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

[Livyjr]

"Layoffs planned at Travelers - Insurance company to cut 325 jobs, including some in Warren County"

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

First published: Wednesday, April 16, 2008

GLENS FALLS -- The Travelers Cos. office in Warren County is one of four being hit by layoffs as the insurance company consolidates operations amid declining profit margins.

Travelers, a St. Paul, Minn.-based insurer of homes, cars and businesses, is cutting 325 jobs across four offices and states: Queensbury/Glens Falls; Marlton, N.J.; Fall River, Mass.; and Houston, said spokeswoman Sheila Trauernicht.

Details about specific cuts in the Queensbury/Glens Falls office were not available Tuesday.

But the Hartford Courant newspaper reported that the company also will consolidate work from Fall River to Syracuse, and from Marlton to Glens Falls.

That consolidation and other changes will result in about 100 new jobs in New York, Texas and Tennessee, the paper said.

The trade publication Insurance Journal said Tuesday the new jobs will be found in Syracuse, Houston and Knoxville when the consolidation plan is completed.

Trauernicht said the layoffs are in the business that covers individuals' homes and cars.

Travelers joins Allstate Corp. and Zurich Financial Services AG in eliminating jobs.

Allstate, the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, said last week it was cutting 109 information technology positions in Northbrook, Ill., where the company is based.

Zurich, based in the Swiss city of the same name, is eliminating about 400 positions in the unit that sells commercial coverage in North America.

The Travelers cuts were made "to maintain a competitive structure" and will take effect by June, Trauernicht said.

The insurer will shut its so-called business centers in Marlton and Fall River, but continue to employ 80 people in the New Jersey office and 365 people in the Massachusetts office in jobs including sales, marketing, finance and technology, she said.

The company employs about 33,000 workers overall.

In February, Travelers signed a 10-year deal to take space in downtown Glens Falls in what's known as the CNA building on Glen Street.

CNA Insurance Co. once occupied the 10-story structure, the tallest in Glens Falls.

It's now known as Monument Center.

Travelers, housed at Northway Plaza in Queensbury, is expected to move its 150 workers downtown in July.

Merlin Development Co. of Saratoga Springs bought the building in 2005 and has been renovating it.

Bloomberg News contributed to this story.

[Livyjr]

"Residents fret over Colonie red ink"

By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer, Albany, new York Times Union

Last updated: 11:51 p.m., Thursday, April 3, 2008

COLONIE - The town faces a sixth-month deadline to start reforming its finances or it could default on millions in financial obligations, officials told a packed meeting of residents Thursday night.

The spillover crowd of more than 150 heard Supervisor Paula Mahan and town fiscal advisor Robert Sikora lay out a 10-year plan they said can help the town avoid that disaster, which would almost certainly herald the arrival of a state control board.

A key component is deficit financing state-sanctioned borrowing to reduce the deficit and improve the town's credit rating so it can extend some $16 million in short-term obligations in October, or convert them to longer-term bonds.

"The nightmare scenario is we come into Oct. 3, we can't roll over that $16 million, then what are we going to do?"

"You don't have too many options," said Sikora, president of Munistat Services, a municipal advisory firm.

Thursday was the public's first chance to question town officials at length about Colonie's $18 million deficit as well as their plan to climb out of it.

A tax increase is an option, Mahan said, declining to speculate about the potential size but said the goal is to spread it over several years to mute its impact.

But raising taxes, she said, will not alone solve the problem.

For some, it was their first trip to Town Hall in years.

We thought everything was going so well for 36 years," he said later, "there was no need to be here."

"Colonie tax may come in January - One-time deficit-cutting assessment needs approval from the state Legislature to be collected earlier"

By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, April 16, 2008

COLONIE -- Town leaders said they'd be willing to wait until January to collect a proposed one-time tax designed to erase a multimillion-dollar deficit.

They may not have a choice.

Levying the midyear "deficit correction tax" -- which officials said would average about $250 for homeowners -- would require special state legislation, spokesmen for the state comptroller's office, Assembly and town said Tuesday.

Without it, the town would have to wait to add the tax to its January annual bills, which would only require the approval of a majority of the seven-member Town Board.

Officials earlier said they hoped for a fall tax collection, if they decide to go forward.

Because Supervisor Paula Mahan, a Democrat, wanted to move quickly in hopes of restoring Wall Street's confidence in town finances before October when $16 million in short-term debt comes due, the news may be a setback.

The Legislature will likely break for the summer in late June.

Even if time were not a factor, it's uncertain that the Democrat-led Assembly or Republican-led Senate would approve the measure when the Town Board appears divided along party lines over whether the tax is a good idea.

Residents' reaction has so far been mixed.

Many have expressed their displeasure, at the same time acknowledging it may be necessary.

Mahan floated the idea last week and got a cold response from the three-member GOP minority, which called it a "terrible idea" and proposed its own plan it said would generate a surplus with little or no tax increase.

Democrats are skeptical of the numbers used in the GOP plan, among them a deficit figure of $14.7 million.

Mahan uses a February state comptroller's office audit to peg the number at $18 million.

Peter Gannon, Mahan's director of operations, said Tuesday that officials were aware from the beginning that the plan might require some sort of state legislative green light -- though that possibility wasn't mentioned at a public meeting last Thursday at which Mahan discussed the tax.

Gannon acknowledged the need for approval could affect the town's timeline and said officials have yet to even decide whether to pursue the tax.

He said completing the process correctly was a higher priority than getting it done quickly.

Even if the town cannot collect the money until January, Gannon said including it in next year's budget, with ongoing cost-cutting measures, may be enough to show Wall Street the town is making efforts to stop its overspending.

"Ideally, we'd like wire transfers here by Friday, but that's not going to happen," Gannon said.

"This is a significant endeavor that we're taking with the taxpayers here in town and we want to make sure it's done properly."

He said the town is preparing to meet with state lawmakers, including Democratic Assemblyman Robert Reilly, in the coming weeks.

Calls to state Sen. Neil D. Breslin, a Democrat who represents Albany County, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno of Brunswick were not immediately returned Tuesday.

Reilly's office said it was premature to comment on the proposal until it is formally presented.

Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at jcarleo-evangelist@ timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

Ah ....

Life in the CORRUPT EMPIRE OF NEW YORK .....

Wherever you look ....

INCOMPETENCE, INEPTNESS AND CORRUPT OR QUESTIONABLE PRACTICES GREET YOU ....

And so .....

Young people leave this state ....

Hopefully to find another state in this UNION of OURS .....

With more integrity .....

And competence ....

In its governing bodies ....

And so .....

"Board tries to nullify $82,000 check - Council says supervisor had no authority to make water project payment"

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, January 31, 2007

NORTH GREENBUSH -- The Town Board majority has voted to rescind a check for about $82,000 for water district work, alleging the town supervisor improperly dispensed it to a contractor without getting board approval.

Supervisor Mark Evers, though, said the issue is a political attack on him for problems with a huge water project that began before he took office.

On Dec. 15, Evers had a town employee write a check for $82,333.92 to pay Casale Excavation for work the company is doing to finish Water District 14.

The disbursement was made a day after a Town Board meeting when one of the routine matters was to approve a list of payments -- called an abstract -- to be made by the town.

The entry was not on the list reviewed by elected officials that night, it was later determined.

New York state law requires that a voucher be shown to the Town Board before payments are made, officials have said.

If the expenditure was on the abstract, the majority would have denied payment.

"We wish to make it clear that had the payment been included in the abstract, we would have voted to remove the payment upon the advice of the town attorney," majority Democrat Richard Fennelly said in a prepared statement.

Last fall, elected officials aired concerns that the $6.4 million project, the largest water district in town, had racked up about $600,000 in cost overruns, a figure now that could be closer to $800,000.

Fennelly said the town attorney, Josh Sabo, has repeatedly told the board it should not approve any more payments exceeding the approved $6.4 million contract because it would not be lawful without a public hearing, authorization by the Town Board and approval by the state comptrollers office.

Evers said the reasons for cost overruns were items on the project estimates that had to be changed.

In some cases, more pipe had to be laid because expected easements for shorter routes did not pan out.

Original estimates on how much rock crews needed to cut through along pipelines was low, as well, Evers said.

The board majority has called for an investigation by the state comptroller's office into the check as well as the cost overruns of the water project.

"Town ready to open books in state audit - North Greenbush's troubled water project is set for scrutiny"

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, February 1, 2007

NORTH GREENBUSH -- State auditors will be at Town Hall today to begin a months-long comprehensive probe into town spending on capital projects, including expenditures for the controversial Water District 14.

An auditor will start the process of reviewing records and interviewing town officials this morning regarding spending on capital projects, said Jennifer Freeman, spokeswoman for the comptroller.

The review is expected to take six months to a year, she said.

The Town Board majority Democrats voted in January to ask the state to perform an audit because of the growing cost of finishing Water District 14, which will serve nearly half of the town.

The original contract approved by voters for building the water district was $6.4 million, but the town has spent more than $700,000 over the contract and the job is still not finished.

Some Democrats have implied Conservative Town Supervisor Mark Evers has inappropriately made several payments without board approval to Casale Excavations, the contractor.

The most recent controversy was over a $82,333 check that Evers paid to Casale on Dec. 15 that was not reviewed and approved by the Town Board, which is required under state law.

"Water project $800,000 over budget - State comptroller's audit faults North Greenbush officials' lack of oversight"

By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, April 16, 2008

NORTH GREENBUSH -- The town supervisor says greater oversight of capital projects will result from a new state comptroller's audit that slammed town officials for being unaware that a new water district would be $800,000 over budget.

The audit, released Tuesday by the state comptroller's division of local government and school accountability, said costs on the $7.1 million project to bring water to District 14 began to exceed what was approved in 2005, but that the costs were never conveyed to the Town Board and the Town Board did not inquire about project updates.

Final construction costs will likely amount to $7.9 million, according to the audit.

The project is about 99 percent done, said Town Board member Ernest Kern.

However, the town has not released the final payments on the project because of legal matters Kern said he couldn't elaborate on.

Costs increased for additional rock excavation, difficulties in obtaining property easements and a wetter-than-normal season that required additional backfill.

The audit says additional costs were discussed with the former town comptroller in 2005, but there was no indication the Town Board was ever advised of or approved the additional costs.

The audit says there's no indication that the Town Board requested specific budget information about the project until November 2006.

"Unfortunately, this project was mismanaged almost from the beginning," state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a written statement.

From the beginning of the water project in 2003, town officials didn't properly plan and manage the construction project and there was little if any coordination among the board, town comptroller's office and the building department in monitoring the project's budget, the audit states.

A 2006 leadership changeover left town officials unsure of their legal duties and responsibilities over authorizing expenditures, the audit says.

In January of that year, a new supervisor, several Town Board members and a new comptroller took office.

The comptroller resigned in September 2006, and a successor was not appointed until March 2007.

"We were all brand-new at the time," said Kern, who was elected in November 2005 after being a vocal supporter of the water district.

However, "I can't say we aren't at fault for not asking."

A response letter from Supervisor Mark Evers, who was elected in November 2005, was attached to the audit.

Evers agreed in his letter that changes in administration caused problems.

He says the town will establish a utilities committee to review projects monthly and appoint a project coordinator to report each month to the Town Board.

Evers could not be reached Tuesday for further comment about the audit.

Lauren Stanforth can be reached at 454-5697 or by e-mail at lstanforth@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"State worker accused in credit card fraud"

By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

Last updated: 3:56 p.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2008

BETHLEHEM -- A state worker was arrested Tuesday in connection with more than $4,400 in charges on a state-issued credit card.

David Plume, a 48-year-old Albany resident, was charged with felony grand larceny, defrauding the government and official misconduct in Albany City Court, according to the state Inspector General's Office.

A database analyst at the Department of Environmental Conservation, he was accused of making 55 improper charges on the credit card from December through March for rental cars, hotel rooms, gasoline, beer and cigarettes.

He was on leave without pay today from his $71,732-a-year position, according to DEC.

Plume was arrested during an appearance in Bethlehem Town Court on an unrelated matter and was sent to the Albany County Jail, according to the Inspector General's Office.

[Livyjr]

"NY budgets $46 million to boost AMD microchip factory plan"

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:12 p.m., Wednesday, April 9, 2008

ALBANY -- State officials have budgeted $46 million to help Advanced Micro Devices Inc. build new factories in upstate New York even as the No. 2 chip maker announced this week that first-quarter sales were lower than expected and it plans to cut its global work force by 10 percent.

State, town and company officials said site planning and other advance work is continuing for the new Luther Forest Industrial Park in rural Saratoga County.

Capital funding was included in the fiscal 2008-09 budget, which state lawmakers were approving Wednesday.

"At this point in time it's full bore ahead ... with the expectation that sometime around next January they'll be able to start construction," said Malta Town Supervisor Paul Sausville.

Kris Thompson, spokesman for state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, said state and local officials are in constant communication with the company.

"AMD's moving forward and developing and implementing the necessary measures to ensure the plant will be one of the largest economic development projects in New York state history," Thompson said.

"We have no reason to believe it will be sidetracked."

"AMD 1Q loss as deep as Wall Street expected as chip maker hurt by sales slowdown"

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:02 p.m., Thursday, April 17, 2008

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s first-quarter loss matched Wall Street's lowered expectations, with the slumping chip maker hurt by its inability to unload older products amid economic turbulence that tamped down domestic consumer spending.

The Sunnyvale-based company said Thursday that it lost $358 million, or 59 cents per share, during the first three months of the year, its sixth quarterly loss in a row.

AMD lost $611 million, or $1.11 per share, in the same period last year.

Stripping out 8 cents per share in one-time charges connected to AMD's acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies, the company lost 51 cents per share in the latest period, matching the average estimate on the same basis from analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Sales of $1.51 billion were 22 percent higher than last year and in line with analysts' expectations.

AMD warned earlier this month that sales across all business lines were lower than it earlier anticipated.

It also announced plans to jettison 10 percent of its global work force, or about 1,600 workers, by September.

Chief Financial Officer Robert Rivet blamed the first-quarter loss on seasonal weakness, the economy and lower-than-expected sales of old products.

He added that the company expects to become profitable on an operating basis in the second half of 2008.

AMD has racked up more than $4 billion in losses in a skid that stretches back to the last three months of 2006, when intensifying competition from larger rival Intel Corp. and the costs of the ATI acquisition began to take their toll on AMD.

Lengthy product delays have also hurt AMD's ability to win new customers and steal market share from Intel.

AMD's new Opteron server chip -- critical to the company's financial recovery -- was delayed for 8 months after its official launch in September because of technical glitches.

They didn't roll out in force until this month, when Hewlett-Packard Co. began shipping servers with the new chips.

Wall Street was bracing for more bad news from AMD, so the fact that its losses weren't any deeper than analysts feared helped lift the stock 11 cents, or nearly 2 percent, to $6.30 in after-hours trading.

AMD shares closed up 12 cents, to $6.19, before the results were reported.

The stock is still way off its recent high of $42.10 in early 2006, when AMD was steadily stealing market share from Intel with chips that were seen as more energy-efficient.

After Intel fired back with a powerful new lineup, AMD's stock began sliding.

Meanwhile, Intel's profits are improving because it has made a speedy transition to a new chip-making technology that lowers the cost of production.

AMD lags Intel in making its own transition to the 45-nanometer manufacturing process, which means the chips' circuitry is shrunken to an average size of 45 billionths of a meter.

Smaller circuitry means chips cost less to make and they can hold more transistors.

AMD said its 45-nanometer products are expected in the second half of 2008.

In reporting first-quarter results Tuesday, Intel kept its profit-margin expectations for 2008 intact, a sunny forecast that indicates the company is tightly controlling its pricing and manufacturing costs while AMD continues to stumble.

[Livyjr]

"Attorneys' retirement benefits revoked in NY pension probe - New York revokes attorneys' retirement benefits amid fraud probe in school district employment"

By VALERIE BAUMAN, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:02 p.m., Thursday, April 17, 2008

ALBANY -- New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office is kicking four attorneys' out of the New York state and local retirement system because an upstate BOCES district inappropriately classified them as employees.

The move is part of a broader investigation by DiNapoli and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that started with findings some Long Island school districts were listing lawyers as employees.

They were allowed to qualify for public pensions while their private practices collected millions of dollars in legal fees.

"We are reviewing every lawyer in our system," DiNapoli said.

"We will revoke memberships for those individuals who have been erroneously classified as employees."

Officials in the comptroller's office said they didn't know if the lawyers were aware they were getting inappropriate benefits.

It was unclear if they would face criminal charges.

Cuomo said the attorneys, who all work for the Law Offices of Girvin & Ferlazzo, P.C., are part of an ongoing investigation into the issue.

"I think the law is very clear on this area," Cuomo said.

"The law between being an independent contractor and an employee is a highly defined, litigated area of law, because it comes up all the time."

DiNapoli said his office also revoked five years of service credit for another lawyer the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES incorrectly reported as an employee.

The four attorneys whose benefits were revoked are James Girvin, Kathy Ann Wolverton, Kristine Lanchantin and Jeffrey Honeywell.

Service credit from BOCES for the fifth attorney, Salvatore Ferlazzo, was revoked.

In fiscal year 2006-07, BOCES paid the five lawyers a total of $234,000.

That year, Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES reported them as full-time who worked a total of 1,157 days at BOCES.

They actually worked a total of 196 days, according to the comptroller's office.

A call to the Law Offices of Girvin & Ferlazzo, P.C. was not immediately returned.

BOCES has removed the lawyers from its payroll and fired the law firm.

DiNapoli said his office will return retirement contributions that local governments paid for the lawyers.

"We are finding these scams and we're exposing them," Cuomo said.

"We're investigating them, and that sends a message across the board that says 'Don't even think about ripping off New York.'"

[Livyjr]

"Crackdown on NY home care providers moves upstate - Subpoenas issued in Medicaid fraud probe involving home care in upstate New York"

By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:52 p.m., Thursday, April 17, 2008

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Twenty-seven upstate home health care agencies face questions from the state about aides who provide services paid for by Medicaid.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said a round of subpoenas sent by his office this week are part of a widening Medicaid probe that began with reports of fraud downstate last year.

The investigation has so far led to charges against more than 80 patients, aides, nurses, instructors and administrators of home health agencies, 50 convictions and judgments to pay more than $14 million in restitution, the attorney general said.

"We had nurses who never showed up, we had nurses who showed up and abused the patient."

"We have cases of nurses who overbill to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars," Cuomo said during a news conference in his Buffalo office.

"Older New Yorkers overwhelmingly prefer to receive long-term care services for themselves or a family member through home care and community-based services rather than institutional care," said Lois Aronstein, the director of AARP in New York.

The result is an expanding industry in need of more thorough oversight, Cuomo said.

More than 150,000 New Yorkers receive Medicaid-funded home health services monthly.

The bill to taxpayers in 2007 was $3.8 billion, he said.

"The concept is right," Cuomo said.

"We want to clean up the fraud."

The investigation targets not only the aides who provide the services, but the agencies that hire, train and contract them out.

The president of the Home Care Association of New York supported the effort to prosecute those who undermine the system but cautioned against allowing a "broad-brush approach" to impair those trying to deliver quality care.

"Providers of quality home care services have an equal, if not greater, stake in curbing fraud and abuse," HCA President Joanne Cunningham said, "because the misdeeds of a few rogue individuals have the potential to tarnish the entire home care community."

Cuomo pointed to the arrest of an employment recruiter for an in-home health care training company in Buffalo for selling falsified personal care aide certificates.

Melody McKnight pleaded guilty to forgery and bribery charges.

In a Rochester case, nurse Adrian Clements admitted filing reimbursement claims for services that she did not provide, receiving $70,785 from the Medicaid program.

She was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to repay the money.

Other recent cases have exposed aides working without proper training, no-show aides who split their payments with complicit patients and aides billing multiple agencies for 36 hours in a single day.

Of the subpoenas issued this week, 15 went to Syracuse-area agencies, while agencies in Buffalo and Rochester received seven and five, respectively.

Cuomo said the targeted companies are not accused of wrongdoing, but that investigation has warranted giving them a closer look.

Cuomo is also pushing for a statewide registry of certified home health aides as a way to better oversee the industry.

[Livyjr]

"New York AG subpoenas 18 banks in market probe"

By VALERIE BAUMAN, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:52 p.m., Thursday, April 17, 2008

ALBANY -- Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed 18 banks as part of an investigation into the auction rate securities market, an official familiar with the probe said Thursday.

Cuomo began the industrywide investigation into how Wall Street banks sold the securities after distress in the $330 billion auction rate securities market caused more than 50 student lenders to stop making federally guaranteed student loans, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Cuomo is investigating banks that underwrote and brokered the investments to determine how the risk of auction failure was disclosed to investors.

The problem is an offshoot of the national subprime mortgage crisis.

Here is how it works:

States, student loan agencies and others sell auction rate debt.

They are long-term bonds frequently sold as short term investments.

The interest rates on the securities are reset at regular auctions, but at the end of January many auctions failed when big banks stopped bidding on the securities.

That stuck investors with long-term securities at higher rates that they couldn't sell.

The problem came as a shock to some investors, who were often told that the auction rate securities were as safe as cash.

Cuomo could press criminal charges under New York's Martin Act, which provides criminal and civil enforcement powers for publicly traded companies.

[Livyjr]

"Cuomo's NY pension probe investigates role of BOCES - Cuomo subpoenas BOCES districts in probe of questionable payments for school district lawyers"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 3:12 p.m., Friday, April 18, 2008

ALBANY -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Friday that he is subpoenaing BOCES districts statewide because they may have been complicit in listing part-time lawyers as full-time employees to get additional state tax dollars.

Cuomo is targeting the state's 38 BOCES districts, which operate regional services for a number of public school districts.

Cuomo says the BOCES districts appear to have gained more state school aid by providing health and pension benefits to BOCES attorneys who worked part-time for school districts in addition to their full-time private practices.

"The BOCES may not have had clean hands because it appears there was a financial incentive to BOCES to do it this way and there was also an incentive to the lawyers who could also get the health and pension benefits," Cuomo said.

"I don't accept that people were unclear about the law," he said.

"The law on employee versus independent contractor is well settled."

"It is a highly litigated area, there are IRS regulations that are very specific and it comes up very often."

Cuomo's broader investigation of benefits provided to lawyers by school districts and local governments continues.

BOCES districts were created decades ago to help the then-poorer suburban and rural districts pool resources for vocational education, special education and other programs to avoid costly duplication at each neighboring district.

Cuomo said he wants to reform a practice he said has been going on for years.

"There was a clear financial incentive for the lawyers, there may have been a financial incentive for the BOCES, and the person who was paying for this is the taxpayer," he said.

There was no immediate comment from the state Department of Education , to which the BOCES districts report.

------

On the Net:

http://www.oag.state.ny.us

[Indianhead]

Fascinating stuff...the packaging of financial instruments is a web (of greed)
that has spun through everything it seems. Thus, it's no wonder that sub-prime
loans were so pervasive in crashing the big banks balance sheets.

Hiring attorney's parttime to give them benefits is ridiculous...if there are
any consultants...specialists (on $150-$200-an-hour rates) attorneys are same.

[Livyjr]

Good to see you, Indianhead ....

And I agree, it is fascinating stuff ....

The best show in town, and here we are, with ringside seats, watching it all go down ....

And we even get to comment on it as it is happening ....

Like watching amber flowing over an ant on the trunk of a tree to preserve it there forever ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

Fascinating stuff...the packaging of financial instruments is a web (of greed) that has spun through everything it seems.

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HAVEN'T WE BEEN HERE BEFORE?

Testimony of Chairman Alan Greenspan - Private-sector refinancing of the large hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management Before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives"

October 1, 1998

Mr. Chairman and other members of the Committee, I thank you for this opportunity to report on the Federal Reserve's role in facilitating the private-sector refinancing of the large hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM).

In my remarks this morning, I will attempt to put into some perspective the events of the past few weeks and discuss some questions of importance to public policy makers that they raise.

The Federal Reserve provided its good offices to LTCM's creditors, not to protect LTCM's investors, creditors, or managers from loss, but to avoid the distortions to market processes caused by a fire-sale liquidation and the consequent spreading of those distortions through contagion.

To be sure, this may well work to reduce the ultimate losses to the original owners of LTCM, but that was a byproduct, perhaps unfortunate, of the process.

I should add that, in order to keep incentives working in their favor, the creditors of LTCM apparently also understood the importance of some cushioning of the losses to the owners and managers of the firm.

The private creditors and counterparties in the rescue package chose to preserve a sliver of equity for the original owners--one tenth--so that some of the management would have an incentive to stay with the firm to assist in the liquidation of the portfolio.

Regrettably, the creditors felt that, given the complexity of market bets woven into a bewildering arrray of financial contracts, working with the existing management would be far easier than starting from scratch.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/te...ny/19981001.htm

"FSA says Investors relied too much on credit ratings"

Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:10pm

LONDON (Reuters) - The financial watchdog told legislators that banks were not "reckless" in the run-up to the credit crisis, but warned some investors had relied too heavily on ratings agencies.

Credit ratings agencies have come under fire in recent months, accused of being too slow in warning about problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector and possible repercussions.

However, in a wide-ranging evidence session before parliament's Treasury Committee on Tuesday, the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) top executives said some institutional investors simply failed to do enough of their own research.

"One element of the problem is institutional investors using rating agencies as a shorthand way of measuring liquidity as well as credit (risk)," FSA Chief Executive Hector Sants said, in the watchdog's second appearance before legislators in two months.

"It is vitally important that people understand the limitations of the service that a credit agency delivers."

The instruments, he said, were transparent enough for those who had the "time and expertise" to unpick them.

"People have relied too heavily on the rating agencies rather than doing their own (research)," Callum McCarthy, the FSA's chairman, told the committee.

In a separate hearing last week, leading investment banks acknowledged that some investors in complex structured products were not sophisticated enough to understand what they bought.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/companyOutlo...lBrandChannel=0

One of the more interesting aspects of this to me, Indianhead, is that NOBODY seems to have a clue as to what they have bought when they bought into these various instruments ....

And that starts with these top executives of these banks ...

And that is not only here ...

It is all over the world ....

That Northern Rock in London that failed and was nationalized is a case in point ....

And this is nothing new ...

The same thing happened TEN TEARS AGO in 1998 when a big hedge fund turned belly-up ....

Again, nobody really had a clue as to how to unwind its positions, so they had to keep on the old management of the failed hedge fund, because they were the only one who even had a clue ....

And it wasn't much of a clue, since they had gone bust ....

As Alan Greenspan put it to the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives on October 1, 1998:

Regrettably, the creditors felt that, given the complexity of market bets woven into a bewildering arrray of financial contracts, working with the existing management would be far easier than starting from scratch.

And that is the FIRST INSTANCE of the Fed stepping in to help with a BAIL-OUT of a big hedge fund, TEN YEARS AGO, now, which gave rise to a belief among investors that if they were big enough as well, the Fed would step in to help them too ....

What is called MORAL HAZARD ....

You, the BIG INVESTOR, never need to worry about being responsible for your own actions, precisely because every time that you get into trouble, I am going to be there to bail you out again, with no penalty accruing to yourself, ever ....

AND HERE WE NOW ARE ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

"State widens pension probe - BOCES is accused of 'chronic fraud' a day after 4 lawyers were removed from public benefits system"

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, April 19, 2008

ALBANY -- Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Friday he is subpoenaing all 37 of the state's BOCES organizations for information on whether they registered private lawyers in the state's public pension system.

Cuomo's announcement came a day after Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli kicked four private attorneys out of the state's pension system for being improperly listed as employees of the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

It was also learned Friday that the public cost for the attorneys may be greater than thought.

A BOCES official said his organization has also been paying a portion of the federal withholding taxes for the lawyers, who as private contractors would normally have paid the full bill.

"We have reason to believe some BOCES may have unclean hands in this situation," Cuomo said Friday in a written statement.

"There appears to be a chronic fraud that has occurred across New York state for many years, and we will work until we get to the bottom of it."

While Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES Superintendent Geoffrey Davis said he doesn't believe his organization committed fraud, he said it listed its lawyers as employees for two decades and no one questioned that arrangement until now.

"That didn't change over 20 years," said Superintendent Geoffrey Davis, who said that starting in 1988, before he came to the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES, lawyers were listed as employees working at 89 percent of full-time status.

"We were doing what had been in place for a very long time," said Davis, who added the individuals who put that system in place are either retired or deceased.

Moreover, he said, no one -- not BOCES' auditing firm, West and Co.; the state Comptroller; or the Education Department, which reimburses some of the legal costs -- had ever questioned the arrangement.

That changed in the past few weeks, when an investigator for DiNapoli asked Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES officials if their lawyers met certain criteria for full-time employment, such as having a set place to work, a supervisor and regular hours.

When they said no, Davis said, BOCES agreed to take the attorneys off its employee list.

The lawyers -- James Girvin, Kathy Ann Wolverton, Kristine Lanchantin and Jeffrey Honeywell -- were then removed from the state retirement system.

Davis said both BOCES and the firm, Girvin & Ferlazzo, agreed to end their relationship.

The firm has declined to comment on the matter.

The Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES has since hired a new firm -- McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams -- to represent it in the pension issue.

Pension credits were not the only benefit the lawyers got.

Davis said BOCES also paid part of the lawyers' FICA, or federal payroll taxes, just as any employer would.

Independent contractors, by contrast, must pay all of their own FICA taxes.

Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES paid Girvin & Ferlazzo $234,000 during the 2006-07 fiscal year.

The firm handled labor issues in 20 school districts in the BOCES region, which includes the Johnstown, Gloversville and Amsterdam areas.

Most of the labor issues concerned grievances filed by employees of a district or contract negotiations with unions.

BOCES are educational co-ops.

Member districts buy services that include vocational programs and legal work.

Lawyers from the firm would estimate in advance how much work they would have to do in a given year and set that rate.

DiNapoli listed five lawyers -- Girvin, Wolverton, Lanchantin, Honeywell and Salvatore Ferlazzo -- as doing the $234,000 worth of work.

Ferlazzo lost his pension credits with Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES but may have credits for other work for schools, DiNapoli said.

Davis, however, said other attorneys from the firm also performed some duties.

The trouble with that, said one person familiar with pension issues, was that the five named lawyers could then get pension credits they didn't deserve.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he may be approached by the attorney general in a separate case.

Davis said Cuomo's office contacted his office in March, seeking all records of its interactions with the law firm.

Rick Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"A plant shakes up a forest - Environmentalists worry that the drawbacks of development are being ignored in favor of the financial rewards of an AMD chip factory"

By LARRY RULISON, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, July 8, 2007

MALTA -- AMD's factory, which would employ 1,200 people, would be the largest industrial project in state history.

And New York has promised the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company $1.2 billion in financial incentives.

Besides the AMD factory, the environmental community is worried about the impact that related infrastructure projects will have on open space in Saratoga County.

Trypaluk and others believe that projects such as the proposed Saratoga County water system and the Round Lake Bypass are being undertaken just to satisfy AMD's industrial needs.

The $67 million water project would pump water from the Hudson River in Moreau and send it down a 27-mile pipeline to Luther Forest.

AMD would need the water because chip fabs use up to 2 million gallons of water a day.

"Saratoga County water line work to proceed - Judge orders $50,000 fund to cover any damage to land"

By LEIGH HORNBECK, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, April 19, 2008

BALLSTON SPA -- State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Nolan gave the Saratoga County Water Authority permission Friday to continue work on its water line, over the objections of landowners in the path of the pipe.

The water authority started condemnation proceedings last month against 26 landowners who have refused to grant construction easements across their property.

Nolan granted the water authority temporary access to the contested property while the lawsuit moves along.

Ultimately he will decide whether the water authority may take the land in question through eminent domain and how much it will pay for it.

He also required the water authority to establish a $50,000 fund so money is available to fix any damage to the land caused by the construction.

About a third of the 26-mile, $67 million water line is already in the ground.

Mark Schachner, water authority lawyer, said it will cost thousands of dollars if construction is delayed because the water authority doesn't have all the easements it needs to install pipe.

Only two property owners spoke in court Friday: Will Orthwein of Bloomfield Road, Greenfield, and Debbie Zetterstrom, who represents her mother, Mary Zetterstrom, of Gray Gardens Road, Saratoga Springs.

Attorney Matt McNamara, hired by the YMCA of Saratoga, was also in court because the Y has been named in the water authority's eminent domain suit.

McNamara said the Y does not object to the temporary access.

Orthwein said the water authority did not evaluate the value of his land properly when it offered him $800 for more than a half an acre of land.

Zetterstrom is worried the workers will leave behind the same mess they did 30 years ago when the county sewer line was built on her mother's property.

The construction ruined 11 acres because the drainage was disrupted, Zetterstrom said.

Water Authority Director Bill Simcoe was also in court along with Ed Vopelak of CT Male, one of the project engineers.

The two told Nolan that land restoration once the project is done will cost $200 per 1,000 square feet, which is how the judge arrived at the $50,000 figure he required the water authority to pay.

The next hearing in the eminent domain case is May 16.

Orthwein told Nolan he is disappointed the water authority has not delivered on Chairman John Lawler's promise to talk to each property owner who attended a hearing on the issue in August.

He also said the water authority never responded when he pointed out inaccurate math in the offer letter he was sent.

Orthwein says the water authority has violated his private property rights.

"In this case the county is going through the motions without properly protecting the rights of property owners," Orthwein said.

"I hope the judge will act to protect those rights."

Leigh Hornbeck can be reached at 454-5352 or by e-mail at lhornbeck@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Analysis: Is Paterson too nice?"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 10:22 a.m., Saturday, April 19, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson is a smart guy, a politically savvy guy, a guy who can use humor like a rubber mallet to bend an opposing view his way.

Unfortunately, he's also a nice guy.

That can be a weakness with his colleagues in New York politics, who, whether he likes it or not, are adversaries in these tough fiscal times.

In a remarkable four weeks on the job, Paterson took the unheard of action of cutting $800 million from the state budget proposal he inherited from former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

It was an unfathomable public act by Paterson in a town bankrolled by special interests.

The Legislature praised Paterson for his leadership, then promptly put back $500 million in spending.

On Friday, April 4, when the budget missed the April 1 deadline that Paterson called a moral and constitutional duty, he asked the Legislature to work the weekend.

Legislative leaders agreed and praised Paterson's resolve, then adjourned in mid-afternoon.

Most lawmakers left until Monday.

Now Paterson plans to cut the 2009-10 budget by 5 percent to 10 percent.

And that's really cut it, not just control the rate of increase as is the usual ploy in Albany.

The Legislature that conspired with previous governors to bloat it says, sure, we'd love to help.

That kind of help has given New Yorkers some of the highest tax bills in the nation.

Through it all, the Democratic governor from Harlem was smirked at by the tabloids, Comedy Central, YouTube, and David Letterman.

They raked his personal life over coals for his remarkable admission on his first day in the new job over his past extramarital affairs.

Soon after, he admitted some drug use while in his 20s.

It's been a rocky start.

A Quinnipiac University Poll on Thursday found fewer New Yorkers -- 62 percent -- think Paterson will be able to govern effectively, down from 75 percent when he took office.

He's been on the job all of five weeks.

Yet from admitting personal failings to telling lobbyists and the Legislature to trim their appetites for tax dollars, Paterson has done what most pundits have always advised.

They used to say that if only Nixon and Clinton admitted their mistakes upfront, if only Pataki and Spitzer really stood up to Albany's pay-for-play culture for the long haul, all would be right with the world.

Most New Yorkers seem to still believe that.

The Quinnipiac University Poll on Thursday found 69 percent of New Yorkers say he was right to admit his past affairs and cocaine use and 84 percent say reporters should stop pressing him for more details.

Yet there was talk last week that Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton should run for governor in 2010, when Spitzer's unexpired term ends.

Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who briefly ran for the Democratic nod for governor in 2002, is also being watched even closer now.

Spitzer's sudden exit likely accelerated Cuomo's plan to run for the executive chamber his father once held.

It's all fueled more by Thursday's Quinnipiac poll that also put New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his predecessor and erstwhile presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, ahead of Paterson in the 2010 governor's race.

And those guys say they won't run.

And all of them love to play hardball.

So, why the lack of respect for the guy holding most powerful political job in New York?

No fear.

Despite current speculation, there has always been serious doubt that Paterson would run for a full term.

Part of it is that he never said he wanted to be governor before he, as lieutenant governor, was thrust into the office when Spitzer resigned last month after being implicated in a prostitution ring.

Leadership, of course, doesn't have to include fear.

But in Albany, fear might just be the key: Pataki used a shocking 1994 win to force true cuts in the budget, the death penalty, and tax cuts; Spitzer led the busiest two months of reform in Albany history in 2007, surpassing most governors' full terms when he forced at least some improvement in budgeting, ethics, worker's compensation insurance and other areas.

Spitzer was popular, dauntingly so, but never cuddly to Albany's denizens.

It was his once record-high approval ratings, as well as a willingness to attack his foes in their home TV markets, that got most things done.

As for Pataki, the Republican had slain not just an incumbent, but a national Democratic icon in Mario Cuomo, and used a staff with a nasty streak to remind everyone of the fact.

Yet every legislator has a good word to say about Paterson, how funny he is, how easy it is work with him, how he is so not-Spitzer.

But the legally blind Paterson had to be tough to thrive in regular classrooms in public schools, in college and law school, in running the New York City marathon, in talking trash on the basketball court, and in eroding the historic Republican majority in the Senate when he was Senate minority leader.

But is he tough enough for this job?

No one around here seems to be shaking.

Yet.

------

Michael Gormley is the Albany, N.Y., Capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.

[Livyjr]

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

April 29th, 2007 11:15 am

Tactically speaking, I am disturbed by Livyjr’s assertion that many law enforcement departments were called onto the scene, and that too many cooks may well have spoiled the soup.

— Posted by BB

April 29th, 2007 1:57 pm

BB, you totally misunderstand me here - what I am saying is that by the time the other police units were called out, tactically speaking, the soup was long since spoiled!

Whether the state police panicked, or what is unknown, but they had retreated back from the farm house, where the shooter was already dead, and they had formed some type of defensive perimeter, which means that to get back in the house, in the event that the shooter was still alive, something the state police did not know allegedly, at the time these reinforcements arrived, someone was going to have to traverse the killing ground, all over again, because of tactical blunders by the NYSP!

Which put the lives of those extra police in danger, because the NYSP had no idea what was going on down there!

It was a cluster-****, plain and simple, and we countryfolks up here who were the recipients of those phone calls from these police reinforcements are finding everthing that has been said so far by this Felton dude and the “STEAMROLLER” to be totally inadequate, incredible, and just plain unbelievable!

It’s not a case of too many cooks in charge!

All of these police units were subordinated to the command of the NYSP, and they were the only cooks, and they had already ruined the soup, all by themselves, before these other police units got there, to what was a scene in disarray!

Having been an infantryman in Viet Nam, I can tell you that there is no glory in someone getting killed because of incompetent leadership, and it is from that thought that my comments in here are made, quite frankly, I don’t wish to be attending the funeral of one of my loved ones or relatives in police work who was killed for no good reason, simply because of incompetence and ineptness in the political management of the NYSP!

Whether or not the state police ever even had tactical control of anything remains at issue, but one thing that is certain, from what we have heard, is that after the shooting, the state police somehow retreated, whether in orderly fashion or disarray is unknown, and they thus relinquished all control of the tactical situation that they might have had!

THEN the reinforcements were called in!

Plain and simple, it was a cob job, which put the lives of our loved ones who were called out as reinforcements in potential danger, which caused a lot of people up here a fair amount of emotional distress, not knowing what to expect!

And in the meantime, the shooter was already dead!

And I’ll tell you that out here in the country, where people growing up had one shell to put food on the table with, or starve, people are downright embarassed and ashamed of the NYS Police!

And there is one huge vote of absolutely no confidence at all in either “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer or this Felton dude to confront this matter head-on, as it needs to be, starting with the initial question of whether the state police should be disarmed and confined to barracks until some outside experts in firearms determine they are competent and qualified to carry them in public, let alone use them with apparent wild abandon in a tactical situation as they did, spraying almost seventy rounds God alone knows where, outside of three in the shooter and one in the head of a fellow trooper ….

And so ….

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...-fire/#comments

"Killed in the crossfire - State Police fired nearly 70 times in shootout with fugitive, and one of those rounds hit trooper"

By BRENDAN J. LYONS and CAROL DeMARE, Staff writers, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, April 28, 2007

ALBANY -- State Police announced Friday that the trooper who died in a shootout with a fugitive this week was killed by another trooper's bullet.

The fatal shot came during an "extremely intense firefight" after the suspect opened fire as four troopers entered an upstairs room in a country house, acting State Police Superintendent Preston L. Felton said.

The troopers fired nearly 70 shots, he said.

Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff, 29, was caught in a crossfire between the fugitive Travis Trim and members of his own Mobile Response Team.

He was hit in the back of the head.

Three other troopers, also members of the unit, were downstairs at the vacation house in Arkville, Delaware County, but did not fire a shot.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer responded to the news Friday, saying, "A tragedy occurred, and State Police are now investigating the exact circumstances of Trooper Brinkerhoff's death."

"We are committed to a thorough investigation and to full disclosure of the findings as soon as possible."

"Report on trooper's death likely to remain private"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, April 20, 2008

Nearly a year after Trooper David Brinkerhoff was killed during a shootout with fugitive Travis Trim, the State Police said the internal investigation into the crossfire that killed him will almost certainly never become public.

"At this point, any internal or personnel investigation report is never going to be released," said State Police spokesman Sgt. Kern Swoboda, referring questions to the Delaware County district attorney's office.

Internal police investigations are given sweeping protections under the state's Freedom of Information Law.

In December, Delaware County District Attorney Richard D. Northrup Jr. released a grand jury report that said no one but Trim committed a crime leading up the fiery standoff at a farmhouse in the village of Margaretville.

Brinkerhoff, 29, a husband and father from Coxsackie and a member of the SWAT-style Mobile Response Team, was killed April 25, 2007, by another trooper's bullet when MRT members searched the farmhouse for Trim, 23, who was being sought for shooting but not seriously injuring another trooper during a traffic stop a day earlier.

Trooper Richard Mattson was also wounded in the firefight that killed Brinkerhoff and Trim.

Troopers later stormed the house, accidentally setting it alight in the process.

The Margaretville standoff helped advance the push for more safety measures for troopers, including better body armor, implemented over the last year.

In February, Brinkerhoff's widow, Barbara, filed a $100 million notice of claim against the St. Lawrence County Probation Department, alleging the agency mishandled a warrant for Trim's arrest months before the April shootout that killed her husband.

Swoboda could not immediately say Friday whether the internal investigation into the Margaretville events was complete.

But he said it was different from the report of the probe into the manhunt for fugitive cop-killer Ralph "Bucky" Phillips in 2006, because it was intended to be disseminated beyond the Division of State Police.

-- Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

[Livyjr]

Here is what we have been waiting for, of course ....

Among a few other issues that are also related to this thing of the "PORK" in New York ....

And multi-million dollar SLUSH FUNDS, of course .......

For the politicians to use for their own purposes ...

And this is in large part why this thread is running ....

To track this issue .....

As it develops further ....

And so ...

Without further ado ...

"Pork adorns new budget - Even before agreements are reached on member-item grants, Gov. Spitzer's proposed 2007-08 spending plan includes billions of dollars for unspecified projects"

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

First published: Friday, February 2, 2007

ALBANY -- Despite his pledge to change the way things are done in Albany, Gov. Eliot Spitzer's budget plan includes billions of dollars in lump sums without saying what the money will being used for, including $600 million in two newly created pots.

Most of the money is from previous deals negotiated by Gov. George Pataki and the Legislature and popularly known as "super pork."

The three top state leaders -- Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick -- carved the money up under a private agreement, or memorandum of understanding."

They never listed the uses in the budget.

"We noted that even in budget reform, we weren't going back and changing the agreements that had been done in the past, only working on the ones going forward," said Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the Division of the Budget.

The money is in addition to the traditional member-item grant funds that typically total $200 million a year and go unitemized.

The billions of dollars in Spitzer's budget for unspecified economic development projects represent money reappropriated for pork programs developed since about 1997 under Pataki, said Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the Division of Budget.

Most, if not all of the funds have been committed, for things such as fixing up the Buffalo Bills football stadium in Orchard Park.

However, even though the information exists to itemize the funds, Spitzer's budget does not include the details.

In setting up two $300 million new pots, Spitzer did not subject the funds to the traditional memorandum-of-understanding process.

But as with the previous pork funds, Spitzer does not say who is getting the money.

Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, said the vagueness of the previous lump sums and the new ones is troublesome.

"There should be total transparency of what the funding is going to and what the funding is for," he said.

Tedisco has complained about the $3.4 billion in "slush funds" created since 2000 and "controlled by the three men in the room," as the top state leaders are usually called.

The new pots seem like more slush, he said.

Dear Livyjr:

Thank you for your message regarding “pork” in the New York State Budget.

I appreciate you sharing your views on this issue.

In addition to being a strong supporter of sweeping reforms that will allow the citizens of New York State to witness firsthand the inner workings of our Legislative and Executive branches, I am committed to bringing clarity to the process by which our tax dollars are spent.

While I am pleased by the steps taken thus far to increase transparency and accountability in the so-called “Member-Item” process, they represent only a small part of the solution to a large problem.

I have been made aware of at least fifty “secret slush funds” dating back to the 2000-2001 State Budget listed as lump sum allocations without specific projects or legislators identified.

These “slush funds” total nearly $3.4 billion, far surpassing the $200 million “member-item” fund.

These monies have been allocated in a manner not subject to full public scrutiny, a practice which must stop with the current Legislature and Executive.

We need greater transparency, accountability, and awareness.

You can be certain that I will continue to work to give the people of New York a state government they can trust and be proud of.

If you should have further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

James N. Tedisco, Assembly Republican Leader

DISTRICT OFFICE: 12 Jay Street, Schenectady, New York 12305, (518) 370-2812, FAX (518) 370-2862
ALBANY OFFICE: Room 933, Legislative Office Building, Albany, New York 12248, (518) 455-3751, FAX (518) 455-3750

AND AS THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN IN THE INCOMPETENT, THUG-LIKE CORRUPT EMPIRE OF NEW YORK CONTINUES ....

"State sweeps away promises - Fees collected for specific uses like snowmobile trails or animal rescue raided to close budget gap"

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

First published: Sunday, April 20, 2008

ALBANY -- Hundreds of millions of dollars raised for specific programs were seized by the Paterson administration to balance the last state budget, a practice the governor plans to continue and expand this year.

A total of $100 million was "swept" from special accounts dedicated for such things as promoting New York's wine industry, neutering pets or fixing snowmobile trails in the just-closed budget year.

It marks the first time the state raided such special accounts in a blanketed way to cover general spending commitments.

Another $437 million was transferred from agency programs to the general fund in the 2007-2008 budget.

For example, $1.2 million was taken from lobbying enforcement and $10 million in state building administration.

And the state, which continues to look for spare money to pay bills amid lagging revenues, is likely to sweep even more this year.

Critics say the surplus cash shows the state is taking in money faster than it can spend it, purposely charging too much in fees or not spending the money on its intended use.

Others note the surpluses are one-time funds, and using the cash prevents the state from reining in spending or properly balancing the budget.

"These funds shouldn't serve as slush funds for the state," said Elizabeth Lynam, senior research associate of the Citizens Budget Commission.

"They're not supposed to be cash cows."

If the state is assessing fees for specific purposes yet surpluses are building in the accounts dedicated to the users, the fees need to be lowered, she said.

"If they're sweeping something from the fund more than one year, that begs the question: Why is there surplus money in these funds?"

"That doesn't help the state in the long run to balance the financial plan," she said.

The $100 million in "sweeps," state officials said, were approved by the Legislature under a blanket authorization that lets the Division of the Budget decide which accounts to tap.

In the past, such sweeps were specifically identified in advance in budget bills.

The budget just passed for 2008-2009 allows the DOB to find $150 million more in any special revenue accounts it deems overstocked.

That's in addition to some specific sweeps already authorized in the new budget -- $125 million from the Environmental Protection Fund, which is supposed to be for forest land purchases, and $95 million from the state's Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage program, set up to help low income people age 65 and older afford prescription drugs.

Plus, more fund transfers will be necessary, stripping agency budgets of money for planned purposes.

In order to cover future budget gaps, more and more sweeping will be needed as well as new revenue streams.

A budget gap of several billion dollars, some say $5 billion, is projected for next year.

The state may have taken care of some of the problem by raising and creating new fees to produce hundreds of millions of dollars, building in surpluses in some of the accounts for which the fees were set up.

For example, a new identification/license to use for Canadian and Mexican border crossings will cost $30.

The license will raise tens of millions of dollars beyond the cost of administering the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

Some of the funds swept by the budget division to balance the 2007-2008 budget came from fees that were supposed to be reinvested in specific areas.

For instance, the $1 million taken from the Snowmobile Trail Development & Maintenance account came from the registration fees of snowmobile owners.

The fees -- $45 for members of snowmobile clubs and $100 for all other owners -- rose in 2004 under Gov. George Pataki to make sure trails remain open and in good shape.

The 65,000-member New York Snowmobile Association supported the increased fees with the understanding the money would be used to reimburse snowmobile clubs that tend the trails and purchase grooming equipment, fuel, signs, bridges, culverts and insurance.

But in less than four years after increasing the fee in 2004, the fund had more money than the state was spending.

Michael Fischer, president of the state association, said "to take money from that dedicated fund, we think is a major issue, and is inappropriate."

He wrote a letter to Gov. David Paterson last week, complaining there won't be enough money in the fund to meet current trail maintenance and liability insurance costs.

The "raid," he said, could cause clubs to shut down and the 10,000 miles of trails to close because of the timing of registration fees.

E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, said the state is purposely overcharging on fees and managing accounts to insure there are unused funds to sweep, and that is wrong.

"You create a program, promise to fund it, then rip it off," McMahon said.

"Short of a constitutional amendment, I'm not sure how you prevent it."

Matthew Anderson, a spokesman for the budget division, said the state isn't overcharging industry groups or conspiring to assure surpluses, but sweeping is necessary.

"We're in difficult fiscal times right now," Anderson said.

"We have to make some tough choices to insure a balanced budget."

He said there will be plenty of surplus again, an estimated $5.6 million in the snowmobile account, potentially to sweep next year.

"The agencies themselves are the ones who administer the accounts."

"We don't have direct control over that," he said.

"There's always a cash management part of our job, but we certainly made no attempt to slow down grant processes to build up surpluses."

Some surpluses, he said, are the result of interest built up on the sums stored in the accounts.

In other cases, the programs for which fees are collected got caught up in bureaucracy.

For instance, more than $1 million was swept from the Animal Population Control account, which is fueled from $3 surcharges on dog licenses, $25 Love Your Pet license plates and other funds from pet lovers.

It is supposed to go to spaying programs.

Elinor Molbegott, legal counsel for the Humane Society of New York, said that money should have been spent, but the state has failed to market it properly to veterinarians and low-income people.

"They have a fund balance because the Department of Agriculture and Markets has not implemented the program well."

"They haven't done what has been done in other states," she said.

"It's the biggest secret in New York."

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

[Livyjr]

"Tough March for workers - Reflecting weak national economy, region's jobless rate up for month"

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

First published: Friday, April 18, 2008

Unemployment usually falls in March.

Not so this year.

The Capital Region's March unemployment rate of 5.1 percent was significantly higher than the 4.0 percent reported in the same month last year, the state Department of Labor said Thursday.

March is a month when employers -- especially in seasonal fields -- begin gearing up.

And that did happen this year: Construction employers, for example, added 700 jobs during the month.

But in the face of a tepid national economy, hiring wasn't as strong last month as in years past.

Another reason the March unemployment rate stayed high: The region's labor force grew by 400 people, the first work force increase in a year.

That means there were simply more people looking for jobs, said James Ross, who analyzes Capital Region trends for the Labor Department.

Still, Ross said, because of retiring workers and slow population growth, "the long-term trend would be for a decline in the labor force."

Even without a March decline, the region's unemployment rate remained better than in much of upstate New York, where the jobless rate ranged from 6.2 percent in the Buffalo area to 6.3 percent in Glens Falls last month.

Statewide, the unemployment rate in March was 5.1 percent, up from 4.4 percent a year earlier.

The numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

The area's strongest job growth was in what the Labor Department calls the professional, scientific and technical services sector, which had 1,200 more jobs than a year ago and about 29,000 jobs overall, and in educational and health services, which added 1,400 jobs to 82,500 overall.

Financial services was a weak spot.

The industry dropped 600 jobs from a year ago, although more than 25,000 Capital Region residents still work in the field.

Thursday's numbers included some welcome news for Schoharie County residents.

The area, with a March unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, no longer has the highest jobless rate of any county in New York.

That distinction now belongs to Hamilton County, where the unemployment rate was 9.2 percent.

[Livyjr]

"AMD: Losses, cuts won't affect Malta plans"

Associated Press

First published: Friday, April 18, 2008

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s first-quarter loss matched Wall Street's lowered expectations, with the slumping chip maker hurt by its inability to unload older products amid economic turbulence that tamped down domestic consumer spending.

The Sunnyvale-based company said Thursday that it lost $358 million, or 59 cents per share, during the first three months of the year, its sixth quarterly loss in a row.

AMD lost $611 million, or $1.11 per share, in the same period last year.

Stripping out 8 cents per share in one-time charges connected to AMD's acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies, the company lost 51 cents per share in the latest period, matching the average estimate on the same basis from analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Sales of $1.51 billion were 22 percent higher than last year and in line with analysts' expectations.

AMD warned earlier this month that sales across all business lines were lower than it earlier anticipated.

It also announced plans to jettison 10 percent of its global work force, or about 1,600 workers, by September.

The first of those layoffs -- 420 -- occurred Thursday, half of them in Austin, Texas, where AMD has significant operations, company spokesman Travis Bullard said.

None of the first-round cuts were felt in New York state, where AMD partners with IBM Corp. on research.

AMD also is planning a $3.2 billion computer chip factory for the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta.

Bullard said the staff reductions would not impact the company's plans for the Luther Forest fab.

AMD actually has until summer 2009 to decide and still be eligible for $1.2 billion in state incentives, including $650 million in cash.

Robert Rivet, AMD's chief financial officer, blamed the first-quarter loss on seasonal weakness, the economy and lower-than-expected sales of old products.

He added the company expects to become profitable on an operating basis in the second half of 2008.

AMD has racked up more than $4 billion in losses in a skid that stretches back to the last three months of 2006, when intensifying competition from larger rival Intel Corp. and the costs of the ATI acquisition began to take their toll.

[Livyjr]

AND AS YEARS OF INCOMPETENCE AND ENDEMIC CORRUPTION BEGIN TO CATCH UP WITH NEW YORK STATE "GUMMINT", WE HAVE ....

"Paterson orders cuts in spending, hiring in NY government as tax revenues continue to decline"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:35 p.m., Monday, April 21, 2008

ALBANY -- New York Gov. David Paterson on Monday prohibited all but essential hiring in a sternly worded directive to state agencies.

Paterson said that if his cost savings targets aren't met, he will impose a hard hiring freeze and other measures on agencies.

He says he is willing to withhold budgeted funds if an agency fails to meet his cost-saving targets.

The Democrat said the measures are necessary because of declining revenues projected in a worsening economy.

Paterson required a detailed savings plan from each agency by May 16.

"The reductions you propose must be achievable, recurring, and serious," Paterson said in the memo released Monday.

"Your plan must reflect the creativity needed to provide the services the public expects at a lower cost."

"Above all, you must rethink your hiring practices."

"Only job openings absolutely essential to your agency's operations and protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers are to be filled," he said.

"Positions that do not fit this criterion must be left vacant."

Paterson's call shocked the state's largest public employee union, which like other unions had planned on increases in hiring as part of the state budget approved earlier this month.

"We did not have any forewarning of this," said Civil Service Employees Association union spokesman Stephen Madarasz.

"We're extremely disappointed there was no discussion of this direction."

He warned that Paterson's plan could be wasteful, because the state has in many areas agencies have lacked enough staff in recent years to effectively do their jobs.

For example, adding enforcement jobs can bring in more revenue from fines than the cost of the positions.

Madarasz said the governor's memo will also strike at employee morale.

"When you don't give us some forewarning on this, it certainly undermines the confidence and trust in labor relations," he said.

The state work force stands at 167,172 employees, according to the state Department of Civil Service.

This memo is different from similar directives by past governors to their agency heads.

Paterson didn't choose these commissioners, but inherited them from former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned March 17 after he was implicated in a prostitution investigation.

Because they are neither his loyalists nor anyone who helped him in a campaign for governor, the former lieutenant governor might be more inclined to replace them.

Paterson has set a goal of cutting the budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year by 5 to 10 percent before it's sent to the Legislature.

Monday's memo is the first order in that effort.

"There are several corrective actions that I am prepared to take," Paterson told department heads.

"These include withholding an amount of budgeted funding needed to hit your savings target or implementing a hard hiring freeze at your agency."

"I sincerely hope and expect such measures will not be necessary."

His plan faces several obstacles.

Chief among them are the public employee unions that hold great power in New York, especially in the Legislature, which can reverse a governor's budget cuts.

Most of the major public employee unions settled contracts this year that extend for several years.

Legislative leaders have said they will work with Paterson to reduce spending growth next year.

Those promises came after they turned down $500 million of Paterson's proposed $800 million in spending reductions.

The $121.7 billion budget adopted by the Legislature increases spending more than 4.5 percent this legislative election year and includes hundreds of millions of dollars in pork-barrel spending.

------

On the Net:

http://www.state.ny.us.