THE "PORK" IN NEW YORK, Thoughts of an older American on Constitutional Government in the USA Options

[Livyjr]

"$15,000 more for ethics chief - Pay bump amid Spitzer probe; GOP senator delays exit for lobby job"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

First published: Thursday, January 3, 2008

ALBANY -- The New York state ethics investigator probing the Spitzer administration is making $15,000 more after four months in state service.

Meanwhile, the Senate Energy Committee chairman has postponed his resignation and will remain in the Legislature after accepting a job with an energy lobbyist.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said Wednesday that the raise for Public Integrity Commission Executive Director Herbert Teitelbaum to $155,000 is troubling.

The commission is investigating whether top Spitzer aides misused state police to compile records of Bruno's use of state aircraft.

"I never dreamt that you would have an executive director getting a $15,000 raise in the middle of an investigation," Bruno told reporters Wednesday.

"The people have a right to know this stuff."

But the Public Integrity Commission and Spitzer administration say Teitelbaum didn't get a raise.

Instead, they say his new salary reflects the change from executive director of the state Ethics Commission to executive director of the state Public Integrity Commission, which is a merger of the former ethics and lobbying commissions.

Public Integrity Commission spokesman Walter Ayres said, "We did not seek the governor's approval on this, and we did not seek the governor's input."

In the Legislature, Senate Energy Committee Chairman James Wright has reportedly decided to briefly extend his stay in office after already accepting a job with an energy lobbying firm.

The Republican from Watertown will step down Jan. 7, according to The Post-Standard of Syracuse.

Wright announced his resignation Dec. 12, effective Dec. 31, so he could work for Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations, a national lobbying and consulting firm where Wright will continue to work on energy issues.

Having a sitting lawmaker pledged to joining a lobbying firm on the topic over which he holds sway in Albany doesn't violate the ethics rules the Legislature created itself, said the committee's co-chairman, Democratic Assemblyman Kevin Cahill of Kingston.

Delaying his resignation means Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer wouldn't be able to set a special election to fill the seat on the state's presidential primary day, Feb. 5.

Wright's resignation will leave Republicans with a one-seat majority.

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK POST

"COURT DROPS DOPP 'STOP'"

By FREDRIC U. DICKER

January 4, 2008 -- ALBANY - An attempt by a former aide to Gov. Spitzer to block a subpoena in the Dirty Tricks Scandal was rejected yesterday in Albany Supreme Court.

Justice Michael Lynch rebuffed efforts by a lawyer for Darren Dopp, Spitzer's former communications director, to block a state Public Integrity Commission subpoena for notes and other records relating to a sworn statement.

Dopp was issued the subpoena last July in the wake of a scathing report on the scandal from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Dopp's lawyer, Michael Koenig, had sought to prevent the commission from obtaining - from either Dopp himself or Spitzer's office - notes and other records, including dated documents that some have called a "secret diary."

"With the ruling, we're going to proceed to obtain Mr. Dopp's diary or notes," Commission spokesman Walter Ayres said.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01042008/news/...p_stop_6453.htm

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Panel’s Inquiry on Spitzer Aide May Go On"

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: January 4, 2008

ALBANY — The State Commission on Public Integrity can continue, for now, to gather evidence related to Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s former communications director, Darren Dopp, while a separate criminal investigation proceeds, a state judge ruled on Thursday.

Mr. Dopp, a key figure in several investigations into the Spitzer administration’s efforts to discredit a political rival, had sought to prevent the commission from gathering information about him until an investigation by the Albany County district attorney, P. David Soares, had been completed.

While the judge, Michael C. Lynch of State Supreme Court, rejected a request by Mr. Dopp’s lawyer, Michael Koenig, that he immediately halt the commission’s collection of evidence, he did say he would consider the motion to block the investigation.

Justice Lynch also rejected a motion to keep the court filings secret, people on both sides of the case said.

The commission recently subpoenaed a diary kept by Mr. Dopp that has already been turned over by the Spitzer administration to Mr. Soares.

Mr. Koenig said, “Until the district attorney completes his investigation, I believe it is inappropriate for other investigations that could influence or prejudice the district attorney’s investigation to continue.”

Errol Cockfield, the governor’s press secretary, declined to comment.

The ruling was the latest development in a six-month-old dispute that erupted when Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, issued a withering report in July saying the Democratic Spitzer administration had misused the State Police in gathering information on the governor’s chief rival, Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican Senate majority leader.

Mr. Bruno had used state planes and cars on trips that blended fund-raisers and government activity, a mixed use that was permissible at the time under state guidelines.

The dispute continues to dog the governor as he starts his second year in office, with the administration wrestling with three investigations, including one by the Republican-led Senate Investigations Committee.

Mr. Soares concluded his first inquiry in September, finding that no laws had been broken, but began a new investigation amid allegations that Mr. Dopp’s testimony to the commission had conflicted with a statement he provided to Mr. Cuomo’s office.

Mr. Soares held off on bringing charges in the second inquiry last month after complications arose, including the fact that the statement presented to Mr. Cuomo’s office by the administration was not a sworn affidavit.

It appears, however, that the integrity commission, after a delay, is moving ahead with its own investigation.

Mr. Koenig declined to say much about the case.

“As has been my policy from the beginning of representing Darren, I’m not going to speak substantively about this matter,” he said.

“We will be making whatever appropriate motions we believe are necessary.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

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THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Judge: turn over Troopergate diary"

BY JOE MAHONEY, DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

Friday, January 4th 2008, 4:00 AM

ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer's former spokesman must surrender his Troopergate diary to the state Commission on Public Integrity, a state Supreme Court judge ruled Thursday.

Darren Dopp unsuccessfully sought to quash a commission subpoena for his diary-like notes and prevent the governor's office from giving copies to ethics investigators looking into his role in the dirty tricks plot aimed at Senate GOP Leader Joe Bruno last year.

Judge Michael Lynch shot down both requests - and also refused to seal the court proceedings, as requested by Dopp's lawyer, Michael Koenig of Albany.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares also has Dopp's notes and is moving forward with a grand jury probe.

Dopp's lawyer had no comment on the ruling.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2...gate_diary.html

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POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL

Friday, January 4, 2008

"Spitzer's intermittent Albany residency generates criticism - Some say he's there more than Pataki"

By Joseph Spector, Journal Albany bureau

ALBANY - Maybe this is a sign of a new beginning in state politics: Gov. Eliot Spitzer has already stayed a night this year at the Executive Mansion in Albany.

Whether New York governors should make the mansion their home has been a debated issue for decades, with some officials suggesting staying there gives governors more control over state government.

Others, though, say that premise is overrated: Governors need to be visible across the state, especially in New York City, the largest city in the country and home to four out of 10 New Yorkers.

Some officials are criticizing Spitzer for not being in Albany more, yet others say he's doing better than his predecessor, George Pataki.

According to aides, Spitzer spent 47 nights at the Executive Mansion in 2007 and was in Albany 99 days in his first year as governor.

After hosting an open house at the mansion with his wife, Silda, on New Year's Day, Spitzer also spent Wednesday at the sprawling 39-room mansion, which has been home to New York governors since 1875.

Spitzer has balanced his time living between Albany, his family's apartment on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and in their farmhouse in Columbia County.

Aides were unable Thursday to provide the number of days he spent traveling the state.

"While he was running for office, the governor said that he would spend as much time as possible in Albany, but he also made it clear that he has three teenage daughters who attend high school in New York City," spokesman Errol Cockfield said.

Effectiveness questioned

Still, some critics questioned whether the Democratic governor has spent enough time in Albany, especially because it was his first year and because his poor relationship with the state Legislature has led to gridlock.

"It's disturbing because this governor talked about being a great reformer," said Senate Republican Leader Joseph Bruno, Spitzer's chief political foe.

"He said from Day One he was going to change everything."

"And if anything has changed, it's a lot worse than it's ever been."

Still, others say Spitzer has been at the Capitol and the mansion more than Pataki, who rarely stayed in Albany and commuted to his home in Garrison, Putnam County.

Spitzer was in Albany Thursday, preparing for his State of the State address next week.

"Although the legislative leaders may not have liked the time Mr. Spitzer spent here, he probably did increase the amount of time" he stayed in Albany compared to Pataki, said Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director for the state League of Women Voters.

Gannett News Service filed a Freedom of Information Law request in early December seeking records on how many nights Pataki stayed at the mansion.

But the state Office of General Services, which maintains the mansion, said it does not keep those records.

State police, which provides security for the mansion, said it also doesn't maintain records on governors' stays there.

Reach Joseph Spector at jspector@gannett.com

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pb...40318/1006/NEWS

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK POST

"SILVER'S RECKLESS BAILOUT"

January 4, 2008 -- It sure must be nice to live in Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver's consequence-free world - where Joe and Eileen Taxpayer can always be hit up to cover the losses of their less prudent neighbors.

Yesterday, Silver and his Assembly pals proposed socking taxpayers with a $180 million tab to bail out strapped subprime mortgage borrowers.

Now, if Albany were flush with cash, such a move would be merely wrong-headed and unfair.

But with lawmakers already planning to spend $4.3 billion more than they collect in revenues next fiscal year, it's beyond reckless.

In microcosm, it's precisely this kind of thinking (it's OK to spend more than you earn) that has led to so many borrowers facing foreclosure in the first place.

Question is, who'll bail out New York when it can't pay its bills?

Oh, yeah: Joe and Eileen Taxpayer.

Even though New Yorkers are already the most heavily burdened taxpayers of any state in the nation.

No wonder so many businesses and residents are looking to locate in other states, as recent Census data show.

How many times, after all, can they be ordered to make up for the shortfall of others?

Most astounding about Silver's plan, though, is that it not only seeks to hold harmless those who take on more than they can handle, but it also essentially legitimizes that practice - by doing the same thing itself.

We repeat: There's no money to fund it.

And when asked about this wee oversight, Silver gave the classic response of those who can't say no: The state would just have to find the money, he said, for the 50,000 households "in some state of foreclosure" - just as it does for cops and other key public servants.

(That is, the financially responsible other 19 million New Yorkers will have to pony up.)

"We have to be creative," said Banking Committee Chairman Darryl Towns, in trying to close the budget gap.

But "this is one of our priorities."

Again, even if there were billions on hand, Silver's bailout is terribly ill-conceived.

While he lets deadbeat borrowers off the hook (they're "victims," you see), he calls lenders "unscrupulous," demanding they "pick up their share of the tab."

The fact is that many lenders (investors, actually) - who hold bad mortgages - stand to lose a fortune, as their collateral turns out to have been wildly overvalued.

No bailout for them - right, Mr. Speaker?

Of course not.

Never mind that many of the lenders may have been misled by the borrowers themselves - particularly in cases where mortgages required no document or income verification.

Indeed, law-enforcement agencies say mortgage fraud - including false statements by borrowers on applications - has doubled since 2005 and soared eight-fold since 2000.

Never mind that when lenders tighten their standards, folks like Silver hold them up as villains for impeding upward mobility and home ownership.

But the misguided thinking and squeezing of taxpayers is secondary.

The main point, as Silver well knows: There's just no money in the kitty.

And even if there were, this isn't a proper way to spend it.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01042008/posto...lout_915682.htm

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"Despite gloomy forecasts, NY's budget poised for busting - again"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 10:32 a.m., Saturday, December 1, 2007

ALBANY -- Wall Street is wobbling.

Tax revenue growth has slowed.

Economic forecasts call for a chance of recession.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli -- who have agreed on almost nothing in months -- agree on this:

The economic outlook is more bleak than in years, and likely to get worse.

So, of course, New York's state government is poised to spend like a drunken yachtsman.

"So far, the more talk we hear about the budget, the less things add up," said E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the conservative Manhattan Institute.

Spitzer is preparing his budget proposal for Jan. 22 with a goal of holding spending to a 5.3 percent increase.

That's about $4.2 billion and well above the inflation rate.

In addition, Francis said the state's debt will go up $3 billion in 2008-09, to $53 billion, mostly for road and bridge work and construction at public colleges.

That debt, along with $52 billion in public authorities' debt, makes New York not only one of the most heavily taxed states but among the most deeply in debt.

All of this matters to families, employers, retirees, and more young educated New Yorkers wondering whether to give this much-anticipated new New York under Spitzer another shot before heading out of state.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

ELIOT SPITZER ON GOVERNMENT REFORM TO THE ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE OF GOVERNMENT, November 21, 2005:

I'm proud of the fact that my office has achieved a great deal during the last seven years in reforming Wall Street and the financial sector.

THAT WAS POSSIBLE IN PART BECAUSE I KNEW WHOSE SIDE I WAS ON.

I DIDN'T WAIVER.

I didn't worry about the pushback that inevitably comes when you try to change the status quo.

I believe that what happened on Wall Street and in these various other areas can also happen on State Street here in Albany.

My starting point is this proposition: you can't achieve reform - you can't achieve meaningful, far-reaching reform - unless it is based on core values.

In the financial sector we argued core values that no one could dispute: honest, full, free and fair competition.

OUR GOAL WAS AND IS TO MAKE THE FRE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM WORK AS IT SHOULD - THROUGH TRUTHFUL, FULL DISCLOSURE AND THE CREATION OF A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD.

To be sure, there were those who asserted that our actions would harm the markets.

The people who did that were protectors of the status quo.

THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THERE ARE MOMENTS WHEN GOVERNMENT MUST ACT TO HELP RESTORE THE INTEGRITY OF THE MARKETS.

They did not understand that enforcement of the rules is good for business, and that such action helps unleash the true power of the system - with capital flowing freely to the greatest opportunities for growth.

On Wall Street and throughout the financial sector, the status quo was a system based too frequently on cronyism.

It was a system in which a favored few special interests took advantage, BY FRAUD, of the rest of us.

It was a system where one senior participant, without any sense of irony, observed that what often was a conflict of interest was now a synergy.

The reality, though, was that they were robbing people of pensions and nest eggs.

And their actions distorted and harmed the markets.

We stepped forward and stopped the fraud we found, returned money to people, and restored competition.

THIS WAS GOOD FOR THE MARKETS AND GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY OVERALL.

IN FACT, CONTRARY TO THE PREDICTIONS OF THE NAYSAYERS, THE INDUSTRIES WE INVESTIGATED AND THEN REFORMED ARE STRONGER NOW THAN THEY WERE BEFORE.

That even goes for the individual companies that we investigated.

They may not have liked the process, but they were made stronger as a result.

IN THE END, WE ACHIEVED RESULTS WHERE OTHERS HAD FAILED AND GIVEN UP, AND WHERE NO ONE THOUGHT IT WAS POSSIBLE.

WE HAVE DONE IT TIME AND TIME AGAIN - INVESTMENT BANKS, MUTUAL FUNDS, PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES, INSURANCE COMPANIES AND ELSEWHERE.

In Albany - as it was on Wall Street - the status quo is a system that lacks ACCOUNTABILITY.

IT IS A SYSTEM THAT IS CONTROLLED BY SPECIAL INTERESTS.

IT IS A SYSTEM THAT IS NOT EFFICIENT, IS NOT OPEN AND TRANSPARENT.

Posted by John Galt on December 22, 2007 5:46 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...4.html#comments

"Spitzer urged to focus on economics - Business leaders, elected officials say they hope speech will address property tax relief, aid to cities"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, January 6, 2008

ALBANY -- When Gov. Eliot Spitzer delivers his second State of the State speech, on Wednesday, he should focus on strengthening New York through property tax relief, financial aid to cities and economic development while keeping some of the commitments he made during his campaign, elected officials and business groups across the state say.

In two addresses a week apart, the governor is expected to indeed to such priorities.

Spitzer will key on "driving economic growth," said a person familiar with the State of the State address and who requested anonymity.

Spitzer will follow up with his first "State of Upstate" address a week later in Buffalo.

"What I've seen with the governor's action in his first year, I'm hoping to see more of," said Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy.

"The fact that he's holding his state of upstate speech in Buffalo reinforces that."

Mayors from across upstate say they want and expect more promises of help as the governor confronts a top commitment he made in his 2006 campaign: improving upstate's fortunes.

The mayors emphasized they rely on Albany to keep improving aid for revitalization and property tax relief, and cutting mandates such as the Wicks Law that forces up the costs of public construction projects.

Although his aides so far refuse to divulge details of his plans for his second year of office, Spitzer has signaled his intention to unveil a new jobs initiative.

And he has shown a commitment to following through with popular programs, such as his three-year, $5.3 billion plan to reduce taxes for middle-class property owners.

Spitzer's two economic development czars have been teasing the new job creation idea in recent weeks.

The program is expected to commit at least $300 million to upstate and may dovetail with the "City by City" initiative, unveiled a year ago, in which the state provides regional economic development grants.

The governor's job-creation team, led by Dan Gunderson and Patrick Foye, has mentioned a new Investment Opportunity Fund to provide funds for "transformative projects" valued at $20 million or more to leverage private investment.

The governor also will talk about changing the way the state subsidizes businesses through cleaning up urban polluted areas known as brownfields, industrial development agencies and Empire Zones.

The current programs have been criticized as overly generous and relatively short on results.

Mayors hope Spitzer continues adding $50 million a year over four years to statewide aid to municipalities.

This year's budget made the first payment on the deal.

They also hope for more targeted grants from Spitzer's City by City venture under which the governor traveled upstate announcing government money for big-ticket urban projects.

In many cases, Spitzer still needs to work out a capital project deal with the Legislature to fund such commitments, something he and lawmakers failed to agree on last year.

"City by City is a good thing, looking at specific strategies," said Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll.

"I'm hoping for more of the same, in terms of his focus on upstate."

The $65 million dedicated to Rochester for its Midtown Plaza project under the program is already resulting in private sector investment interest, said Duffy.

"He made a promise during his campaign and he followed through," Duffy said.

Joseph Shay, mayor of the state's smallest city, Sherill (population 3,200), said the governor would help his municipality if he backed up his pledge to collect taxes from sales to non-Native Americans who shop at Oneida Indian Nation stores.

"I don't think he'll put it in his State of the State," Shay said.

"The sales tax we lose from the Oneida Indian Nation equates to $150,000 a year and we've been losing it for the last 10 years."

Mayor Jerry Jennings said if the governor is committed to upstate's economy he must zero in on cities and not feel he's done enough with his first-year initiatives.

He hopes the governor will get behind programs to improve urban neighborhoods, such as new incentives to fix up deteriorated buildings.

He also said more must be done in education, too, holding schools more accountable, and stretching the school year and school day to help students succeed and stay off the streets.

Following a similar theme, Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone said cities like his need to get a proportionate share of education aid to make public schools viable.

He said he's confident Spitzer will keep helping cities.

But he hopes the governor will think twice about changing the brownfields law.

Polluted city sites have a better chance of remediation and redevelopment if the governor will no more than tweak the current statute, he said.

Spitzer is proposing to switch the emphasis so state incentives are based on the cost of cleanup, not the value of the redevelopment project.

"Pretty much our entire downtown is a brownfield," Amicone said.

"I'm happy with the status quo."

"I understand there are some who abuse it ..."

"If there's no longer economic incentive, and just a cleanup program, it would render it useless."

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is looking forward to attending both speeches the governor gives this month.

He said he hopes Spitzer recognizes that Buffalo was rated the second poorest city in the nation in a 2007 Census Bureau report.

Spitzer, Brown said, will prove his commitment to upstate if he talks about directing a greater share of the state budget to cities outside New York City in general and Buffalo in particular.

"I want to see the reality behind the rhetoric," Brown said.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

How'd he do?

Gov. Eliot Spitzer laid out many goals in his first State of the State address last year.

Here's a recap of how he did.

(X means he checked off that goal, O means he's still working on it, P means he made progress)

P - Started historic bipartisan partnership with Legislature.

O - Restored confidence of elected leaders following front-page stories of scandal.

O - Overhauled campaign finance and election laws.

X - Reformed lobbying laws.

X - Changed budget process and improved transparency.

O - Reformed judicial system by consolidating and integrating courts through constitutional change.

O - Changed system of public authorities.

P - Consolidated local governments.

X - Restructured education funding.

P - Delivered on universal pre-kindergarten.

X - Raised the charter school cap to 200 from 100.

O - Provided for longer school days, longer school year and after school sessions.

X - Set up middle class property tax relief ($6 billion, three-year program).

X - Expanded aid and incentives to municipalities.

O - Cut out mandates such as the Wicks Law that impose costs on local governments.

O - Reformed brownfields law to end abuses.

X - Appointed upstate Empire State Development Corp. chairman and set up Buffalo office.

X - Appointed downstate ESDC chairman.

X - Set up stem cell and innovation research fund ($600 million, 60 percent of plan.)

P - Opened doors to minority- and women-owned businesses.

X - Won workers compensation reform.

X - Fundamentally restructured health care.

X - Closed excess hospitals.

X - Got a false claims act.

O - Created a Martin Act for health care.

X - Won law to expand health care to children.

X - Streamlined health care enrollment process.

P - Set up "bold" investments in infrastructure (wasn't able to get capital budget.)

P - Made high-speed Internet available statewide. (Formed council to work on issue.)

X - Expanded affordable housing

X - Made progress with transportation projects, including Second Avenue Subway, I-86, Peace Bridge.

O - Created a law allowing for siting of new power plants.

X - Proposed no new taxes and lower spending growth from previous year.

P - Learned to say "no" to unaffordable budget requests.

X - Helped upstate agri-businesses ($30 million to dairy farmers while developing downstate markets.)

X - Set up task force to obtain 25 percent of energy needs from renewables.

X - Expanded the Department of Environmental Conservation and Environmental Protection Fund.

P - Protected reproductive health rights.

P - Assured government is open and honest with New Yorkers so that they understand threats to safety.

P - Made private/public partnerships with entities that control critical infrastructure.

X - Developed a plan to revitalize Ground Zero.

X - Evaluated state's preparedness for emergency management.

X - Proved to be prescient by saying: "There will be occasional missteps and mistakes."

-- James M. Odato

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"Home prices put strain on buyers - Rise in cost of housing far exceeds growth in region's income, pricing out middle class from real estate"

By CHRIS CHURCHILL, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, January 3, 2008

The cost of buying a house in the Capital Region has outpaced income growth during much of the decade, making homeownership a struggle for many first-time buyers.

In Albany County, for example, median household income grew by 19 percent from 1999 to 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

During the same period, the median sale price of a single-family home in the county jumped 76 percent.

The trend was more severe in Saratoga County, where median income grew 16 percent while the median home price rose 98 percent.

The numbers, which are not adjusted for inflation, dramatize just how beneficial the period was for homeowners in the region, who saw property values skyrocket.

But they also illustrate the difficulties faced by families trying to break into the housing market and may explain why many foreclosure rates are spiking.

It's an oft-heard adage that a household can afford a home worth three times its income.

Yet in 2006, the median household income in Albany County was $51,042, while the median home price was $198,500.

In Saratoga County, the 2006 median household income was $57,374, the Census Bureau said, while the median home price that year was $257,500, according to the Greater Capital Association of Realtors Inc.

The gap between incomes and home costs was not limited to the Capital Region.

All across the country, home prices moved higher for much of the decade, even as income gains failed to keep pace.

Economists had warned the trend could not hold.

And it hasn't:

The nation's median home price, at $210,000, is down 3.3 percent from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The Capital Region has not seen a similar decline, but prices in 2007 were generally flat.

"We knew that you couldn't support the rates of appreciation we've seen for the last three or four years," said James Ader, president of GCAR, a Colonie-based trade group.

"Or pretty soon, nobody could afford to buy a house."

But even if home prices stabilized last year, the effects of the earlier price run-up may have been manifest:

RealtyTrac, a California company that tracks foreclosures, says the 1,125 foreclosure filings in the Capital Region through the first nine months of the year were more than double the number for all of 2006.

Some observers link rising foreclosure rates to the so-called exotic mortgages that gained popularity during the period.

Those mortgages, frequently used by borrowers with shaky credit histories, often included adjustable rates requiring borrowers to pay more with time.

Kirsten Keefe, the Albany-based executive director of Americans for Fairness in Lending, said it's unclear if people borrowed under exotic mortgages because rising housing costs left them no choice or if housing costs rose dramatically because such mortgages became widely available.

"It's the age-old chicken-or-the-egg question," she said.

But it's clear that home prices pinched many families, both locally and nationally, Keefe said.

And some say many potential buyers continue to struggle, despite flattening prices.

Dennis Brunelle, director of the Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council, said that a decade ago it was the poor who felt priced out of the county.

"But 10 years later, the middle class is being squeezed out," he said.

Brunelle, whose Saratoga Springs-based group directs the Workforce Housing Partnership, a coalition hoping to expand affordable housing, worries that housing costs in Saratoga County may continue to outpace local income gains because the area is attracting many buyers from areas with higher incomes and housing costs.

"And the people who built this community are locals who can't afford to live here anymore," he said.

Economists on Wednesday warned that comparing home prices from different years is an imperfect measurement.

Still, economists say there should be a close correlation between home prices and incomes.

The gap that emerged in recent years is a historical anomaly, said Kajal Lahiri, an economics professor at the University at Albany.

The median household income in Rensselaer County grew by 24 percent from 1999 to 2006, to $53,016.

The median home sale price, meanwhile, jumped 83 percent, to $171,900.

In Schenectady County, income grew 24 percent during the period, to $51,584, while home prices climbed 86 percent to $158,000.

The 2006 income statistics are the most recent available from the Census Bureau and were released in August.

Chris Churchill can be reached at 454-5442 or by e-mail at cchurchill@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"For retailers, holidays fizzled out - Storms, economic concerns blamed as statewide survey gives Christmas season a C+"

By ALAN WECHSLER, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, January 3, 2008

ALBANY -- It started out so well.

When the holiday shopping season began with Black Friday nearly six weeks ago, retailers across New York had high expectations.

Despite worries about the economy and fuel costs, shoppers were flocking to stores and pulling out their wallets.

It didn't last.

Thanks to several winter storms and, perhaps, those nagging fears after all, retailers statewide gave the 2007 Christmas season a grade of C+, according to the Retail Council of New York State.

In the last of three seasonal phone surveys of retailers, the Albany-based trade group said Wednesday the strongest shopping periods were early and late.

The week before Christmas -- generally the busiest week of the year -- was only lackluster, according to survey respondents.

Half the survey participants reported that week-before-Christmas sales met their expectations.

But merchants also reported an after-Christmas boon -- nearly three quarters of respondents described their after-Christmas sales as better than or the same as 2006.

The C+ is a full letter grade below those of previous years' results from the group's Retail Holiday Watch surveys.

Yet that doesn't mean many business owners lost money.

The majority of retailers still managed to eke out a modestly successful holiday season, the council said.

"The week-before-Christmas rush that merchants were counting on just didn't materialize for many," said Retail Council Chief Executive James Sherin.

Looking back, some still think the economy did not play a big role in sales.

"People always find money to make Christmas come," said Kevin Murphy, manager of The Toy Maker at Stuyvesant Plaza in Guilderland.

"You can't tell your child, 'Santa's not coming because there's mortgage problems or your heating bill costs are up.' "

At the Toy Maker, holiday sales were down only slightly from last year.

And last year, Murphy said, would rate an A.

The biggest problem this year was the weather.

"Ten years ago, if you had a big storm you'd know you'd make it up," he said.

"Now you lose it to online shopping."

"It's a fact of life."

Perhaps many shoppers were like Susie Rosenmann of West Sand Lake, who was checking out the post-Christmas sales at Stuyvesant Plaza Wednesday.

"We spent a little less this year," said Rosenmann, who discussed it with her family before the season began.

"We said, 'let's not be extravagant.' "

At Stuyvesant Plaza, other store owners had mixed reports about the season.

At The Rugged Bear, a clothing store for children, Assistant Manager Stefanie Bowman said sales were up over last year.

Even during the various storms, shoppers still came, she said.

Barry Richman, owner of Pearl Grant Richman's, said the gift store barely broke even this year.

"Those two major storms, they set us back," he said.

"We lost at least $50,000."

And even breaking even was questionable at times, he said.

"We're lucky to be where we are," he said.

Before Thanksgiving, the Retail Council said a survey of store owners found 78 percent expected the season to be equal to or better than last year.

At the season's end, 60 percent of surveyed merchants said the 2007 holiday period was the same as or better than 2006, the Retail Council reported.

Meanwhile, the Siena Research Institute in Loudonville, threw cold water on the early optimism.

In late November, it said that 35 percent of those interviewed said they would spend less this year due to the economy.

About 54 percent planned to spend the same as last year, but only 8 percent planned to spend more.

Wechsler can be reached at 454-5469 or by e-mail at awechsler@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Spitzer says economy, higher education will be cornerstone of '08"

By VALERIE BAUMAN, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:43 p.m., Monday, January 7, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Monday foreshadowed how he will use higher education and growth in high tech fields such as stem cell and nanotechnology research to try to revitalize the state's economy despite a $4.3 billion deficit.

The Democrat hinted the items could be part of his second State of the State speech on Wednesday.

"The entire thrust of what the State of State is going to be about is, 'How do we bring back and revitalize the economy of New York state?'" Spitzer said Monday.

"What are the investments?"

"What is the new strategic thinking we need to embrace?"

"... It means good education, it means keeping costs low, it means energy that you can afford, it means investing in intellectual capital."

Lacking, however, was any explanation of how to pay for the investments, when the economy and its revenues are declining and budget deficits are projected for several years.

That likely will be addressed in Spitzer's executive budget proposal to the Legislature on Jan. 22.

Spitzer spent Monday holding two press events -- one about stem cell research and another about nanotechnology.

Spitzer said developing these specialized fields will contribute to economic growth and stability in New York.

The state awarded $14.5 million in grants to promote stem cell research.

Spitzer and Lt. Gov. David Paterson announced the funding Monday, about eight months after a stem cell research initiative was incorporated into this fiscal year's budget.

The 25 institutions receiving the one-year development grants are just the beginning -- Spitzer says the state's efforts will contribute $600 million in stem cell research in the next 11 years.

Many scientist hope stem cell research will yield therapies that could prevent, treat, or cure a number of health conditions.

With some Americans traveling overseas seeking early stem cell treatments, breakthroughs could be an economic boon in the future.

The stem cell funding is just one part of the governor's economic development plan and will add jobs upstate and downstate, Paterson said.

Biomedical research already contributes $48 billion and 560,000 jobs in New York state.

The money was distributed to programs from all over the state, from New York City to Rochester and Buffalo.

Spitzer also made his first public comments on a lengthy report by his expert panel on higher education.

The report by the state Commission on Higher Education provided to Spitzer last month calls for 2,000 more full-time faculty at the State University of New York and City University of New York; a $3 billion research fund; the recruitment of 250 top scholars over five years; programs to make college more affordable; and "educational partnership zones" in low-income neighborhoods where colleges would help high schools prepare students for higher education.

Under its many proposals, SUNY and CUNY schools would be able to set their own tuition levels based on the demand for entrance and their needs.

The commission also supports regular, predictable increases in tuition that supporters say help families and colleges plan better.

The commission also calls for cooperative ventures between public and private colleges.

"It seems to me to be a blueprint for where we go in terms of economic revitalization," Spitzer said Monday.

Other hints released Monday about what could be in Wednesday's State of the State address include a possible cap on local property taxes, so that billions of dollars in relief sent to school districts isn't lost in increased local spending.

This was former Gov. George Pataki's original proposal when the STAR program to use state dollars to ease local school taxes was devised.

The cap was dropped in negotiations with the Legislature and local school taxes have continued to rise despite the subsidy.

Spitzer spokesman Errol Cockfield, however, refused to confirm or comment on the idea, which was first reported in The New York Sun.

----

AP Writer Michael Gormley contributed to this report from Albany.

[Livyjr]

"State spending tracks motto, 'Excelsior' or always upward"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press

Last updated: 12:22 p.m., Saturday, February 3, 2007

ALBANY -- When it comes to Gov. Eliot Spitzer's new budget proposal and the legally mandated revision to state campaign finance contribution limits, it is best to keep in mind New York's official motto: "Excelsior:"

"Always upward."

On Wednesday, Democrat Spitzer presented the state Legislature with his first budget proposal, a $120.6 billion plan for the state fiscal year that begins April 1.

That would be up 6.3 percent from the current fiscal year's budget.

When federal money is subtracted, the increase in state spending would be 7.8 percent.

The Spitzer budget proposal, with its call for a hefty increase in spending, caught some observers by surprise, given the message he had been sending out as he had called for overhauling the state's education and health care systems.

"And because we cannot make any of these changes without making hard choices, now is the time to rein in spending and exhibit fiscal restraint, so we can afford these long-term investments for our future," he had said in his State of the State address to the Legislature in early January.

Some heard a different message Wednesday.

Under a "Gov. George E. Spitzer" headline, the New York Post editorialized Thursday that "judging from the triple-the-rate-of-inflation spending hikes Gov. Spitzer proposed in his initial budget yesterday ... George E. Pataki might just as well have been starting a fourth term."

In an accompanying op-ed piece for the newspaper, a senior fiscal analyst with the conservative Manhattan Institute noted, however, that even the former governor never started from such a position of largess with taxpayer dollars.

"This is larger than any of the spending increases that George Pataki proposed in his last eight years as governor," wrote E.J. McMahon.

"In fact, it's the biggest proposed hike since Pataki ended three years of tight fiscal austerity with an election-year budget blowout in 1998."

"Spitzer health plan stresses prevention - Governor's annual speech will call for changes in Medicaid program"

By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, January 8, 2008

ALBANY -- In his State of the State speech Wednesday, Gov. Eliot Spitzer will propose shifting New York's health care to focus more on prevention, starting with the Medicaid program.

In an exclusive interview Monday, the state's Medicaid director and architect behind the reform plan, Deborah Bachrach, outlined flaws in the current health system.

Bachrach did not reveal the governor's proposal, but the problems she identified hint at the areas Spitzer will target.

Medicaid, the state public health insurance program for low-income individuals and families and the disabled, overpays hospitals for inpatient care and pays too little for routine doctor visits, said Bachrach, who spent the past 12 months digging through the financial records of hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices.

It also pays too little for hospital emergency room visits, hospital outpatient clinics and freestanding clinics, said Bachrach, who is also deputy commissioner of the new Office of Health Insurance Programs in the Department of Health.

"Services follow the dollars."

"So if you want more of a particular service, you put more money there," Bachrach said.

"Ultimately, it influences the whole delivery system."

She is hopeful that Spitzer's overhaul -- a mix of rate and regulatory changes and legislative proposals -- will tilt the system toward preventive and primary care, which is the direction the governor has said he wants to take.

Previously, the Medicaid director did not have the power to set Medicaid's reimbursement rates.

Spitzer changed that and gave Bachrach the reins.

"I have the job I always wanted," said Bachrach, a health care lawyer and former chief assistant under Attorney General Robert Abrams.

Bachrach believes that changing the way Medicaid pays for care will affect all New Yorkers.

Medicaid has 4.5 million enrollees and spends $47 billion annually.

One-third of all health care in New York is paid by Medicaid, so health care providers are likely to rearrange their service priorities based on where Medicaid pays more.

"The rules we put in place, the standards we put in place will ripple through the system," Bachrach predicted.

Here are the problems she thinks plague the current system:

Inaccurate hospital rates.

The formula for paying hospitals for inpatient care is the "base cost" of treating a patient multiplied by the service weight, or the intensity of the treatment a patient receives.

However, service weights were calculated in 1992 and haven't been updated despite changes in technology, length of hospital stays and changes in delivery, Bachrach said.

The base rates, essentially the average cost of treating a patient, were calculated in 1981 and except for inflation increases, have not been revised.

An analysis by Bachrach's office found the state pays more for inpatient services than hospitals' actual costs for Medicaid patients.

Paying more for less.

The state insulates hospitals from shifting markets by paying higher rates if patient volume decreases.

Consequently, hospitals are paid not to adapt, Bachrach said.

Pay-per-visit.

Medicaid reimburses visits to primary care doctors, hospital clinics and independent clinics on a per-visit basis "whether the patient comes in with an ear infection or a comprehensive physical," Bachrach said.

That, Bachrach said, encourages doctors to provide the easiest services at a high volume, instead of full care at an appropriate cost.

"It isn't fair to providers," she said.

Frozen rates.

New York pays the second lowest rates to physicians in the nation.

Reimbursement rates for primary care doctors, hospital clinics, emergency rooms and independent clinics have been frozen for more than a decade.

A hospital clinic receives $67.50 for an office visit no matter what treatment is given.

"It's not a very sound methodology because you want to encourage comprehensive care to be delivered inside a visit," Bachrach said.

"If you can provide multiple services in one day or one visit, we want clinics to do that, but we have set up rules that made it against their financial interest to do that."

Daniel Sisto, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, which represents hospitals, agrees hospitals aren't paid enough for outpatient visits and emergency room care, but he did not endorse Bachrach's analysis of inpatient care.

He cited two reasons.

First, reimbursement rates have been held so low that hospitals postponed facility maintenance and investment in information technology, making the hospitals' costs look lower than they should be, he said.

Second, he said, Medicaid should pay slightly more than the cost of treatment because hospitals need a surplus to reinvest in capital improvements.

Sisto said he hopes to continue conversations with the Spitzer administration as the budget process goes forward.

Bachrach declined to share the details of Spitzer's proposed changes before he discloses them in the State of the State and as the budget process unfurls, but she suggested big changes are ahead.

"I have to believe that if we get it right for Medicaid patients," she said, "we will influence the care received by every single New Yorker."

Cathleen F. Crowley can be reached at 454-5348, or by e-mail at ccrowley@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"The faltering AMD project is no longer a realistic option for New York"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, December 30, 2007

Nobody likes to be a skunk at the garden party, but the Dec. 23 Perspective story, "Waiting for AMD" did the right thing in preparing the Capital Region for the likely cancellation of the AMD chip-fab plant project.

Notwithstanding the state's expenditure of more than $150 million on infrastructure and the promise of $1 billion more in aid (an absurdly expensive and ineffective approach to economic development), it is clear now that AMD is stringing New York along.

AMD is a company beset by major problems.

In the last three quarters it lost $1.6 billion -- and it's not clear when it will return to profitability.

The acquisition of graphics-chip maker ATI for $5.4 billion was a costly mistake that saddled the company with massive debt and restructuring charges.

It is about to borrow $2 billion more, at the same time that profit margins are being squeezed by competition with Intel, and its stock is down 44 percent this year to date.

With AMD's reported operating loss of $226 million in the third quarter, and a net loss of $396 million, AMD is even scaling back plans to convert older facilities in Germany to newer chip-making equipment, a much less expensive proposition than building new fabs.

The worst news for New York is that AMD responded to its problems with a new strategy called "asset-light" manufacturing, meaning that it will outsource more of its chip fabrication to third-party manufacturers.

Given how central this "asset-light" strategy is to restoring the company's finances and the confidence of investors on Wall Street, is it realistic to bank on AMD building a very costly new chip-fab plant in New York?

The answer is no -- particularly now that CEO Hector Ruiz (who approved the project) has announced that he will be leaving the company.

If New York had a normal business climate, with average costs of doing business and average taxes, a company in financial difficulties might take advantage of the offer of $1 billion in state aid.

But in the last 10 years we've done almost nothing to slow what are now the highest costs of doing business in the nation.

Instead we've banked on an approach that requires politicians and bureaucrats to guess which industries have the best growth prospects, and which companies within those industries are the strongest, and cajole them to build here with the promise of huge infusions of state money.

This is a fool's game that can't succeed.

It is unfair to businesses already here, and does nothing to help New York.

MARK ALESSE

Delmar

The writer was a lobbyist for small business for 18 years, and worked in the Assembly and Senate on economic development.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLUITICS BLOG:

As we upstate folks here in NYS wait with bated breath for "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer to unleash his BILLION DOLLAR INCENTIVE PACKAGE for business here in NYS in his "STATE OF THE STATE" address ...

On the specious premise that the "OMNISCIENT, ALL-KNOWING SPITZER-ITIC STATE" knows where business trends are heading with great precision ...

We should take a long moment and we should step back and cast a real critical eye on this AMD/NANOTECH BOONDOGGLE that is on-going up here in the Albany area, even as I write these words ...

Essentially, with respect to AMD in particular, the "STATE" of NY made a decision, USING OUR TAX DOLLARS, to interpose itself into a TRADE WAR between INTEL and its second-place rival, AMD, with the "STATE" choosing to financially back the second-place team, AMD ...

This, of course, coming at a time when chip inventories are rising ....

And AMD's stock is tanking ...

And the nanotech field is maturing ...

So that OUR huge investment of OUR tax dollars in second-place AMD appears to be on a par with investing huge amouints of our tax dollars in the Conestoga wagon industry ...

Hey!

With the cost of gas these days, maybe Constoga wagons will come back into vogue, so the "STATE" of NY should be spending our money on developing manifacturing facilities for Conestoga wagons as well, starting now, to get a BIG JUMP on all the other states in the union ....

The question that comes to my mind in here this as an older person who remembers simlar "GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF INDUSTRY" in the now-defunct Soviet Union ...

And Chairman Mao's disastrous "GREAT LEAP FORWARD" in China that resulted in the stavation and death of countless thousands of common people in China ...

IS HOW ON EARTH HAS THE STATE OF NEW YORK BECOME THE ARBITER AS TO WHO GETS TO DO BUSINESS IN THIS STATE WITH "STATE SUPPORT" ...

AS WELL AS BEING THE ARBITER OF WHAT BUSINESSES ARE GOING TO BE THE "SURVIVORS" INTO THE FUTURE?

What has happened to "free enterprise"?

And what has happened to "Darwinism" in the world of business?

The "STATE" is taking OUR tax dollars, and by investing these tax dollars into failing companies like AMD to PROP THEM UP, unnaturally ...

The "STATE" is creating a huge CORPORATE WELFARE system that is going to bankrupt those of us out here in the countryside who are going to have to pay for continuing these failed ventures, long after their markets have ceased to exist ...

As Forrest Gump once said, "STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES" ....

So where does that put us as a "STATE", I wonder ...

And so ...

Posted by John Galt on January 9, 2008 8:04 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...9.html#comments

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Spitzer Wants to Endow State’s Public Colleges"

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: January 7, 2008

In his annual address to the Legislature on Wednesday, Gov. Eliot Spitzer will propose establishing an endowment for the state’s higher education system and adding 2,000 faculty members, according to a person with knowledge of the speech.

The proposals are part of an effort by the governor to put New York’s public universities on a par with those in states like California and Michigan.

But it remains to be seen how much the administration would be willing to spend initially, as the state already faces a budget gap of more than $4 billion and is confronting weakness in a critical source of tax revenue — Wall Street.

The proposal for more faculty members comes from a recent report on higher education by a 30-member commission convened by the governor.

It is unclear whether Mr. Spitzer will embrace the commission’s other recommendations, including starting a $3 billion fund for research grants, modestly raising tuitions across the system and allowing individual campuses to raise prices further.

The last two proposals appear to have drawn the most opposition.

The person who provided details of the governor’s proposals did not want to be identified because the speech was still taking shape.

The state’s public higher education system includes the State University of New York, with more than 400,000 students on 64 campuses, and the City University of New York, with more than 200,000 students on 23 campuses.

Higher education experts have said the system has fallen short of Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller’s goal of being a pre-eminent higher education system and lacks research institutions close to the prestige of the University of California, Berkeley, or the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

The state generally lags in the percentage of the budget it allocates to higher education, and while its relatively low tuitions are politically popular, some critics say the system lacks the resources to soar in collegiate rankings.

Several top university systems have multibillion-dollar endowments — pools of money set aside for future needs — and also allow campuses to charge different tuitions to better finance campuses with higher research ambitions.

The latter idea, however, could be a political nonstarter.

Both Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, the Republican chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, and Assemblywoman Deborah J. Glick, a Democrat who heads the Assembly’s Higher Education committee, have expressed opposition to so-called differential tuitions.

Ms. Glick said in an interview last month that price-conscious 17- and 18-year-olds who get into several SUNY colleges would choose based on price, not on which one was best for them, if differential tuitions were in place.

Undergraduates at SUNY colleges who are state residents now pay $4,350 a year in tuition and $4,000 at CUNY.

At University of California campuses, by comparison, the cost is more than $8,000.

The proposal to establish a central endowment goes beyond the recommendations of the commission, though the amount of money that the governor has in mind was unclear Sunday.

A memorandum from the governor’s office said that the commission’s plan over 13 years would require an initial investment of $1.6 billion for new faculty members, buildings and capital projects, and $226 million annually for the additional faculty members.

John Clark, the interim chancellor of the SUNY system and a commission member, said capital needs — new dormitories and academic buildings — were urgent.

“The great building of the State University of New York was done during the Rockefeller years,” he said.

“We need massive reinvestment."

"The governor has really embraced it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK POST

"BOASTFUL GOV'S 1ST-YEAR CHEER"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, AP

January 6, 2008 -- ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer released a detailed comparison of more than 50 campaign promises that were addressed in his first tumultuous year yesterday, days before he is scheduled to deliver his second State of the State address.

Despite gridlock in the Legislature since late in the 2007 regular session that ended in June, Spitzer reports major progress is education, health, economic development, environmental protection, tax relief and government reform.

"Many of the accomplishments described here, and indeed some of the most significant ones, resulted from collaboration between the Legislature and the executive," Spitzer said as part of the 240-page "Report to the People of New York State."

But Spitzer credited the implementation of changes to state government to his agencies, his appointed commissioners and department heads often with relevant private sector experience and their work force, most of which carried over from the Pataki administration.

Candidate Spitzer had promised to reinvigorate the agencies and return greater power to their commissioners and department heads.

"The Pataki guys had been in a holding pattern for a year and half or more, and the agencies I'm familiar with have had very capable people at their head," said Russ Haven of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

"The agencies matter because the Legislature gets all the attention, but the agencies are the ones that make the trains run on time by implementing laws."

Among the report's highlights:

* Tax relief and changes to regulations that saved businesses $1 billion.

* $1 billion in property tax relief, most for the first time steered to middle-class families.

* Construction under way of the Freedom Tower and related buildings and development at ground zero in lower Manhattan after years of delay.

* More than 500 jobs retained or promised by business in New York or relocating to New York.

* A $30 million bailout of dairy farmers.

* Efforts to help minority- and women-owned businesses gain access to bonding and state contracts.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01062008/news/...heer_836664.htm

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK SUN

"Spitzer Is Set To Cap Taxes on Property"

By JACOB GERSHMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun

January 7, 2008

Governor Spitzer, in his State of the State address on Wednesday, will signal support for imposing a cap on local property taxes in New York, which tower over the national average despite billions of dollars spent by Albany to ease the burden.

According to a knowledgeable source, Mr. Spitzer will also propose renaming Hudson River Park in Manhattan after his three-term predecessor, Governor Pataki, who in 1998 signed the original legislation creating a vast strip of public piers, boat houses, lawns, gardens, sporting facilities, bike paths, and walkways on the West Side waterfront between Battery Park City and 59th Street.

In doing so, the governor would be bestowing permanent public recognition on a man whom Mr. Spitzer once suggested left no lasting mark on the Empire State.

A year ago, Mr. Spitzer in his inaugural address shocked many in the audience, including the former governor, when he likened New York during the Pataki years to Rip Van Winkle, the fictional short story character who fell asleep for 20 years.

Hudson River Park, or what will be George E. Pataki Park, is the largest open space development in Manhattan since Central Park.

More than a third of it has been completed, including the Pier 40 courtyard fields at West Houston Street and Pier 84 at West 44th Street.

The two State of the State moves — one an unexpected, gracious gift to a Republican who has begun to fade from the public eye and the other an endorsement of a policy long championed by fiscal conservatives — signal an awareness by the embattled governor of the urgent need to retool his image.

Taken together, they suggest that part of Mr. Spitzer's strategy is to attempt to reposition himself as a centrist and to broaden his support among state Republicans, his toughest foes, with both policy changes and acts of random kindness.

As a candidate, Mr. Spitzer vowed to tackle New York's property taxes, which are 56% higher than the national average on a per-capita basis, according to 2005 data.

Unlike his Republican challenger, John Faso, Mr. Spitzer rejected the idea of cap on property taxes, but he has softened his position since taking office.

In August, he acknowledged that state efforts to lower property taxes by subsidizing school budgets and mailing rebate checks to homeowners were undermined by the expanding budgets of school districts and local governments.

It is not clear if Mr. Spitzer would favor placing a percentage cap on local or school tax levies, or restricting annual growth in home assessments.

More than a dozen states have some sort of cap on the annual growth of property tax collections.

A well-known version is Massachusetts's Proposition Two-and-a-Half, a 26-year-old statute that forbids communities from levying more than 2.5% of the total full cash value of taxable property in the community.

Also, the levy cannot increase by more than 2.5% of the prior year's limit.

Communities can vote to override the limit to pay for specific expenses.

Another form of a cap was put in place in California, which limits increases to the assessed value of homes by 2% a year, unless a transfer of ownership takes place.

The state also imposes a 1% a year cap on the full value tax rate.

In the first 10 years of the cap's existence, Massachusetts went from having a tax burden that was 22% above the national average to one that was 1% below average.

Mr. Spitzer's first budget increased the School Tax Relief program, an initiative known as STAR that was started under Mr. Pataki, by $1 billion.

By 2010–11, the program is expected to reach a cost of $6 billion a year.

Despite the additional subsidies, property taxes have continued to rise.

The problem, fiscal observers such as the Manhattan Institute's E.J. McMahon contend, is that the subsidies encourage school districts and localities to spend more.

A cap, they say, would force Albany and local governments to tackle the union contract and pension mandates that sustain high levels of municipal spending.

While Albany last year added $1.7 billion to its education budget and expanded the STAR program, school districts, which represent 58% of the property tax levy outside of New York City, raised spending by an average of 6%.

As the Citizens Budget Commission noted in a recent report, tax caps have also been criticized for being undemocratic and artificially limiting demand for public services.

A property tax cap, by encouraging a tightening of school budgets, would be certain to meet fierce resistance from the state teachers union, a powerful interest group outside of New York City, and skepticism from Senate Republicans.

In the city, however, a cap would have less of an impact because school budgets don't depend on property taxes.

Mr. Pataki, when he originally proposed the School Tax Relief program in the mid-1990s, included a tax cap in the legislation.

At the behest of the New York State United Teachers union, state lawmakers removed the cap from the bill.

http://www.nysun.com/article/68992?page_no=2

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK POST

"PROBERS FEAR THE FIX IS IN - SAY BOSS BIASED"

January 7, 2008 -- THE state commission supposedly probing the Dirty Tricks Scandal faces a revolt from employees who believe it's improperly steering the investigation "away from Gov. Spitzer," commission insiders say.

Several disgusted senior officials, as well as lower-level workers at the Commission on Public Integrity, have decided to resign or are close to doing so, the insiders told The Post.

The resignation threats come as aides to Spitzer turn over what one source called "embarrassing" information about the scandal in response to a subpoena from Albany District Attorney David Soares, who has also been accused of covering up for the governor.

"The feeling is that [Commission Executive Director] Herb Teitelbaum has been steering the investigation away from Gov. Spitzer to [former Spitzer aide] Darren Dopp, not going after the governor and others in the executive chamber where the evidence points," said a source with direct knowledge of the situation.

"People on the inside are embarrassed by the situation and some are considering quitting," the source continued.

Two sources, meanwhile, also said commission staff is convinced that Teitelbaum is secretly providing inside information on the commission's probe to Spitzer Special Counsel Richard Rivkin and to another Spitzer aide, Robert Hermann, Rivkin's former law partner who now heads the governor's Office of Regulatory Reform.

"Teitelbaum is giving the governor's people information that should only be kept within the commission," one source said.

Commission spokesman Walter Ayres denied the charge.

Hermann did not return a call seeking comment.

The Post disclosed in the fall that a memo opposing the Dirty Tricks probe written by Rivkin - who once held Teitelbaum's job - was secretly distributed to the 13 commission members last fall by Commission Chairman and Spitzer appointee John Feerick, prompting charges of improper interference in the probe.

Dopp, Spitzer's onetime communications director, is being actively investigated by the commission for alleged violations of the state Ethics Law in a plot that used the State Police to gather purportedly damaging information on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer).

The commission won the right in state court last week to subpoena scandal-related records kept by Dopp and it has told DA Soares that Dopp may have committed perjury in testimony before the commission in October.

For his part, Dopp has told friends that he fears Spitzer aides are trying to make him the "fall guy" in the scandal, in part because of his strong loyalty to the governor.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01072008/news/...s_in_169079.htm

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK POST

"COMMISSION FOR SALE"

January 2, 2008 -- Forget integrity - do Gov. Spitzer and his supposedly "independent" Public Integrity Commission have any shame?

As The Post's Fredric U. Dicker reported Monday, Commission Executive Director Herbert Teitelbaum recently accepted a $15,000 pay hike - and promptly scurried off to a 21/2-week vacation in South America.

Teitelbaum's near-11 percent raise comes only months after his appointment to the panel - and right in the middle of his commission's unprecedented investigation into the governor's role in his office's Dirty Tricks Scandal.

That's a problem.

Let's be clear:

Teitelbaum's commission is currently engaged in an investigation that could have dramatic consequences for Spitzer and his entire administration.

If, after months of denial but little forthrightness, the governor is found to have had any foreknowledge of his aides' plot to use the State Police to dig up dirt on a political rival, he stands to lose a lot more than just the public trust.

(Which has long since vanished, anyway.)

The commission, to put it mildly, must not only be above reproach, it must appear to be above reproach.

Under the circumstances, a 15-cent raise would be inappropriate, let alone $15,000.

The commission, to be sure, makes much of its "independence" from the executive chamber; it was Commission Chairman John Feerick, not Spitzer himself, who technically approved the raise.

But that independence is looking more and more like a sad charade.

Seven of the 13 commissioners are Spitzer appointees, and Teitelbaum himself has close ties to the Spitzer administration.

Which, needless to say, makes it all the more incumbent upon Feerick, Teitelbaum and - ultimately - Spitzer himself to prove that nobody at the commission is pulling any punches in this investigation.

An extra 15-grand from the Spitzer-administered state treasury sure doesn't help.

This is not to accuse the gov of attempting to buy off his investigators - as New Yorkers have already seen, Spitzer has a range of other weapons at his disposal when it comes to stonewalling probes.

But that neither Spitzer, Feerick nor Teitelbaum see any problem with such a raise speaks volumes to the seriousness (or lack thereof) with which they take the commission's probe.

Or are they really that morally obtuse?

Could it be that they just don't care?

Either way, it's a pretty good indication that the entire investigation was never meant to be more than a farce, to begin with.

And that makes Teitelbaum's entire $155,000 salary little more than a giant waste of taxpayer money.

Not to mention, grounds for a much longer vacation.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01022008/posto...sale_578350.htm

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK SUN

"Spitzer Is Set To Cap Taxes on Property"

By JACOB GERSHMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun

January 7, 2008

Governor Spitzer, in his State of the State address on Wednesday, will signal support for imposing a cap on local property taxes in New York, which tower over the national average despite billions of dollars spent by Albany to ease the burden.

The two State of the State moves — one an unexpected, gracious gift to a Republican who has begun to fade from the public eye and the other an endorsement of a policy long championed by fiscal conservatives — signal an awareness by the embattled governor of the urgent need to retool his image.

Taken together, they suggest that part of Mr. Spitzer's strategy is to attempt to reposition himself as a centrist and to broaden his support among state Republicans, his toughest foes, with both policy changes and acts of random kindness.

As a candidate, Mr. Spitzer vowed to tackle New York's property taxes, which are 56% higher than the national average on a per-capita basis, according to 2005 data.

Unlike his Republican challenger, John Faso, Mr. Spitzer rejected the idea of cap on property taxes, but he has softened his position since taking office.

In August, he acknowledged that state efforts to lower property taxes by subsidizing school budgets and mailing rebate checks to homeowners were undermined by the expanding budgets of school districts and local governments.

It is not clear if Mr. Spitzer would favor placing a percentage cap on local or school tax levies, or restricting annual growth in home assessments.

http://www.nysun.com/article/68992?page_no=2

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

With respect to the SPITZER-ITIC "State of the State" address yesterday, and specifically, Spitzer's call for yet another SPITZER-ITIC COMMISSION, this time to "STUDY", in Spitzer's words, the high cost of property taxes in upstate New York ...

ARTICLE IV of OUR NYS Constution, entitled "Executive", provides in section 3 as follows with respect to the governor of the state reporting to the Legislature about the condition of the state, to wit:

§ 3. The governor shall communicate by message to the legislature at every session the condition of the state, and recommend such matters to it as he or she shall judge expedient .....

end quotes

GOVERNOR SHALL COMMUNICATE BY MESSAGE THE "CONDITION" OF THE STATE ...

CONDITION: a state of affairs that hampers or impedes or requires correction ..

- Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

In yesterday's SPITZER-ITIC version of fulfilling this Constitutional requirement of his office yesterday, Spitzer correctly identified excessive property taxes as a "condition" of the state ...

But then, the very best that Spitzer could propose to the Legislature as a matter that he deemed expedient was to put together yet another SPITZER-ITIC COMMISSION to continue to study what Eliot obviously already knows ....

THE CONDITION OF THIS STATE IS LOUSY, AND IT IS GETTING LOUSIER AND LOUSIER SINCE THIS STRUTTING POPINJAY GOT INTO OFFICE LAST YEAR AND CHANGED EVERYTHING IN NYS FOR THE WORSE ......

So that Spitzer can make NYS into the "best place in the world to do business" for the members of the special interest group, the NYS Business Council, to whom Spitzer is beholden ...

Spitzer has been in office for a full year now, and this is the best that he can offer us in terms of property tax relief - ANOTHER COMMISSION AND YET MORE STUDY?

GET REAL HERE, Eliot!

And we know from the NYS BUSINESS COUNCIL BIBLE "New York State Government, 2d Ed." by Robert B. Ward that way back in November of 2005, Spitzer, even though he was taking the paycheck of the NYS AG at the time, was by then already working on his plan to reform NYS government if and when Spitzer did become governor ...

And that is over TWO YEARS AGO now ...

And so ...

WHAT IS WITH THIS COMMISSION, Eliot?

SO YOU CAN STUDY THIS PROBLEM FOR THREE MORE YEARS?

OR WHAT?

In your paper to the NYS Business Council's Rockefeller institute on November 21, 2005 entitled "Government Reform", Eliot, you stated as follows at p. 7 of 9, to wit:

"There has been a lot of talk about reform during the past year."

"BUT VOTERS SHOULD BE WARY, AND SHOULD JUDGE THE SELF-PROCLAIMED REFORMERS NOT BY WHAT THEY PROMISE, BUT BY WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN DURING THE FIGHTS IN THE PAST."

end quotes

Well, Eliot, dude ....

From where I sit, anyway ...

THE ONLY SELF-PROCLAIMED "REFORMER" OUT THERE IS YOU ...

And based on our personal experiences with you ....

Where you are and have been with respect to the "FIGHT" for true reform in NYS IS ON THE WRONG SIDE ....

YOU HAVE BEEN PROTECTING THE CORRUPTION, Eliot ....

While talking out of every side of your more than ample lawyer's mouth about how you are the "REFORMER PAR EXCELLANCE" here in NYS ....

Which is CRAP, Eliot ....

Because if it were true, you would have posed real solutions to the real problem of excessive property taxes in upstate NY yesterday ...

Instead of yet more study by yet another worthless COMMISSION ...

While we older folks and young people with families continue to get taxed to death up here ...

BY THE GREEDY STATE OF NEW YORK, ITS GREEDY POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS AND GREEDY SCHOOL DISTRICTS, AND CORPORATE WELFARE HAND-OUT AGENCIES LIKE THAT HEADED UP BY AVI SCHICK, PAT FOYE AND DANIEL "PORKMEISTER" GUNDERSON ...

And so ....

Posted by John Galt on January 10, 2008 7:27 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...d-ends-163.html

[Livyjr]

"Spitzer wants 'real' property tax relief, higher education boost"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:42 p.m., Wednesday, January 9, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer took steps Wednesday toward a long-sought cap on local school spending and property taxes, using universities to create a high-tech economy, and leading Albany to hard spending choices so the state isn't "paralyzed by challenging fiscal times."

Spitzer called during his State of the State address for a bipartisan commission to consider capping growth in local school spending, a politically dicey idea opposed by powerful teachers unions and other school interests.

But after school taxes continued to rise last year at its annual 7 percent average pace despite a historic increase in state aid, Spitzer said it was time to reconsider his campaign position against spending caps.

"Experience has taught us that we need stronger medicine," Spitzer said.

"A rebate check may temporarily ease the pain, but it doesn't cure the disease."

"In the end, it's a losing game for the taxpayer if the state gives you a rebate check on Monday and then on Tuesday your local government taxes it away."

To head the commission, Spitzer also took a rare look back.

He chose his feisty Democratic primary opponent from 2006, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi.

On Wednesday Spitzer called a spending cap "a blunt instrument, but it forces hard choices and discipline when nothing else works."

"I think it's very promising," said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute.

"If the governor is serious, it could be a turning point for heavily burdened New York property owners."

The commission, with the power to subpoena records and compel testimony, would examine the state's unfunded mandates, find ways to cut costs in school instruction, ferret out wasted spending and make tax relief more effective for middle class families.

While New York City would not be part of any cap plan, the other large city school districts of Yonkers, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo could see separate caps or no cap at all, said Spitzer's director of state operations, Paul Francis.

Spitzer also wants to create an endowment of at least $4 billion to generate $200 million a year for the State University of New York and City University of New York.

That could come from leasing the operation of the state lottery to a private firm for as long as 40 years after an upfront payment of tens of billions of dollars to the state.

Any such deal would continue to provide about $2.1 billion -- with annual growth -- in revenue for schools while creating the higher education endowment.

The state would continue to regulate all lottery games and any new games, Francis said.

Spitzer also proposed a $1 billion fund to help revitalize upstate downtowns and to help businesses, build roads and create "shovel-ready sites" to attract new employers.

While the annual speech is about ideas, the tougher part begins Jan. 22 when Spitzer proposes his second budget to the Legislature.

He will have to deal with a $4.3 billion deficit and declining revenues because of a slowing economy.

In addition, Spitzer wants to continue a $1 billion increase in school aid and steer more Medicaid funding away from hospitals to primary care and prevention to encourage early, lower-cost treatment.

Spitzer will also have to deal with lawmakers, including some Democrats and all in an election year, still stinging from his targeting their roles in Albany's dysfunctional status quo.

After a first year in office marked by political gridlock on many major issues, Spitzer reached out to opponents during his speech.

"We can work together for the common good, despite any political or personal differences, and we must," Spitzer said.

"We in this chamber are all New Yorkers ..."

"We have work to do, a lot of work, for the people who sent us here."

Spitzer and his main political foe, Republican State Sen. Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, have promised no tax increases and are expected to rely on raising fees.

Spitzer may also close what he considers loopholes in business tax rules to raise revenue.

"We must make the hard choices necessary to live within our means," Spitzer said.

He made a similar pledge a year ago, then agreed with the Legislature to increase spending by more than twice the inflation rate to get an on-time budget.

But the opposition was already clear Wednesday.

"We don't need commissions," said Senate Acting Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican.

"He said he listens to people about the high cost of living on Long Island and other suburban communities, but I don't think he gets it."

"That's a real problem."

"The governor has lost none of his zeal for governing," said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat and Spitzer ally.

"And that's critical because we're going to need all of the energy, all the enthusiasm, all of his passion and all the leadership we can get in order to deliver an on-time budget this year that is fiscally responsible and true to our obligations in what is clearly a difficult economic climate."

"It sounds like an awful lot of new spending," said Heather Briccetti of the state Business Council.

She is concerned that Spitzer's second annual promise of no tax increase will again result in what Spitzer calls loophole-closers that cost business millions in taxes starting last year.

Spitzer's renewed push for paid family leave is also a concern because it's an added cost for doing business, she said.

------

Associated Press Writer Richard Richtmyer contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

"Spitzer proposes new panel on tax caps - State of State speech also calls for leasing the Lottery"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

Last updated: 1:02 p.m., Wednesday, January 9, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer will assign former Democratic rival Thomas Suozzi to lead a commission that will look for a way to cap school taxes, and direct his budget experts to figure out whether it is worth leasing the New York Lottery to Wall Street investors to raise billions of dollars for public education.

The tax commission idea appeared to already be running into trouble, with Assembly Republican Minority Leader James Tedisco of Schenectady saying Spitzer should skip the study and tackle a tax cap now.

In a speech released this morning and to be delivered at 1 p.m. by the governor, Spitzer will honor the missing Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who is grieving the death of his wife Barbara.

The governor will also urge teamwork with the Legislature.

"Although our differences often attracted more attention than our agreements, we came together to produce real change where progress has eluded the state for years,'' his speech states.

Among key ingredients of his message of change:

-- An idea to lease a major part of the Schenectady-based Lottery division to raise money for a new endowment fund for higher education.

The endowment would be fueled by up-front money paid to the state for leasing the gaming agency.

The roughly $2.3 billion annually provided by the lottery for K-12 education would be maintained and the new partner would be regulated through the state's continued control of lottery games.

"We should unlock some of the value of the New York State Lottery, either by taking in private investment or looking at other financing alternatives,'' Spitzer said.

Paul Francis, Spitzer's top director of operations, said the Lottery concept comes with a guarantee that the 350 employees of the lottery would be fully protected no matter who might lease the operation or for how long.

He said if 100 percent of the Lottery was leased the deal might result in $25 billion to $50 billion up front.

He said such "monetization'' could be for as long as 40 years although the structure of a deal is so far uncertain.

-- A new bipartisan commission to evaluate and recommend the best way to cap school taxes on all real estate owners.

Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, would lead the commission.

He made a name for himself the past three years, including during his gubernatorial run in 2006, as an anti-tax Democrat.

The commission would have Moreland Act powers, meaning it could almost operate like prosecutors in a probe of school finances.

"A tax cap is a blunt instrument, but it forces hard choices and discipline when nothing else works,'' Spitzer wrote.

-- Building the SUNY/CUNY system through 2,000 more faculty members.

-- A $1 billion fund to revitalize upstate's economy, spending it on infrastructures, businesses and agribusiness.

-- A $400 million housing opportunity fund to find ways to build more affordable homes.