard decisions.”

[email protected]

Job Search

JOHN DALY



When Adam Clayton Powell IV announced his plans to challenge Charlie Rangel for his Congressional seat, a number of

people stepped up to take Powell’s place in the Assembly: community activists, legislative staffers, health care offi cials, ex-cops.

Robert Rodriguez, whose father was a member of the City Council, knew he stood a good chance, having just come off a close race for City Council against Melissa Mark-Viverito. And now that he has been elected, he plans on reestablishing the connections between his district and state government that he says have diminished over the years.

“They’re anxious and hungry for some solutions, or at least a dialogue,” Rodriguez said. “So I look forward to addressing some of those concerns.”

Affordable housing and education ride high on the list of concerns he is hearing from his constituents, especially education—in his

poverty-stricken district, many schools are in need of improvements.

“A good portion of our schools are failing or close to failing,” he said. “So we need a comprehensive approach.”

Rodriguez said he was proud to follow in the footsteps of his father, who died of a heart attack in 1994.

“I’m happy to have the chance, and hope I can be as dynamic as he was,” he said.

Wpeople stepped up to take Powell’s place in the Assembly: community activists, legislative staffers, health care offi cials, ex-cops.

of the City Council, knew he stood a good chance, having just come off a close race for City Council against Melissa Mark-Viverito. And now that he has been elected, he plans on reestablishing the connections between his district and state government that he says have diminished over the years.

solutions, or at least a dialogue,” Rodriguez said. “So I look forward to addressing some of those concerns.”

on the list of concerns he is hearing from his

poverty-stricken

Robert Rodriguez (D-Manhattan)

68thDistrictFormer journalist Kevin Smardz had only

been on the Hamburg City Council two years when he decided to make a run at the

Assembly seat that was being vacated by Jack Quinn III, who was running for Senate.

Quinn lost. Smardz did not. “When the Assembly race opened up, I felt

it was a great opportunity to bring the values to Albany of smaller government, less spending and lower taxes,” he said.

Smardz has not fl eshed out plans for legislation he would like to sponsor or see pass in the Assembly, but expressed fi rm belief in the possibility of cost savings through consolidation of government services.

Like other incoming Assembly Republicans, he cited job creation and business-friendly tax regulations as one of his priorities.

“People are leaving the state. We are

overtaxed, and over-regulated,” he said. “We need to provide an atmosphere in which people can prosper.”

Smardz said another priority is ethics reform, including term limits and ending partisan gerrymandering. The new class of Assembly Members are bright-eyed and ready to change things, he said, hopefully.

“I think it’s a great group of people—it’s going to be healthy,” he said. “We’ll have some new ideas in the Assembly and a new outlook on where things need to go.”



HOMETOWN: Hamburg, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: media director for a

church in Hamburg, N.Y.

EDUCATION: B.A. in Broadcasting and

Communications, Buffalo State College

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Hamburg

Town Council Member, 2008-2010

FAMILY: wife, Cate, and two sons

FAssembly seat that was being vacated by Jack Quinn III, who was running for Senate.

it was a great opportunity to bring the values to Albany of smaller government, less spending and lower taxes,” he said.

legislation he would like to sponsor or see pass in the Assembly, but expressed fi rm belief in the possibility of cost savings through consolidation of government services.

he cited job creation and business-friendly tax regulations as one of his priorities.

are leaving

We are overtaxed,

Kevin Smardz (R-Erie)

146thDistrict

It was a good year for Dan Losquadro, whose fi rst son was born in February and who won election to an Assembly seat in Suffolk County

by less than 1,000 votes in November.Losquadro unseated three-term incumbent

Democrat Marc Alessi, after serving seven years as a Suffolk County Legislator, and fi ve as that body’s minority leader.

Losquadro is part of a group of Long Island Republicans who were swept into offi ce this year on a wave of voter discontent with property taxes and job losses.

Losquadro said he is keen on changing the way the state funds education.

“Specifi cally, I’m trying to develop more parity for state education funding between different parts of the state,” he said.

“Another thing that’s important for Long Island, he said, is fi nding ways to attract but also keep current businesses here. He hopes to reinstate the STAR rebate program, and the Empire Zone program, two tax-incentive

programs designed to stimulate small-business growth.“The program needed to be tweaked in some ways, but I don’t think the baby should have

been thrown out with the bathwater,” he said of the Empire Zone program. But the most pressing issue for Losquadro is the issue of state pension

reform, which he stressed needs to be taken up during this legislative cycle.

“I don’t know exactly what we’ll do, but I look forward to discussing it,” he said.

Like other Long Island freshman legislators, he said it was time for the state to hear the concerns of their suburban neighbors.

“Long Island has been very much treated as a piggy bank, a slush fund for the state, with the implementation of the MTA payroll tax. It’s very important to have a strong voice from a particular area, and I’m happy we have such a strong coalition from the island,” he said.

It was a good year for Dan Losquadro, whose fi rst son was born in February and who won

by less than 1,000 votes in November.

Democrat Marc Alessi, after serving seven years as a Suffolk County Legislator, and fi ve as that body’s minority leader.

Republicans who were swept into offi ce this year on a wave of voter discontent with property taxes and job losses.

way the state funds education.

parity for state education funding between different parts of the state,” he said.

Island, he said, is fi nding ways to attract but also keep current businesses here. He hopes to reinstate the STAR rebate program, and the Empire Zone program, two tax-incentive

programs designed to stimulate small-business growth.

Dan Losquadro(R-Suffolk)

1stDistrict


BIRTHPLACE: Locust Valley, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Shoreham, N.Y.

EDUCATION: B.A. inHistory SUNY

Stonybrook

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Suffolk

County legislator, minority leader of

Suffolk County Legislature

FAMILY: wife, Lynn, and son, Joseph

Republican Steve McLaughlin ran against Democratic Assembly Member Tim Gordon two years ago, but lost in a close race. This

year, riding high on a wave of anti-incumbency, everything was different, McLaughlin said. And even though the race is fi nished, McLaughlin has a few choice words for his opponent.

“I think my opponent was, frankly, out of touch,” McLaughlin said.

For example, Gordon sponsored three bills on his way out of offi ce that McLaughlin derided and said would never have been considered.

“Two would be found unconstitutional. The other one was a bill to change the frequency with which digital billboards are allowed to change,” McLaughlin said. “He thinks they change too frequently, and could become mesmerizing. I mean, come on.”

McLaughlin, whose platform includes spending cuts and tax relief to stimulate business growth, says the state may do well with the more blended mix of a Republican Senate

and Democratic governor.“It goes for either party. One-party dominance, one-

party rule, is not a good idea,” he said. McLaughlin plans to be fi scally conservative, but

hopes that will go over well in a slumping economy. It seems to be a position he shares with the incoming governor, he said, citing his endorsement meeting with the Albany Times Union. Andrew Cuomo was interviewed right before him.

“When I went in there, the editorial board said, ‘You know, your platform is very similar to Andrew Cuomo’s.’ That’s good, because it’s a common-sense platform. At the very least, we need to freeze taxes,” he said. “The only way out of this wilderness is by sticking to what Cuomo’s platform is.”

Ryear, riding high on a wave of anti-incumbency, everything was different, McLaughlin said. And even though the race is fi nished, McLaughlin has a few choice words for his opponent.

touch,” McLaughlin said.

on his way out of offi ce that McLaughlin derided and said would never have been considered.

other one was a bill to change the frequency with which digital billboards are allowed to change,” McLaughlin said. “He thinks they change too frequently, and could become mesmerizing. I

and Democratic governor.

Steve McLaughlin (R- Columbia/Greene)

108thDistrict


BIRTHPLACE: Boston, Mass.

RESIDENCE: Melrose, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: Banker

EDUCATION: Florida Institute of

Technology; Arizona State University;

Empire State College-SUNY; M.B.A.

University of Phoenix


FAMILY: wife, Maggie, sons, Daniel

and Sean


BIRTHPLACE: East Harlem, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: East Harlem, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: fi nancial advisor

EDUCATION: B.A. in History and

Political Science, Yale University; M.A. in

Finance, NYU


FAMILY: single



When leafi ng through Andrew Cuomo’s policy books, Ed Braunstein sees a lot that he likes.

“I believe we need ethics reforms, specifi cally more independent oversight of the Legislature,” he said. “We also need spending restraints. We need to balance the budget. It’s going to be diffi cult.”

But Braunstein is not totally in line with the Cuomo agenda. He says he does agree with the incoming governor’s call for a constitutional convention to change current pension obligations.

“I think it would be unjust of the Legislature to unilaterally change” those obligations, he said.

Elected to replace retiring Assembly Member Ann-

Margaret Carroza, Braunstein served for several years as director of constituent services for Speaker Shelly Silver. But that does not mean that he cannot serve as an independent voice for his constituents, he said. As for his district, Braunstein said he plans on focusing on school over-crowding, quality of life concerns and overdevelopment.

And while Carozza was criticized for her poor attendance record, Braunstein said he is proud to follow up on her many good works.

“I have tremendous respect for Ann Carozza and her 14 years of public service,” he said. “I look forward to doing my part in my own individual way.”

On Facebook, Sean Hanna reveals that he was 21 when he went to his fi rst concert—The Police at Rochester’s Holleder Stadium. He

attended his last concert—Fleetwood Mac—just three years later. He is a big fan of the movie Caddyshack and the Godfather series. And there is nothing more this newly elected Assemblyman loves than being on his boat or his tractor.

But when it comes to policy and delivering for his district, Hanna is all business.

“We’ve never been in this bad shape,” said Hanna of the state’s economy. “This is our last chance to turn things around.”

Hanna said his priorities will be holding the line on property taxes and reining in the state’s exploding Medicaid costs. As a former offi cial at the Department of Environmental Conservation, Hanna said he plans to request a seat on the Assembly’s environmental committee. He plans to submit ideas

to the Cuomo administration on restructuring the department, which has been decimated by budget cuts and layoffs. And as a former Monroe County legislator, he is looking forward to seeing a familiar face in the executive mansion—Robert Duffy, the new lieutenant governor and ex-mayor of Rochester.

“How much infl uence he has depends on Cuomo,” Hanna said. “If he listens to Duffy’s counsel, I think that would be very good for upstate.”


BIRTHPLACE: Rochester, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Rochester, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: Monroe County

legislatorEDUCATION: B.A. in economics, Boston

College; J.D. Wake Forest Law School

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Monroe

County legislator

FAMILY: wife, two children

The daughter of two immigrants, a father from Greece and a mother from Cuba, Nicole Malliotakis was the fi rst to attend

college in her family. And she was driven to politics by the current state of affairs in her district.

“I started off my campaign as an unhappy constituent,” said Malliotakis. “And I was tired of just standing by and decided to jump right in by running for offi ce.”

After declaring a leave of absence from her previous job at Con Edison, she launched a campaign against Democratic incumbent Janele Hyer-Spencer.

From the beginning, Malliotakis identifi ed big problems in Albany, namely the one-party-rule system.

“We’ve luckily broken the one-party rule since the Republican Party took hold of the Senate,” said Malliotakis. “Another thing I will push for is independent redistricting, to make it a bit more competitive and to remind everyone

that we are serving the public, not the other way around.”Malliotakis says she has big plans for the Assembly.“I want to contribute to how the state deals with certain things. Namely,

I will advocate lower taxes and less government spending, as well as a cap on spending.”

Regarding her own district along the east shore of Staten Island and Bay Bridge in Brooklyn, Malliotakis points to transportation—her district has lost eight bus lines alone due to budget cuts—as well as the sales tax as issues she plans to address during her term.

Although they hail from different parties, Malliotakis is optimistic about Andrew Cuomo’s impending term.

“This is a great time to be coming to Albany as a new legislator. Cuomo is vocal about reform, and if he sticks to it, it will be very good overall,” she said.


BIRTHPLACE: New York, N.Y.

PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Staten Island, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: Public Affairs Manager at

Con Edison

EDUCATION: B.A. Seton Hall University,

M.B.A. Wagner College


FAMILY: single

Tcollege in her family. And she was driven to politics by the current state of affairs in her district.

constituent,” said Malliotakis. “And I was tired of just standing by and decided to jump right in by running for offi ce.”

previous job at Con Edison, she launched a campaign against Democratic incumbent Janele Hyer-Spencer.

big problems in Albany, namely the one-party-rule system.

that we are serving the public, not the other way around.”

Nicole Malliotakis

60thDistrict

Oattended his last concert—Fleetwood Mac—just three years later. He is a big fan of the movie Caddyshackis nothing more this newly elected Assemblyman loves than being on his boat or his tractor.

his district, Hanna is all business.

Hanna of the state’s economy. “This is our last chance to turn things around.”

line on property taxes and reining in the state’s exploding Medicaid costs. As a former offi cial at the Department of Environmental Conservation,

Assembly’s environmental

to the Cuomo

Sean Hanna (R-Monroe)

130thDistrict

A lthough John Ceretto has been involved in public service for 15 years, this is his fi rst foray into Albany politics.

“I’m blown away that I’m a New York State assemblyman,” said Ceretto.

Born and brought up in Niagara Falls, Ceretto has always been inspired to hold public offi ce. Ceretto married his wife Beth in 1978 and they and his four children reside in Lewiston, where his wife runs a daycare center out of their home.

“I view holding an elected offi ce as no different from community service,” said Ceretto. “I’m involved in a bunch of things. I’m the type of guy that praises God every day for what I’ve been given. I’ve been truly blessed in my life, and so I think it’s important to give back.”

Along with his strong Catholic faith, Ceretto also emphasizes his more humble beginnings as a motivator for his public service.

“My grandparents came from Italy, and they embodied the American dream, that if you work hard,

you’ll be given opportunities,” he said. “They were driven away from Italy because of a lack of opportunities, and I don’t want that to happen to anyone in New York.”

So it comes as no surprise that when asked what his main priority is in offi ce, Ceretto immediately says, “to create jobs.”

“It is extremely important to create an environment for jobs and opportunities,” said Ceretto. “We all want a better life for our children, and the way to do that is to create jobs and reduce taxes.”

Despite their different parties and ideologies, Ceretto is looking forward to working with Andrew Cuomo.

“I’m encouraged by what he’s been saying in the newspapers and I look forward to renewing my acquaintance with him. No matter the party, I’m looking forward to working with anyone and everyone for the betterment of New York State.”

DATE OF BIRTH: May 12, 1952

BIRTHPLACE: Niagara Falls, N.Y.

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Lewiston, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: Offi ce of the New York

State Parks, Recreation and Historic

Preservation

EDUCATION: B.S. and Masters in

Education and Administration, Niagara

UniversityPREVIOUS OFFICES HELD: Lewiston

Councilman, Niagara County Legislator

FAMILY: wife, Beth Ceretto, four

children

Aassemblyman,” said Ceretto.

has always been inspired to hold public offi ce. Ceretto married his wife Beth in 1978 and they and his four children reside in Lewiston, where his wife runs a daycare center out of their home.

different from community service,” said Ceretto. “I’m involved in a bunch of things. I’m the type of guy that praises God every day for what I’ve been given. I’ve been truly blessed in my life, and so I think it’s important to give back.”

also emphasizes his more humble beginnings as a motivator for his public service.

you’ll be given

John Ceretto (D-Niagara)

138thDistrict

Wmore independent oversight of the Legislature,” he said. “We also need spending restraints. We need to balance the budget. It’s going to be diffi cult.”

Cuomo agenda. He says he does agree with the incoming governor’s call for a constitutional convention to change current pension obligations.

to unilaterally change” those obligations, he said.

to replace retiring Assembly

Ann-Margaret

Ed Braunstein (D-Queens)

26thDistrict


BIRTHPLACE: Manhasset, Long Island

RESIDENCE: Bayside, Queens

OCCUPATION: Director of Constituent

Services, offi ce of Assembly Speaker

Shelly Silver

EDUCATION: B.S. in Finance, SUNY-

Albany; New York Law School


FAMILY: longtime girlfriend

Brooklyn)

(R-Staten Island/


LABOR LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

BY CHRIS BRAGG

LAST YEAR, NEW Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rammed his cost-cutting budget through the Democratic-

controlled Legislature by vilifying public-sector unions and pitting them against their private-sector counterparts.

So far, all signs point to Andrew Cuomo looking to implement a similar agenda this year, with moves like his one-year freeze on public-employee sal-aries. Some in the labor movement fear Cuomo is ready to employ some of the nastier moves from the Christie play-book: currying favor with the private-sector unions and real estate interests, while dumping millions into an ad cam-paign to counteract any negative ads from unions.

The appointment of Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construc-tion Trades Council of Greater New York, as co-chair of the Committee To Save New York—the recently formed busi-ness- and real estate-backed committee raising money to help Cuomo take on

public-sector unions—in particular has raised eyebrows in the labor world.

“I’m deeply concerned about the wid-ening antagonism within the labor move-ment and the lack of communication between the public and private sector,” said State Sen. Diane Savino, the outgo-ing Democratic chair for the Civil Service and Labor Committee, and a strong labor ally. “It makes everyone easier to pick off.”

LaBarbera declined to comment. But Ed Malloy, president of the State Building Trades and Construction Council, the um-brella building trades group that includes LaBarbera’s, insisted that the building trades’ intention was not specifi cally to go after public-sector workers.

“We simply want to create more op-portunities to get people back to work,” Malloy said.

Still, Malloy acknowledged that pub-lic sector unions had played a major role in killing the SUNY empowerment plan, the building trades’ top priority, over con-cerns in the public sector that the plan could kill jobs. Members from around the

Union BustingBuilding trades and public-sector unions seedivergent interests in upcoming budget battle

JOH

N D

ALY

Representing more than 600,000 professionalsin education and health care.

800 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham, NY 12110-2455518-213-6000 • 800-342-9810

Affiliated with AFT / NEA / AFL-CIO

Richard C. Iannuzzi, President

Andrew Pallotta, Executive Vice President

Maria Neira, Vice President

Kathleen M. Donahue, Vice President

Lee Cutler, Secretary-Treasurer

www.nysut.org

Educating Kids,MaKing schools and

coMMunitiEs strongEr

It’s what we do!

THE CAPITOL january 2011 21www.nycapitolnews.com

state are suffering from rising property taxes. Last summer, public works proj-ects across the state were frozen during the budget impasse, while public-sector unions refused to give up salary increases to free up money.

“It’s time for everyone to share the sac-rifice, and that’s something that the build-ing trades has been doing the past few years,” Malloy said. “There often hasn’t been money for capital construction proj-ects because the state has been using the money for operational costs to keep the state afloat.”

Even the most optimistic labor sup-porters say there appears to be little chance that public employees will be get-ting any sort of salary increase this year, though how exactly that freeze will play out remains unclear. The contracts for both the Civil Service Employees Asso-ciation and Public Employees Federation (PEF) run out April 1.

Under the Triborough Amendment of the Taylor Law, unions could operate un-der their current contract indefinitely, but they would not get any salary increases until a new deal is struck.

PEF President Ken Brynien said he believes negotiations could go on for a year or more. Though negotiations will undoubtedly be contentious, Brynien said he did see common ground with the new administration in its efforts to down-size public authorities that are redundant with state agencies, and in reducing the ranks of outside consultants.

“When you take all those things to-gether, that would be a vision of real shared sacrifice,” Brynien said.

One major factor likely to affect things is the changeover in leadership on labor legislation in both the Assembly and State Senate. Not only has George Onorato re-tired, but the Senate Labor Committee gavel will be switching parties. On the As-sembly side, longtime Labor chair Susan John retired, leaving that chair open as well.

Cuomo has proposed reducing the number of state agencies, authorities and commissions by 20 percent. He also recently appointed Spitzer-era budget di-rector Paul Francis as director of Agen-cy Redesign and Efficiency, tasked with overseeing what Cuomo has called the most dramatic overhaul of state govern-ment in 90 years.

There has not been much discussion so far between public-sector unions and Cuomo, who has yet to appoint a liaison to negotiate with them. Brynien said he has not yet been in touch with Cuomo about his budget plans. Cuomo did call CSEA President Danny Donohue in late December, according to CSEA spokes-man Stephen Madarasz.

Cuomo has also called for the creation of a new pension tier to eliminate abuses such as pension spiking. But the unions say a potential Tier VI would not do much to alleviate the current fiscal crisis. Mada-

labor legislative previewrasz insisted pension spiking is a concern of local pension systems, outside those controlled by state government. He said the problem Cuomo laid out in his cam-paign books does not actually exist, be-cause state workers already have caps on overtime.

“We already did Tier V, which is a re-form none of the other systems have done,” Madarasz said. “The other systems are the ones with bloated pensions. [Cuo-

mo] was playing fast and loose with the fact, because the people he’s addressing don’t actually have CSEA titles.”

Cuomo did not mention the creation of a new tier in his State of the State ad-dress.

Madarasz said CSEA was at least hold-ing out hope that the tone of negotiations could be more productive than the highly antagonistic relationship that developed between the Paterson administration and

public-sector unions. But he also raised concerns about whether the labor move-ment would remain unified.

“The idea of a split may be overblown, but there is a concerted effort by business interests to divide and conquer working people,” he said. “You need to be careful about whom you associated with, and whether they’re really working for your best interests.”

[email protected]

Not a big pension.

It’s time to help our communities and focus on New York’s real challenges.

*Sources: The Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Institute on Retirement Security.

WE MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE!

The next time you hear someone railing against excessive, bloated public pensions, you might want to know the facts:A CSEA public service worker earns an average pension of $14,000 a year. That’s right. $14,000. The vast majority pay into their pensions and overtime is capped for pension purposes.

Yet the misrepresentation continues. That’s wrong and false. So is calling public employees “overpaid.” Recent research* has found that state and local employees make 11-to-12 percent less in salary than workers in the private sector, when education and experience are considered. Stop scapegoating public employees.

!"#$%&'()*+()%,-./!0#1-*(22333# #45465#1333$7#!3&8


TRANSPORTATION LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

BY SHANE DIXON KAVANAUGH

LAST YEAR WAS a bad one for the state’s transportation infrastruc-ture. Fare hikes, service cuts and

staggering defi cits plagued the Metropoli-tan Transportation Authority. Meanwhile, debt service payments gobbled up more than half of the $2 billion in the State De-partment of Transportation’s Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund, which helps pay for capital projects.

And the state’s transportation woes did not halt there. Faced with revenue short-falls across the board, Albany skimmed more than $160 million from the MTA’s operating budget, and more than $700 mil-lion out of the DOT’s operating budget, to help subsidize its anemic dedicated fund.

This year is shaping up to be even worse. And the latest MetroCard hike is just the beginning.

“All I can tell you is that we’re in big trouble,” said Assembly Member David Gantt, who chairs the Transportation Committee. “We don’t have any money.”

Money is precisely what both the MTA and DOT need. A comprehensive report re-leased by former Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch last November showed New York had no strategy for meeting the fi nancial needs of its transportation system, threatening both public safety and the state’s economic well-being. Roads and bridges are in disrepair, Ravitch found. Subway lines and commut-er rails need track work and signal mainte-nance. Large-scale projects like the Second Avenue subway were short on funds.

Right now, the MTA faces a $10 billion hole in the fi nal three years of its fi ve-year $28 billion capital plan, while the DOT is carrying out the fi nal year of a two-year,

“All I can tell you is that we’re in big trouble,”

said Assembly Member David Gantt, who chairs

the Transportation Committee. “We don’t

have any money.”

Road WorkMass uncertainty as transportation and infrastructure woes mount

$7 billion capital plan that is far below the department’s stated needs. Albany must ensure both are fully funded this year or face dire problems, transit advocates and construction industry leaders said.

“I think that everyone in the Legisla-ture understands that the MTA and DOT are key to the New York state economy,” said Denise Richardson, managing direc-tor of the General Contractor’s Associa-tion of New York, an organization that represents construction fi rms who han-dle some of the state’s largest infrastruc-ture projects. “The reality is, they’re going to have to look at this budget and fi nd out how to fund them.”

The real question is where state leaders will fi nd the money. With federal stimulus dollars run dry, a $9 billion state budget defi cit this year and Senate Republicans and Gov. Andrew Cuomo committed to holding the line in state taxes, available funding for infrastructure upgrades will be hard to come by.

Albany might also count on less sup-port from the federal government when it comes to transportation spending. New York lost three of its fi ve members sitting on the House transportation subcommit-

tee during November’s elections. And the new Republican majority in Washington has called for deep spending cuts.

“It’s likely that we will have to fi ght harder to reach our goals for transit, rail and other transportation funding that is

essential to New York’s regional economy and needs,” said Ilan Kayatsky, a spokes-man for Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York’s ranking member on the subcommittee.

Adding further uncertainty is the fact that while Cuomo has acknowledged the crisis facing New York’s transportation infrastructure, he has remained vague on concrete solutions. Transportation and the MTA were noticeably absent from the

governor’s State of the State address.“For better or worse, I think we’re in

a year of ‘No One Knows,’” said former Assembly Member Richard Brodksy, who served as the chair of the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commis-sions, which oversees the MTA, since 2002. “And we won’t know until Feb. 1. I don’t think there’s a lot of magic in this. If you have the money, you do stuff. If you don’t, you don’t.”

Advocates for transportation funding have already started to organize against this uncertainty. In December, a coalition of 30 unions, transit groups, planners and environmentalists issued a letter to Cuomo, urging him to stop state raids on transportation funding. The letter also asked the governor-elect to restore the $160 million taken from the MTA’s oper-ating budget.

“The accountability really rests on our elected offi cials now,” said Noah Bud-nick, a deputy director with Transporta-tion Alternatives, which issued the letter. “They can no longer get away with simply blaming the MTA.”

There are a number of smaller transit battles advocates hope to wage and win in the coming months. Transportation Al-ternatives will continue to push a safety bill, which has been stalled in Albany for the last several sessions, that would place speed enforcement cameras in New York and other cities throughout the state.

Meanwhile, other groups are backing several proposals fl oated by Ravitch in his report. The fi rst of these would short-en the environmental review process for infrastructure projects that demonstrate a minimal or even positive environmen-tal impact. The second proposal would allow for transportation agencies to issue design-build contracts, which could save time and millions of dollars on projects.

But Richardson believes that even if these bills pass, New York’s bridges, roads and mass transit systems will re-main in grave danger.

“For the foreseeable future,” she said, “we’re always going to play catch-up.”


JOH

N D

ALY

Media RelationsIntegrated Marketing

Grassroots Campaigns

The 2010 o'Dwyers annual ranking of independent national public relations firms named Butler Associates one of the top 5

Public Affairs Pr practices in New York.

We know how to make news for our clients,because we know how news is made.

BuTLEr ASSoCiATES

Butler Associates LLC.204 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010

www.ButlerAssociates.com • [email protected]: Tom Butler - (212) 685-4600

23

Working With:• NY City Department of Transportation• NY City Metropolitan Transit Authority• Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority

Kieran Ahern • President • Dan O’Connell • General Counsel

• NY State Department of Transportation• The Port Authority of NY/NJ• NY State Bridge Authority



Al Graf comes to the job with a wealth of life experience in fi elds as disparate as education and military service. For him, all of that

experience will come to bear on his new job.“I understand what it’s like to be in a

classroom, to be a veteran, to be a cop, and I understand how laws affect people,” said Graf. “That’s the basis of my political voice.”

That political voice has led him to the conclusion that New Yorkers need a more effi cient government—not for ideological purposes, but because it directly impacts their quality of life.

“The biggest issue is to make sure New York State becomes more affordable for the people who live here,” he said. That means implementing fi scal discipline, imposing a property tax cap, and making government more effi cient.

Most importantly, though, Graf wants to make it easier for businesses to thrive in the state. He says that taxes stand in the way of that.

“New York is the most expensive place to do business in the country, and that’s why we’re losing jobs,” he said. “We have to get our taxes under control so that business can thrive here. Strangling people with taxes is not conducive to a business-friendly environment. It’s just too damn expensive for businesses to operate here.”

This view puts the property and MTA taxes in his sights. Graf thinks that with some prudence, New York state will do what needs to be done.

“Government is supposed to work on common sense,” he said. “New York is facing a lot of tough issues, and hopefully, looking at these issues, the representatives will put their parties aside and do what’s right for the people of the state.”

Ken Blankenbush’s experience lies not in law, like many of his counterparts, but in business, as the owner of an insurance

and fi nancial services company.“As the owner of a business, I know how

decisions in Albany affect upstate New York and their businesses,” he said.

And because of those decisions, Blankenbush ultimately decided to run for offi ce.

“With the way things have been going in the state of New York, I was concerned about the dysfunction in Albany,” said Blankenbush. “If we don’t stop taxing and spending, my grandchildren will be feeling the negative effects.”

Along with controlling spending, Blankenbush plans on addressing the loss of jobs, specifi cally in North County.

“New York was ranked the second most unfriendly state to do business

in. To create jobs, we must make an environment in New York that is friendlier for businesses. We must also cut taxes.”

And in an election where the Republicans had some huge victories, Blankenbush is certainly optimistic about the state’s future.

“This election, the voters have spoken. We will work together more like the voters want and get more done, since we have a balance of power.”

Like many of his new Republican colleagues, Blankenbush has expressed interest in Andrew Cuomo’s planned agenda.

“From his priorities, I think we’ll work together fi ne,” said Blankenbush. “Based on the direction he wants to go on jobs and taxes, I think we can come together on a number of issues. I look forward to working with everyone from the Assembly to move forward.”


BIRTHPLACE: Wilkes Barre, Pa.

RESIDENCE: Black River, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: owns BEL Associates,

an insurance and fi nancial services

businessEDUCATION: B.S. in History, SUNY-

Plattsburgh

PREVIOUS OFFICES HELD: Councilman

in Town of Leray, Jefferson County

Board of Legislators chairman

FAMILY: wife, Sheila, two children, eight

grandchildren

Aexperience will come to bear on his new job.

classroom, to be a veteran, to be a cop, and I understand how laws affect people,” said Graf. “That’s the basis of my political voice.”

conclusion that New Yorkers need a more effi cient government—not for ideological purposes, but because it directly impacts their quality of life.

York State becomes more affordable for the people who live here,” he said. That means implementing fi scal discipline, imposing a property tax cap, and making government more effi cient.

“New York is the most expensive place

Al Graf (R-Sufolk)

5thDistrict

Kand fi nancial services company.

decisions in Albany affect upstate New York and their businesses,” he said.

Blankenbush ultimately decided to run for offi ce.

the state of New York, I was concerned about the dysfunction in Albany,” said Blankenbush. “If we don’t stop taxing and spending, my grandchildren will be feeling the negative effects.”

Blankenbush plans on addressing the loss of jobs, specifi cally in North County.

most unfriendly state to do business

in. To

Ken Blankenbush (R-Lewis/St. Lawrence)

122ndDistrict

Guillermo Linares has a history of representing the uptown neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Inwood. From

1992 to 2001, he served the same communities as a City Council member. After leaving the Council, he also served as Mayor Bloomberg’s commissioner of Immigrant Affairs until 2009. Linares believes that his experience on each side of government brings something unique to the Assembly.

“I bring experience from both sides of government to the Assembly, not only on the legislating side, but also in terms of implementing policy,” he said in an interview. “But just as important is executing in a way that provides those services to constituents and using the limited resources that government has, particularly in the challenging times we have now.”

Still, Linares considers himself to be an activist fi rst and foremost. For him, the most important aspects of revitalization are making sure that the constituents have a

stake in how their community is affected, and that voter desires are being fulfi lled.“I am simply a conduit for a community that is clear in terms of what

they want government to do for them,” he said. “So now, the question is, how can I bring my experience to help government deliver and be effective when it comes to being responsive to constituencies?”

Linares brought up a prospective beautifi cation ofSt. Nicholas Avenue as a project that engages constituents in their own revitalization and doesn’t demand extensive funding. Linares’ foremost concern, however, is aiding small businesses and providing jobs for residents of the 72nd district.

“Job creation and small businesses are my highest priority,” he said. “So I’m looking at what needs to be in place to help small businesses, because that’s what keeps my community afl oat.”

DATE OF BIRTH: 1951

BIRTHPLACE: Cabrera, Dominican

RepublicRESIDENCE: Manhattan

EDUCATION: B.A., M.A. City College;

Ph.D. Columbia University

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: City Council

Member, New York City Commissioner

of Immigrant Affairs

FAMILY: married, two children

G1992 to 2001, he served the same communities as a City Council member. After leaving the Council, he also served as Mayor Bloomberg’s commissioner of Immigrant Affairs until 2009. Linares believes that his experience on each side of government brings something unique to the Assembly.

of government to the Assembly, not only on the legislating side, but also in terms of implementing policy,” he said in an interview. “But just as important is executing in a way that provides those services to constituents and using the limited resources that government has, particularly in the

Guillermo Linares (D-Manhattan)

72ndDistrict While Eric Stevenson shares with his

colleagues the challenge of bringing jobs to his constituents, he feels the pressure

of New York’s fi scal crisis in a way few of the state’s elected leaders can relate to. That’s because the 2010 Census recently determined that the 79th District is the poorest congressional district in the nation, with over 30 percent of the population living below poverty level, according to Stevenson.

This statistic makes economic development Stevenson’s top priority for 2011.

“I want to come up with innovative ways to generate job creation, attract manufacturing plants, tap into the green economy and attract federal funds,” said Stevenson.

Stevenson had an easier time into offi ce than most. After Assembly Member Michael Benjamin announced his intentions to not seek a new term, Stevenson quickly locked down support from the Bronx Democratic Party and other groups that would assure a swift victory in the Democrat-dominated district.

With a full third of his district’s population living below poverty level, Stevenson has concerns other than the economy on his mind. Besides developing jobs, he needs programs in place to prevent the crime and youth violence that accompanies joblessness.

“We need afterschool products to prevent kids from joining or forming gangs. Another 17-year-old was killed yesterday, killed by another youth,” he said.

He believes that programs similar to midnight basketball, which was started in the ’90s as a way to combat youth violence, will help to stem the effects of unemployment.

Stevenson acknowledges, however, that getting such legislation could prove problematic in the current political climate.

“This is the realty of what we face, and I’m hoping that Albany, especially the governor, understands the state is diverse and that different communities have different needs.”

Wof New York’s fi scal crisis in a way few of the state’s elected leaders can relate to. That’s because the 2010 Census recently determined that the 79th District is the poorest congressional district in the nation, with over 30 percent of the population living below poverty level, according to Stevenson.

Stevenson’s top priority for 2011.

generate job creation, attract manufacturing plants, tap into the green economy and attract federal funds,” said Stevenson.

most. After Assembly Member Michael Benjamin announced his intentions to not seek a new term, Stevenson quickly locked down support from the Bronx Democratic Party and other groups that would assure a swift victory in the Democrat-

With a full third of his district’s population living

Eric Stevenson(D-Bronx)

79thDistrict

DATE OF BIRTH: Sept. 1956

BIRTHPLACE: Bronx, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Bronx, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: legislative researcher

with the City Council and committee

clerk to the State and Federal Legislation

Committee

EDUCATION: B.A. in Labor Studies,

Labor Organizing Institute

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: District

Leader, Bronx 79th

FAMILY: married, three children

put their parties aside and do what’s right for the people of

DATE OF BIRTH: Feb. 13, 1958

BIRTHPLACE: Bellerose, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Holbrook, N.Y.


EDUCATION: B.A. in Elementary

Education, SUNY Plattsburgh; J.D.,

Touro Law School

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Town

Supervisor of Brighton in Franklin

CountyFAMILY: wife, Mary, three children



Katz won the race to succeed Greg Ball in the Assembly for two reasons: support from the Tea Party, and Ball himself.

“I would say it was pretty much mutual on that level,” Katz said. “The Tea Party was very supportive of both of us,” referring to Ball’s win in the State Senate.

This veterinarian-turned-politician identifi es with the Tea Party’s political goals and comes to Albany looking to bring a citizen’s and businessman’s perspective to state government.

Katz cites his experience in building a successful business and providing service as reasons he will succeed in stopping what he sees as a cycle of corruption, public debt, crippling taxes and over-spending.

As every other legislator, he is concerned with job creation. His agenda is similar to other Republicans—taxes must be lowered in order to create a business-friendly environment. To this end, he wants to repeal the MTA payroll tax, the recent personal income-tax increase, and, of course, implement a property-tax cap.

In addition, he advocates for the expansion of the Empire Zone program across the state to assist in the rehabilitation of troubled regions and job creation.

Katz’s agenda also includes a reduction in regulations in order to reduce the cost of doing business, a reform of the state’s corporate-tax structure and a reduction or complete freeze of the sales tax.

However, Katz also ran a campaign that emphasized his opposition to corruption in state government, promoting ethics reforms such as requiring witnesses to be present during meetings between legislators and lobbyists, and limiting lawmakers to three terms in the Legislature. His outsider’s image was also burnished by a grassroots element to his campaign that shunned Albany.

In a year when the tide turned against Democrats in general, Abinanti, a self-described progressive, stands out. However,

he was not immune to the same issues that every other candidate has had to address: jobs, taxes and government spending.

As a result, Abinanti said he has a plan to tackle property taxes. He wants to decrease current property taxes while reforming the policies that lead to high taxes. Claiming that 60 percent of the property tax is raised to pay for New York’s schools, he wants to reform what he sees as an unfair aid system that disproportionately awards some school districts while overlooking Westchester.

He also wants to substitute what he terms “progressive, broad-based taxes” for property taxes to support local services, according to his website.

Having served as the chair of the Environment and Energy Committee in the Westchester County Legislature, Abinanti is focused on promoting renewable energy and environmentally friendly policies. Most importantly, he wants to close down the Indian Point nuclear power plant due to a lack of an evacuation plan and the plant’s inherent danger.

In this, he will fi nd an ally in Cuomo, who has long expressed his opposition to the plant.

Abinanti also comes to Albany hoping to promote the needs of the disabled. He wants to correct the government’s failure to pass laws that would require health care insurers to cover the needs of autistic individuals. Emphasizing that the costs of ignoring the disabled are worse than providing for them, Abinanti wants to be an advocate for special needs.

BIRTHPLACE: Brooklyn, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Greenburgh, N.Y.

EDUCATION: B.S. Fordham; J.D. New

York University


PREVIOUS OFFICES HELD:

Westchester County legislator,

Greenburgh Town councilman

FAMILY: wife, Janet, two children

DATE OF BIRTH: Aug. 11, 1953

BIRTHPLACE: Jericho, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Mohegan Lake, N.Y.

EDUCATION: B.S. in Animal Science,

Cornell; D.V.M., University of

Pennsylvania


OCCUPATION: veterinarian

FAMILY: wife, Nicole, four children

When former Assembly Member Jim Bacalles gave up his seat to run against Tom O’Mara for the seat being vacated

by George Winner, Steuben county legislator Phil Palmesano seized the moment.

“When George decided not to run, it had a domino effect,” Palmesano said. “I’ve worked as an aide to several area lawmakers in the past, so it seemed natural to run. This is just what I’ve been doing.”

The win, too, was a no-brainer. Palmesano, 42, took out his 23-year-old Common Sense party opponent Jason Jordan with 85 percent of the vote. His Democrat opponent was kicked off the ballot for misstating the offi ce he sought.

In his Finger Lakes district, the most pressing issue is job creation, Palmesano said.

“How do we … create an environment that will foster that?” he wondered. “Obviously we need to get our

spending under control, and not increase taxes, and do something about unfunded mandates for school districts and Medicaid,” although he had not developed specifi c plans for legislation to address those issues.

He hoped that the universality of those problems throughout upstate and downstate could make it easier to pass legislation to fi x them. He expressed eagerness to work with Gov. Cuomo, and optimism that mutual recognition of the dire situation would create solutions.

“We just need to have a common theme that will result in action,” he said.


BIRTHPLACE: Hornell, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Corning, N.Y.

OCCUPTATION: county legislator

EDUCATION: B.S. in Social Science

and Political Science, St. Bonaventure

UniversityPREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Steuben

County Legislature, currently county

legislator for Steuben county

FAMILY: wife, Laura, children, Leah and

Sam

Wby George Winner, Steuben county legislator Phil Palmesano seized the moment.

domino effect,” Palmesano said. “I’ve worked as an aide to several area lawmakers in the past, so it seemed natural to run. This is just what I’ve been doing.”

42, took out his 23-year-old Common Sense party opponent Jason Jordan with 85 percent of the vote. His Democrat opponent was kicked off the ballot for misstating the offi ce he sought.

pressing issue is job creation, Palmesano said.

will foster that?” he wondered. “Obviously we need

spending under

Philip Palmesano (D- Steuben/Yates)

136thDistrict

In a year when the tide turned against Democrats in general, Abinanti, a self-described progressive, stands out. However,

he was not immune to the same issues that every other candidate has had to address: jobs, taxes and government spending.

tackle property taxes. He wants to decrease current property taxes while reforming the policies that lead to high taxes. Claiming that 60 percent of the property tax is raised to pay for New York’s schools, he wants to reform what he sees as an unfair aid system that disproportionately awards some school districts while overlooking Westchester.

“progressive, broad-based taxes” for property taxes to support local services, according to his website.

Thomas Abinanti (D-Westchester)

92ndDistrict K

that level,” Katz said. “The Tea Party was very supportive of both of us,” referring to Ball’s win in the State Senate.

with the Tea Party’s political goals and comes to Albany looking to bring a citizen’s and businessman’s perspective to state government.

successful business and providing service as reasons he will succeed in stopping what he sees as a cycle of corruption, public debt, crippling taxes and over-spending.

with job creation. His agenda is similar to other

Steve Katz

99th District

After playing the underdog in the race for the 137th District Assembly seat, Christopher Friend is headed to Albany in the seat

vacated by new State Sen. Tom O’Mara.

Friend had by far the most people on stage with him of any new Republican Assembly member when he was sworn

in by Minority Leader Brian Kolb: at least 15 family members, with numerous children milling around, including four of his own. “Somebody please get them some voter registration forms, “Kolb joked.

Public enemy number one is the property tax, Friend said. As O’Mara, now in the State Senate, boasted during the race, Friend will also continue to promote conservative values: lower taxes, smaller government, less spending and a business-friendly

environment.However, Friend comes to Albany looking to make

progress on other issues as well, including a stronger energy policy. He has cited with disdain the fact that New York State ranks fourth in energy consumption but 20th in production. Perhaps this can be an area for cooperation between energy-minded Democrats and Friend.

Friend also brings a long history of political involvement to Albany. His underdog stance belied his experience as a Chemung County legislator prior to running for the Assembly. He has also served with the Chemung County Republican Committee and the Steuben County Young Republicans.

Avacated by new State Sen. Tom O’Mara.

Fin by Minority Leader Brian Kolb: at least 15 family members, with numerous children milling around, including four of his own. “Somebody please get them some voter registration forms, “Kolb joked.

tax, Friend said. As O’Mara, now in the State Senate, boasted during the race, Friend will also continue to promote conservative values: lower taxes, smaller government,

Christopher Friend (R-Chemung)

137thDistrict

also continue to promote conservative

policy. He has cited with disdain the fact that New York State

BIRTHPLACE: Big Flats, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Horseheads, N.Y.

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Chemung

County Legislator

EDUCATION: B.A. in Chemistry,

University of New Hampshire; Ph.D. in

Chemistry at SUNY-Buffalo

FAMILY: wife, Renee, four children

(R-Putnam/Westchester/

Dutchess


to homeowners based on need instead of a hard cap. They argue that a circuit breaker will cut back on the disparities that Cuomo’s proposed tax cap—2 per-cent or the rate of infl ation, whichever is lower—could enlarge.

Even a circuit breaker could also drain state funds at a time when New York does not have any to spare.

Supporters of the plan still view it as a hopeful, if unrealistic, option. Oppen-

heimer said a circuit-breaker would be “very helpful,” though left her commit-ment at “something of that nature will probably have to happen.”

Assembly Member Deborah Glick, chair of the Higher Education committee, mentioned that she is unsure whether she will have “the time and luxury to make this a priority,” though a circuit breaker is her preference.

Most advocates, though, are awaiting the 2011 budget. Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Edu-cation, believes dramatic cuts to educa-tion would only hurt students at a time when other countries are surpassing ours in education rankings.

“The question is: do we want to get out kids ready for today’s world and job mar-

the SUNY system to improve the upstate economy. He singled out a Manhattan high school princi-pal for using performance incen-tives to increase attendance and graduation rates.

But with the $10 billion budget defi cit looming, reform efforts that would cut back on education spend-ing appear to have the best shot at gaining support in the Legislature.

Mandate relief is one such initiative. State Sens. John Flanagan, who may soon chair the Education Committee, and Suzi Oppenheimer, a Democrat from West-chester who will step down from that same role, both say they intend to push for more shared services between school districts through the Boards of Coopera-tive Educational Services (BOCES).

“We need to provide incentives that will enhance their desire and opportunity to work more closely together,” Flanagan said of school districts.

BOCES is especially important during a year when Cuomo and Senate Republi-cans say they will not tolerate an unfair distribution of state aid. This means some school districts will likely be working with less.

The State Education Department is reviewing its mandates for 2011 to see what can be eliminated. Last year, Oppen-heimer passed a bill prohibiting the impo-sition of new mandates after the start of a school fi scal year. The bill also enabled BOCES to provide more shared services. This year, she plans to introduce legisla-tion that enables school districts to coop-eratively bus students to private schools.

“If you’re busing an individual child in a minivan for 30 miles [to a private school], that’s about $5,000 per kid,” which could be saved through bus-share programs, Oppenheimer estimated.

But Cuomo’s property-tax cap and the growing defi cit will shape the education discussion most. Assembly Democrats and the state teachers union support the circuitbreaker idea, offering tax breaks

BY CARLENE OLSEN

LIKE RACE TO The Top last year and mayoral control the year before, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s property-tax

cap proposal is emerging as the premier education issue of the year, sucking all the air out of the room and leaving little time for many of the state’s pressing edu-cation needs.

Cuomo has not released much detail about his education agenda. In his State of the State speech, he cited the unsus-tainable rate of growth in education spending as a key factor in the state’s fi s-cal imbalance. He also stressed funding

EDUCATION LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

Even a circuit breaker could drain state funds

at a time when New York does not have any

to spare.

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic Education questions all revolve around property-tax cap and budget cuts

ket, or not?” he asked. And many still feel uncertain about

where Cuomo stands on numerous key issues. The New York State United Teachers and the New York State School Boards Association are asking the gover-nor for more defi ned solutions given the budget realities.

For example, Cuomo has talked about consolidating schools with low student enrollment to fi nd savings, but Timothy Kremer, School Boards Association exec-utive director, stressed that this idea often is “not an easy call” and one that parents rarely support, particularly in rural areas where school consolidations result in sig-nifi cantly longer bus rides for students.

Issues likely to come up in the Legisla-ture also include improving college readi-ness and graduation rates, addressing cuts to state universities, assessing new standards for teacher evaluations and funding for a growing number of charter schools.

A major shift in focus is the federal Race to the Top grant program. Now that the state has secured its share of the federal grant program, educators and policy makers do not seem as fo-cused on putting the money to use. One reason seems to be that schools will only see a few thousand dollars each out of the $700 million awarded. Half the money goes to the State Education Department. Meanwhile, education re-form advocates, including Easton and some Assembly Democrats, say secur-ing funds for existing programs is a more urgent priority than making im-provements.


Gay MarriageThe fate of gay marriage in New York

seems to rest in the unlikely hands of Re-publican State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. The Long Island senator promised to bring the issue back up for a vote, af-ter it failed last year in the Democratic-led Senate. The defeat of the marriage bill last year, after it was voted down by eight Democrats and the entire Republi-can conference, was crushing for marriage equality proponents. But new Empire State Pride Agenda executive director Ross Levi maintains that the new Senate, though led by the GOP, has a better chance of passing marriage laws this year than ever before.

The movement, which seemed to be fl oundering, was bolstered by adverse re-actions to the perceived homophobic com-ments made by GOP gubernatorial candi-date Carl Paladino and the ouster of several Democrats who voted against gay marriage. ESPA hopes to reframe the debate over mar-riage in terms of civil rights and economic development, claiming passage of marriage laws will bring revenue to the state from marriage licenses and wedding business. That could play well in a Legislature whose all-consuming focus will be how to gener-ate more revenue for the state.

INTRACTABLES

JOH

N D

ALY

For advertising information, please contact your account executive at 212-284-9735 or [email protected]

POLITICS • POLICY • PERSONALITIES

www.nycapitolnews.com

The Way to Reach Elected Officials

Look who’s readingThe Capitol...

January: Health Care & Medicaid

February: Education and Energy

March: Transportation/InfrastructureTechnology & Telecommunications

Sections will feature insight and observations from key state officials, quoting leading voices

across the industry, and influential and informative editorial coverage.

For advertising opportunities, call 646-422-1623.

upcoMing issue spotlightsstay tuned For our


vocates say that Cuomo’s main task is re-building the beleagured state agency.

“Talent, talent, talent,” said Dan Hen-drick, spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters, when asked what Cuomo should be looking for in his envi-ronmental team.

Advocates expect Cuomo to be ag-gressive on environmental issues. He campaigned hard for attorney general on

promises of tough environmental regula-tion, an area in which he racked up the most prosecutions, according to his own offi ce.

That record makes environmental ad-vocates optimistic he will prioritize re-storing funding cuts.

ENVIRONMENT LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

BY LAURA NAHMIAS

GOV. DAVID PATERSON’S legacy on the environment has a lot of green advocates seeing red.

He cut the Department of Environmen-tal Conservation staffi ng levels, vetoed a moratorium on hydrofracking and, in a major controversy, fi red DEC chief Pete Grannis for allegedly leaking concerns about the impact of budget cuts.

Lawmakers and advocates said that cleaning up after Pa-terson will consume most of their attention.

“This is the single biggest issue we’re facing this year,” said Assembly Member Bob Sweeney, chair of the Environ-mental Conservation Commit-tee. “The Paterson administration was pretty much a disaster when it came to environmental issues.”

With Grannis taking a position with the state comptroller’s offi ce, and Joseph Martens, president of the Open Space Institute, taking the top spot at DEC, ad-

Environmental PreservationBeyond hydrofracking and other issues, rebuilding DEC will be top green priority

Cuomo’s record as attorney general makes environmental advocates

optimistic he will prioritize restoring DEC funding cuts.

Independent Redistricting

Hours before it was due, the entire Sen-ate Republican conference pledged to sup-port ex-New York Mayor Ed Koch’s indepen-dent redistricting proposal. But just a few days into the new year, Senate President Dean Skelos is hedging a bit on the pro-posal, saying that the Legislature may not be able to take politics out of the process entirely. And following through the pledge would likely hurt Republicans next election in several heavily gerrymandered districts as they seek to hold onto their slim major-ity in 2012.

Cuomo has committed to both the Koch pledge and his own pledge to veto “any re-districting plan in 2012 that refl ects par-tisan gerrymandering and ensure that the state has set itself on a path to reforming the process itself.”

One challenge in implementing the plan: not only will the Legislature have to pass a plan creating a non-partisan com-mission, it would also have to then pass the plan into law.

Notably, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Sil-ver never signed onto the Koch pledge.

INTRACTABLES

“I think it was pretty clear by choices Paterson made that the environment is not a priority of his,” Hendrick said. “With Cuomo, we’re hopeful.”

Cuomo’s leadership on the environ-ment could stabilize what other advo-cates worried would become a rudderless State Senate. The 13-member committee lost fi ve of its members in last year’s elec-tions, including its chair, Buffalo Demo-

crat Antoine Thompson. State Sen. Carl Marcel-

lino, who chaired the com-mittee prior to Thompson, blamed some of the prob-lems on the former chair.

“Antoine, I think, was a bit overwhelmed by the pro-cess and by the job, and by

the fact that he was in the middle of bud-get cuts coming from a governor of his own party—he was put in a very diffi cult position to go against,” Marcellino said.

Marcellino said the committee was essentially bipartisan, with Republicans and Democrats both concerned about

the potential effects of budget cuts on the state’s health and its economy. The em-phasis, in a year with shrinking revenues, will be to hold the line to make sure Pa-terson’s cuts are not expanded, he said.

Dick Amper, of the Long Island Envi-ronmental Voters Forum, said Marcellino is no great leader on environmental is-sues. He urged against Marcellino getting the gavel again.

“Antoine Thompson wasn’t a strong leader particularly, but Marcellino has had that position before and certainly doesn’t have a reputation for having done very much with it,” Amper said. “That would be a bad choice.”

New committee members can expect to face an increased effort from the green community, who will try to make clear the link between business interests and better environmental regulation. Many believe that more staffi ng at the DEC, for instance, will lead to faster permit-ting. The environmental community also needs to educate legislators about where the money can go.

Or, as Amper put it: “A wholesale edu-cation campaign, in addition to lobbying for a bigger piece of the pie.”

[email protected]

JOH

N D

ALY



Don Miller hopes he can bring his experience as a former schoolteacher to the politicking in Albany, especially when it comes to the complexity of education in New

York. “There’s a lot of oversimplifi cation of the education

funding issue in New York State,” Miller said. The state must be willing to consider funding cuts and education alternatives to public schools, such as charter schools and voucher programs, in order to improve education, he said.

“One of the least intelligent things we could do would be to say that things are the way they are and they can’t be changed,” he said. “My immediate reaction to that way of thinking is, that’s a death sentence for whatever you care about.”

Miller, who has never held public offi ce but who worked for the campaigns of Republican lawmakers such as Jack Kemp and George Pataki, campaigned on a platform of job creation in his race against incumbent Democratic Assembly Member Al Stirpe.

For Miller, job growth will come from decreasing regulatory pressure on state businesses and cutting taxes, measures plausible only when the state reduces its spending.

“I’m going to fi ght for a constitutional cap on state spending,” he said. “Budgets have to balance, and on the spending side, not on the revenue side. New York state is not undertaxed.”

Miller also hopes the Legislature will consider a zero-growth fl at-tax cap instead of the 2 percent property-tax cap Cuomo has proposed. Other initiatives he supports include elimination of estate taxes and state corporate income taxes. “These are low-hanging fruit,” he said.

Donald Miller (R-Onondaga)

121stDistrict


BIRTHPLACE: Syracuse, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Liverpool, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: quality manager at a

manufacturing company

EDUCATION: B.A. in Political Science

from SUNY Buffalo; M.A. and Masters

Enhancement in Teaching from Lee

University, Tenn.


FAMILY: wife, Tracy, two children

Claudia Tenney knows her district well. She spent six years as chief of staff and legal counsel for Dave Townsend, before running for the seat he retired from last year. And

it is more than just work experience: Tenney lives on the same street she grew up on in New Hartford.

Tenney won a primary on the Conservative line without the formal endorsement of the local Republican party, and ran unopposed in the general election. She said she won on a platform of conservative reform, and “giving government back to the people.”

“I want to make New York more business-friendly, reduce government spending and create term limits for legislators,” she said.

Oneida County is a hard place to do business, Tenney said. She cited examples of far-off states such as Texas and Florida, with their lax regulatory environments and lack of income tax, as places where businesses move to thrive. Oneida County is suffering by contrast, and the only way to stop it is to reduce taxes, she said.

The Republican Assembly minority might have trouble passing reforms, or tax-reduction measures, but Tenney said she hoped Cuomo could help check the power of Assembly Democratic leader Sheldon Silver.

Power in New York has changed hands constantly for 15 years, she said, but Silver remained constant.

“Cuomo, the fact that he’s decided to move the State of the State out of the Assembly Chamber, maybe that just shows and symbolizes some change in New York,” she said.

“We have to change the way we do business here. I am going to give all deference and hope to Cuomo that he’ll be a leader and drive us to new things. It’s not going to be pretty. But for the future of New York, it has to be done.”

DATE OF BIRTH: Feb. 4, 1961

BIRTHPLACE: New Hartford, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: New Hartford, N.Y.


EDUCATION: B.A. in Political

Philosophy, Colgate University; J.D.

University of Cincinnati Law School


FAMILY: son

Claudia Tenney (R-Onieda)

115thDistrict

For Mark Johns, the third time really was the charm. Having previously run for the 135th District seat in 2004 and 2006, Johns found that the region’s voters were as

familiar with him as he was with the district.“I’ve been around the track a few times, and that helped

me,” said Johns. “I knocked on 6,000 doors, and most of my free time was spent going to events or going door to door.”

His familiarity with the area gave his campaign a grassroots dimension and allowed him to eschew traditional campaign methods. Johns is proud that his campaign operated on a low budget. The campaign ran no radio nor TV ads and relied primarily on old-fashion face-to-face campaigning.

Johns believes that this grassroots element allowed him to get a true sense of what voters in upstate New York are concerned about. “It should not surprise anyone that the number-one issue on voters’ minds is jobs,” he said. Johns believes this is directly tied to irritation over big government, and excessive government spending.

“I think the thing that people are most upset about is the lack of good-paying jobs, and that’s directly related to overspending and the highest property tax in the country,” he said.

Johns proudly claims the label of a fi scal conservative, as well as the policies that go with that label. He says his biggest goals when he arrives in Albany will be holding spending in check for the next three to four years and cutting down on government waste.

According to Johns, though, these issues are not conservative in nature, but rather ideas that both Democrats and Republicans can embrace. He cites Andrew Cuomo as an example of overlap between the parties.

In Johns’ opinion, there is one economic reality in New York State today, and the government must take the necessary steps to address this reality, regardless of party.

“Basic math is not Democratic or Republican,” said Johns.


BIRTHPLACE: Webster, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Webster, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: Public Health Specialist

EDUCATION: B.S. Saint John-Fisher

CollegePREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Webster

Town Council Member

FAMILY: single

Mark Johns (R-Monroe)

135thDistrict

* At press time, a close race between Republican Thomas Kirwan and Democratic Assemblyman Frank Skartados in the 100th Assembly District has yet to be called due to a dispute over validity of about 30 ballots. Attorneys for each side are pleading their case before the State Supreme Court for permission to count the remaining ballots.



After overcoming primary competition from Democratic Party designee Phil LaTessa and also-ran Jane Fahey-Suddaby, and easily winning the general election with

54 percent of the vote, Roberts has to square his labor-oriented politics with the new reality of austerity in Albany.

Roberts, a former Onondaga county legislator from 1990-2000, has experience as both an offi cial and a citizen affected adversely by the economy. While he represented the district as county legislator, he also worked at the General Motors plant in Salina, N.Y., until that plant was moved 162 miles away to Massena. Even then, Roberts continued to hold offi ce

while commuting to and from the Massena plant, before retiring last year.

During the campaign, Roberts touted his experience as a legislator, but that was a decade ago and in a different economic reality. Now, he will have to work in the harsh political environment of a cash-strapped state that may be hostile to his agenda.

While he has cited solving the state’s fi scal crisis as a top

priority, he has also stated that he wants to put public-sector workers back to work. He has strong ties to the labor community, being himself a member of United Auto Workers Local 495. He has also publicly expressed his reservations about Cuomo’s plans for deep spending cuts.

When 15-year Assembly veteran Tom Alfano announced his retirement last year, Ed Ra, a young county attorney for the Town of Hempstead, saw his

window of opportunity. “I’ve lived in the 21st Assembly District my whole life,” Ra

said. “I’ve had the opportunity to really work on a day-to-day basis with local residents on areas of their concern. And that’s something I want to be able to continue at a higher level.”

Ra received his J.D. from St. John’s Law School, as well as a masters in law—or LL.M.—from Cardozo School of Law. Like most new members to the Legislature, Ra says he is

focused on getting “things back on the right track,” whether that involves lowering taxes to foster business growth or capping property taxes to provide local homeowners with much-needed relief.

“During the previous session, there was a lot going on that the public didn’t like,” Ra said. “I’m looking forward to working together,

Republican and Democrat, regardless of where they’re from in the state.”

Also, like most Republican, Ra grudgingly admits to liking what he is hearing from incoming Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with his talk of spending freezes and no new taxes. One of the primary concerns for voters in Long Island is the redevelopment of the Belmont Park racetrack, which would be a windfall for his district.

“That’s a major priority for me,” he said.

focused on getting “things back on the right track,” whether that involves

business growth or capping


BIRTHPLACE: Mineola, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Franklin Square, N.Y.

EDUCATION: B.A., Loyola College, Md.;

J.D. at St. John’s Law School; LL.M. at

Cardozo School of Law

OCCUPATION: deputy county attorney

for Town of Hempstead

PREVIOUS OFFICES HELD: none

FAMILY: recently married

Ed Ra (R-Nassau)

21stDistrict

After just four years in offi ce, Brian Curran decided to step down as mayor of Lynbrook after being approached by Republican leaders with an offer to run for Bob

Barra’s Assembly seat. A former legislative counsel to the Assembly, Curran is no stranger to the inner workings of the state’s lower house. And right out of the gate, Curran has big ideas.

“There’s a general sense that the amount of taxes that comes out of Nassau County, particularly my district, really isn’t refl ected in the amount we get back in school aid,” Curran said.

But while some local school districts have expressed concern about the effect a property tax cap could have on education funding,

Curran said he is ecstatic that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made it a priority.

“It’s a great indication that this is the direction the state is moving in,” he said. “I think it’s long overdue.”

Of course, Curran will be entering the Assembly Republican conference, a body not known for its ability to sway policy decisions. Curran said he has hopes, though, that with a Republican Senate and a record-high of 51 members in the Assembly, the Democrats will start to take notice of their concerns.

“Now they have to pay attention,” he said.

Brian Curran(R-Lynbrook)

14thDistrict

that the amount of taxes that comes out of Nassau County, particularly


BIRTHPLACE: Lynbrook, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Lynbrook, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: Mayor of Lynbrook,

village prosecutor

EDUCATION: B.A. in Political Science,

Wilkes University; CUNY School of Law

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Mayor of

LynbrookFAMILY: wife, three children


BIRTHPLACE: Syracuse, N.Y.

RESIDENCE: Syracuse, N.Y.

OCCUPATION: superintendent of

Hughes State Offi ce Building

EDUCATION: Certifi cates from Cornell

in Labor Studies

PREVIOUS OFFICE HELD: Onondaga

County Legislator

FAMILY: wife, Leonna, two children

Sam Roberts

119thDistrict

(D-Onondoga)

www.nycapitolnews.comThe publication for and about New York State Government

january 2011: legislative preview

Documents

state of new york

andrew cuomo

budget deficit

budget gap

budget deadline

executive budget

andrew schwartzinterns

new wrinkle