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Open Government

Republican Policies: An Insult and an Injury




Related:
Convention Risks and Benefits
by Gail Robinson

A Brief History of N.Y. Republicans
by John J. Marchi

The Republicans are coming here to celebrate their agenda. But what is that agenda as it affects New York City?

The Republicans are going to cut federal subsidies for housing for poor people -- Section 8 housing -- which very seriously affects New York because we have such a high percentage of people in rental housing.

They are going to put limits on how long people can stay in public housing. New York's public housing is a success -- one of the few public housing programs in the country that is. Why? Because people do not have to move out of public housing if they succeed. They can stay and make a community. The Republicans are determined to destroy that community by requiring that people leave.

The Republican agenda includes spending billions of dollars for the Iraq folly, money that could otherwise go toward urban development. The Republican agenda includes no funding -- zero funding -- for its No Child Left Behind for our schools. This sounds great: We are going to leave no child behind, but not get any money to do it.

Tax cuts for the wealthy soak up money that might otherwise have gone for social needs. New York is one of the cities that take people who come from other countries and turn them into Americans, a job we perform for the rest of the country. And we do a very good job of it. But that requires money for the social accommodations that have to be made. The Republicans have cut lead-paint programs. How can you cut programs that try to reduce the number of children who are harmed by the presence of lead where they live or go to school?

The Patriot Act hit particularly hard in a city filled with immigrants from all over the world. The Republicans actually defend the notion that I -- or anyone else -- could walk out onto the street, get arrested for no reason with no explanation given and be held on the president's say-so that this person is an enemy of our country or is conspiring with enemies of our country. No lawyers, no family knows, no public disclosure as to the location of that person -- forever. It is like the Middle Ages. It is like Richard the Lionhearted coming back from his crusade and being held in a dungeon. It is incredible that anyone could, number one, do this and, number two, defend it.

An attack is underway on the great labor accomplishments of making work a dignified activity and providing workers with the benefits that they get from organized labor. The push to move Americans jobs to countries where workers earn less money and have fewer protections undermines the gains U.S. workers have made.

This summer, the Republicans are coming to New York to celebrate this agenda in our front yard. Imagine that a family that has insulted and abused another family has a picnic in the family's front yard. That is what they are doing to New York. It adds insult to injury -- injury that is substantive and plentiful.

There is another New York -- beyond Radio City Music Hall, beyond Broadway, beyond Yankee Stadium. Councilmember Bill Perkins plans to invite the Republicans to come and view that New York. To view the New York of the homeless intake center. To see an emergency room in one of our city hospitals at about 3 o'clock in the morning. To see an overcrowded classroom with a teacher trying to teach kids who speak eight different languages to function as a group -- without any help from No Child Left Behind. To see a drug rehab program with people who are trying to rebuild their lives with precious little help.

We are being invaded by people who have come to celebrate an agenda that attacks us. It is insulting. I think we should tell them that.</>

Ed Sullivan is a former member of the New York State Assembly from Manhattan.

 

A Brief History of N.Y. Republicans




Related:
Convention Risks and Benefits
by Gail Robinson

Republican Policies: An Insult and an Injury
by Ed Sullivan

The choice of New York City as the site for the Republican National Convention this year is both politically and historically correct.

After all, the modern Republican Party in America owes much of its beginnings to Republicans from New York. Names like Greeley, Seward and Corning figure heavily in party annals.

Influential editor Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune was one of the first members of the new Republican Party when it surfaced in 1854 and pressed hard to prevent slavery from expanding into the country's new territories. Greeley and Erastus Corning, a founder of the New York Central Railroad, played significant roles in delivering the 1860 GOP nomination for president to Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. William Seward, a U.S. senator, was one of the most prominent New Yorkers in Republican politics and a contender for the Republican nomination. (He would go on to serve as Lincoln's secretary of state.)

New York City was where, in 1859, Lincoln, fresh from his brilliant performance in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, turned up at Cooper Union to continue his attacks on the spread of slavery. At that point, Lincoln was an unannounced political aspirant. With closely reasoned phrases, Lincoln examined the origins of sectional strife and the inconsistent positions of Senator Stephen Douglas and the United States Chief Justice Roger Taney. He called on his fellow Republicans to resist Southern demands to recognize slavery as being right, but rather to "stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively."

The Cooper Union speech, reported immediately around the country by telegraph, concluded with this appeal: "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

His reasoned and eloquent presentation electrified the 1,500 New Yorkers who heard him and gained Lincoln valuable support in Seward's home territory.

New York Republicans also take pride in Theodore Roosevelt of Long Island, a New York legislator and New York City police commissioner while still a young man. He came to national attention as the leader of the legendary 'Rough Riders' during the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt came home from the war a hero and was elected vice president under William McKinley. He acceded to the presidency at age 42 when McKinley was assassinated in September 1901. He gained fame quickly through his activist agenda, including 'trust busting' and advocating laws aimed at breaking up monopolies in big business. He directed his progressive reforms at regulation, not abolition, of big business.

New York City itself witnessed the exploits of Republican Fiorello H. LaGuardia, who won national attention as mayor of the metropolis from 1933 to 1945. Before he won national renown as a reform mayor, LaGuardia flew a fighter plane for the American Army in World War I.

Running for mayor on the Fusion Party ticket, LaGuardia confronted the excesses of the then-notorious Tammany Hall and won numerous municipal reforms. Known as 'the Little Flower' (from his first name), he came to national attention for his successful reforms. LaGuardia also had a humorous side. During a newspaper strike in the 1940s, he went on the radio and read the comic strips to children who had missed seeing what he called "the funny papers." Noting that comic strip police detective Dick Tracy was slim and trim, LaGuardia, during the broadcast, asked his police commissioner why New York City detectives were overweight.

Two 20th century Republican governors, Thomas E. Dewey and Nelson A. Rockefeller, earned national attention and achieved notable objectives.

Dewey, governor from 1943 to 1955, first came to prominence as a Manhattan district attorney. He was lauded for his aggressive and successful prosecution of gangland bosses who had become powerful during the Prohibition Era. His vision and leadership led to construction of the 641-mile New York State Thruway, one of the first major superhighways in the United States.

Dewey surged to national attention when he ran for president in 1944 against incumbent Franklin Roosevelt, also a famous New Yorker. Dewey lost, then ran again against Harry Truman in 1948, losing again in a close race.

Nelson Rockefeller was governor of New York for four terms - from 1959 to 1973. His many achievements included the start of a successful campaign to clean up New York's rivers and lakes through improved sewage treatment and the modernization of the State University of New York system.

Rockefeller sought the presidency three times in the '60s, but his liberal philosophy did not find favor with the GOP nationally. In the aftermath of the resignation of President Nixon in the Watergate scandal, President Gerald Ford chose Rockefeller to serve as vice president.

While New York City has had Democratic mayors for most of the late 19th and most of the 20th Century, three men were elected in the last 40 years under Republican aegis. John Lindsay held the office from 1966 to 1973 and won national recognition for his efforts to help calm racial unrest in the 1960s.

Rudolph Giuliani, who was elected mayor in 1993, first won wide attention when, as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, he gained convictions of underworld leaders and business leaders who had broken the law. But it was Giuliani's epic performance as mayor following the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center that made him a household name around the world. He is widely credited with having demonstrated courage and leadership during one of the darkest hours in New York City history.

Giuliani's nationwide popularity after the September 11, 2001 attacks helped propel current Mayor Michael Bloomberg's successful effort to win office in the 2001 elections. Since then, Bloomberg has won praise for his efforts to improve education, business, and tourism in New York City.

These Republicans exerted a strong influence on the lives and fortunes of the people of New York. Their part in the history of the Empire State helped to make it a successful state and a natural place for the Republican Party, the 'Grand Old Party,' to hold its 2004 nominating convention.

John Marchi, a Republican state senator from Staten Island since 1957, is the nation's longest serving state legislator.

Accountability For Non-Profits


Last month, the news broke that the Statue of Liberty remained shuttered for nearly three years, while the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation guarded a $30 million endowment and paid its top executive annual salaries of nearly $300,000. Press reports questioned why--instead of dipping into its assets to reopen the symbol of freedom as quickly as possible in the wake of 9/11--the foundation launched a $7 million campaign to improve security. The foundation’s fundraising and spending activities are now under federal investigation.

This is just the latest act in government efforts to increase the financial accountability of foundations and other nonprofits, including many grantmaking organizations with cultural programs as well as museums, dance companies, and theaters. In 2003, the House and Senate passed proposals that would create tax incentives to spur charitable donations, but also would force foundations to increase the amount they give away each year as a percentage of their assets. The legislation was widely viewed as spillover from congressional efforts to tighten regulations of the for-profit sector.

After these proposals stalled in Congress, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer appealed to the statehouse to introduce legislation for nonprofits similar to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which Congress passed in 2002 in the wake of Enron and other corporate accounting scandals. The legislation passed in different versions in New York’s State Senate and Assembly, but remains in committee. If it becomes law, it would affect most of the city’s foundations and larger nonprofits.

Sarbanes-Oxley applies to publicly traded companies and their auditors, and is designed to protect the interest of the shareholding public. The proposed nonprofit reforms ostensibly would protect the interests of private, government, and corporate donors. After press reports about nonprofit mismanagement, there is some evidence that donor faith has eroded. According to Charity Navigator, a watchdog group, 42 percent of Americans now say they have less confidence in charities than they did before 9/11. In announcing the legislation last January, Spitzer argued for the need “to ensure the integrity of this sector or else people’s contributions will decline.” The legislation would require nonprofits to certify their financial data, appoint audit and executive committees, and demonstrate that members of these committees are free of contracting relationships with the nonprofits they serve.

But while Spitzer cites a “crisis of accountability” in the nonprofit sector, many perceive excessive zeal on the part of a man who has gained power and fame as the state’s top-cop. “There is some flaky management [in the nonprofit sector],” says Norma Munn, chair of the New York City Arts Coalition. “Some very talented managers have less accounting knowledge than is needed when they are in jobs where they have to take on every task. But I have only encountered one instance of dishonest management.” As director of an artists’ credit union, Munn cites extensive experience in certifying the financial records of nonprofits. “The proposed state legislation sets up further regulating apparatus for which I don’t see a need—I don’t see problems, don’t hear about problems, and don’t perceive problems in my dealings with nonprofit groups.”

Spitzer’s supporters argue that, while most nonprofits operate within the boundaries, some engage in questionable accounting practices that the public would find inappropriate. “After Sarbanes-Oxley and the attention being given to the financial dealings of for-profits, we anticipated that this would happen,” says Jonathan Small, executive director of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York (NPCC), an umbrella organization with 1,200 member groups. “Rather than attacking the proposal wholesale, as some were urging us to do—saying that the nonprofit sector is already regulated enough—we felt that it would be wise to comment on the proposal, and try to shape it in a constructive way.”

Stronger Accountability

Some nonprofits have very large boards, and some members of those boards may take only occasional interest in management practices. The proposed legislation seeks to create smaller numbers of individuals who feel greater responsibility for the governance of the organization. It would mandate the creation of audit committees or require that nonprofits change their by-laws to have full boards serve as such. It also would require the creation of executive committees when there are more than 25 board members.

Nonprofits already go through many layers of financial review—for their own auditors, the auditors of grantmaking organizations, the IRS, and annual reports. Some argue that further review would prove too burdensome on organizations in which resources are often stretched thin. Originally, the proposed legislation would have required verification of financial information for organizations with annual revenues in excess of $250,000, but after comment from the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York and others the ceiling was raised to apply to groups with annual revenues over $1 million or assets over $3 million.

“Our concern was that nonprofits that already have adequate procedures in place to certify their financial controls will—because of their concern to abide by new regulations—spend extra money to do further review, hire experts, and thus divert money from their programs,” says Small. “We were concerned that the cost-benefit of this may not be worth it.”

Interested Parties

The legislation would strengthen regulations relating to interested party transactions, or transactions between a nonprofit and a director doing business with a nonprofit. A statement on the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee website expressing support for this regulation points to such transactions as “the area in which the worst nonprofit board conduct occurs.”

“Say a board member sees that a nonprofit needs to rent some office space, and says that he has some available for $35 a square foot,” Small explains. “The nonprofit director might think, ‘He says that’s a good price, he’s a good person, let’s take it.’ But maybe it isn’t a good price, and the nonprofit has been taken advantage of. This legislation gives the attorney general the ability to ask the board for evidence that the transaction was ‘fair and reasonable’ and to overturn it if it isn’t.” Under current regulations, if a board approves an interested party transaction, it’s very difficult for the attorney general to overturn it.

But some argue that this regulation will have a chilling effect on board development. “The interested party regulation seems to offer the possibility that relations between personal donors on boards and organizations will be viewed as suspect,” Munn says. “This has the potential to scare away board members.” In the still-tough fundraising environment, strong boards are crucial to the stability and long-term planning of nonprofits. Particularly for arts groups, board members often bring much-needed financial or legal expertise.

Given the fact that Albany lawmakers may not be inclined to do Spitzer’s bidding, there may not be action on this legislation in the near future. But the threat of action already has spurred change. In February, Independent Sector, a national coalition of nonprofit organizations and foundations, released a code of ethics to its members as a model for members in their governance and operations. Many groups have adopted versions of the code.

And, though foundation executives and nonprofit directors argue that further regulation of their sector is not needed, they acknowledge that they need to do a better job of explaining their financial realities and management practices, and the benefits they offer, to the public. Arts groups can draw on a decade of research—undertaken since the culture wars put culture on the defensive—showing that the arts reaps significant tangible rewards to communities and local economies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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