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Groups Seek to Pressure Cuomo on Campaign Finance Reform


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Photo by 401(K) 2012, used under Creative Commons license.


ALBANY, N.Y. — It was during his State of the State address earlier this year that Gov. Andrew Cuomo decried New York's campaign finance system as beholden to corporate interests.
 
“For most offices, New York State's contribution 'limits' are substantially higher than those of any other state that imposes limits,” Cuomo said.  "Further, existing contribution limits for corporations are riddled with loopholes. In short, the state's campaign finance laws fail to prevent the dominance of wealthy contributors and special interests.”
 
Cuomo went on to prioritize putting tighter limits on campaign contributions and gradually phasing in a New York City-style campaign finance system with publicly-funded campaigns.

But since January 2011, the governor has accepted $1.4 million in corporate donations, drawing from a small group of donors for the maximum amount of money, according to his most recent campaign filing for the period ending in July.

Progressive advocates are desperately hoping that Cuomo follows through on campaign finance reform this year in a way that he didn’t on his promise to support independent redistricting and to veto legislators' gerrymandered district lines.
 
The groups pushing the issue include a who's who of good government groups, labor coalitions and other factions -- Common Cause, Citizen Action, The New Roosevelt Initiative, The Working Families Party and The Brennan Center -- under the banner of Fair Elections For New York.  

But the coalition is moving cautiously, cognizant that the issue will be difficult to move through the Legislature and because of lasting doubts about Cuomo’s commitment to “progressive” or "politically contentious" issues.

 “The fact that Andrew knows how to work the old culture well is a relief to voters. But that era is about past and now we must judge him not by his progressive statements but by his progressive accomplishments," says Bill Samuels, of the New Roosevelt Institute.  

Last week, Samuels' reform group called on Cuomo to give up his corporate donations in a statement, citing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Citizen United case that has opened the national elections to a flood of corporate donations.  “Such a step by the governor would be of national significance,” the group said.

Yet there has been no response from Cuomo so far.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers have stopped talking about campaign finance reform.  

Samuels says it doesn't look to him as if Cuomo even bothered to try to sell the Legislature on campaign finance reform.
 
“At some point it got pushed to the back burner and he never went out to sell it," Samuels says. "Having said that, the good news is there is a chance that it will be brought up for the 2013 session. He didn’t have to bring it up, in theory."

Cuomo's office didn't respond to an emailed request for comment.

During a July 10 Red Room news conference, Cuomo acknowledged the difficulty in pushing the issue in Albany.

"The challenge with campaign finance is it's not high enough on the priority list for the people," Cuomo said noting that legislators “aren’t hearing about it.”

The governor said he expected to have to get out and sell the issue to the public. “To get something done, for me, in this town, I need to leave this town, wage a whole education effort and get the issue up to the top of the list."

Cuomo told reporters that he imagined legislation could be ready after the elections — possibly even before legislators are scheduled to return to session in January.

But Cuomo has yet to launch a public education tour on campaign finance reform.
 
The state’s campaign finance system is notoriously lax: It allows individuals to give up to $60,800 to candidates running for statewide office. New York has the highest limits of any state that has limits. In California the limit is $26,000 to gubernatorial candidates per election year and in Ohio the limit is $11,543 for state wide candidate per year.

Most other states regulate how much individuals and corporations can give to a party but in New York a loophole allows basically unlimited donations to so-called "housekeeping accounts," which can then be useed to boost candidates.

New York State’s system is in stark contrast to that of New York City’s, where restrictions on donations are much tighter and candidates can qualify for public matching funds.

But before Cuomo pushes on campaign finance reform, he has to deal with his own credibility issues head-on, progressives say.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Genting, a casino gaming group, gave $2 million to the Committee to Save New York — which has launched massive advertising and lobbying campaigns to support Cuomo’s agenda — during the time he was crafting and considering casino gambling legislation and proposed a gigantic gaming facility with Genting in Queens.

"I understand the general idea that there’s too much money in the political system," Cuomo said of the controversy with a Q&A with reporters at the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan.

He then added: "I’ve worked with groups that represent the biggest companies in this state, the biggest labor unions in this state, distinguished citizens in this state, to create jobs, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Bill Mahoney, of the New York Public Interest Research Group, says that Cuomo is a master of taking advantage of the current system.

“He certainly has been exploiting the current system better than any other candidate,” he said. “He is getting the most money out of a small pool and he has exploited every possible loophole.”

Mahoney also notes that labor groups have been donating significantly less to Cuomo than they did to his predecessors.

That may be because of the governor’s support of new pension tiers and his hard bargaining at the contract table. Regardless, Mahoney says it has resulted in Cuomo squeezing even more money out of a smaller group of corporate donors.
 
Mahoney recently issued an analysis of Cuomo’s donors that shows one man and his companies gave Cuomo a total of $250,000 in the first 18 months of the election cycle. That man is Leonard Litwin, a New York City based luxury apartment developer who in 2006 ranked 374 on Forbes list of the top 400 richest people.

NYPIRG found that at least 102 donors gave Cuomo more than $40,000 a piece. Cuomo has $19.3 million on hand.

“The appearance in and of itself of a conflict of interest is very damaging to reform,” Samuels says.

Karen Scharff, of Citizen Action of New York, doesn’t agree with Samuels.

“In general, I think as long as the system is what it is you shouldn’t have to unilaterally disarm but you do owe the voters a strong determination to change  the system,” Scharff says.
 
Samuels says he hasn’t seen Cuomo expend any “political capital” on campaign finance reform with the same gusto as other issues, such as same-sex marriage.
 
Cuomo has the backing of the myriad groups aligned with Fair Elections New York, and of NY Lead — a group of very influential and wealthy New Yorkers including former Mayor Ed Koch, the son of George Soros, Barry Diller and Chris Hughes.

They are pushing Cuomo in the same way that Samuels is — by appealing to his ego and political instincts by telling the popular governor that acting on the issue especially in the light of all the national attention Citizens United is getting — will cast him as a reformer, not only in New York but nationally.
 
But Koch isn’t enthusiastic about the chances for reform on the state level.
“There isn’t as much interest as I hoped there would be,” he says. “It’s always hard to get the Legislature to support something that would give their opponents equal funding.”
 
As for Cuomo acting on the issue to get acclaim on a national stage, Koch says it sounds like a nice idea.

“That’s a very good thought, I hope it works but I’m not aware of any action,” he says. “To me the most important thing would be a constitutional amendment.”

Mahoney is equally as cautious as Koch. “For two years, the governor has said a lot of great things about campaign finance reform but he hasn’t done anything, but I don’t think he is the kind of politician who would say things just to score points. There hasn’t been a bill yet and that is the true indicator of how serious the effort will be," Mahoney says.
 
Mahoney warns that there is no half measure on campaign financing reform. “Public finance wouldn’t work without closing the loopholes,” he says Currently, corporations and individuals can donate unlimited amounts of money to party’s house keeping accounts.
 
Meanwhile, as advocates wait for Cuomo to take action, different plans are being touted in Albany designed to provide alternative funding for the public financing of elections so that the public wouldn’t reject the proposal out of hand because it uses taxpayer funds.

But Mahoney says it is too soon to talk about them. “I’ve heard proposals tossed around but without hearing the governor and other leaders’ positions it’s hard to gauge what is serious.”
 
Scharff says that the cost would likely be about “less than one percent of the state budget” and the gain would strongly justify the expense.

“Campaign finance is fundamentally necessary for us to get fair policy, to get a fair minimum wage to get a fair tax system, for us to own our elections,” she says.
 
She says she is unaware of the governor’s plans, but she thinks a special session, one that is rumored to be scheduled for December and will likely include a vote on raises for legislators, is a perfect opportunity to pressure legislators and to bring reform to a vote.

“They owe it to us pass something that gives us fair elections,” she says.
It seems unlikely that there be any pledges collected this year, that the issue of campaign finance will be used a political litmus test like during the election season of 2010 when Koch collected signatures of legislators who promised to support independent redistricting only to later oppose it.

The Republican Senate Campaign Committee issued a message to supporters blasting the push for public funding for elections, calling it a cash grab by the broke Senate Democrats.

Senate Democrats have presented campaign finance reform packages of their own and have been pushing Cuomo on the issue.

Democrat Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was the only one of Albany’s three leaders to have attached his name to a piece of campaign finance legislation, but it didn’t get support from Cuomo or Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who has openly opposed public financing of elections.

Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat who has supported the various campaign finance reform packages over the years, says that despite her hopes it is not apparent to her that a deal on a major reform package is imminent.

“You really need two of the three players to really want to do it, and they have to either embarrass the third guy or give him something that he wants in trade for it,” she says.

She also says a slow build of public education will be needed to get voters to pressure their legislators.
 
As for the election season, Krueger says she doesn’t think a presidential election year will lend itself to a major push on a statewide issue.

“There are no statewide elections for us, so the big policy issues remain with feds,” she says.
 
But she says the story of the 2012 Presidential campaign will be the money that was spent by PACS thanks to the Citizens United decision and that that will give someone — perhaps even a certain ambitious governor — the chance to make hay of the issue.  

“He could be there to be the hero,” she says.

Espaillat asks whether Board of Elections is reliable: 'I feel not'


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Photo by azipaybarah


State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, after conceding for a second time to U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel in the race for the 13th Congressional District, said there were still questions to be asked about the election.

But the biggest one of all, so to speak, concerned the agency that runs the vote counting machine in the city.

"This is sort of the elephant in the room. Is the Board of Elections a reliable entity? I feel not,” Espaillat said to reporters yesterday as he announced he would gracefully bow out and let Rangel keep his seat.

He said he expected other groups to look into problems that occurred during the election. "You know, from the changing of election district numbers, to some change in poll sites to perhaps a lack of proper notification to voters and a bunch of other things," he added.

It had been a strange trip to get to this repeat concession by Espaillat. Nearly two weeks have passed since the chaotic election night that initially saw Rangel reported as the clear victor in the June 26 primary. Initial vote tallies put Rangel thousands of votes ahead of Espaillat, and the challenger conceded.

However, new votes were soon discovered and Rangel's lead shrank – at one point down to only 802 votes. Both candidates said the race was too close to call. Espaillat filed a lawsuit alleging widespread voter fraud. But over the weekend, after paper ballots were counted, the BOE announced Saturday that Rangel had won out with a margin of 990 votes.

Chaos is nothing new for elections in the city. The last major elections saw initial vote tallies vary wildly from later counts.

“People are getting used to this chaos, but not in a good way. It reduces the faith people have in the integrity of our elections, it temporarily skews the results," said state Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, who has sponsored legislation that would streamline election night processes and could avert future debacles like the one seen during this most recent primary.

"We live in a culture where people expect real results right away, campaigns make decisions based on them," he continued. "It looks like Espaillat made a decision based on them and it was based on the wrong information.”

If Kavanagh had his way, his bill would have passed both houses of the Legislature and would have been in place for the September primaries. But it was frozen in the Senate, where it is sponsored by state Sen. Marty Golden. Kavanagh says he doubts the Legislature will return and pass the bill in time for it to affect the upcoming elections.

BOE employees currently tally election night data by hand – using scissors, paper, pencils and calculators to tabulate the votes -- even though the voters are taken on electronic machines.

Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who has been an adamant supported of Kavanagh's legislation, said at a recent BOE hearing that the answer is so simple that not implementing on it borders on the absurd. “To take a memory stick out of the scanner and take it to another computer and run the numbers …. It’s very hard for the public to understand we’re still not doing this.”  

Some policy observers believe that even without legislation, the Board of Election could move forward administratively and change the process of election night vote reporting.

“We think the attorney general's office and the state BOE should weigh in on the city's ability to change closing its closing procedures," said Alex Camarda, director of public policy and advocacy for Citizens Union, the sister organization of the Gazette's publisher.

It isn't just the Board of Election's counting methods that have come into question in the last few weeks.

The New York Daily News also reported that Rangel's representatives met with a representative of the board the weekend before the election.

The board claimed it was a routine meeting but Espaillat's camp denied getting the same personal service. Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, who supports Kavanagh's election-night closing bill, wrote in a New York Post op-ed on July 5th that he thinks the board is staffed by “B team talent” because of “political patronage.”

“From its top managers all the way down to the Election Day poll workers — the public face of the agency — everyone at the Board is a political appointee,” Benjamin wrote.

The assemblyman advocates putting the BOE in the hands of the mayor. In that situation, Benjamin would have the City Council approve the appointments of any chief clerk, executive director or deputy executive director.

Benjamin's proposal would require a major legislative overhaul -- something that will not happen before the November elections. But most lawmakers are not optimistic that anything will change soon enough.

“I expect we will be in a similar situation with some of the same stuff playing out during the September primaries,” Kavanagh said.

For primary election, South Asians in Queens get language help


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Salam Nabi, a halal street food vendor, has never voted in a city election because, as he puts, he has "no idea how it works."

The native Bengali speaker works in Jackson Heights, Queens, where the neighborhood is dotted with boutiques of shimmering saris, bustling convenience stores and outdoor grocery stores — many with employees speaking in South Asian languages.

He blames his lack of understanding of the democratic process, in part, on his limited English.

Nabi and other South Asian voters in Queens may have a bit of an easier time navigating the polls beginning with today’s primary.

That’s because translators and phone operators who speak Bengali, Punjabi and Hindi are expected to be made available in Queens for the first time under a federal mandate. Voting signs will also be translated into the three languages.

But there may still be an obstacle for many: No ballot will be made available in any Indo-Asian language just yet. While the city’s Board of Election has proposed creating Bengali-language ballots, the agency’s commissioners have not finalized a design. The BOE hopes to have them available for November's election. 

Nabi, 21, said the addition of Bengali as a language on the ballot would make a big difference for him. “I would vote now,” he said, as he looked outside the window of his steamy halal cart.

The choice of Bengali for the ballots, however, has not been without its critics.

Some South Asian activists wonder why the more widely spoken Hindi was not also chosen to be on the ballot or why more than one language could not be chosen -- reflecting some of the complications of creating voting materials in a city of millions of immigrants speaking dozens of different languages.

Federal Mandate for South Asian Languages

Last fall, the Department of Justice, acting under The Votering Rights Act of 1965, mandated that the city's Board of Elections provide written language assistance for an Indo-Asian language in Queens.

Bengali was chosen because census data indicated speakers of the language were more likely to have limited knowledge of English. The city’s Bengali, Punjabi and Hindi speakers are primarily located in Queens.

BOE spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez said the BOE's interim plan to provide Indo-Asian language assistance in Queens was adopted in mid-April.

She said the goal is to have signage translated and poll workers who can speak Bengali, Hindi and Punjabi in "only the identified areas in Queens covered by city planning such as Jackson Heights and Rosedale,” for today’s primary.

The plan includes recruiting two full-time Bengali translators; two Bengali and two Hindi phone operators; and Bengali Election Day interpreters. The plan also stated that the Board “will make a best effort” to recruit Hindi interpreters who also speak Punjabi for Election Day.

Thus far, 66 Bengali interpreters and 98 Hindi interpreters, many of whom also speak Punjabi, have been hired for Election Day, said BOE Deputy Director Dawn Sandow.

However, recruiting permanent staff who speak all three languages and meet federal requirements to work as phone clerks and translators has proven problematic.

"We interviewed two applicants and both were not comfortable with the level of written translation that we require,” Rachel Knipel, a member of the BOE's contracting office, said at a public meeting on June 19.

Counsel Steven Richman also wondered whether some applicants may be legal residents, not citizens – making them ineligible to vote.

A Debate Over Indo-Asian Languages

A number of Queens and South Asian community organizers and groups have praised the BOE for recognizing the large number of South Asians in Queens and their need for voting language assistance.

However, the BOE may run into a few challenges by choosing just one of three major Indo-Asian languages to be on the ballot.

During the initial meetings with the BOE regarding the new addition of Indo-Asian languages, community organizations seemed to have differing opinions on how they should choose which language to use on the written ballot.

Jerry Vattamala, a staff attorney with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said they had suggested Bengali since speakers of the language often don’t have strong English skills.

But Gurpal Singh, the executive director of SEVA NY, a South Asian organization operating in Richmond Hill, Queens, said the BOE's commissioners had been "very academic in their approach” by choosing Bengali, rather than taking into account the realities of the neighborhoods themselves.

“If you really want to serve South Asians in Queens, you should do both languages, Bengali and Hindi," he said. He said the “BOE is only doing the bare minimum to comply with the federal law” and that “even before the meetings, it seemed like the BOE already picked Bengali.”

Anil Kumar, a soft-spoken cashier in a Hindu puja store that is stocked with statues of deities, flowered garlands, prayer books and other religious trinkets, has been a citizen in the U.S. for 18 years.

He had heard of the plans to add Bengali to the Queens ballot. "We definitely need it," Kumar said. "It would be more easier to understand all of the citizens of New York.”

Kumar, 56, of Jamaica, Queens, is a native Gujurati speaker with limited English skills, and first voted in the city ten years ago. He recalled the experience as "difficult."

He said one of his main concerns of participating in elections with limited English is that his vote might be wasted because he might pick the wrong person.

“Sometimes it goes to waste, to whom we want to vote. Sometimes the vote does not go to them," he said. Kumar said that assistance for Gujurati speakers should also be made available at the polls.

“Although Hindi is the mother language, Gujurati people also need their own language," he said.

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Kamelia Kilawan is a Jeannette K. Watson Fellow and a student at Baruch College studying journalism and religion and culture.

Guide for the last minute (primary) voter


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From the 82-year-old ethically-challenged Charlie Rangel's first serious electoral challenge since he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1971 to the surprise endorsement of City Councilman Charles Barron by a former Ku Klux Klan leader, this year's Congressional primary election season hasn't lacked for drama.

Voters will go to the polls throughout the state today, but here are highlights for New York City. 

5th Congressional District

The newly drawn 5th Congressional district includes Jamaica, Ozone Park, all of the Rockaway Peninsula and and parts of Nassau County.

Rep. Gregory Meeks is fighting to keep his job in Congress in the new district against former NYC Councilmember Allan Jennings, small businessman Jospeph Marthone and law school graduate Mike Scala. Meeks has held a seat in Congress since 1998. He was investigated for fraud in 2009 but won relection in 2010. Jennings was elected to the City Council in 2001 and lost relection in 2005; he has been fined for sexual harassment and owes the Campaign Finance Board thousands of dollars in back payments and fines. 

Marthone is running on an anti-hydrofracking playform while Scala is running on helping the poor and has a side gig as a rapper.

6th Congressional District

The 6th Congressional district is made up of pieces of the old 5th and 6th districts that were represented by Reps. Gary Ackerman and Bob Turner, respectivley. Both men decided not to seek reelection.

The district encompasses a large portion of Queens, including Flushing, Bayside and Forrest Hills.

A number of popular city politicians jumped at the chance to represent the new district:

  • Assemblywoman Grace Meng has the support of Ackerman and an endorsement from the New York Times. She has outraised her opponents significantly. She is expected to appeal to the foreign-born, thanks to her work on immigration issues in the state Assembly.
  • Assemblyman Rory Lancman, who has focused heavily on labor issues during his time in the state Legislature, has been endorsed by the Daily News. 
  • City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, who has focused on economic issues, has knocked Menh and Lancman for their votes in the Assembly supporting the generally loathed new district lines. 
  • Robert Mittma is a medical doctor and has unsurprisingly focused on health issues. He opposes the federal Affordable Care Act.
7th Congressional District

The 7th Congressional District includes parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez has held a seat in Congress since 1993. She was the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress and has been endorsed by President Barack Obama, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Majority Leader Sheldon Silver.

Velasquez's most viable challenge comes from Councilman Erik Martin Dilan. Dilan is the son of State Sen. Martin Milave Dilan and has the support of Assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic party boss Vito Lopez.

Also running are Occupy Wall Street member George Martinez and former district leader Daniel O'Connor.

8th Congressional District

The 8th Congressional district is made up of Brooklyn neighborhoods including Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Howard Beach, Canarsie and Brighton Beach.

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and City Councilman Charles Barron are locked in an intense battle for the district. Jeffries has the fundraising advantage and has been endorsed by Ed Koch and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But Barron has the support of a number of fellow council people. Barron, a former Black Panther who is adamantaly opposed to Israel and opposes same-sex marriage, recently earned the endorsement of former KKK head David Duke. He also enjoys tremendous union support.

9th Congressional District

The 9th Congressional District is made up of Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Flatbush, Brownsville Prospect Park and Sheepshead Bay.

Rep. Yvette Clarke has been in Congress since 2007 and has been endorsed by President Barack Obama. She was elected by large margins during her last two races. Clarke faces Sylvia Kinard, senior legislative attorney for the New York City Council. Clarke has focused on unemployment and education, but her biggest claim to fame is that she is the ex-wife of former Comptroller Bill Thompson. Kinard's campaign has nowhere near the fundraising abilitiy of Clarke's.

13th Congressional District

Eighty-two year-old Rep. Charlie Rangel has served in Congress since 1971. The race for the 13th district is expected to be his biggest challenge to date thanks to a series of ethics issues and health problems.

The district, made up of Upper Manhattan and the lower Bronx including East Harlem, Manhattanville, Washington Heights, Inwood, Fordham Manor and Norwood has been the center of attention when it comes to the city's congressional battles.

Rangel's challenger, Adriano Espaillat, is a progressive Democrat who served 13 years in the Assembly before winning a seat in the state Senate. He has focused on immigration, economics and housing issues during his time as a legislator. Espaillat is well funded and thought to be a serious threat to Rangel. However, Rangle has marshalled a great deal of support from the Demcoratic establishment – including Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Also running are former Bill Clinton Staffer Clyde Williams and former executive Jorce Johnson. Johnson challenged Rangel in 2010 and lost despite the endorsement of The New York Times.

16th Congressional District

Made up of the North Bronx and Southern Westchester, the 16th Congressional District features a contest between long-term incumbent Eliot Engel, who has held a seat in Congress since 1989 and Aniello Grimaldo, an attorney, teacher, reverend and author who wants to balance the federal budget, end world hunger and win this election.

Engel is expected to have all the support of the Democratic establishment.

Critics Attack Influence of the Committee to Save New York


 
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An important part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2010 campaign platform was his promise to “clean up Albany.” The Governor’s campaign ads said that his experience as the state’s Attorney General would help him fight corruption that was blocking much-needed reform, and he laid out a 20-point plan to increase transparency and accountability in the capital.

Since being elected the Governor has continued to publicly condemn money coming from wealthy individuals and corporations willing to pay for influence in Albany. Yesterday the Governor saidthat he wants to overhaul the state’s campaign finance laws and has criticized Super PACs that can spend unlimited money in political campaigns.

"The power of money in the Capitol is unbelievable," Cuomo told Susan Arbetter on her Capitol Press Room radio show.

And the Governor counts among his legislative accomplishments his ethics reform bill passed last August that was supposed to increase public transparency in Albany.

The Governor has achieved a number of other legislative goals with the help of an organization called the Committee to Save New York. These goals include passing two on-time budgets, his Tier VI pension reform, a property tax cap and infrastructure investment projects. These proposals were all part of the Governor’s campaign promise to balance the state budget with no new taxes by cutting state spending.

The Committee to Save New York has supported the Governor’s efforts to cut budget spending and reform state pensions by running television and radio ad campaigns across the state extolling the Governor’s proposals. Experts say that the large amount of money the committee spends on these campaigns has helped the Governor pass his fiscal and economic agenda. The committee itself says that it has had a tremendous impact on state politics.

“The results speak for themselves,” said Michael McKeon, the committee’s spokesperson.

These initiatives, McKeon said, will help keep taxes low to spur private sector growth and job creation across New York. Kathryn Wylde, one of the committee’s co-chairs, has called its agenda “constructively anti-tax.”

The committee has spent heavily in advocating for its agenda. A report by the New York Public Interest Research Group said that the Committee to Save New York spent more money on lobbying in the state than any other organization last year. In total the group spent close to $12 million on its lobbying efforts.

But behind the television campaigns the Committee to Save New York has generated a great deal of criticism from good government advocacy groups and political opponents who say the committee exists to promote corporate interests by backing the Governor’s spending cuts and anti-tax initiatives.

Critics say that the committee operates just like the Super PAC’s that the Governor condemns, spending large amounts of money to campaign on behalf of his agenda. Some reports say that the governor created the committee himself to campaign for his agenda, although the committee denies those reports and says it doesn’t coordinate with the Governor’s office. The committee has also been accused of lacking transparency as it has yet to disclose its donor list and has delayed in filing its lobbying reports required by state authorities.

Committee’s Backers

Where exactly the committee’s money is coming from is a mystery, as the group has not released a donor list. But critics point out that the committee has links to some of the wealthiest individuals and corporations in New York.

“They come across as altruistic, but the policies they defend are to protect their bottom line,” said Kevin Connor of the Public Accountability Initiative, a public interest advocacy group.

The committee’s most important members, Connor said, are the Partnership for New York City, the Real Estate Board of New York and the Business Council of New York State. The board members of the committee and its partnered organizations include Wall Street CEO’s like Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, and real estate moguls like Rob Speyer of Tishman Speyer.

Connor authored a report, called “The Committee to Scam New York,” that claims that these business leaders support the committee’s anti-tax agenda in order to line their own pockets. In the report Connor said that the committee formed in response to the economic crisis and financial meltdown that cut the state’s revenue. Business leaders, fearing that the state would raise taxes in order to make up for lost revenue, wanted to promote the Governor’s budget that focused on spending cuts instead of raising taxes.

“This is an interesting example of the ‘one percent’ organizing for its own interests,” Connor said.

If the committee has had one legislative failure it is the extension of New York State’s “millionaire’s tax,” a tax surcharge on individuals making over $200,000. The group opposed the extension of the surcharge in this year’s budget, a stance that the Governor originally shared but had to reverse in face of political pressure last year. The extension of the surcharge is estimated to raise $1.6 billion in revenue for the state this fiscal year.

Connor estimated that the extension of the surcharge would cost individuals linked of the committee a great deal of money. He reviewed the compensation of 10 board members of the Partnership for New York City, including Rupert Murdoch and a number of Wall Street executives, and said that these board members would have to pay a total of $3.6 million more in state taxes because of the surcharge.

Corporations linked to the committee have also saved a great deal of money in the form of state, federal and local subsidies, Connor said. Since 1988, he said, 39 corporations linked to the committee have received more than $2 billion in public subsidies in the form of tax breaks, infrastructure projects and grants. Most of these subsidies are billed as job creation initiatives, but Connor cited a 2010 study by New York Jobs with Justice that found that the state had spent $135 million in subsidies on businesses that failed to create or cut jobs.

Links to Governor’s Office

The New York Times reported that the committee was formed at the end of 2010 at the request of Cuomo to counter public unions by organizing business groups behind his budgetary policies.

Connor said that some of the committee’s founding members were also some of the biggest contributors to Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign. For instance, one of the committee’s co-chairs and founders, Rob Speyer, is also co-CEO of real estate firm Tishman Speyer, the biggest donor to Cuomo’s campaign. Connor estimated that individuals and corporations linked to the committee gave a total of $1.8 million to the governor’s campaign.

“They’ve been in lock-step with the governor all along,” Connor said of the committee.

The committee’s other co-chairs are Kathryn Wylde, the president of the Partnership for New York City, and Steven Spinola, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York. Wylde also sits on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York along with several other bankers who are on the board of the Partnership for New York City as well. She also sits on the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, a joint state-city development agency charged with helping to rebuild Lower Manhattan after 9/11.

One of the committee’s other founders, Ken Adams, a former President of the Business Council of New York State, serves as president of the Empire State Development Corporation, the state’s chief economic development agency. Governor Cuomo nominated Adams for the position after he helped found the Committee to Save New York.

The committee and the Governor’s office have always denied coordinating their campaigns though. Michael Mckeon, the committee’s spokesperson, said that the Governor was not involved in the committee’s formation. The group, he said, was started by a group of business and labor leaders to support a reform agenda. Albany had long been dominated by special interests, McKeon said – although he would not specifically identify those special interests.

Committee’s Agenda

The committee has since helped the governor pass two balanced budgets on time with no new taxes and reductions in state spending, McKeon said. This past budget cycle the group spent an estimated $3.9 million in ads supporting the Governor’s budget proposal.

The group also campaigned on behalf of the Governor’s Tier VI pension plan, passed earlier this year.

“We believe the pension reform plan adopted this year was transformative,” McKeon said. “We are very pleased with the final result.”

The pension plan will raise the retirement age for state workers and increase their contribution to the pension system. This will save the state and local governments $80 billion over the next 30 years, according to the committee.

The committee also helped push through a cap on property taxes in the state. The cap mandates that local governments and school districts can only raise property taxes by two percent annually. The Real Estate Board of New York, one of the committee’s members, has long supported a property tax cap on behalf of the real estate developers that it represents.

McKeon said that the committee’s next issue to tackle will be cutting spending mandates for local governments. These mandates, the committee argues drive up local taxes across the state and encouraging businesses to move elsewhere. The Governor has already passed some mandate relief initiatives such as cutting local government contributions to pensions and directing the state to pay for part of local governments’ share of Medicaid.

The committee’s support of the Governor’s pension reform pitted the group against the state’s public sector unions like the New York State United Teachers. Despite resistance from the unions, the committee helped the Governor push through most significant parts of his reform plan.

Carl Korn, a spokesperson for the teacher’s union, said that the interests of most New Yorkers don’t correspond to the interests of the business leaders backing the committee. But most people, he said, are probably not aware of who is behind the committee.

“I think most New Yorkers see these slick commercials and they have no workers from the debate in Albany.

Transparency

Many of the committee’s critics, including Korn, have also said that the committee is not held to a high enough standard of transparency. The committee has never released its donor list, has yet to file its required paperwork with the state’s Charities Registration Bureau, and didn’t release its board list until January of this year.

“We have to disclose every dollar we spend and collect,” Korn said. “They should be held to the same accountability and transparency. What do they have to hide?”

Government accountability experts have also demanded that the committee be more open about its donors.

“For somebody spending that much money, and we have no idea where their money is coming from, they should be more transparent,” said Bill Mahoney, a researcher at the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Mahoney said that the committee has changed the entire lobbying landscape in Albany by the amount of money its spending and staying on message with the Governor.

Michael McKeon would not say whether the committee plans to release its donor list at some point, although he said the group would file its required lobbying paper work with the state’s Charities Registration Bureau by mid-May.

Two non-profits, VOCAL-NY and Community Voices Heard, have twice asked the Joint Committee on Public Ethics, the state body that regulates lobbying activities, to investigate the committee for its failure to file its paper work.

Michael McKeon said that the failure to file was simply a paper work mistake on the committee’s part.

“They should list who they are lobbying on behalf of. They failed to meet the basic filing requirements,” said Sean Barry, a spokesperson for VOCAL-NY. “They don’t take seriously the modest lobbying laws we have in this state.”

Barry called the committee “Cuomo’s Super-Pac” and said that VOCAL-NY has demonstrated at the Governor’s fundraisers where members of the Committee to Save New York were present. The committee, he claimed, is bringing in corporate money to get lawmakers to go along with Cuomo’s proposals.

VOCAL-NY and Community Voices Heard released a joint statement yesterday calling the Governor’s criticism of Super PAC’s “the height of hypocrisy, adding that the Governor and the committee support cutting spending on programs that low-income communities rely on.

“Cuomo defined himself as a reformer. He said he was going to clean up Albany,” Barry said. “Instead he is practicing some of the darkest parts of capital politics.”

The Joint Committee on Public Ethics has not responded to the two requests for an investigation, Barry said.

At some point, he added, the Governor will have to reconcile his image as a progressive politician with the fact that corporate interests are supporting him and his proposals.

Agnes Rivera, a board member of Community Voices Heard, said that the Governor’s ties to the committee have convinced her that he is not interested in reform. Rivera said that she has participated in several of VOCAL-NY's demonstrations against the committee.

Rivera has two sons who are now living with her along with both of their families, she said. Both sons have college degrees, she said, but are unable to find work. She said that the committee’s policies are not going to help people struggling to find work in the state and that she won’t vote for Cuomo because of his relationship with the committee

“The committee is not trying to save schools or save people’s jobs,” Rivera said. “They’re thinking about their own pockets.”

New York State Government


Legislative Gazette - The Legislative Gazette is the weekly insider's newspaper for the state government, founded in 1978 and put together by student interns as part of the State University of New York. Its Web site is useful for keeping track of the news that might fly under the radar screen of the mainstream press.

NY Public Payroll Watch - A product of the Manhattan Institute, a think tank on public policy, this website provides news clips, links and updates to track labor issues that affect the cost of NY local and state governments.

NYS Department of Labor - Job openings are updated daily. Also information on youth careers, community service center, labor market, and unemployment insurance.

NYS Senate - Senate schedules, info on legislation and all the other workings of NYS gov't.

NYS Unified Court System - Info by judicial district. Great links to law libraries and legal research.

Open Book New York - This site, created by the New York state compotroller, is designed to help visitors find out how the state government spends taxpayer dollars. The site allows searches of current state contracts and of how much various state gencies spend on salaries, travel and other expenses.

Redistricting Battle Comes to a Head


cuomodeal
Photo provided by Office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo

Albany is hurtling toward a massive agreement that will likely resolve the state budget, create a new pension tier, expand the state’s DNA database and perhaps most notably finally resolve the long battle over the state district lines.

Late on Sunday night, just moments before midnight the legislature introduced their final proposal for Senate and Assembly district lines and an amendment that would change the process after the next census. On Monday U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann released her final proposal for Congressional districts—a proposal that would become law if the legislature fails to agree on their on plan—something they seem fated to do.

The battle lines were already drawn over redistricting earlier this year but now the major players have at least partially revealed their hands as negotiations continue between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislature.

So who stands where? What do legislators have to gain? What does the Governor have to gain? What to good government groups have to gain and why can’t they all agree on a solution?

The Lines

The legislative majorities have submitted lines that most observers agree are only a miniscule improvement over their initial proposals that were hailed as blatant gerrymandering. Initially it was difficult for reporters to evaluate the new lines as LATFOR didn’t post maps on their homepage for quite some time after the legislation was introduced. A spokesman for the Senate Democrats eventually sent the maps to reporters with this statement, “Since the Senate Republicans are content on keeping the public in the dark and concealing the maps that they produced, we will do it for them. Attached you will find the maps which show very clearly that there is virtually no change from their previous proposal. These hyperpolitical maps cannot rationally be considered a better product.”

However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a radio interview on Monday that his office worked with legislators on improving the initial lines. “They consulted with my people in redoing the lines,” Cuomo told Fred Dicker on Talk-1300. “The lines are far from perfect but I believe they made progress on the lines.”

Cuomo also insisted that he would veto the lines if the legislature does not agree to an amendment that would change the redistricting process when it occurs again more than a decade from now.

The final legislative proposal includes a 63rd Senate district which carves out rural parts of upstate New York—avoiding the edges of Democratic leaning cities like Albany and Schenectady in what is s seen as insurance for Senate Republicans. Without control of the district map most experts agree they would not be able to sustain much of a conference in the state because New York is such a heavily blue state.

The Amendment

At the heart of the disagreement between the legislative minorities and majorities and the major good government groups is the proposed legislative amendment and how it would alter redistricting a decade from now.

The amendment would establish a commission that would be made up of 2 legislative appointees from each legislative conference. The legislative appointees would then pick two more members—creating a 10-person panel.

The members of the commission would draw district lines and seven of them would have to vote to approve the legislative lines. Those lines would then have to be passed by the legislature.

According to the proposed legislation if the commission was unable to reach consensus on a plan the commission would be required to submit, “that plan (or plans, if two or more plans garnered an equal number of votes) that garnered the highest number of votes in support of its approval.”

The legislature would ultimately have to pass the commission’s lines. If the legislature rejects the commission’s plan twice in a row the legislature can make slight changes to the maps. A limit is set at a 2 percent deviation.

The Argument For

Two major good government groups have come out in support of the deal that would allow the legislature to go forward with their lines as long as they pass they agree to a constitutional amendment and a failsafe that would enact the changes should two successive legislatures fail to pass the amendment.

Citizens Union and League of Women Voters New York support for the deal is admittedly pragmatic. (Gotham Gazette is published by Citizens Union Foundation the sister organization of Citizens Union. ) They admit that their efforts earlier this year—that lead to 184 legislators signing a pledge to enact a non-partisan redistricting commission –have basically failed. They insist that Cuomo should go ahead with the agreement because this is a rare opportunity for him to force the legislature to enact changes to the process as a whole. “We are not going to trust them again,” said Dick Dadey executive director of Citizens Union, “the promise of let the court draw the lines and we are going to reform the process next time around. They haven’t done it and they never going to do it until they are backed into the corner like they are now.”

During a press call hours after the amendment was released Dadey told reporters:

"Citizens Union's approach to good government isn't just about taking positions, critiquing the actions of government officials and pushing an agenda," said Dadey. "We want to be both principled yet pragmatic and try and actually achieve the solutions that we set out to address."

Citizens Union and League of Women Voters have not offered steadfast defense of some of the qualities of the amendment when questioned by reporters. When asked why the bill allows commission members to be family members, or business partners with legislators Dadey responded that such restriction would “limit the pool” of candidates. Adding, “Another thing is, simply because you're the brother of a legislator doesn't mean you're going to agree with him or her on these issues.”

Argument Against

Common Cause, New York Public Interest Group as well as former Mayor Ed Koch, the man who lead the pledge drive during the 2010 elections, opposes the deal—as does the Senate Majority and a number of Assembly members.

They say that if the governor vetoes the legislature’s lines and puts them in the hands of the court New York could wind up with significantly improved maps. They point to the maps Congressional maps proposed by Judge Mann. Common Cause has created their own maps and feel that they could provide as a guide to the judge that was tasked with drawing the lines should Cuomo veto.

But they also have major concerns about the amendment itself. Common Cause said in a statement that

“The proposed Constitutional Amendment is a far cry from independent redistricting, with final approval of the maps squarely in the hands of the legislature. “ This is not reform let alone even an improvement. This is change for change's sake.”

Further more they point out that the criteria for drawing districts favors incumbency over criteria such as “communities of interest.”

“Incumbency, in coded language, is given primacy,” Common Cause’s statement reads, “and there is no mention of prison based gerrymandering. In stark contrast, the proposed criteria devised in the 1967 constitutional convention states simply: "Gerrymandering for any purpose is prohibited" (Section 2, subsection c).

In order to achieve meaningful reform in the future, and for the next ten years, the Governor must hold firm to his promise to veto any politicized maps, and work toward a solid constitutional amendment which truly reforms the redistricting process.”

What’s Next?

With Albany hurtling towards the next “Big Ugly” it seems that a deal could be reached at any time. Cuomo’s move—to veto or not to veto could be weighted heavily by deals made on other issues such as Tier 6 and the budget. On March 15 judicial panel will review Mann’s lines unless the legislature comes to an agreement on Congressional lines.

Redistricting Hearings Draw Stream of Objections


lines lg
Photo by Gail Robinson

In a series of hearings across New York City last week, lawmakers, special interest groups, community organizations and private citizens blasted Senate and Assembly redistricting proposals put out by the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR), sometimes using words like “embarrassing” and “abomination.”

Most complaints involved the Senate lines, though the Assembly lines got some attention. Hearing attendants described concerns about splitting up communities, diluting minority votes and gerrymandering districts in order to make it easier for senate Republicans to win.

Governor Andrew Cuomo called the proposed districts “unacceptable” and vowed to veto them. Many democratic lawmakers and dissatisfied groups are pushing for the veto and would prefer to entrust redistricting to the federal courts. Over 100 people testified in Queens and over 50 testified in the Bronx.

“This is the worst gerrymandering in the history of New York State,” said Sen. Michael Gianaris who represents Northwestern Queens. Under the proposal, Gianaris’s Astoria-dominated district has been split, pitting him against fellow Democrat and friend, Sen. Jose Peralta, a pattern that occurred in four senate districts.

Gianaris complained that under the proposal, the Latino-heavy Suffolk county will be split into three districts, undermining the Latino vote. He added that Westchester, where three cities will be grouped into one district and Rochester where one city is being split into three districts, will face the same problem of minority disenfranchisement.

He also gave Hempstead as an example, where an African-American population will be split among four districts, “All represented by white men – this in a town that has African-American representation in the assembly and two African-Americans in the County legislature.”

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southeast Queens Community Coalition for Civil Rights also protested against what they called disproportionate white representation of minority communities. Garth Marshant, president of the Southeast Queens coalition, said that it’s wrong that two thirds of Queens is represented by white men while Queens County is only 39 percent white, according to 2010 Census figures.

Assemblyman John “Jack” McEneny, the co-chair of LATFOR, countered that the task force does not look at the race of elected officials and that it’s his understanding that many legislators capably represent constituents of a different race than they are. “That’s pretty racist” to suggest otherwise, he said.

Bronx residents were similarly incensed that Bronx’s community board 7 remains split among three different assembly districts. Residents of Norwood complained that the neighborhood would be split between the 33rd and 34th senate districts. Don Bluestone, executive director at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center said that Norwood’s voice is small as is and to further reduce it would be “devastating.”

One of the loudest voices to speak out against redistricting came from Eastern Queens United, a coalition of community leaders from Glen Oaks, Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Bellerose, and Queens Village who opposed splitting Eastern Queens among ethnic lines.

“The lines are an abomination. They were drawn specifically to serve the interests of politicians and political parties, not the voters and communities,” said Bob Friedrich, the group’s founder. “LATFOR completely ignored our requests and divided our community into unidentifiable blobs on a map. The borders run along not natural boundaries but along small, residential streets.”

But Eastern Queens United opponents, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who pushed for a majority Asian community in Eastern Queens that would include part of Long Island, are also not entirely happy. Jerry Vattamala, a lawyer for the fund, who testified in Queens, said that Flushing and Bayside are insufficiently integrated as an assembly district and that Bay Terrace needs to be removed. He also said that Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park remain divided among many assembly districts.

However, Vattamala said, AALDEF is more pleased with assembly districts 49, 47, 40 and 25. “At least they gave us something,” he said, adding that the group will continue to fight for an improved version of the redistricting proposal.

McEneny said that most concerns LATFOR heard so far in New York City center around splitting ethnic communities and neighborhoods that wish to remain together, moreso than considerations about the advantages of political parties. He said that the task force is already looking at ways to improve on its proposal and take public concerns into account.

However, he said, that sometimes LATFOR’s options are limited due to the complexity of district partitions and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Among other provisions, the act mandates that communities with over 50 percent minority populations must be grouped together.

“You can’t change one district line without changing another district. Whatever you put in, you have to take out,” said McEneny. “If the part you put out goes to a Voting Rights act district, what happens to their neighbors?”

Governor Cuomo’s veto threat hangs over the proposal which Gianaris called “DOA.” Peralta said that he is confident that the federal court, which would have to take over in case of a veto, would to a “better and faster” job than LATFOR, something many of the redistricting opponents agreed with.

McEneny disagreed and quoted the Governor’s earlier statement that bringing in the federal court would cause “chaos” as there is less understanding of local community concerns at the federal level.

Not everyone came to the hearings to complain. Maf Misbah Uddin, a Jamaica resident and president of the New York Central Labor Council praised the new assembly district 24, saying “this is the first time there is a South Asian dominated district. South Asians can finally come together.” Miguel Rordiguez, a business owner from Corona offered words of support for the overlooked congressional districts, saying that Dominicans in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx would have better nationwide representation under the plan.

But most people remain dissatisfied and do not appear to show much faith in LATFOR.

“There’s all kinds of contradictions and a human being has to make a decision. When a line is drawn, someone will always cry foul and someone else will stay silent. It goes with the territory,” said McEneny.

Top Stories of 2011


betting
Round and round it goes.

A number of our pundits made some big bets last year, pushing all their chips into the center of the table, only to see them swept up by the dealer. Perhaps the best example of gambling on the wrong outcome was Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr., whose prediction was short and to the point.

"There will be a fight in the senate for gay marriage and it will fail to pass again. So my prediction is there will be no gay marriage in 2011," Diaz told us by phone from his holiday party last year. There was a fight in the Senate but little did Diaz know that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would craft a deal with both sides of the aisle, a deal that saw same-sex marriage become the law of the land. It doesn’t seem many people knew the kind of political force Albany was dealing with before Cuomo took the reins of power in 2011.

Going with his heart over his better judgment, Terry O’Neill, founder of the Constantine Institute, misread the cards for his friend Albany County District Attorney David Soares and said he expected, “Andrew Cuomo to appoint Albany County D.A. David Soares as commissioner of criminal justice services.” Soares very publically earned the ire of the Cuomo administration this year when he refused to prosecute peaceful protestors at Occupy Albany.

Roberto Perez, keeper of The Perez Notes Blog, nearly hit the nail on the head last year when he predicted embattled NYC Schools Chancellor Cathie Black would resign. But he sacrificed a safe bet for the sake of snark by adding that Black would join, "the Cuomo administration, after realizing that there is more dysfunction within the New York City school system than there is in Albany."

That isn’t to say no one got it right. A number of our pundits foresaw, as BronxTalk host Gary Axelbank put it, "The bloom will come off the rose or, more accurately, the rose will come off the bloom as the truth will begin to emerge about the Bloomberg administration." Whether the "truth" emerged or not, Axelbank wasn’t alone in foretelling the declining popularity of the Bloomberg administration through missteps and scandal during 2011.

Perhaps the most telling comments came from John Petro of the Drum Major Institute. Petro focused on the income disparity in the city, foreshadowing the major rallying cry of Occupy Wall Street. "In the city, where the wealthiest one percent takes home 44 percent of all income, the gap between the rich and the poor will widen. Jobs will be created, but largely in low-paying sectors like retail and home health care. No one will point out the obvious: a $7.25 minimum wage is completely insufficient for New York City." Petro got it wrong, however, when he predicted that the living wage bill would pass the Council. That is a battle that will continue to play out in 2012.

Who would our political pundits put their money on in 2012, what trends will pay off, what is a sure bet for the new year? What would make a good parlay? Read on dear reader, our political tip sheet is yours to peruse.

Councilman Ydanis Rodriquez

Once the weather warms up, I think we're going to see a huge surge in activity from the Occupy Wall Street movement. My prediction is that by working together with elected officials, OWS will influence the budget process. Organizing with thousands of city residents, the movement will stop the Mayor's pattern of balancing the budget on the backs of working and middle class New Yorkers. Apart from Occupy Wall Street, I also predict that State Senator Adriano Espaillat will soon be changing his title to Congressman Adriano Espaillat, taking his long history of great work for Northern Manhattan and the Bronx to Washington, D.C."

City Comptroller John Liu

With tough budget decisions ahead in 2012 our office will maintain its focus on paring dollars from unnecessary outside contracting, saving pension cost with investment reforms, and finding waste with thorough auditing of city agencies.

Councilman Jumaane Williams

1. The Mayor will wake up sometime near the middle of the year and say, "Wait, you mean I'm the Mayor of the entire NYC and not just the 1%? Why didn't anyone tell me?”

2. My favorite sports team, the Knicks, will continue to trade for the oldest and most injured among us.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

This year, we have taken major steps to market The Bronx, attract new businesses, support our existing businesses, and grow the overall economy of our borough, and in the coming year my office will continue fighting for the economic development of our borough. Although we face challenges in our education, economy, among other things, it is time to let the world know once again that the Bronx is a place of success. In addition I, along with all 1.4 million Bronxites, have World Series number 28 in sight this new year and feel confident that our Bronx Bombers will repeat their 2009 performance.

Gene Russianoff, NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign

1. Sadly, the fare will go up at the end of 2012. That's the MTA plan. Last time, in December 2010, the 30-day unlimited MetroCard went up 17%. If that happens again – and there are fare hikes, as planned, for every two years – be prepared for a $167 30-day card in 2017. A good time to be in the 1%.

2. There will be some good news for long-suffering bus riders: You will soon be able to use your cell or smart phone to tell how far your bus is from your stop in real time. A new "Bus Time" program goes Staten Island-wide in January 2012--and then around the city.

3. "Poetry in Motion" – subway car ads featuring works from Shakespeare to Frost – will return from retirement. You may get stuck in a subway tunnel, but it will be your chance to catch up on the likes of Langston Hughes or Emily Dickinson.

Colin Campbell keeper of The Brooklyn Politics and reporter for The Politicker.

1. All hope for independent redistricting will turn out to be mere naive wishfulness -- redistricting will be just as partisan next year as it's always been.

2. Andrew Cuomo will schedule the special election to replace former State Senator Carl Kruger this Spring, and the race between Democratic Councilman Lew Fidler and Republican attorney David Storobin will be a close one, won by single digits (I'm clueless as to who will win it though!)

3. The Republicans will draw a new majority-Asian State Senate district in Queens. While they'll have a shot at winning it if Republican Councilman Peter Koo runs, the more important reason for drawing this district will be to provide the argument that the Republican map better protects minority representation when the inevitable lawsuits come a knockin'.

4. Mitt Romney wins New York's Republican primary next April. This is a pretty easy prediction so I can say I got at least one right should the other ones go awry haha.

Bill Mahoney, NYPIRG

The new ethics law required the Board of Elections to establish new rules for the disclosure of independent expenditures on state races by January 1st. The Board will start the year off on the wrong foot by failing to meet this deadline. Two weeks later, the January filings will reveal that hundreds of donors gave more than the legal limit in 2011. The Board will take no action. They will also fail to do anything when these filings reveal that several elected officials used their campaign coffers for personal purposes, such as funding their legal defenses.

Councilman Stephen Levin

I predict we will have really good legislation coming out of the Council. Two bills I look forward to having hearings on involve street vendors. They receive thousand dollar fines for minimal violations. Hopefully it will come to a vote. Small things like having their cart over a subway grate, or not properly displaying their license can get them a thousand dollar fine, and these guys only make $15,000 a year. It is outrageous.

Sen. Liz Krueger

I predict the governor follows through on his commitment to veto LATFOR’s lines if they don’t meet independent standards.

I hope the Governor will make as passionate a commitment to moving on public financing of elections as he did to same-sex marriage last year.

I was told my official response should be that I will run [for mayor] if I am drafted, and up until this point it has been working.

Barbara Bartoletti League of Women voters

I predict Gov. Andrew Cuomo will have yet another session that by his terms will be successful. It might not be successful by our terms, but he will have a successful session one way or another.

Deputy Minority Leader Sen. Neil Breslin

I have two predictions—the courts will decide the lines and give us fair redistricting maps and the N.Y. Giants will win the Super Bowl

Sen. Gustavo Rivera

I predict... I will have several new Democratic colleagues in the New York State Senate.

I predict... We will pass a real health exchange for the state of New York.

I predict... The Occupy Wall Street movement will stay strong and continue to influence national dialogue on issues of economic inequality.

Barbara Bartoletti League of Women voters

I predict Gov. Andrew Cuomo will have yet another session that by his terms will be successful. It might not be successful by our terms, but he will have a successful session one way or another.

Adam Lisberg, editor City & State

At the risk of looking like more of a fool than usual twelve months from now, here are a few thoughts on the year to come. Despite all the turmoil and change of the last year, the one common theme is I expect the status quo to stay the status quo:

- The mayoral race will stay largely quiet. Just as the rumors always swirl about a business-backed would-be Bloomberg jumping in as a Republican, rumors will also swirl about a black or Latino challenger to try to undercut Bill Thompson among Democrat primary voters. Neither will happen. The existing major candidates have worked too hard, scrubbed their records too clean and raised too much money to let an interloper disturb their grim dance. You will hear names popping up. Don't waste your time worrying too much about them.

- Comptroller John Liu will still be comptroller. And since he's never officially declared for mayor, he has no reason to drop out, despite the growing federal probe into his fundraising. His chances will shrink, not because he really fears the feds, but because the institutional and union supporters he needs will shy away from investing in a candidate with a target on his back. Liu is too single-minded and ambitious to rule out anything in his future just because the feds have a target on his back and are trying to get underlings to flip on him. Unless Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara caught Liu on a wiretap directing illegal fundraising in his own words, he is unlikely to get indicted. And I believe Liu is too smart to have done that.

- Gov. Andrew Cuomo will not fall to earth. He is too skilled a politician to believe his own press, and is too focused on the mechanics of governing to let his attention wander. He knows there are forces that hope he settles into a sophomore slump, so he will stay focused on getting results and keeping on top of every potential threat. Beginner's luck wears off, but he knows the finish line wasn't the budget, the tax deal or gay marriage -- it will be New York's economy and job market in 2014. Or 2016.

- New York's media will stay robust and vibrant, even as more and more New Yorkers shift from reading newspapers and watching TV. A new iPad model and other competing tablets will give more people a reason to get their news in mobile form, not in an old format they have to buy every morning or sit down to watch. Yet the profusion of emerging sources of credible and interesting media will continue to grow -- as Capital New York did, and BuzzFeed might, and other startups dream of -- giving everyone in New York an explosion of good options. That's good news for new media outlets, bad news for old media empires, and scary news for journalists who hope to one day have an employer that contributes to their 401(k).

John Petro, Drum Major Institute

Wall Street bankers may have breathed a sigh of relief upon the clearing of Zuccotti Park, but as warm weather returns to New York the Occupy movement--or some new variation of it--will once again take to the streets of New York City and the capitol to shed light on worsening inequality and the indefensible concentration of wealth among the state's wealthiest. New mass protests in 2012--routinely numbering in the tens of thousands--will dwarf this past Autumn's marches in Lower Manhattan, and Democrats all across the country will benefit from the national attention on issues of inequality, economic justice, and fairness.

With the passage of gay marriage last year, the city's stop and frisk policy will become the new prominent social justice issue in New York. Calls for a federal probe into New York City's unjust stop and frisk policy will intensify, though it is unclear whether the the U.S. Attorney General will actually undertake such an investigation. However, the increased scrutiny of the policy will put pressure on 2013 mayoral contenders to take a position on street stops.

New York City's living wage bill will be passed and promptly vetoed by Mayor Bloomberg. The City Council will then overturn this veto.

The state's minimum wage will get a boost later this year, with a higher wage set for New York City (San Francisco has a minimum wage of $10.24, New York City's is $7.25). This new wage will be indexed to inflation.

New housing construction will pick up in New York City by the middle of 2012, as the surplus of new condo units begins to dry up. Developers will begin to draw up plans for new residential towers, but the lack of financing will continue to be a problem.

Governor Cuomo will back down on his calls for independent redistricting as lawmakers draw up their own new maps.

The "fast-tracked" Tappan Zee bridge will come to a halt as concerned citizens rightly introduce lawsuits intended to ensure that mass transit is an integral part of the new bridge. In the end, federal grant money may appear to help make mass transit on the Tappan Zee a reality, once again making Cuomo look like a winner.

Finally, with the MTA set to lose about $320 million in revenue due to the partial repeal of the payroll mobility tax, congestion pricing will again emerge as a smart solution to funding the region's vital mass transit system. Governor Cuomo will drive to the capitol in one of his muscle cars to sign the bill allowing the city to set up a congestion zone.

Eye on Albany


When you sign up for our Eye on Albany newsletter, you'll receive a round-up of our latest coverage of New York State Government once every two weeks in an e-mail. We also encourage you to sign up for Gotham Gazette's award-winning Eye-Opener morning newsletter, which delivers the day's top stories to your inbox at 7:30 a.m. each weekday. We collect articles from publications around the city and state and, along with our latest reporting, deliver them to you each morning. With an Eye-Opener subscription also comes our afternoon newsletter, which brings you the latest original Gotham Gazette reporting on all topics 1-2 afternoons each week.

 

 



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