NEW YORK — On a recent weekday, Eladia Causil-Rodriguez spoke to a crowded Brooklyn classroom about how she had run a popular day care business while raising four children.

Then she told the audience of 50 or so women at the Arab American Association of New York, most of them immigrants from the Middle East, that they could be just as successful.

“Use your talents,” she said encouragingly to a pattern of nodding heads. “Learn the language. And don’t let anybody stop you.”

Linda Sarsour, the Bay Ridge-based association's executive director, called the session unconventional, since most of their business classes are held at night and are mostly attended by men.

It was also unusual for the role the state was playing behind-the-scenes: The association is one of 27 groups across New York to be identified and receive funding as "opportunity centers" through the newly announced state Office of New Americans.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the office last Monday, saying it would harness New York's resources to help immigrants who contribute to the vibrancy of the state economy. He also emphasized that, unlike other jurisdictions across the nation that have worked to shun immigrants, New York welcomes them with “open arms.”

Cuomo’s announcement came as advocates push to get the state to adopt DREAM Act legislation that would provide tuition assistance to undocumented college students. (Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said that the governor supports the federal version, but is still reviewing several proposals on the state level.)

The opportunity centers are at the heart of the Office of New Americans, or ONA, and have been established at organizations with deep ties to immigrant communities. Thirteen of the centers are in New York City. Immigrants are contributing to the city's record-high population numbers, and the state wants to employ an existing infrastructure to reach out to the more than three million estimated foreign-born residents.

Cesar Perales, secretary of the Department of State, which oversees the Office of New Americans, has grand plans for the program.

“The beauty is, we can harnesses all the resources of the state," he said. "I’ve spoken to the agricultural commissioner about farms, spoken to the [Empire Development Corp.] about people starting businesses.” Perales says the Office of New Americans can take advantage of the entire executive branch and the Cuomo cabinet while teaming with local service groups.

The state originally set out to find 30 programs statewide, but settled on 27 groups that applied, said Jorge Montalvo, a South Bronx-native and a policy advisor for the New York Department of State who is helping lead the charge behind the opportunity centers initiative.

Montalvo explained that the groups chosen to be opportunity centers were evaluated on their merits and proposals by analysts, with each group eligible for $150,000 grants. Groups can also qualify for up to $25,000 more if they exceed their minimum performance expectations. The money for the centers comes from a combination of state and federal funds, the latter of which Montalvo said are derived from a block grant for states to use at their discretion.

The Department of State’s goal is to help 100,000 New Yorkers over the next three years, whether it be through English language training, by providing them with advice from immigration attorneys or through intensive business training courses.

Perales said the opportunity centers centralize services that immigrants might otherwise have to look for in a number of different places or are not usually provided in their communities.

“I am confident no other state has a program like this,” he said. “They may have an office with a similar title that acts as a liaison between the governor and the immigrant community tells him what parades to attend. But they are not providing the set of services we provide or looking at how best to integrate immigrants and get them involved in the economic life of the state.”

A survey of other state programs show mostly websites charged with disseminating information about groups that provide the kinds of services that New York State is now providing through the Office of New Americans.

The groups that were given the grants were selected within about a month, Montalvo said, relatively quickly as far as government initiatives. He explained that the speedy turnaround is a result of the program's nature. Not having to duplicate what existing advocacy and education groups already do saved the Department of State from reinventing the wheel. Montalvo added that the ONA and its financial support will allow the participating groups to expand their services to communities that might typically avoid any interaction with the government.

"What we're trying to do is formalize it and strengthen infrastructures that already exist," he said.

Sen. Jose Peralta of Queens, who is involved in immigration matters, is withholding judgment on the centers for now. “I think, overall, it’s still too early to judge," he said, "but it looks very promising. The help is definitely needed …. In my vast experience with immigrant communities, a lot of the community don’t know where to turn to talk about legal services and are often victims of fraud. The state adds legitimacy.”

Members of the ONA network are subject to regular evaluations from the state, with assigned Department of State staff tasked with staying in contact with each group. In order to remain in good standing, the groups must keep the state up to date with their financial status, meet minimum expectations based on regular evaluations, and attend quarterly regional meetings.

Census figures estimate that almost 40 percent of the more than 8 million New York City residents are foreign-born, which helped drive the State Department to fund opportunity centers across the five boroughs. While the selection process was blind, Montalvo said that the department took care to look at a variety of factors that differentiate needs between upstate and downstate immigrant communities.

Another organization that has been chosen to be part of the ONA network is the nonprofit Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow.

On the same day as the visit to the Arab American Association in Bay Ridge, a reporter visited OBT's Bushwick, Brooklyn office.

There, a middle aged woman stared intently at her glowing monitor, her furrowed brow shifting her headset. Two seats in front of her, a young man with a jagged haircut clicked a mouse through his computer's prompts while an older, gray-haired man across the room did the same.

They and the ten other individuals sitting in the bright classroom had gathered for a morning class to learn English. OBT opens it doors to about 2,000 participants annually.

"We're excited to work with the state on this," said Marjorie Parker, deputy executive director for OBT. "In terms of government direction, it's the right way to go."

Michelle Lopolito, OBT’s adult education and literacy director, said that 60 percent of the area residents speak Spanish at home. Coupled with the area’s poverty rate — which exceeds both the borough and city numbers — OBT’s Bushwick location focuses its efforts on adult education and job training, including English as a second language classes. Organizationally, however, OBT specializes in a specific demographic: youth.

“That’s what we’re known for — serving young adults,” Lopolito said.

OBT was founded in 1983 as a resource for young New Yorkers to get job skills and training. And while their mission has expanded beyond the 18- to 24-year-old demographic, its experience with young immigrants is part of the reason the state came calling.

When President Barack Obama opened up the opportunity for young immigrants to stay in the country legally in August 2012, groups including OBT scrambled to help. About 400,000 young people applied, with almost 24,000 from New York state — behind only California and Texas.

The number of applications have rapidly declined since October 2012, something that the state hopes to turn around through the opportunity center network. One of ONA’s New York City area groups — the City University of New York’s Research Foundation — also operates the school’s Citizenship Now! program, which actively helps eligible residents to apply to the program announced by Obama.

The relationship with legal services from CUNY allows member organizations to focus their legal clout on more difficult immigration cases, with Citizenship Now! focusing on the more basic application process and eligibility questions, Montalvo said.

Sarsour of the Arab American Association of New York said the groups own attorney was already seeing 30 to 40 cases at a time. Now, through the ONA network, attorneys from CUNY visit their Bay Ridge office once a week to consult residents on the immigration process.

Sarsour said she hopes that its new relationship with ONA can also raise her group's profile beyond the Arab American community that it has served since 2001.

“We want to become a center that serves anyone who comes through our door,” she said.

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Image of volunteers being trained on voter education at the Arab American Association office in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Sept. 14, 2012. Photo by Raed Rafel, used under Creative Commons license.

NEW YORK — The message "don't apply if you are unemployed" will soon be banned from job advertisements in New York City.

The City Council approved one of the nation's toughest laws aimed at protecting unemployed job seekers against discrimination at its meeting yesterday. 

Besides banning employers from basing their hiring decision solely on employment status, it is the first law in the nation to give job applicants the right to sue if they believe they were denied a position because they were unemployed.

Employers will also be prohibited from posting job vacancy announcements that require applicants to be employed.

The Council overrode a mayoral veto to approve the law, which goes into effect in 90 days. It was among the most watched pieces of legislation before the Council that also included bills to lessen the impact of Superstorm Sandy on businesses and communities.

Members of the business community have warned that the unemployment discrimination law will have a chilling effect on hiring. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said it could lead to a spate of costly lawsuits.

Staten Island Democratic Councilwoman Deborah Rose, the chair of the civil rights committee, said the law was important for New Yorkers who "through no fault of their own" have lost their jobs and are struggling to find work in an ailing economy.

"We will not allow them to be penalized twice, first through losing their job because of the economy and then again by being denied a job interview because they lost their job," she said before the Council voted.

Councilman Dan Halloran was among three Republican Council members who opposed overriding the veto. Halloran said the courts would find the law "unconstitutional."

Queens Democratic Councilman Peter Vallone also opposed the override.

The bill, Intro 0814, was originally introduced by Queens Democratic Councilman Leroy Comrie as a means to prevent employers from basing hiring practices on a job applicant’s employment status. Those who believe they were unlawfully discriminated against can take legal action or file a complaint with the city’s Human Rights Commission.

The council originally passed the bill late January, with the same Council members voicing opposition at the time.

Superstorm Sandy Legislation

The Council also voted on three Hurricane Sandy-related bills at the stated meeting; each measure was introduced from three different committees in an attempt to respond to the storm’s aftermath. They include:

• A bill that waives some fees for businesses affected by October's storm.

The bill, Intro 1017, reinforces an executive order signed by Bloomberg in February, which exempts eligible businesses in business recovery zones from a wide number of fees, among them: Department of Building permit and inspection fees for construction; fire department fees regarding inspections of fire protection systems; and small business-related permit fees on waterfront construction.

• A second bill dealt directly with waterfront construction — specifically giving residents educational material on proper home elevation post-Sandy.

While the city is still evaluating which of the city’s waterfront areas are most flood-prone, Intro 1007’s lead sponsors Republicans James Oddo and Vincent Ignizio of Staten Island included language mandating the Department of Consumer Affairs provide homeowners with resources about appropriate construction licenses and permits. It also requires more that Department of Buildings be more involved in the elevation process.

• A third bill approved by the Council, Intro 1016, increases penalties against individuals who commit crimes during mayor-declared states of emergency. Whereas the Council can only legislate misdemeanors, the bill doesn’t affect state criminal law. However, it does increase fines and civil penalties against anyone who commits crimes during a state of emergency, which are further increased for crimes committed in mandatory evacuation zones.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Just a decade ago, the idea of open government in Albany would have been unthinkable.

Here was a town that seemed to exist for the express purpose of hiding the facts about how the state functions and for keeping the public at bay while elected officials made deals in back rooms. Information was gold and state officials were the dragons hoarding it.

Now digital technologies are pushing Albany to transform the way it does business.

“We are in a midst of a revolution now,” said Bob Freeman of The Committee on Open Government, which advises the state and journalists on Freedom of Information laws. “It is almost an inevitability because of technology. For years, this process involved people putting in Freedom of Information requests and demanding information. Now the government is pushing out information. It is a sea change.”

John Kaehny of Reinvent Albany, a group focused on improving data access, said that a lot of states are creating open data portals but, “They are very superficial. A lot of their open government portals and follow-money websites are very weak,” he said of other state’s open data platforms.

Kaehny thinks that New York is positioned to be able to lead the open data movement but it isn’t quite there yet. “I think New York is incredibly good in some areas and middling in other areas. But the trend is very good,” he said.

And there appears to be any number of high-profile state elected officials embracing open government through digital technologies.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a major open data initiative today at the start of Sunshine Week, coming on the heels of the announcement earlier this year of OpenBudget.ny.gov, a portal that allows citizens to look up the state's finances. Cuomo's new site, Open.ny.gov will be a clearing house for information from all state agencies. Cuomo issued an executive order directing all executive agencies to catalogue their data and make it available via open.ny.gov. 

Later this year, the state Comptroller’s office will roll out a system that allows New Yorkers to see every check issued by the government and to follow exactly who is doing business with the state down to the penny. The system, tentatively titled “Checkbook,” is the next step in New York’s slow but steady embrace of open government and open data. It is modeled after city Comptroller John Liu's Checkbook 2.0 site that was introduced earlier this year and allows users to track city spending in a similar fashion.

Even with these improvements and a growing cadre of open government fans, much of the old system remains. Data in some sectors is still hard to come by, hidden by absurd interfaces or simply incomplete. For instance, the State Assembly still fails to meet the most basic standards of open government: It does not broadcast its sessions on the Internet and does not post the results of votes.

Bill Mahoney of the New York Public Interest Research Group doesn't think attitudes have changed sufficiently.

“There is certainly a movement toward open data,” said Mahoney. “But it’s not really the default mode for government. We often don’t see agencies put information online unless they face external pressure.”

Mahoney points to the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics as an example. To access lobbyist data, users must contend with an unwieldy search engine and, even then, it is at times difficult to get precise results. Mahoney and others have requested JCOPE simplly make a spreadsheet database available on their website of all the lobbyists doing business in the state.

“It would be extremely easy to publish that kind of database,” Mahoney said.

The Governor's Efforts On Open Government

The recent Sage Commission (a group of prominent New Yorkers brought together by Gov. Cuomo to “modernize and rightsize state government) report discusses the development of NY Performs a website that will share key performance indicators for all state agencies with the public. Data like wait times at office windows at the Department of Motor Vehicles would be made available along with perhaps the agencies spending rates. But the Sage Report notes that there will be different levels of information shared with different people.

“The most important information about an agency, including certain background facts, key performance indicators and main strategic initiatives should be presented to the public, while more detailed operational information would be available to internal users to help manage State operations,” the Sage Report reads.

And this is concerning to Kaehny because he thinks the public should have access to all of the data. “The Sage Commission lays out that NY Performs will have three tiered management data where the first tier will be visible to the public. This will be like a real time mayor’s management report. The more people use it the more we can advocate seeing more of the layers of data.”

The Sage Report also briefly mentions the Open New York initiative that Cuomo announced during his latest state of the state speech. But it is less precise in detailing exactly what it will be. “Under the Open New York initiative, data will be presented in a common, downloadable, easy-to-access format, and will be searchable and mappable,” reads the report.

The Cuomo administration has already unveiled two transparency-minded websites. The first is CitizenConnects, which has been described by the administration as a “town hall.” But the attraction for the press has been the inclusion of Cuomo’s schedules. The schedules are updated slowly and reporters have discovered a number of omissions.

The other site, OpenBudget, is flush with spending data dating back to 1954, and allows viewers to sort through the proposed spending plans and actual budgets dating back to 1993. Kaehny says it is a step in the right direction and puts New York ahead of a lot of other states when it comes to budgeting and open data. “I give the governor a lot of credit for OpenBudget," he said.

He said other states' efforts at using technology to bring transparency to their budgets were "really lame." But he said the Legislature could make its budget proposals searchable online in easily downloadable formats.

One major step towards improving New York’s data management occurred in April last year when the state implemented a sophisticated financial management system that provides users with an impressive array of analytical tools. The comptroller's office and, presumably, governor’s office are both looking at ways to make more of this data available to the public. The implementation of the system was no simple task; it cost millions of dollars to implement.

The Assembly Lags

If you are looking for the antithesis of open government in New York you need look no further than the Assembly. Its website is just about as barebones as any modern government website can get. Not all sessions are broadcast, committee meetings aren’t broadcast and vote results are not published online. In comparison, the state Senate website is a modern marvel — despite some slow response times and the fact that not all committee meetings are broadcast.

“If you look at the archived version of the Assembly site today and compare it to a cached site from a decade ago, it hasn’t changed,” Mahoney said. “They promised a few years ago to expand New York’s CSPAN to include committee meetings and more background legislators when the awful elevator music play and nothing has happened since then. It wouldn’t have taken much just to place those videos online if they had been filmed for television.”

The Senate site was the only one updated with open data features after Democrats broke the Republicans' decades long hold on the chamber and revamped the Senate’s websites. To their credit, the Senate Republicans continued to use the system when they returned to power two years later. But the Assembly’s site has remained static along with its leadership. Speaker Sheldon Silver has enjoyed a Democratic supermajority in the Assembly for years now, and nothing has prompted change. That isn’t for lack of trying.

Democratic Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi and Senator Carl Marcellino have sponsored legislation that would require session and committee votes be reported online and that all session and committee hearings be broadcast online.

“With the passage of this bill, legislators will be made accountable to the public not just for their floor votes and statements, but also their committee votes and discussions that take place therein, which is of the utmost importance in shaping and guiding the legislative agendas of each house,” Hevesi said in an email to the Gotham Gazette. “These are simple and common sense steps that Albany can take to continue its pursuit of providing transparency within the New York State government."

Marcellino advanced the bill out of committee in the Senate but it isn’t clear what the bill’s fate will be in the Assembly.

The Assembly’s bill search mechanism is also outdated compared to the Senate’s open data platform. What is so striking about the disparity to people who use these systems like Mahoney and Kaehny is that a system exists that is far better than both tools: However, it is only available to the paying public for an annual subscription fee of $2,000 and made available to legislators for free.

The Legislative Retrieval Service reports bills faster than the other services. So, for example, subscribers were alerted about the introduction of Cuomo’s gun package before those who relied on the Assembly or Senate site.

“The LRS is similar to the Senate service but, in reality, it is better than either of the services. The fact that you know about bills being introduced before everyone else is a selling point for lobbyists,” said Mahoney, whose group subscribes to the service. The LRS also allows users to look back further in time at previous bills to see how they were voted on. The service is run by the Legislative Bill Drafting Commission, and funds received from the subscriptions go to the Legislature.

Open Data is Business-Friendly

Margaret Becker, deputy comptroller for contracts and state expenditures, says that while creating the comptroller’s current open government portal she was unsure exactly who would use the information provided by the site. The comptroller’s office held public meetings, consulted journalists and businesses about what would be useful but in the end there was no predicting who would get the most benefit.

As it turns out, businesses in the state are using a lot of the data. “From our inception in 2008, we’ve had 2.7 million hits and actually contract searches have the highest number of hits," she said. "You can search contract number, agency contract type, and time period.”

That kind of data not only keeps the state accountable but allows businesses to research what they could do to win bids, by seeing who has won them and how much they are paid.

“It is much easier for vendors to do business with state agencies because they can use the system to research what they can expect," she said.

Kaehny notes that real estate firms use lots of state provided data from the Department of Environmental Conservation, including details about permitting.

“Putting more data online is a way to make New York open for business as people claim it already is,” Mahoney said. “Businesses can use state provided data to help figure out the hurdles they face and how other companies are doing it. It makes life easier for them.” Instead of paying lawyers and consultants, a start-up business could access state databases and analyze what they would need to do to win a contract, or what permits they would need to build.

Freeman agrees. “My belief is creative people will make use of the data in new ways as soon as it becomes available," she said. "It is hard to predict who will use it and how it will be used. But I’m gonna guess the private sector and business community will make use of it in some way that boosts the economy.”

Freeman points to the Weather Channel as an example. “They use government open data on weather and they have turned it into a million dollar industry," she said.

The Next Step

Experts say that when it comes to open data, Albany needs to aspire to be more like New York City, where a now-year-old law calls for about 40 agencies to post any previously publicly available data to a portal. There are now hundreds of data sets on the site, including on everything from 311 complaints to restaurant inspections.

There is nothing like that on the state level.

Instead, agencies and branches of government have spearheaded their own efforts, with little coordination. For instance, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has a site that tracks state contracts, campaign contributions and lobbying information. The State Board of Election has similar campaign data, while JCOPE has lobbying data. And, of course, their are the efforts coming out of the governor's office and the office of the state comptroller.

Advocates would like to see one NY State open data page that all agencies and segments of government report to automatically without prompting. “In Albany, the tendency has been for everyone to want transparency for everyone but themselves,” Kaehny said.

Mahoney said a portal is the next step. “The state should put all its data online in one spot," he said. "It seems to be the direction a lot of cities and states are taking. Gov. Cuomo is looking to make New York an example for other states and this would be one area where it would be cheap and easy to be the leader.”C

With the unveiling of open.gov.ny Cuomo's office hopes to do exactly that--put all of New York's open data in one place. 

NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to sign off on the City Council’s latest immigration reform legislation, further limiting the city’s involvement in federal deportation policy.

One of the two bills is an extension of legislation that Bloomberg already signed off on, which addressed how the Department of Correction coordinated with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to process undocumented immigrants. The new bill better defines how the Correction department can work with ICE, while the second expands those same guidelines to the New York Police Department.

The Council passed the immigration bills 40-to-7 on Wednesday. Four members either abstained or were not present for the vote.

Immigrant advocate groups applauded the vote; Make the Road New York, the Legal Aid Society, New York Civil Liberties Union and Safe Horizon were among the groups who testified in favor of the bills during hearings in late January. The bills’ sponsors — which include Speaker Christine Quinn, Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito and Councilman Daniel Dromm — argued the legislation was still line with federal precedent while preventing what they describe as needless deportations that break up families and communities.

“We can’t tell ICE what they can or can’t do,” Quinn said at a press event before the vote. “But we as the City Council can tell the Department of Correction what they can and can’t do and, in some cases, the police department what they can and can’t do.”

At the press conference, Quinn said that the previous bill did not run afoul of the federal government's immigration policy or procedure. Even so, the 2011 bill predated President Barack Obama's own executive action from June 2012 that forced the Department of Homeland Security to halt the deportation of some young immigrants.

The newly passed legislation stops both the jails and the NYPD from honoring notification requests from ICE, or detainers, before local authorities release immigrants from custody. Specifically, the agencies will not honor immigration detainer requests for individuals who do not have significant criminal records — including young and low-level offenders. They do allow for detainers for inmates convicted of a felony or misdemeanor within 10 years of the arrest, those pending charges, as well as for those with a pattern of violations or in any terrorism-related database.

The bills now head to Bloomberg’s desk, where they will likely be signed and approved. His chief policy adviser, John Feinblatt, worked with Quinn and the sponsors to draft the legislation. The mayor’s office confirmed its participation in the negotiations and that the bills are consistent with both local legislation and federal priorities.

However, when ICE first rolled out the controversial Secure Communities program that mandates that the police transmit suspects’ fingerprints to the Department of Homeland Security, Bloomberg complied.

“We will provide any data in the form required by the law,” said the mayor in mid-2012. “We are not above the law.”

Before the 2011 bill became law, the federal Criminal Alien Program directly linked the Department of Correction with ICE. Whereas immigration agents had the ability to assign detainers to any foreign-born inmates, the bill made it so the Department of Correction can only honor detainers for inmates with no criminal history who either have pending charges or pose a danger to the community. Within the first six months of its enactment, Mark-Viverto claimed, 267 inmates had been release who would have otherwise been detained.

As a sponsor for the bills, Mark-Viverito said during the press conference that the legislation remains aligned with the White House's stated directive for immigration reform through prosecutorial discretion. But she said the bill goes a step further by implementing it in policy.

“Unfortunately, while that’s been verbally said by the president, it’s not being implemented,” she said.

Mark-Viverito affirmed that the city is still subject to the Secure Communities program, albeit to her and some of her fellow legislators’ continued disapproval. As such, she said, passage of the bills do not direct the federal government change its own procedures.

Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran, one of seven council members to vote against the bills, disagreed and said that the burden for reform should not be on the city.

“I do not doubt for a minute that there are many people who are subject to immigration detainers who do not belong in the system,” Halloran said. “The problem is the federal government’s failure to act on immigration reform.”

Halloran lamented the negative consequences of the bill, which he said hurts law-abiding immigrants — both those with documentation and without — by grouping them with those who commit crimes, regardless of the crime’s severity.

Even though he acknowledged that the bill would pass despite his opposition, Halloran implied that the legislation contradicts the spirit of the criminal justice system.

“We’ve just exempted a whole bunch of criminals from due process,“ he said.

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Image by Bill Alatriste, courtesy of the City Council.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Dr. Ryan Gilbert’s research may one day help a person’s spine fix itself — something even he admits sounds like “something out of science fiction.”

It isn’t junk science. Gilbert’s work has been hailed by numerous scientific journals, and he has the respect of a number of major researchers in his field. And he’s doing his groundbreaking work at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, just a short car ride up State Route 787 from Albany.

A program generated and made law in the marble halls of the capital helped lure him to New York from Michigan back in 2010. But between the time he interviewed for the job at Rensselaer in February and when he arrived there in August, the state had diverted all the funds from the program into its general fund. In other words, there were no more grants.

That hasn't stopped his research, but it has made it more difficult. “When funding a lab you really need at least two grants to have enough people to move forward and get real results,” he said.

Last week, spinal cord injury researchers gathered in Albany in part to jumpstart a new effort to draw attention to their successes — and it has one major target: Gov. Andrew Cuomo. With Cuomo’s focus on drawing business to the state along with young talented professionals, researchers think the governor needs to hear about the results coming from spinal cord injury research.

Cuomo’s office directed the Gazette to the office of the budget. Agency spokesman Morris Peters said: “There is no proposal to restore funding in this budget. The decision to phase out the program was made under a previous administration, and that's all we have to say on it at this point.”

Queens-born Paul Richter was a state trooper when he was shot three times checking out a vehicle that had been used in crime — once in the arm, once in the leg and once in the neck. He is only alive today because the shooter’s accomplice assured his friend, “Nah, he’s dead.” Partially paralyzed, Richter and his friends worked to establish funding for spinal cord injury research throughout New York State.

In 1998, a bill passed that added a surcharge to moving violations and the Spinal Cord Injury Research Board was born. The surcharge raised about $150 million annually and the law says the state had to give “up to” $8.5 million to spinal cord injury research. The state has handed out millions in grants.

But in 2010 the funding was zeroed out by then-Gov. David Paterson. The surcharge still exists, but the money doesn't go to spinal research — instead the money from the surcharge goes directly into the state’s general fund and is used as part of the state’s income. “They wouldn’t have that money if it wasn’t for our legislation,” Richter said.

New York’s program was such a boon to spinal cord researchers because it allowed them to compete against other spinal cord researchers for funds, whereas national grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation place prospective grantees into a pool with every kind of research you can imagine. “We get put into the biomaterials group which includes orthopedics and cardiovascular research,” says Gilbert.

Gilbert has continued his research without funding from New York, but life would be a lot easier and he would be able to spend more time on his research if he had a state grant to leverage other grants with. Gilbert uses biomaterials as “scaffolding” in the spines of severed rats in an attempt to help restorative axons – nerve fibres — cross over the injury. So far he has had promising results.

Recently, Gilbert was reviewing a grant application for Missouri’s spinal cord injury program and said he thought: “If I lived in Missouri I might have a shot at better funding. New York should have this kind of funding if Missouri does.”

Another researcher, Dr. Mark Noble of The University of Rochester Medical Center, heads a lab that has made breakthroughs in stem cell therapy not only to treat spinal injuries but also for brain injuries.

Noble said the state’s grant program was “a factor in moving my own team from the University in Utah.”

He said the state’s spinal cord program created a network of talent all researching the same subject, and an environment supportive of novel research and treatments. Noble points out that a number of therapies developed with the help of state funding have helped return function to severely injured patients, lowering their cost of care and allowing them to return to more normal lives.

“Andrew Cuomo is supposed to be very interested in neurological disease. This fits every characteristic Cuomo wants — it is hi-tech, it creates jobs, addresses health care costs. So how could this not be worth funding?” Noble wondered.

Cuomo has been obsessed with economic development since becoming governor and Noble and Gilbert both think the state would do well to help research these new technologies and therapies.

“A lot of research we do actually makes something,” Gilbert said. "I have a number of students who are interested in starting their own business and using our research.”

But Gilbert points out that, rather than being able to focus on developing these new technologies and bringing in more students and expanding his research, he has to spend time writing grants. He even started visiting the Legislature to lobby lawmakers to restore the state program.

It isn’t the ideal way for Gilbert to spend his time; he would rather be in the lab working on technology that has the potential to help scores of people walk again.

It is almost like deja vu for some spinal cord injury researchers. In 2010, some of them met with legislators and their staff to tout the good the program had done, the breakthroughs created thanks to state cash, the number of award-winning researchers lured here because the program had created a community working on the problem. But the meetings were to no avail and funding was never turned back on.

Noble was among those who met with the lawmakers. It is a touchy subject for him to recall. He bristles when asked how those meetings went. “People were ... Polite,” he said.

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Image of Paul Richter taking part in a panel discussion on the successes of the state's spinal cord research program. Photo by Sally Temple. 

Ed Koch, the three-term mayor who earned a reputation for being a combative, shrewd politician and helped steer the city through financial turmoil, has died. He was 88. Koch spokesman George Arzt confirmed that Koch died early Friday morning from congestive heart failure. A funeral is scheduled for Monday at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. In a statement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Koch New York City's " irrepressible icon, our most charismatic cheerleader and champion." Koch left City Hall in 1990. He was born in the Bronx on Dec. 12, 1924.

Over the years, Gotham Gazette has scrutinized his legacy and also talked with the man himself about his views on everything from, most recently, Indian Point nuclear power plant, to state redistricting. Here are a handful of highlights from our archives. 

Looking back at Ed Koch's mayoral years

In 2005, former Daily News editor Michael Goodwin moderated a panel featuring journalist and novelist Pete Hamill; Stephen Berger, former director of the Emergency Financial Control Board; New York Times columnist Joyce Purnick; the Reverend Al Sharpton; and Victor Gotbaum, former executive director of the municipal workers union, District Council 37. The forum launched “New York City Comes Back: Ed Koch and the City,” an exhibition then on display at the Museum of the City of New York.

Koch's landmark housing plan

This excerpt from the book, Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City, by Jonathan Soffer (Columbia University Press), explores the thinking behind the Koch housing plan, the obstacles it encountered and the successes that made Mayor Michael Bloomberg look to it as a model some 15 years later.

Koch explains opposition to nuclear plant

In 2011, Koch began to voice his opposition to the Indian Point nuclear power plant, joining a growing chorus of environmental advocates and politicians calling fo it to be shut down. He argued that the aging nuclear plant posed a danger to the 8 million people who live 24 miles to the south in New York City – especially in the wake of what was learned from the Fukushima disaster.

NEW YORK — Unemployed job seekers would be protected against discrimination under a bill approved by the City Council.

The bill prohibits employers from discriminating against unemployed job applicants through their hiring practices and bans "help wanted" advertisements that stipulate job seekers must be employed. The Council passed the legislation 44-to-4 on Wednesday.

Supporters of the bill called it the strongest of its kind in the nation, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it was "one of the most misguided pieces of legislation" that had come before him and said it would likely lead to a spate of lawsuits.  

Job seekers could sue in court under the legislation, making it unique among jurisdictions around the country that have similar laws. Applicants could also complain to the city's Commission on Human Rights.

Bloomberg, who said he would veto the bill, said the legislation would "damage lots of small businesses."

"What the bill does is it says if you have been unemployed for a period and you don’t get a job you apply for, then you can sue the employer arguing that they were illegally discriminating against you," he said. "I can’t think of any rational employer who wouldn’t want to know what you’ve been doing for a period of time."

Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who proposed the bill in her State of the City address last year, said she has the votes to override the veto. "That will not be an issue," she said. "This is a piece of legislation that says you can't discrimnate against people who are unemployed."

The Council has overridden 19 mayoral vetoes since 2009.

Supporters of the unemployment discrimination bill, which was introduced last March, say it is badly needed because the jobless rate in the city remains above the national average and because it is also taking longer for the unemployed to find jobs. They also said examples of employers taking employment status into account were brought to their attention during the economic malaise of the past few years. The bill would also prohibit such actions.

"You can't simply say, 'Don't come here I won't hire you because you are unemployed, which is exactly what is happening, and is wrong, and is really putting people in a situation where they're going to be trapped in a box of unemployment potentially forever. And that's just wrong," Quinn said in remarks before Wednesday's vote. 

Supporters of the bill include the National Employment Law Project and the Community Service Society of New York.

"For certain groups, having this legislation in place is really important to make sure there are no barriers that would have a disproportionate impact on getting back into the labor market," said Michelle Holder, a senior labor market analyst who has studied unemployment trends in the city.

In an analysis published in August 2012 and based on data from the U.S. Census, Holder found that New Yorkers were out of work an average of 41 weeks in the previous year.

At a June 2012 committee hearing on the bill, a mayoral aide outlined several objections to the bill.

"Adding this category blurs the line between irrational discrimination, which the Human Rights law is supposed to address, and more complicated employment decision-making processes that can legitimately rely on multiple factors," said Bill Heinzen, deputy counselor to the mayor, in his testimony. "Unlike other bases for discrimination … a person's unemployment status may, in certain situations, be relevant to employers when selecting qualified employees."

Other jurisdictions have passed similar unemployment discrimination laws, including New Jersey and Oregon. President Barack Obama proposed banning discrimination against the jobless in 2011.

Council Passes Campaign Finance, Gas Station Signage Bills

The Council passed a bill Wednesday that would deregulate certain disclosure requirements by outside membership organizations that spend money on behalf of candidates.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has said he would veto the bill, is joined in his opposition of the legislation by the city's Campaign Finance Board.

“Disclosure of money is fundamental to the democratic process,” said Amy Loprest, executive director of the NYCCFB, at a hearing on Jan. 15. “A campaign message is a campaign message, no matter where or to which audience it is aimed.”

Currently, organizations have to report as independent expenditures member-to-member mailings of 500-plus pieces that discuss candidates. Speaker Christine Quinn said she is worried that this will have a “chilling effect” on these groups during the 2013 election.

At a press conference just before the bill’s passage, she said that present regulations “limited membership organization’s involvement in the civic process, limited their involvement in talking to their members.”

With the passage of the bill, she said that “we’re in a place where membership organizations can do what we want them to do — engage in the political process.”

When asked if she had enough votes to override the mayor’s veto, she responded with commanding optimism. “You can rest assured that I’ll never let a veto stand," she said.

The Council also passed a bill that would stipulate that gas stations have road signs that advertise the total selling price of gas.

In remarks before the vote, Quinn spoke of gas stations that trick customers by posting low gas prices that are actually reserved for only those who pay in cash.

“While drivers may appreciate saving a few bucks, the problem is the station’s signs use the most confusing or tiny print possible to state it’s cash only for that discount," she said.

The legislation, which was introduced by Councilman Lewis Fidler, requires a gas station to either mark that a price is for cash customers only in lettering no less than half the height, width, and thickness of the numbers indicating the price itself; or to advertise the price of gas for both cash and non-cash customers.

— By Pete Fey

ALBANY, N.Y. — In his third budget address, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had a chance to do what he didn’t in his third State of the State Address — show off his conservative side.

But when he unveiled his $142.6 billion budget on Tuesday, Cuomo leaned on the financial stability of his first two years in office to back major initiatives that appeal to Democrats and progressives.

Cuomo’s budget increases spending by 1.9 percent and closes a $1.35 billion deficit. Education spending will go up by 4.4 percent and Medicaid by around 6.7 percent. Cuomo said that the city is set to receive $257.5 million from the budget — mostly in school aid.

“He wants to loosen the purse strings a little bit,” said Elizabath Lynam, director of state studies for the Citizens Budget Commission, of Cuomo’s budget plan. “It isn’t like anyone is going to say he let the train run off the tracks, but he has some things he wants to spend money on and he is going to do it.”

A lot of the governor’s budget plan focused on implementing the proposals of his State of the State: raising the minimum wage to $8.75 an hour; setting aside $35.9 million to enact parts of his landmark gun control legislation; and allocating $75 million to education initiatives. Cuomo also spent a great deal of time talking about the budgetary impact of Superstorm Sandy and its aftermath.

Before Cuomo became governor, New York was notorious for missing budget deadlines, overspending, and ever-increasing deficits. During his speech on Tuesday, Cuomo reminded his audience of what budgeting was like before he arrived. “If the government is working, and the government is working well, the budget is supposed to be simple,” he said.

Lynam agreed. “People are used to marching to his drum now. He has done these things before. He has set spending caps,” she said. “ So now when you hear he wants to close a prison it isn’t shocking. Because he has done this before.”

Cuomo has used his previous two budgets to advocate for belt tightening and cuts that did not please unions, educators and state workers.

This year, Cuomo unveiled some cuts along those lines by advocating that two state prisons be shuttered: Beacon Correctional Facility in Dutchess County and Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan. Cuomo said it was unrealistic to keep Bayview open — the prison was closed because of flooding from Hurricane Sandy — since it costs $74,385 annually to keep each inmate there.

The budget projects a saving of $18.7 million from the closings from 2013 to 2014, and $62.1 million in the next fiscal year. That number includes proceeds from the sale of Bayview. Cuomo wants to shutter both facilities in the next 60 days, but that would require the approval of the Legislature.

The union representing state corrections officers blasted the governor’s proposal to shutter the two prisons, saying it would “displace” 160 of its members and their families. "Gov. Cuomo has, once again, decided to balance the budget on the backs on some of the hardest working New Yorkers,” said Donn Rowe, president of the state Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association. “It is a profoundly disappointing decision.”

The budget allocates $21 billion in spending for Sandy recovery – some of that money going toward communities as $2 billion grants. The budget allocates $2 million in mitigation for 2,000 miles of highway; $159 million for coastal mitigation; $6 million for the MTA to strengthen infrastructure against flooding; and $2 billion to help strengthen utilities. It also provides buyouts for homeowners who aren’t interested in rebuilding in flood zones.

“Every state project has a two-fold mandate,” Cuomo said. “Bring it back, but bring it back better than before and do the smart work that we need to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Budget Director Robert Megna told reporters that there is still some confusion surrounding Sandy relief because the details of the federal disaster aid package have yet to be worked out. “We assume that half of the Sandy Aid will go to New York,” Megna said. He noted that some of the money will go straight to communities affected by the storm and never pass through the state budget.

The budget includes $25 million to kick-start full-day pre-kindergarten programs in low-income districts. Another $20 million would go toward schools that want extended learning time, or to increase the school day. And $11 million would be set aside to reward New York’s best teachers in math and science with four-year stipends of $15,000. The city could receive $224 million in education aid if it agrees on and implements a teacher evaluation system by Sept. 1.

Lynam said the city, which missed a deadline to reach an agreement with the United Federation of Teachers over such a system, should take heed. “The governor has made it clear he will continue to link state aid to the teacher evaluation system,” she said.

Education advocates said Cuomo’s plan still does not meet the stipulations of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement that requires New York to provide low-income districts with more funding. “This budget does not come close to getting us back on track," said Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education in a statement.

A great deal of Cuomo’s budget was dedicated to programs designed to improve the upstate economy, including funding for an advertising program dedicated to marketing the region, $100 million in tax credits for the city of Buffalo and $60 million to keep that city’s professional football team in town.

What Was Missing

Cuomo’s budget did not mention the contentious gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at all. Pro-fracking groups issued statements insisting the state is losing out on billions of dollars by not legalizing fracking, while anti-fracking groups congratulated Cuomo for not including it in his budget plan as a “revenue raiser.” Cuomo is unlikely to make any declaration about fracking until the state’s environmental review of the process has been completed.

The budget also left out any mention of campaign finance reform. Funding for campaign financing has been a growing issue, with Republican legislators saying that the public does not want their tax dollars paying for campaigns. Cuomo supported full campaign finance reform as part of his State of the State Address, but also unveiled a plan that would create an online database requiring quick reporting of all political donations in the state.

Cuomo also failed to mention the DREAM Act in his State of the State, as well as in his budget proposal. The Act would provide tuition assistance to illegal immigrants. The Assembly passed the measure last year and introduced it again this year.

The Independent Democratic Caucus issued a statement saying: “In order to build a better workforce, we also need to ensure that every bright young New Yorker can afford a college degree. That’s why we are committed to enacting a fully funded DREAM Act that will provide all of New York’s smartest and most ambitious students with access to the tuition assistance that they need. Our bill ensures that neither state budget constraints, nor a student’s immigration status, will ever stand in the way of a young student’s college dream.”

The IDC’s support of the measure is important. The breakaway Democrats could use their newfound power in the state Senate to bring the measure to a vote and get it passed despite Republican opposition.

Negotiations to Come

The budget unveiling kicks off a three-month negotiating process with the Legislature. The budget is due on March 31. Typically, the Legislature holds separate hearings on each spending area of the budget and then is required by law to pair up into committees with both branches of the Legislature hashing out the differences in their budgets. These conference committees are designed to give the public a view of the real budget debates but legislators have skipped that part of the process under Cuomo in recent years.

It remains to be seen whether conference committees will occur, but Cuomo committed to making the budget process more transparent by unveiling a new website Tuesday that provides raw financial data and allows analysis and research into state spending. 

Budget negotiations will be different this year because there will be more principles at the negotiating table. The Senate is now controlled through a sharing agreement between the IDC and Republicans. The Legislature's priorities don’t always become clear until back-room negotiations are finalized. Controversial measures do have a way of becoming part of the budget deal without much warning.

Overall, Lynam said she thinks legislators will be happy with the budget. “I think for the most they are part they are going to like it. The governor added education spending above the aid cap. I don’t think you are going to hear anyone in the Legislature complain about it,” she said. “And if they do, they will be in the minority.”

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered a sweeping policy vision in his third annual State of the State address — as well as a stern warning to the U.S. Congress not to delay passage of the $60 billion Superstorm Sandy relief package.

“Don’t play politics with New York,” Cuomo said in the nearly two-hour speech on Wednesday. “Remember New York because New York will not forget, I promise you.”                                                                                          

With the kind of emotion previously unseen from the governor, Cuomo’s ambitious agenda for 2013 included major proposals on gun control, equality for women, education reform that would extend the school day, campaign finance disclosure rules that would be the toughest in the nation and plans to combat environmental change and protect New York City from severe weather.

It remains to be seen whether there is the political will to get his agenda done. He will still have to convince a Legislature riven by party factions. And Senate Republicans, who control their chamber with a breakaway group of Democrats, oppose many of Cuomo’s policy positions.

So what do Cuomo’s proposals mean for New York City? And can Cuomo accomplish them all? Most city politicians were waiting to hear from Cuomo on four main issues — hurricane recovery, gun control, the minimum wage and stop-and-frisk.

HURRICANE SANDY

He used his speech to unveil a series of policies designed to better maintain the state’s infrastructure, keep a ready emergency response force and assist those in storm-ravaged areas.

For instance, Cuomo said he wanted to change building codes to make sure construction in flood zones is able to withstand extreme weather, he offered a plan that would buy-out residents who live in areas that have suffered through repeat flood damage and perhaps most ferociously demanded that Congress move quickly to give New York disaster relief aid.

Cuomo listed the amount of time it has historically taken Congress to respond to modern disasters and noted that it has taken Congress longer to act on Hurricane Sandy relief than on any other disaster.  “This is an unprecedented situation in modern times where the federal government has not been responsive in the face of a disaster.”

Cuomo also lit into the Long Island Power Authority, saying he wants to abolish the entity. LIPA was blamed for extended power outages in Long Island and Queens. Cuomo also proposed establishing a volunteer corps to respond to disasters whenever they are needed.

Cuomo advocated the possibility of “hardening” the city’s infrastructure, including using flood gates, vents and pumps to protect from flooding. And he also said he wanted to tackle climate change by lowering the caps on greenhouse gasses.

Queens Sen. Joe Addabbo, whose district was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, said he was impressed. “The governor was right on every point,” Addabbo said. “We really need to look at and learn from Sandy. We need to rebuild in a way that we are going to benefit from in the long run.”

Addabbo added that he feels New York should press to make sure there are no conditions attached to federal recovery aid. “We had so many conditions with the stimulus funds that it took forever to get used,” he said. “There should be no strings attached because no one should tell these municipalities that have been dealing with the storm on the ground for months how they should do things.”

GUN CONTROL

Cuomo proposed a set of sweeping gun restrictions, including making high-capacity ammunition magazines illegal; banning private sales of guns over the internet that circumvent background checks; and amending New York’s assault weapons ban to “end the unnecessary risk of high-capacity assault rifles.”

“I say to you: Forget the extremists. It's simple, no one hunts with an assault rifle,” Cuomo shouted. “No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer and too many innocent people have died already. End the madness, now!"

Cuomo’s proposal failed to deliver some points supported by gun control advocates, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Democratic legislators. But gun-control advocates were generally pleased by what they did hear.  

“New York State has led the nation with strong, common-sense gun laws, and the governor’s new proposals will build on that tradition,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “They will help law enforcement keep guns out of the hands of criminals and other dangerous people and save lives. We strongly support his proposals to close loopholes and strengthen existing laws, and we look forward to working with him and the State Legislature to adopt them.”

Senate Republicans are advocating increasing penalties for criminals who use weapons in the commission of a crime and are generally reluctant to enact tougher gun laws and upset their conservative base. During Cuomo’s speech, Republican Sen. Greg Ball tweeted: “Guv Cuomo, the Second Amendment isn't in the constitution for our right 'to kill deer'. Read the constitution...”

Negotiations over a gun-control package were reportedly coming to a head on Monday night, and there was speculation a session to vote on the bill could be held later this week but as of now it appears legislators are heading home and will return next week. “I think we are done voting on things in the middle of the night after getting handed the bill,” Addabbo said. “It’s better we take the time and do this right and save more lives in the long run.”

MINIMUM WAGE

The issue of a minimum wage increase has hovered around Albany since last year’s State of the State Address. Assembly Speaker Sheldon SIlver used his pre-SOS comments to make a wage increase a priority. Cuomo expressed varying levels of support for the measure over last year. The Republican Senate pushed hard against the measure calling it a “jobs killer.” Last December Cuomo added support of a minimum wage increase to a litmus test of legislation legislators would have to support to earn his backing.

Cuomo took things one step further in his SOS, saying he wanted an increase from the current $7.25 to $8.75. That kind of specificity was surprising to many legislators. Silver proposed an increase of $8.50. Its a large jump for Cuomo who ramblingly explained on a radio interview last may that it simply wasn’t possible to get a minimum wage increase at the time. ““Do I think it is likely that we’re going to have a resolution on minimum wage this year?” Cuomo rhetorically asked on The Capitol Pressroom.  “No. Not because I wouldn’t like to see one, I very much would like to see one. I don’t think it’s possible. We hope for the ideal and live in the real, right?”

Advocates at the annual “People’s State of the State” held this past Monday advocated for a $10 minimum wage.

Mark Dunlea of Hunger Action of New York applauded Cuomo for the proposal but added: “It is less than the $10 an hour most New Yorkers support … There was no mention of indexing the hike to inflation or doing the hike in just one step, both of which are critical. We look forward to additional details.”

STOP-AND-FRISK

Last year, Cuomo advocated reducing criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The move was seen as an attempt to reduce the impact of stop-and-frisk technique employed by the New York Police Department that leads to the arrest of a high percentage of black and Latino youth.  The measure failed as it faced major opposition from Senate Republicans. This year Cuomo brought even more passion to his proposal — describing how arrest records can severely impact the future of disadvantaged young people. “This is not fair, its not right, it must end and it must end now!” Cuomo declared.

Councilman Jumaane Williams, who has been an outspoken opponent of the stop-and-frisk policy, issued a statement saying: "I was quite pleased to hear Governor Cuomo's continued commitment to addressing the NYPD's failed policy of stop, question and frisk. The State Legislature should have passed the decriminalization of marijuana in public view last year, and it is on State Senators Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein now to deliver.”

ELECTION REFORM

In perhaps his boldest proposal, Cuomo outlined a plan that would require political and lobbying donations to be reported electronically within 48 hours. The move would cut through the bramble of confusing disclosure requirements currently mandated by state law. Many see the move as a compromise that would stand in for a fully taxpayer-funded system because Senate Republicans steadfastly oppose public funding of elections. Republican Leader Sen. Dean Skelos seemed to support the disclosure requirements but implied that public financing of elections was a non-starter. Good government groups including Citizen Action NY, The Brennan Center and Citizens Union all praised Cuomo for his reform proposals.

WOMENS’ RIGHTS

In a surprise move, Cuomo debuted a major package of women’s rights initiatives. Interestingly, the reforms include equal pay, protection against discrimination in the workplace for pregnancy and would make abortion rights a part of state law were a major focus of Senate Democrats last year during session and the election. “It’s her body, it’s her choice!” Cuomo shouted three times after unveiling the measure. Cuomo referred to his daughters a number of times during this segment of the speech.

Women’s groups responded positively to Cuomo’s proposals. “No pregnant woman should have to choose between her job and a healthy pregnancy,” said Diana Bakst, of A Better Balance. “Explicit protection is absolutely necessary to ensure equal opportunity for pregnant women and mothers in the workplace and to provide economic security for them and their families.”

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Image of Cuomo at the State of the State address courtesy of the governor's office.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Modern governors have typically delivered their annual State of the State addresses in the massive, colorful, bright and ornamented Assembly chamber — the “people’s chamber,” as it is known. The exception to that rule is Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has delivered each of his two State of the State addresses at the dismally cold and businesslike convention center at the Empire State Plaza.

Some saw the relocation of the address to the less austere setting of the convention center as a way to take away some of the Legislature’s perceived power over the governor or as a move by the governor to disassociate himself from a political body that has been marked by party squabbles and corruption.

For its part, the Cuomo administration has painted it as a way to bring government closer to citizens, though it could also be argued that by doing so, the speeches have become less about “state government” and more about the governor himself, a popular politician whose ambitions may one day lead him to national office. Whatever the reason, the setting fits Cuomo’s style: his addresses are more like controlled, corporate board presentations than fiery political speeches.

Last year’s State of the State was in that vein, with Cuomo on stage presenting his annual to-do list while comfortably playing the role of chief executive officer of the Empire State. It was also the closest to an outright failure Cuomo has ever come as a governor: Unlike his first State of the State address, there was no cohesive agenda set, no rallying cry for legislators or the public to follow. Cuomo touted the successes of the previous year and offered a smattering of economic plans, while avoiding hot topics. Like a band following up a debut smash success with a dud, Cuomo had hit a sophomore slump.

The legislative session that followed was slow — fewer bills were passed in last year’s session than in modern history. The culmination of Cuomo’s legislative efforts came in a last minute, late-night mega-deal on March 14, 2012, that came to be known as the “Big Ugly” and resulted in a messy deal on teacher evaluations, a new pension tier, the first step in legalizing casino gambling and state redistricting. All of it was negotiated in secret and passed while most of the public was not paying attention. A number of the measures were unpopular with unions and good government groups, though there were some notable exceptions.

After all was said and done, Cuomo remarked: “I believe this legislative session has been one of the most successful in modern political history.”

To accomplish his goals this year, Cuomo may not be able to negotiate in the back room: the issues facing the state are too big, from the costly recovery following Superstorm Sandy to heightened attention on gun control following the school massacre in Newtown, Conn. There are also high-level policy debates on campaign finance reform, the city's "stop-and-frisk" tactics and raising the minimum wage to $8.50 from $7.25.

Cuomo could also use this year's speech to reclaim some of the momentum and mandate he called on in his first State of the State to deliver on a number of campaign promises. That year, 2011, he  passed a new ethics law, reduced the number of prisons in the state, began reforming the juvenile justice system, and passed a tax cap. He also successfully championed the legalization of gay marriage, bringing him enormous popular support and national political attention.

Cuomo told reporters earlier this week that he plans on taking the gun control battle to the public — indeed, the New York Times reported Tuesday night that he would propose “one of the country’s most restrictive bans on assault weapons” — but insisted he had not avoided bringing other issue up in his address.

“We’ll do what I do every legislative session on every issue,” he said. “We take the priorities in the State of the State and then we communicate with the people of the state. I try and build political support. I believe if you have political support among the people, then the politicians follow. I think if you look at the track record we’ve had, that’s the way it worked. You introduce a proposal, everybody – legislative types – wait to see what happens. Does the balloon go up? Does the balloon go down? I’m blowing as hard as I can to make the balloon go up.”

The 2012 State of the State Scorecard

Cuomo seemed beaten by his successes in 2012's State of the State address. How could he one-up a year of triumphs? His speech dabbled and dipped into various fronts, he flirted with education saying he would be an advocate for students, all the while insulting unions and teachers, and again angering labor groups by pushing pension reform. He briefly mentioned public financing of elections in that speech, but failed to give any specifics beyond the fact that he admired the New York City model of campaign finance.

And there were notable omissions in the speech. There were no details regarding the redistricting battle that was in full swing at the time or the contentious issue of hydraulic fracturing, a type of gas drilling. He also didn’t demand anything of the Legislature. He seemed content to inform the public of his successes, but not interested in pressing them to get on board with his future goals.

If there is one lesson Cuomo learned from last year’s State of the State speech, it probably involves his focus on creating a casino and convention center in Queens, a joint venture with a Malaysian company known as the Genting Organization.

“We are pursuing a joint venture with the Genting Organization, a gaming development company, to complete this vision at the Aqueduct Racetrack venue,” Cuomo said during his address. “It is a $4 billion private investment that will generate tens of thousands of  jobs and economic activity that will ripple throughout the state. In addition to the new convention space, up to 3,000 hotel rooms will be developed. We will make New York the number one convention site in the nation.”

Cuomo’s surprising focus on a Queens casino and convention center was generally greeted positively by New York City officials, but it set journalists wondering why the governor would be suddenly so interested in such a development. The move smacked of a directionless politician looking to introduce grand plans without considering their impact.

“The political world wondered where he got the idea for a huge, Malaysian-financed convention center,” wrote Danny Hakim for the New York Times on June 6, 2012. “Now it appears clear. The idea originated at a fund-aiser for Mr. Cuomo in Westchester County, where gambling executives from a Malaysian company, Genting, presented to the governor a proposal for a convention center and casino complex at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens.”

The Times reported that Genting gave the pro-Cuomo group The Committee to Save New York $400,000, while the New York Gaming Association gave $2 million as Cuomo was developing the idea for the Queens convention center. On June 1, 2012, The Times reported that negotiations between the state and Genting had broken down.

Will Cuomo Step Up?

This year, it seems unlikely Cuomo will repeat such a mistake. Cuomo has most been in his element when dealing with crisis. He marshaled the state for Hurricane Irene and then, last year, was focused with laser-like intensity on the recovery from Hurricane Sandy. It seems likely that this year's speech will deal heavily in executive actions that will address aspects of state government dysfunction that were highlighted by Sandy, from energy delivery to emergency response and perhaps even climate change.

Cuomo is also facing down the perceived gun violence crisis, which is not as simple as Sandy. Cuomo would have loved to have passed tougher gun laws in the immediate aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, but negotiations with Senate Republicans appear to have collapsed. Senate Republicans issued a list of measures they support that would toughen penalties against those who use guns in the commission of a crime.

But Cuomo has asserted that he wants tougher regulation on what kinds of guns are sold in the state and how they are sold. Senate Republicans have blamed the Assembly Democrats for the breakdown in negotiations, saying that the Assembly won’t accept any tougher penalties for gun criminals.

Cuomo has said he will launch a very public campaign to pressure Senate Republicans into supporting a strengthened ban on assault weapons and other gun-control measures. But Cuomo has said that of other things he supports like campaign finance reform. Cuomo has not hit the road to sway the public on that issue.

There are some issues that we know Cuomo will discuss. Cuomo told reporters on Monday that he will propose new disclosure requirements regarding campaign finance. A wider disclosure law would likely be much easier to pass than a revamp of the entire system with public financing of campaigns — Senate Republicans have made it clear they will not consider a public financing system. But Cuomo has indicated he has not given up on a full overhaul.

Cuomo also plans to push the legalization of casino gambling in the state and push for a minimum wage increase, but its unclear what size of an increase he will propose. The New York Post reported on Monday that Cuomo will pledge not to raise taxes despite a projected $1 billion budget deficit.

Nevertheless, the State of the State should be a gauge of how committed Cuomo is to both these issues and how willing he is to rankle the feathers of his legislative partners. His speech comes as the legislative landscape is in flux, with the Senate Republicans having brokered an unusual power-sharing agreement with a breakaway group of Democrats to control the chamber.

It's quite possible that, as in the past, Cuomo will skirt the finer details of his issues. Cuomo has previously said that he won’t negotiate with the legislature in public. This tactic allows him some control over the boundaries of policy debates. And without setting a measure for success, Cuomo can’t fail in the public eye.

But if, as the New York Post reported on Monday, Cuomo chooses to deliver an “upbeat” speech — one that does not demand much of the Legislature and instead focuses on economic achievements — Cuomo runs the risk of letting the legislative agenda fall out of his grasp, with potential chaos looming in the State Senate. If Cuomo comes out strong on specific issues and appeals to the public to support him, it will be easier for him to win over the public and pressure the rabble of lawmakers that fill the austere chambers of the state capitol.

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David King is Gotham Gazette's state government editor based out of Albany. Image of Cuomo striding across stage at the 2012 State of the State courtesy of the governor's office.