Welcome to NYS as our 55th Governor today.

You know, Gov. Patterson may be the ONE...

He might just be the #1 greatest person in America if he can only accomplish 10 percent of what he believes in

Out of nowhere, comes someone who most likely could not til now have been elected himself

Out of nowhere, a savior rides in

I predict big things for him, and I predict a spot on the national ticket sometime in the future OR as the VP this year with Al Gore if they knock Obama out.

This man is truly amazing. And he overcame odds that nobody thought he would.

WELCOME GOV. PATTERSON!!!

Be careful, be safe, be productive!

How very disingenuous David Paterson is ....

And how very stupid he must think we are ....

No money for essential government services ....

BUT ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD FOR "PORK" ...

And so ...

"$340M exempted as state seeks cash - Unspent money for lawmakers' pet projects shielded from seizure"

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

First published: Wednesday, April 23, 2008

ALBANY -- New York's lawmakers are sitting on a stash of $340 million in unspent discretionary funds, but the Paterson administration can't touch the money as it searches for extra cash.

The pool of member item money, appropriated in past years for pet projects of the 212 lawmakers, is almost twice as big as the state's $175 million emergency "rainy day fund."

But even if Gov. David Paterson depletes that fund in emergencies, such as an unexpected revenue shortfall, the Legislature's unused member item funds are off limits.

The 2008-09 budget legislation gave the Division of the Budget authorization to "sweep" up to $150 million from surplus accounts.

But the budget language specifically exempted member item funds, commonly known as pork.

Paterson, worried about a further slowdown in the economy and possible midyear cash shortages, has been looking for ways to cut costs.

This week, he called on state agencies to tighten their belts and fill only "essential" vacant jobs.

He also assembled a group of staffers to develop plans to slow spending growth, and told them to consider unnecessary discretionary spending and projects that don't serve statewide purposes.

But the Legislature's discretionary funds are currently safe.

Also protected now are three other potential sources of money that the Legislature and Paterson agreed to exclude from sweeps: capital funds, the bigger grants used by lawmakers and the governor that are supposed to spur economic development; debt service money, which funds some of the capital pork; and federal funds.

The comptroller's office said the state has accumulated $33 billion in unspent capital funds.

This year's budget is filled with scores of member items, and the list is still incomplete.

The spending itemized so far ranges from $75,000 to the Asian American and Asian Research Center to $2,000 to Zen Masters Inc.

Also disclosed are grants to Little Leagues, fire departments, animal adoption programs, religious charities, theater groups, schools and arts councils.

Surpluses pile up over the years for various reasons.

Sometimes recipients don't fill out the forms or enter into contracts to get the cash, lawmakers say.

Others draw down slowly from accounts as they are reimbursed.

Scott Reif, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, said the fund balance represents money "contractually committed," but it takes about two years on average for a grant to get paid out.

Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the budget division, said the $340 million is already spoken for even if the full list of projects is still being developed for this year.

Of the funds, $30 million is for Paterson; he has not yet submitted his project list.

Some of the surplus dates back several years and includes $86 million unspent by the Senate Republicans, $163.3 million unspent by Assembly Democrats and $80 million unspent by former Gov. George Pataki, comptroller's office records said.

The money comes from $200 million annually inserted in the budget for member items -- $85 million for each chamber and $30 million for the governor.

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer did not reserve such funds for himself.

This year, the budget does not include new funds for member items, because the accumulations are supposed to cover any needs.

Russ Haven, counsel for New York Public Interest Research Group, said some of the unspent money is likely attributable to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's new certification program.

Legislative aides say the central staffs of the Assembly are scrutinizing the proposals closer as well, which delays payments.

Under the Cuomo initiative, begun in 2007, the attorney general's staff added new oversight to insure the money goes only to groups that have no conflicts with lawmakers, and that it is used for a public purpose.

Haven said some of the grants may not survive the Cuomo reviews.

Cuomo's office did not have a response.

"Many of the things that are funded by member items are very worthwhile and in some cases essential to communities," Haven said.

"But the process is so bad there's no way for the public to feel it's been vetted on a merit basis."

Assemblyman Robert Reilly, D-Colonie, said he doesn't like the practice of sweeping unused accumulations in funds "but if member items lapsed two years or so, then that money should be swept."

He said it takes about six months for the items to move to recipients.

Paterson said he wants to cut the state's operating expenses -- excluding Medicaid, education aid and entitlement programs -- $37 billion in this year's budget, by up to 10 percent next year.

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

question

How is this Patterson's fault?

I would blame Bruno for this and most other problems

Patterson inherited this mess

PATERSON DIDN'T INHERIT THIS MESS ...

PATERSON HELPED TO CREATE IT ....

HE WAS RIGHT IN THERE WITH THE PROSTITUTE USER SPITZER AS IT WAS ALL GOING DOWN ....

AND HE NEVER SAID AN ADVERSE WORD ABOUT IT ...

POINT I:

"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.

TO THE CONTARY, PATERSON THOUGHT THAT IT WAS GOOD FOR THE STATE ....

ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION - Capitol confidential

“'Timely' But Via A 'Flawed' Process"

April 1, 2007 at 12:46 pm by Elizabeth Benjamin

That is the verdict on this budget from Gov. Eliot Spitzer and LG David Paterson, who put out a formal statement after the Senate and Assembly finished passing all the bills and high-tailed it out of town for a two-week vacation.

Spitzer and Paterson declared themselves ”pleased that lawmakers approved a timely budget that addresses virtually all of our top priorities this year.”

They also acknowledged that the budget process was “flawed,” which is an all-purpose phrase for “secretive” and “rushed,” or any other of the several dozen negative adjectives that have been used by editorial pages and good government groups to describe this budget battle.

Spitzer and Paterson said the administration will be able to “start the process sooner” next year,” providing “the time to seek greater input from lawmaker and the public.”

“We are pleased that lawmakers approved a timely budget that addresses virtually all of our top priorities this year.”

“This budget is very good for the State of New York."

AND SPEAKING OF THE LACK OF TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE BUDGET PROCESS AND THE CONTINUATION OF THE "PAY-TO-PLAY" CULTURE IN CORRUPT STATE GOVERNMENT THAT WE CONTINUE TO HAVE NOW IN THE REIGN OF GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON, WE HAVE ...

"Analysis: NY's special interests well-fed by your tax dollars"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 11:32 a.m., Saturday, April 12, 2008

ALBANY -- The Legislature took a lot of heat last week for its secret budget negotiations, its abandonment of public conference committees required by its own 2007 reform law, and its refusal -- with Gov. David Paterson -- to release details of how they would spend New Yorkers' money until the bills were already passed.

But it wasn't a complete secret.

The unions and other special interests that have poured $171.2 million into lobbying over the last year and gave candidates millions more for campaigns were in on it.

In the hectic final days before New York's $121.7 billion budget was adopted Wednesday, lawmakers debated bills for hours in televised sessions.

But most of the decisions had already been made behind closed doors, sometimes with lobbyists at the table.

The public, who pays for it all, was shut out.

Take Verizon Communications, a major employer in New York.

The company spent $3.2 million to lobby lawmakers and tossed another $157,620 at their campaigns, according to a report released last week by the state Public Integrity Commission.

One of Verizon's interests in Albany is a cell phone bill of rights measure that would bar companies from requiring a customer to renew his or her service plan when adding a new phone, and prevent a company from making the period of a contract longer.

The industry is fighting this consumer-friendly bill, which remains stuck in committee.

Sometimes the money is not spent to block, but to get.

The New York State United Teachers and United Federation of Teachers unions spent almost $3 million lobbying in 2007, the year the report examined, and contributed $841,703 to campaigns.

On Wednesday, the Legislature provided a record $1.75 billion increase in state school aid despite a gaping deficit and falling revenues.

In addition, the powerful unions secured a legislative change among thousands of pages of budget bills that prohibits school districts from using student performance on test scores as a basis for denying teachers tenure.

And most of the gush of education cash will go to salaries and hiring more teachers and administrators, said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute.

Adding more teachers and staff is often masked by saying the money will pay to reduce class sizes, a more popular notion for the public.

"It feeds the bottom line and increases the union argument for paying them more," he said.

The result of taxpayers providing a big increase in state aid this year?

Big increases in local school taxes next year.

"Because there's no cap on school taxes, when you feed the bottom line with a big increase in one year, it usually translates to bigger property taxes in coming years because the state aid increases aren't sustainable," he said.

He said last week's haul for public schools in the state budget proved this about the school unions: "There is no question they are the tail that wags the whole dog."

But others are helping.

Health care and hospital groups spent more than $3 million lobbying and kicked in $931,091 to campaigns as they fought back efforts by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer to shift more money from institutions to outpatient care, which is cheaper.

The Trial Lawyers Association also spent $959,733 in lobbying and $585,134 in campaign contributions while they fought "tort reform," which could force lower judgments in lawsuits.

It's all legal.

The U.S. Supreme Court calls its freedom of speech.

"In Albany's pay-to-play culture, those with the bucks speak with a megaphone, while the rest of us are reduced to a whisper," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

His group put out its "Fat Cat Factor" annual list of top lobbyists and how much they paid to influence legislation and legislators.

The top 10 lobbyists alone made $2.8 million in campaign contributions last year.

"If the average member of the public wonders why things have gotten so bad in Albany, one reason is the way the system is run," Horner said.

"The reason often is that the interests of the status quo are deeply entrenched, and moving any kind of reform is daunting."

------

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.

"Comptroller notes more debt in budget - DiNapoli faults borrowing, revenue projections in enacted budget"

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:32 p.m., Friday, April 25, 2008

ALBANY -- State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Friday the recently enacted state budget raises spending by more than $5 billion over the previous fiscal year, projects tax revenues that are questionable in a weakening economy and contains $11.5 billion in new debt that will be issued over several years.

"It's clear this budget continues New York's long but not-so-glorious traditions of spending more than the state takes in and borrowing too much," DiNapoli said.

Total spending projections range from $121.4 to $121.7 billion.

The nearly on-time budget with less spending than originally proposed by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was "a remarkable achievement," DiNapoli said.

Final budget numbers are still pending, but the forecast for the national economy has continued to weaken, the report said.

Gov. David Paterson said on Thursday he will look for midyear cuts to help address a looming $5 billion deficit.

And on Monday he called for state agencies to find savings and halt hiring for all but "absolutely essential" positions.

The state employs more than 169,426 workers.

Jeffrey Gordon, spokesman for the Paterson administration's Budget Division, said the governor shares DiNapoli's concerns about the state's financial future.

Paterson will issue a detailed budget analysis next week and has initiated a review of state spending to begin cutting costs for next year, Gordon said.

DiNapoli said that without cost-cutting, future budget gaps could reach $9.5 billion in 2011-12.

He noted that none of the new borrowing is voter approved or tied to any comprehensive plan to address the state's "critical infrastructure needs."

"The reality is that the economy is in rough shape and the worst may still be around the corner," DiNapoli said.

"Governor Paterson took an important first step to address the budget's structural imbalance by telling state agencies to stop unnecessary spending now."

"All across New York, families are tightening their belts."

"It's time for the state to do the same."

According to the report:

--The budget continues to use debt to fill shortfalls, with New York's current debt of $53 billion projected to top $67 billion by 2012-13 with debt service then rising to $7.5 billion a year.

--New borrowing includes $105 million for the state to acquire clear title to New York's thoroughbred tracks from the New York Racing Association and $250 million for expansion at Aqueduct, $1.3 billion in new debt for various economic development programs and $9.3 billion for capital projects at the state and city university systems.

--Almost $1.5 billion in revenue may not materialize, such as the conversion of not-for-profit health insurers to for-profit status, sales tax from Indian retailers and VLT revenues.

--The budget uses $2.5 billion in one-time items, including $400 million in sweeps from various dedicated funds, such as the Environmental Protection Fund and the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage Fund.

------

On the Net:

DiNapoli's report: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/budget/...dbudget0408.pdf

This morning on the radio news, Spitzer buddy and former New York Lt. Governor David Paterson, who has taken over the governor's chair here in New York after his buddy Spitzer was found playing around with prostitutes and had to resign, announced that the profligate and fiscally irresponsibe ways of the Governor and Legislature of the State of New York have put us officially into a RECESSION here in New York, and we are going to be here for awhile, so we, the citizens who are not politically connected and protected are going to have to tighten our belts, or hanks of clothesline rope for those who cannot afford belts, and we are going to have to do without ....

This, of course, at a time when the same State of New York is going to hand the stockholders of the failing and ailing AMD company $650 MILLION in OUR state tax dollars as part of a $1.3 BILLION package that is intended to prop up AMD with state money despite a prohibition against that in our New York State Constitution, which Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson have been taking pains to gut and shred ...

Before I make futher comment on this RECESSION in New York State in here on David Paterson's watch ...

Here is some further background or GENESIS OF A NEW YORK STATE RECESSION, keeping in mind that this is what David Paterson was saying he was "pleased about" in the above article by Elizabeth Benjamin:

"New comptroller criticizes Gov. Spitzer's first budget plan"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press

Last updated: 3:34 p.m., Wednesday, March 7, 2007

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer's $120.6 billion state budget proposal would increase spending "at an unsustainable rate" and leave New York with a whopping three-year budget gap of $13 billion, new state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Wednesday.

"The $120.6 billion budget calls for increasing spending at two-and-a-half times the projected rate of inflation," DiNapoli said.

Under the Spitzer plan, state spending would rise by almost 8 percent.

DiNapoli also complained about the continued growth in state debt.

He said that under the Spitzer budget plan, state debt would increase to $65.6 billion by the end of the 2011-12 fiscal year, a 27 percent increase over five years.

HE SHOULD KNOW ...

AFTERALL, HE HELPED TO GET US HERE ...

AND DID NOTHING TO PREVENT IT WHEN HE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY ...

AND RIGHT NOW, HE IS STILL DOING HIS UTMOST TO PROTECT THE "SLUSH FUNDS" THAT THE LEGISLATURE HAS CREATED FOR ITSELF AND THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR BY ITS CONTINUAL LOOTING OF OUR STATE TREASURY ...

And so ...

"Paterson warns of historic deficits in NY, could soon total $20 billion without cost-cutting"

Associated Press

Last updated: 4:12 p.m., Wednesday, April 30, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson says New York state government is headed for deficits that could total $20 billion over the next three fiscal years.

He says the deficits will likely be bigger than New York has ever seen.

The Democrat is warning that continued declines in revenue means the legislature must help him achieve spending cuts of as much as 10 percent for the fiscal year that begins in April 2009.

He says legislative leaders so far are cooperative.

Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno is more optimistic.

He says he will work with Paterson to cut spending, but says he expects an economic recovery next year.

The legislature adopted a current $121.7 billion budget that filled a nearly $5 billion deficit and increased spending just under 5 percent.

OF COURSE HE IS ...

HE'S A POLITICIAN ...

AND THERE IS ONE THING THAT A POLITICIAN LIKE DAVID PATERSON CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH OF ...

AND THAT IS A HUGE POCKET FULL OF MONEY ...

LIKE THE GIRLS-FOR-HIRE THAT ELIOT SPITZER WAS PLAYING AROUND WITH AFTER PAYING THEM BIG BUCKS TO PLAY WITH HIM ...

And so ...

"Paterson sheds donation limits - Governor won't comply with Spitzer-era cap, seeks maximum donation of $55,900 for statewide run"

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

First published: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson will take the full campaign $55,900 contribution allowed by law in his expected run for governor in 2010, quietly abandoning limits set by his predecessor.

"In order to compete on a level playing field he will adhere to the limits that are set under current rules," spokesman Jonathan Rosen said.

It means that as a gubernatorial candidate, Paterson will follow state election laws -- not the self-imposed campaign contribution caps set by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, his former boss.

Last week Paterson indicated he plans to seek election for a full term in 2010.

Spitzer made headlines in declaring he would not take more than $10,000 from any one source.

But he also received criticism by getting around the voluntary restriction by having individuals bundle their checks with those of other donors to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars as a group.

It entitled the bundlers to special rewards, such as a seat close to Spitzer at a fundraising dinner.

As Paterson was ascending to Spitzer's seat in March, the former lieutenant governor mentioned he may not go along with the $10,000 limit.

Paterson has not made a big deal about the Spitzer limits disappearing.

His campaign aides have been getting the word out slowly.

Spitzer clashed over campaign reform with Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, when he dug in and indicated that without it, he wouldn't agree to long-desired raises for lawmakers.

Rosen said Paterson "is committed to campaign finance reform."

"It certainly would be a pleasant thing for him to do," said Russ Haven, counsel for the New York Public Interest Research Group.

"But we never suggested that any (elected official) should unilaterally disarm."

"We would like him to work for a meaningful reform agenda this session."

Haven said Spitzer's caps may have been illusory.

By approaching the same people to donate to the state Democratic Party and his own campaign fund, Spitzer was getting well above $10,000 per donor for campaigns accounts that benefited him.

"It looked like he was mostly raising money for the state party, so while he may have been within the boundaries he set, half the money would go to him and half to the state party," Haven said.

"The spirit that he would limit fundraising from any one source, that didn't appear to be the case."

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

"Report: NY recession beginning now, should last to early '09, but a slow recovery is forecast"

Associated Press

Last updated: 5:03 p.m., Thursday, May 1, 2008

ALBANY -- Fiscal analysts for Gov. David Paterson said Thursday a recession is beginning in New York and should continue into early 2009, followed by a slow recovery.

New York Budget Director Laura Anglin says that while the national recession should be short and relatively mild, New York historically starts later and lingers longer in these economic slowdowns.

Some indicators and forecasts in the report show New York's recession could rival the recession of the 1970s.

So what can New Yorkers do?

Anglin said taxpayers could help if they use their federal economic stimulus checks for new purchases, rather than to pay off old bills and sock away in savings.

"We're concerned the worst is yet to come for New York," she told reporters Thursday.

Although state income tax collections ended up much higher than expected by April 15, that was the result of profits from mergers and other investments from the relatively hotter early part of 2007.

It's not expected to be repeated, she said.

The annual report came as a poll shows most New Yorkers already are tightening their belts.

The Siena Research Institute poll released Thursday found 80 percent of New Yorkers plan to cut back on the amount they spend on their summer vacation because of gas prices.

The Siena College poll also says 14 percent of New Yorkers are behind on their bills because of rising fuel prices, a driving force in what economists say is an all-but-official recession.

Half of New Yorkers say they are cutting back on restaurant dining and a third are delaying home repairs, which could worsen an impending recession.

"New Yorkers should know we're aware of that, and that the state has to do the same thing," she said.

The report backing up Paterson's call for Albany to tighten its own belt served as a warning to the Legislature that state government spending growth -- which has been around 10 percent a year -- must be cut drastically.

Anglin says that unlike past years, eventual increases in revenue will no longer be enough to avoid billions of dollars in deficits because the state is spending so much.

She said the current budget, adopted in April at $121.6 billion, filled a $5.2 billion deficit -- higher than what was revealed before the budget was passed a week late.

She said the 2009-10 fiscal year is projected to have a $5 billion deficit, the 2010-11 budget is projected to have a $7.7 billion deficit, and the 2011-12 fiscal year is expected to have an $8.8 billion deficit.

Those deficits rival the shortfalls after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and are higher than most past years' gaps.

And while the post-2001 downturn was forced by a terrorist attack in lower Manhattan, the current and projected deficits "are entirely due to spending," said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute.

"The only way to get out of this is for the people who got us into this mess to fix it, to clean up what they did," McMahon said.

History gives two examples: Former Gov. George Pataki cut spending and taxes which helped revive the economy in the mid-1990s; but the Legislature, with Pataki in office, raised taxes and spending after 2001.

McMahon said that prolonged for years a recession that could have ended in six months.

------

On the Net:

http://www.state.ny.us

"Paterson says he feared 'out-of-control' state police unit - Paterson says he confessed affairs fearing 'out-of-control' state troopers, but has no proof"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:52 p.m., Friday, May 2, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson said Friday in a radio interview that he admitted past marital affairs in part because he feared an "out-of-control" element in the state police that he said was investigating politicians.

But later Friday, he told reporters he had no proof that out-of-control troopers were targeting politicians.

"I don't know that that's actually the case."

"These are things that are said to me," Paterson told news reporters, after he made the disclosure to the sports program hosts on a radio show.

He said those reports were made by "over 10" lawmakers of both parties statewide about traffic stops and leaks by police to news organizations about brushes with the law.

It was the strength of those reports, made shortly after he took office March 17, that prompted the Democratic governor to request an investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on whether state police were keeping tabs on elected officials.

"He found enough unusual circumstances to look into it," said Paterson, who took office after the resignation of Democrat Eliot Spitzer amid a prostitution scandal.

At the time, Paterson said he was reacting to legislators' concerns and a report in the New York Post.

But on Friday in a radio interview with WFAN-AM sports radio in Manhattan, Paterson said he knew these rogue troopers were operating and the concern prompted his extraordinary revelations that he had affairs with women years ago when his marriage was in trouble.

He has since reconciled with his wife.

"That was also on my mind when I made my own personal revelations," Paterson said on the radio.

"There was obviously an element in the police force and it wasn't Republican or Democrat, it was just out of control people who had power that were clearly monitoring a lot of the elected officials and I was kind of afraid of leaks of inaccurate information about something and that was another thing that pushed me to speak."

Asked to explain the inconsistency between Paterson's statements to the radio station and his later remarks to reporters, spokesman Errol Cockfield said there was no inconsistency and that the governor has always said he was relaying the accounts of others.

State police spokesman Lt. Glenn Miner said Friday state police would cooperate fully.

Spitzer's administration was dogged by a scandal in which top aides instructed to state police to compile -- and in some cases, recreate -- records tracking the travels of Spitzer's chief political rival.

AND AS THE ADMINISTRATION OF NYS GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON CONTINUES TO PROMOTE FISCAL PROFLIGACY AND FINANCIAL IRRESPONSIBILITY IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ...

AS WELL AS SPITTING ON THE NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTION ...

WE HAVE ...

"Lawmakers release 10,000 election year 'pork' grants worth $147 million to voters back home"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:52 p.m., Friday, May 2, 2008

ALBANY -- Lawmakers are showering $147 million in pork-barrel spending on 10,000 programs, agencies and charities back home this election year.

The grants that lawmakers prefer to call member items or Community Project Funds are doled out based on the political clout of a lawmaker.

The result is taxpayers statewide pay to support gun clubs and abortion-rights groups, clubs and charities -- whose funding never gets a public vote -- in addition to the health and social service programs that depend on the annual funds.

For example, members of the Assembly's Democratic majority get more grant money to disperse than the Republicans and the more veteran Assembly members get more than less senior Democrats.

The same advantage is true for more veteran Republicans in the Senate's GOP majority.

Democratic Gov. David Paterson also has $30 million in pork spending.

Paterson hasn't yet decided where his discretionary spending will go, said budget spokesman Jeffrey Gordon.

Paterson's grants also will be made public.

The traditional pork-barrel spending was spared from the reductions that faced most other areas of the state budget adopted last month.

The $121.6 billion budget filled a $5.2 billion deficit.

A newspaper's lawsuit and calls for reform by voters and good-government groups forced public disclosure of the data on the grants -- including which lawmaker requested the spending.

Good-government groups have long criticized the practice as a way for incumbents to buy votes, contributing to a better than 90 percent re-election rate despite the public's low regard for the Legislature as a whole.

Political leaders in the conference may also direct more pork to lawmakers facing tough re-election contests.

"The most glaring unfairness of the whole system is that it's doled out based on political considerations, not by population or something that's fair," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

"The second thing is to just dump it like this isn't fair to the public at all," he said.

He said the data could be provided in a database that the public could immediately search and sort.

"They are just trying to make it harder for people to know what they are doing," Horner said.

Lawmakers consider the grants a way to fund critical programs, often in health and education, by those who know best where the money is needed.

"Individual legislators have a real awareness of the needs of their communities and under" community project funds, Silver said.

"It is important that funds flow to programs like meals on wheels and services for domestic violence victims."

The Legislature's grants include cash for American Legion halls, such as $25,000 for an American Legion Post in Glens Falls provided through Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno.

Bruno, of Rensselaer County, directed or helped direct 139 grants worth more than $4.5 million to his district and around the state.

They include $95,000 to build a town pool in East Greenbush, $50,000 for the Rensselaer County Jail and $75,000 for the Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York based in Albany.

He also sent $50,000 to the Hendrick Hudson Fish & Game Club in Wynantskill and $30,000 to the Mechanicville Fire Department.

Silver spent more than $10 million on his own -- not including the money he directed with other members of his conference.

Silver directed $705,000 to the United Jewish Council of the East side and $368,000 to various schools.

Sometimes the pork goes to areas in which lawmakers act on legislation in committees, and to industries that are major campaign contributors.

For example, Assembly Labor Committee Chairwoman Susan John, a New York City Democrat, directed $300,000 to the New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health Inc. to develop information about workplace hazards.

NYCOSH is a tax-exempt educational foundation affiliated with members of the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union.

She collects thousands of dollars in campaign donations from unions.

And there are old standbys, like the $5,000 in money from taxpayers statewide that went to buy equipment and pay for umpires for the Van Nest Little League in the Bronx, thanks to Democratic Sen. Jeffrey Klein.

Similarly, the East Meredith Fish, Game and Gun Club in Delaware County received $5,000 for building repairs through Republican Sen. John Bonacic.

And $2,500 went to the NARAL Pro-Choice New York, part of the national abortion rights organization, for research and education through Democratic Sen. Craig Johnson of Nassau County.

The projects were posted Friday on the Internet at http://www.assembly.state.ny.us and http://www.senate.state.ny.us

------

AP writers Valerie Bauman and Michael Virtanen contributed to this report from Albany.

"Paterson backs away from trooper comments - Governor says he has no proof that State Police targeted lawmakers"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

First published: Saturday, May 3, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson said Friday in a radio interview that he admitted past marital affairs in part because he feared an "out-of-control" element in the State Police that he said was investigating politicians.

But later Friday, he told reporters he had no proof that out-of-control troopers were targeting politicians.

"I don't know that that's actually the case."

"These are things that are said to me," Paterson told news reporters, after he made the disclosure to the sports program hosts on a radio show.

He said those reports were made by "over 10" lawmakers of both parties statewide about traffic stops and leaks by police to news organizations about brushes with the law.

It was the strength of those reports, made shortly after he took office March 17, that prompted the Democratic governor to request an investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on whether State Police were keeping tabs on elected officials.

At the time, Paterson said he was reacting to legislators' concerns and a report in the New York Post.

But on Friday in a radio interview with WFAN-AM sports radio in Manhattan, Paterson said he knew these rogue troopers were operating and the concern prompted his revelations that he had affairs with women years ago when his marriage was in trouble.

He has since reconciled with his wife.

"That was also on my mind when I made my own personal revelations," Paterson said on the radio.

"There was obviously an element in the police force and it wasn't Republican or Democrat, it was just out-of-control people who had power that were clearly monitoring a lot of the elected officials and I was kind of afraid of leaks of inaccurate information about something and that was another thing that pushed me to speak."

IN NEW YORK STATE, ACCORDING TO THE OFFICE OF NYS GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON, THE "TYPICAL" NEW YORKER WITHOUT POLITICAL PROTECTION OR CLOUT IS GOING TO HAVE TO TIGHTEN HIS OR HER BELT AND DO WITHOUT WHILE PAYING HIGH TAXES TO THE STATE OF NEW YORK FOE ESSENTIALLY NOTHING ...

IN THE MEANTIME, SPECIAL INTERESTS WITH PROTECTION AND BUSINESSES TIED TO POWERFUL STATE POLITICIANS WILL GET HANDOUTS FROM THE "STATE" IN THE FORM OF "PORK" ....

DESPITE A CONSTITUTIONAL: PROHIBITION IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK AGAINST SUCH HAND-OUTS ...

And so ....

DAVID PATERSON IS THE STATUS QUO IN ALBANY, NEW YORK PERSONIFIED ...

"MR. GO ALONG TO GET ALONG" ....

"MR. PAY-TO-PLAY" ...

And so ...

"State budget deficits deepen - Paterson aide says weakening economy will mean total deficits of $21.5 billion in next 3 years"

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

First published: Friday, May 2, 2008

ALBANY -- Savings measures outlined by Gov. David Paterson won't be enough to close looming budget gaps that are even bigger than the governor has indicated, budget director Laura Anglin revealed Thursday.

New York faces a three-year deficit of $21.5 billion, Anglin said.

That's $1.5 billion more than Paterson estimated the day before.

She also predicted tens of thousands of private sector job losses and an astounding drop-off of revenues.

Revenue fell off $700 million between July and last month, she said, adding, "the worst is yet to come."

"The revenue will not be there to bail this out," she said.

"The typical New Yorker is having to tighten their belt."

"The state needs to do the same thing."

The nationwide recession, she said, will be relatively mild and short but will linger in New York at least through early 2009.

It will take more time, she said, before revenues from Wall Street, which fuels a big chunk of the state treasury, rebound as the financial sector continues to bleed jobs and deals with the mortgage market crisis.

Paterson is trying to focus on next year now.

He says he will take measures to cut 5 percent to 10 percent of the state's operating budget, but will leave out major components such as education aid, health care spending and welfare programs.

The areas that are left account for about $37 billion of the $121.6 billion budget.

That means, if successful, he would cut between about $1.9 billion and $3.7 billion, still short of next year's budget gap of $5 billion.

Over the next two years, Anglin estimates shortfalls of $7.7 billion and $8.8 billion.

Other steps will have to be taken to balance budgets, including collecting one-shot revenues through measures such as sweeping surpluses from dedicated accounts in the budget that are reserved for specific programs.

She also said the state will have to create new revenue sources.

The goal, she said, is to avoid increasing taxes.

Assembly Democrats propose increasing income taxes on the very wealthy to raise $1.5 billion a year.

Anglin said plans to increase the state work force from 199,754 to 201,170 are no longer valid, because each agency must pare its budget.

This year's $121.6 billion is up 4.8 percent, she said.

The spending plan includes a 5 percent increase in state operating funds to cover, among other things, new union contracts.

Anglin said Paterson was aware of some of the indicators that served as the basis for her financial report Thursday, but the weaknesses in the economy have become clearer since the budget was approved April 9.

Anglin's report shows household income and consumer spending slowing considerably, corporate profits tumbling, layoffs on Wall Street continuing and housing sales contracting through the end of 2008.

E.J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy who attended Anglin's address, said the new data show this year's budget imperiled future budgets.

He blamed former Gov. Eliot Spitzer for introducing bloated budgets.

"It was clear the economy was headed down," he said.

Anglin said an internal panel of fiscal experts will analyze all spending areas to figure out where savings can be obtained.

"This whole exercise, examining root causes, is about 18 months overdue," McMahon said.

The dismal projections come despite an unexpected bump in income tax revenues in April, $1.6 billion higher than estimated.

Anglin said the windfall was largely the result of stronger-than-expected performance in the financial markets in early 2007, but that with the softening of the economy, she doesn't expect the extra money to lead to a surplus by the end of the current fiscal year.

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

DON'T WORRY ABOUT BEING FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE IN THE CORRUPT EMPIRE OF NEW YORK, THE "ALL IT TAKES IS A DOLLAR AND A DREAM" STATE ...

IF YOU ARE FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE, THE "STATE" IS THERE TO BAIL YOU OUT ....

WITH MONEY THAT IT HAS TAKEN FROM THOSE TAXPAYERS WHO WERE FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE ...

TO REWARD YOUR PROFLIGACY ...

And so ...

"Paterson seeks foreclosure help - Governor appeals to congressional delegation in hourlong breakfast meeting"

By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY, Washington bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, May 2, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Gov. David Paterson, meeting for the first time with New York's congressional delegation since becoming governor, pressed the lawmakers Thursday to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

Members of the delegation emerging from the hourlong closed-door breakfast meeting praised the new governor's style, though they did not come out with a new plan to help homeowners with mortgage problems.

Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, one of about two dozen lawmakers in the meeting, said Paterson has been "very receptive to hearing" about issues affecting the Capital Region and upstate New York.

"He really reached out to our entire delegation," Gillibrand said.

Paterson's top priority Thursday was to push for relief for homeowners who are facing mortgage foreclosure as a result of rising payments on their mortgages.

Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Paterson noted that there had been 14,183 foreclosures in New York state during the first quarter of 2008 -- 32 percent in Brooklyn and Queens and 23 percent in Long Island.

However, Paterson said, "it's a problem that's (happening) all over the state."

Flanked by 10 House members and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., Paterson said there are "tens of thousands of people who are struggling to pay their mortgages."

Gillibrand said she took advantage of the meeting to press for property tax relief for upstate residents and for the state to divorce property tax revenue from school funding plans.

Property taxes make up the main revenue stream for public schools.

AND FROM THE CORRUPT EMPIRE OF NEW YORK, WHERE WHAT IS LAUGHINGLY CALLED "OUR GOVERNMENT" IS FIRMLY IN THE HANDS OF THE SPECIAL INTERESTS WHO HAVE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR IT, WE HAVE ...

SPECIAL INTERESTS CREATING SPECIAL PRIVILEGED CLASSES OF PEOPLE IN THE CORRUPT EMPIRE ...

SPECIAL CLASSES WHO ARE "OWED" BY THE COMMON FOLKS IN THIS CORRUPT ****HOLE WHO ARE THEMSELVES ENTITLED TO NOTHING ...

OTHER THAN AN EVER-INCREASING DUTY TO HAVE TO WORK TO SUPPORT THESE SPECIAL PRIVILEGED CLASSES IN THE STYLE THAT THEY HAVE GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO AS SPECIAL PRIVILEGED CLASSES ...

And so ...

"Local governments fight labor-backed 'Trojan horse' retiree's health bill that calls for study"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:02 p.m., Friday, May 9, 2008

ALBANY -- Local governments say a proposal to study health benefits for retirees is really a "Trojan horse" that will protect forever free or nearly free lifetime health insurance for retired government workers.

The bill would for at least a year bar local governments and the state from finding cheaper ways to provide health insurance for their retirees until a task force reports its findings.

New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen Acquario said Friday that the bill would prohibit governments from making cuts in local and state public spending, which has led to some of the highest taxes in the nation.

The bill (A-9393-A) could be acted on as early as next week and has strong majority sponsors in the Senate and Assembly.

It was revised in the Assembly's government employees committee where any action to reduce the health benefit for retirees would be suspended until a task force reports its recommendations.

The 12-member task force includes state government officials including at least three recommended by the AFL-CIO, but none from local governments, according to the bill.

"You're talking about retiree health care here," said AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes, who supports the measure.

"We owe it to them that they don't spend the end of their lives in misery."

The concern comes as Gov. David Paterson pushes to reduce local government spending and to cut taxes that he said are driving young New Yorkers to other states for jobs and lower costs of living.

"I think it's everybody's concern that in this panic -- in this weakened economy -- to deal with the cost of government that we do it well and do it right and we don't scapegoat the most vulnerable people, your retirees," Hughes said.

"That's my only interest."

He said he sees no problem excluding local government officials from the expert panel because labor leaders weren't included in panels created to cut local government spending.

"It's a classic legislative Trojan horse concealing a financial time bomb for taxpayers," said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute.

"How about protecting taxpayers?"

"We need a detailed and objective study of options -- not a stacked task force that will deliver a foregone conclusion."

Governors George Pataki and Eliot Spitzer vetoed similar measures five times saying it would limit efforts to reduce costs.

There was no immediate comment from Paterson Friday.

"Analysis: NY unsettled amid claims of rogue state police - NY probes claims of rogue police and an insider with extraordinary access"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 12:32 p.m., Saturday, May 10, 2008

ALBANY -- The allegation is startling and the pattern it's based on unsettling: A rogue element in the state police has for years tailed and snitched on elected officials and political enemies.

Tabloid headlines like "State Police Smear Squad," led by the New York Post citing anonymous sources, have rattled a New York state government already torn by an unprecedented year of scandal.

The claims prompted Gov. David Paterson last month, just two weeks into his administration, to call on Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate the state police.

The accusations stoke longtime suspicions and conspiracy theories that connect -- accurately or not -- isolated acts, associations, even family connections in the administrations of Republican Gov. George Pataki and Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The Cuomo probe is the latest to hit New York's capitol, already gripped by scandal and investigation, including a state body investigating all the investigations.

"There was obviously an element in the police force and it wasn't Republican or Democrat, it was just out of control people who had power that were clearly monitoring a lot of the elected officials," Paterson said in a radio interview a week ago.

He said his own extraordinary admission of past marital affairs a day after his March 17 inauguration was prompted in part by fear of the alleged state police squad.

When confronted by news reporters, he backed off the personal assertion and said more than 10 lawmakers statewide, from both parties, told him state police were watching them, stopping them for traffic infractions, even releasing a tip on a speeding ticket to a blog before the lawmaker got home.

Cuomo, a Democrat with his eye on the governor's office, immediately turned up the heat publicly.

He called in a veteran prosecutor who was part of the New York City Police Department corruption case in the 1970s, detailed in the Al Pacino movie "Serpico."

But those who were deep inside the Pataki and Spitzer administrations discount the tales of such a shadow operation, even in the other's administration.

They say it's an old yarn given life in an increasingly partisan Capitol in a legislative election year where screaming headlines of scandal trump those about the impending recession and $20 billion of state budget deficits forecast for the next three years.

But these former aides also hedge their bets.

"I never saw evidence of any kind of a rogue unit in the state police," said one former high ranking member of the Spitzer administration.

"No one ever said, 'We have secret information.'"

But the former official added:

"I never say 'never' anymore because of all the bizarre things that happened."

Two former Pataki administration officials also denied any knowledge of a rogue unit.

"I have no reason to think it happened," said one of the former officials.

He then added: "I have no proof to say it didn't."

"No one was playing those kinds of games," said another former Pataki hand.

The former administration officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter that, if true, could violate civil rights laws.

"I think it's probably overstated and less sinister than it sounds," said Democratic Sen. Eric Schneiderman of New York City.

Schneiderman, like most in Albany, is quick to defend the state police, operating in a difficult spot in a power structure in which they serve the governor.

Old Albany hands say such accusations also dogged state police in the Democratic administrations of Mario Cuomo, Hugh Carey and even Franklin Roosevelt.

Those in charge of the state police during the Pataki and Spitzer administrations flatly deny troopers are used as political pawns.

"It is critically important that the state police be seen as apolitical due to their enormous power to arrest and investigate," former state police Superintendent Thomas Constantine told Cuomo's investigators.

At the center of the accusations is Daniel Wiese.

He is regarded as an accomplished and respected state police officer, fiercely loyal to the governors he worked for and a bit of a hothead.

In the 1980s, Wiese managed to earn the respect and friendship of a young prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office who liked to join covert ops.

The lawyer, Eliot Spitzer, came to believe Wiese put his life on the line for him during an investigation of the Gambino crime family.

When Spitzer became governor in 2007, Wiese called him on a direct line.

At about the same time he met Spitzer, Wiese was a young trooper making friends with a local mayor.

Wiese would become part of George Pataki's so-called Peekskill mafia of confidants who surrounded the governor when he took office in 1995.

Through the two administrations, Wiese was often there when politics mixed with police.

In March 1996, Wiese yanked the state police protection of Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey-Ross, who at the time was on the outs with her boss.

State police said she abused the unit, treating them more like chauffeurs.

Soon after, Wiese invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination during testimony to a federal grand jury investigating the Pataki administration, according to reports by The Village Voice newspaper.

The grand jury was probing allegations that a Pataki fundraiser offered to help Korean-American families get parole for relatives in return for campaign donations.

Wiese, Pataki and his aides were never indicted.

The New York Times reported that Wiese tried to monitor the investigation, insisting on updated information from New York City detectives and demanding that one of his men join the team until federal investigators took over and froze state police out.

In the 2002 election, when Spitzer was running for re-election as attorney general and Pataki was running for a third term as governor, Wiese acted as intermediary, carrying Spitzer's complaint about a nasty jab by his Pataki-picked Republican opponent, according to a high-level Pataki official.

Then, in 2003, lawmakers contested Pataki's appointment of Wiese as inspector general of the state Power Authority.

A day after Wiese retired from the state police, he took the $160,000-a-year job at the Authority, whose board was appointed by Pataki.

A special waiver allowed Wiese to also collect a state police pension of about $60,000.

In March of this year, a week after Spitzer resigned after being implicated in a prostitution investigation, Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares issued a second report into claims that top Spitzer aides concocted a plot to embarrass Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno using state police records to track his use of state aircraft.

Again, Wiese was there.

The March 28 report quoted testimony by former Spitzer Communications Director Darren Dopp saying that Spitzer had arranged for Wiese to talk to a New York Times reporter to "confirm that (state police) had long held concerns about Mr. Bruno's use of the aircraft" dating to the Pataki administration.

The story countered Bruno's insistence that Spitzer started it.

On April 5, Wiese was put on paid leave pending Cuomo's investigation.

Last week, Wiese's pay was stopped during his suspension after Cuomo told reporters he believes e-mails were erased.

Wiese's lawyer, Kevin Kitson of White Plains, didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.

Schneiderman, the Democratic senator and former prosecutor, said the Cuomo inquiry could serve to clarify the long-standing concern over whether state police overstepped their bounds from public protection to political aggression.

"You are up against a very, very dangerous line," he said.

------

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.

IS NYS GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON PLAYING POLITICS HERE TO APPEASE A STATE LEGISLATURE CAUCUS?

IT SURE DOES SOUND LIKE IT ...

And so ...

"New York farmers fear state labor policy will leave them without enough workers"

By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:22 p.m., Monday, May 12, 2008

BATAVIA, N.Y. -- New York farmers say a shift in state policy is making it harder for them to hire experienced seasonal workers through federal guest-worker contracts.

During a meeting with Gov. David Paterson Monday, farmers said the state Labor Department is forcing less experienced domestic workers from Puerto Rico and elsewhere upon them by rejecting growers' applications to hire foreign workers on H-2A visas.

"There's been kind of a shift in the Department of Labor's response to growers trying to get certified for the H-2A workers, and it's been a shift from previous administrations," Oswego apple grower Eric Behling said.

"Other states have applied through the H-2A program and haven't met the resistance."

The H-2A program allows employers to hire foreign workers temporarily if they show that they were not able to find U.S. workers for the jobs.

Paterson said the state's handling of applications is dictated by federal law.

His labor commissioner, Patricia Smith, said the Labor Department has been accused of falling short in its efforts to recruit domestic workers.

"It got to the point where the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico threatened to sue the state of New York and get it decertified from the H-2A program," she said.

"We are balancing right now our legal requirements imposed upon us by the federal government with your needs to get as much labor as possible," she told farmers.

Paul Bencal of the Niagara County Farm Bureau said the state had "changed the rules mid-stride" by classifying Puerto Rican workers as domestic.

Farmers said they doubt the new hires will possess the experience, skill and reliability of long-time workers from places like Jamaica and Mexico, and fear their crops and business will suffer.

"We advertise for workers who can drive tractors and work in other areas of harvesting and during the year, trimming trees and that sort of thing," said Behling, who grows about 200 acres of apples.

"If we are forced to hire people ...."

"It's like they're pushing people onto us that are perhaps not qualified."

"Are they qualified to drive a tractor?"

Paterson said he would look to find a compromise to the issue in the federal farm agriculture bill.

In the meantime, Smith said she will work with labor officials in Puerto Rico to enlist more qualified workers.

"No one's going to be required to take workers that are not experienced," she said.

"Senate serves up pork - GOP majority's $218M in capital projects include Skidmore music center, HVCC program"

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

First published: Wednesday, May 14, 2008

ALBANY -- The Senate on Tuesday unveiled $218 million in capital projects, providing funds for private companies, local authorities and previously undisclosed big-ticket expenses such as a music center at Skidmore College and a semiconductor plant in Saratoga County.

The items, some of which were labeled by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer as "a horrendous thing to look at ... dripping with fat," include $4 million for Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's alma mater, Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, and $6 million for a semiconductor training center at Hudson Valley Community College, also in Bruno's district.

The Skidmore project is supposed to be the subject of a news conference Friday involving the Arthur Zankel Music Center, a campus concert facility now under construction, with Bruno speaking, a Skidmore spokesman said.

No one would provide details Tuesday.

Also, the semiconductor plant at the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority's property in Saratoga County appeared to be set for a future announcement, although it may be related to a neighboring site for Advanced Micro Devices, one lawmaker said.

The projects amount to about $218 million of the $350 million the Senate can spend at its discretion.

None of the projects are for Democrats' programs, said Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, who complained the list was dropped on the Senate minority by surprise and passed in three seconds without many members knowing what happened.

"What's the process?"

"What's the review?"

"Why?" she asked.

A spokesman for the Senate GOP did not return a call.

The remaining funds likely will be the subject of another resolution later this session, a Senate aide said.

In a news release, Bruno called the grants "smart investments" but did not spell out what the money is being used for.

The Assembly released a list of $244 million worth of projects on April 9, and also did not clarify what the recipients will do with the funds.

The Assembly has $350 million of its own to spend on capital projects.

The Assembly list includes matching funds for a few of the same projects as the Senate.

For instance, there's $1.7 million for the Hotel Syracuse and $10 million for the proposed Marcy nanocenter site development, which also show up on the Senate list.

The Senate list includes sums as small as $500,000 for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Albany Medical Center and Albany College of Pharmacy, and as large as $12.5 million for a Hofstra University Medical School building.

The money is part of a total $1.2 billion in the budget for projects desired by the Senate and Assembly majorities and Gov. David Paterson.

Paterson has not revealed all his projects yet.

"This is basically capital pork," said E.J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy.

He said the money would be better used to shore up multibillion-dollar gaps in the state's plans for highways, bridges and mass transit.

The Senate set up money for several private companies.

GE would get $3 million for a digital medical X-ray equipment manufacturing plant, a project at the Rensselaer Technology Park touted by Bruno.

The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Buffalo would get a total of $1.7 million.

New Process Gear in Syracuse gets $5 million, on top of grants in previous years and $13 million from the Assembly.

Rochester Institute of Technology is in line for $10 million for its Golisano Institute for Sustainability.

Other businesses on the list include WNYC Public Radio, which is in line for $2 million for a state-of-the-art radio communications operation, and YMCA of Greater Rochester, which is to get $1.5 million.

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

"NY Gov Paterson in Manhattan hospital for migraine symptoms"

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press

Last updated: 11:13 a.m., Tuesday, May 20, 2008

NEW YORK -- Gov. David Paterson was taken to a hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday after experiencing migraine-like symptoms.

Preliminary tests were normal and he was to undergo more tests later in the day, his office said in a statement.

The governor, who turned 54 on Tuesday, asked to be brought to The Mount Sinai Medical Center for an evaluation early in the morning, according to the statement.

The hospital referred all comment on Paterson's condition to the governor's office, which had no immediate update.

Paterson's health has been a concern in recent years, with at least two hospitalizations.

In April 2006, when he was state Senate minority leader, Paterson was admitted to a hospital with chest pain and underwent a battery of tests, including a CT scan, cardiovascular stress test and echocardiogram.

The tests came back normal and he was released after about 12 hours.

At the time, a Paterson spokesman said he had no history of heart trouble.

A recreational basketball player who is legally blind, Paterson has run the New York City Marathon.

Last July, when he was lieutenant governor, Paterson fainted on an airplane on his way to Buffalo.

He was briefly hospitalized and the following day had an angiogram at Mount Sinai, which was normal.

Doctors said they found no evidence of heart disease.

Paterson, who resides in the governor's mansion several days a week with his wife, Michelle, also has homes in Harlem and the Albany suburb of Guilderland.

His Harlem apartment is not far from Mount Sinai, on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

He was in the city to speak at commencement ceremonies at Columbia University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1977.

He was to receive a medal of excellence but his office canceled the event.

Under the state constitution, New York was left without a lieutenant governor when Paterson, a Democrat, succeeded Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in March amid a prostitution scandal.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, is next in the line of succession and would be acting governor if Paterson were out of state or became incapacitated or died.

Voters won't pick a new lieutenant governor until the next gubernatorial election in 2010.

Paterson lost sight in his left eye and much of the sight in his right eye after an infection as an infant.

He can see shapes and usually recognizes people as they approach.

He can read for just a few minutes at a time, with the text held close to his face; usually his aides read to him.

At a bill signing last week, Paterson put his nose to the bill to find the right lines on which to sign.

BUT WHAT WILL DAVID PATERSON DO ABOUT CORRUPT CORPORATE DOCTORS WHO ARE PROTECTED BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK FOR THE "POLITICAL FAVORS" THEY CAN PROVIDE TO THE STATE'S POLITICIANS WHO WANT TO GET RID OF THEIR POLITICAL ENEMIES?

THAT IS WHAT WE ARE CURIOUS ABOUT ...

And so ...

"NY governor proposes stricter oversight of doctors, misconduct and infection control"

By VALERIE BAUMAN, Associated Press

Last updated: 12:12 a.m., Wednesday, May 14, 2008

ALBANY -- New Yorkers would be let in on the secret when their doctor is charged with misconduct under a proposal by New York Gov. David Paterson expected to be announced Wednesday.

The measure would end the protection for doctors against disclosure of the charges until a final determination is made.

Paterson is introducing a broad patient safety measure designed to tell the public more about everything from physician drug use to infectious disease risks.

It addresses concerns raised by past detractors, including a critical 2005 report from the New York Comptroller's Office that found the state could do much better at rooting out bad doctors.

"It signals that the health department is going to get tough on dangerous doctors," said Blair Horner, a spokesman for the New York Public Interest Research Group.

The proposal was partially prompted by Long Island anesthesiologist Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, who health officials said dipped syringes more than once into vials of medicine, contaminating the drugs and infecting at least one person with hepatitis.

The bill would give more power to the state Office of Professional Medical Conduct, which monitors and disciplines physicians.

"New York is in line with efforts of other states, and really trying to strengthen the information that comes to the office of professional medical conduct," said Lisa Robin, senior vice president of member services for the Federation of State Medical Boards.

"I know much of it reflects the Federation's policies, with increasing the reporting requirements."

Any professional discipline charges would be made public.

Right now the public isn't notified of physician misconduct unless and until the doctor is found guilty.

Charges are issued after an investigation is complete, which can take an average of about six months.

State law is currently silent about when officials can disclose charges of professional misconduct to the public, but attorneys for the state say legal precedent requires a legislative change before misconduct charges against a doctor can be released.

The comptroller's office found that the OPMC was thorough in its investigation of cases of potential misconduct, but wasn't proactively rooting it out.

Instead, the report said the OPMC relied primarily on referrals from outside sources -- which didn't always let them know about every instance of potential misconduct.

This has hindered the office's ability to protect consumers.

"Some of the older reporting and disciplinary things had more to do with hospitals," New York Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines said.

"Now we're carrying it into office-based surgery and office-based practices, so we have reporting and oversight."

Paterson's proposal would require the OPMC to continuously review medical malpractice claims reported to the Department of Health to identify potential misconduct and investigate those instances.

"These are common sense measures that I think most New Yorkers would be surprised aren't currently the law," Horner said.

"Sadly it's been a long time since anything serious has been done to improve patient protection in New York, and we think this is a good step in that direction."

Courts would also be required to report to OPMC any time a doctor was sentenced for misdemeanor or felony offenses.

Health officials say that right now they eventually find out about criminal sentences, but the bill would get them that information much faster.

Another major change would be that the proposal would also extend existing laws on infection control to keep up with the changing world of medically transmitted infections.

The infection-related aspects of the proposal were, in part, a reaction to Finkelstein's story.

The investigation was triggered in December 2004 when health officials in Nassau County found two of his patients had hepatitis C.

Since then, Finkelstein has said he corrected his method.

The state Health Department didn't determine until 2006 that it was necessary to notify thousands of Finkelstein's patients that they should be tested for HIV and hepatitis.

"Over the course of the last few months, in looking at the Finkelstein case, it has been determined that we need a more aggressive stance," said Joseph Baker III, assistant deputy secretary for Health and Human Services.

The comptroller's report had also raised concerns about how long it could take to investigate instances of potential misconduct.

Paterson's proposal would authorize the health commissioner to inform the public of health threats, despite the fact that the information would otherwise be considered confidential.

In cases of potential communicable disease threats, the commissioner would also be able to order doctors to 'cease and desist' performing specific procedures until the OPMC can hold a hearing.

"He wants to make sure the commissioner has all the tools and the powers at his disposal to protect the public health, and, while protecting the due process rights of doctors, making sure that doctors that commit misconduct are either properly retrained and, or taken out of the system -- if that's what needs to happen," Baker said.

Much of Paterson's bill is focused on speeding the state's response to public health threats and getting information to patients more quickly.

"While in many instances, yes, you can get a subpoena, you can get a court order -- there are ways to get things done -- we need to be able to act very swiftly," Daines said.

------

On the Net: http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/opmc/main.htm

http://www.nydoctorprofile.com/

"New York Legislature releasing details of capital 'pork' - NY Legislature details $750 million in capital 'pork' going back home this election year"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:33 p.m., Wednesday, May 14, 2008

ALBANY -- Senate and Assembly members will direct $750 million in pork-barrel spending for construction projects to recipients including colleges, downtown renewal programs and ethnic museums in their districts this election year.

Despite the $5 billion deficit and the prospect of $20 billion in deficits in the next three years, lawmakers contend the spending -- usually announced with much fanfare in their districts -- is essential for boosting the economy.

Among the projects Assembly members and senators found money for was $2 million for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center; $3.4 million split between a Buffalo hotel and a Syracuse hotel; and $500,000 for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

"What's wrong with this is the public has no way to evaluate what the benefits are," said Elizabeth Lynam of the Citizens Budget Commission, an independent fiscal watchdog of government.

"They tend to be for narrow constituent bands, yet they are being funded from taxpayer-paid coffers."

The Senate's Republican majority detailed nearly $218 million in spending, none of which will go to Democrats trying to take over the majority this fall.

Democratic Gov. David Paterson is expected to give Democratic senators some of his share of the $1.2 billion in capital spending approved in April.

The Assembly released details of their $243 million share in April.

The Senate's list of grants was released Tuesday evening.

The Assembly released an Internet link on April 9 in one of several press releases issued on the day the state budget was passed.

Paterson hasn't yet released his list.

"Making smart investments to New York's economy and capital infrastructure is a vital component of keeping our state vibrant and competitive in the global marketplace," said Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who has represented his district based in Rensselaer County since 1976.

Fiscal critics and good-government groups have long criticized such discretionary spending directed by individual lawmakers.

They say the projects chosen behind closed doors are funded based more on political need and a lawmaker's seniority than the need of communities.

The projects include more than $35 million for five State University of New York projects and several grants worth millions of dollars each for New York City museums and ethnic programs.

Among the spending:

--The Senate majority is providing more than $7 million to colleges, an airport and for development of a county industrial park in the district served by Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

That includes $4 million to his alma mater, Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs.

--The Senate also provided more than $35 million to Long Island projects, including waterfront development; a medical school building at Hofstra University; and for a high-tech "innovation center."

Long Island has long been a Senate Republicans' stronghold.

--The Assembly's grants include $15 million to the Queens Museum of Art, $10 million to the Coney Island Boardwalk, $2 million to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and $25 million for the University at Rochester's Clinical and Translational Sciences Building.

The Assembly Democrats' strength is in New York City and upstate's biggest cities.

--The Assembly provided $2 million to WNYC National Public Radio in New York City and $750,000 for Millennium High School in Manhattan, an innovative public school that allows for less formal learning in small groups rather than traditional classrooms.

------

On the Net:

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

(see "Senate reports")

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

(see "What's New" for April 9 press releases)

"Analysis: Paterson says he'll square off with unions - David, the governor, faces twin Goliaths of public labor and the Legislature"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 2:22 p.m., Saturday, May 17, 2008

ALBANY -- New York Gov. David Paterson is taking on the fight of his political life.

He's promising to stand up to public worker unions in Albany, where their hundreds of thousands of votes and millions of dollars donated to campaigns and spent on lobbyists have given them unmatched power.

The question now is not just whether Paterson is up to the challenge, but whether it's too late.

"It can't be business as usual," Paterson said Thursday in casting doubt on unions' effort to boost benefits through the Legislature.

"This is not the time to sweeten the pot because we're about to lose the whole pot."

It was a reference to what Paterson calls "the terrible truth" of New York's fiscal health.

That includes locked-in benefits and other spending in state budgets over the last several years that prompt his projection of $21 billion in budget gaps over the next three years.

Even in a cynical place like Albany, where governors for years have made other dire predictions only to embrace bloated budgets as good compromises, Paterson is raising expectations.

On Thursday, Paterson appeared to side with fiscally tight New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg who is opposing a union lobbying effort to provide a second chance for employees to buy into a lucrative early retirement plan.

Bloomberg says it would cost the city $200 million, an estimate disputed by lawmakers and union leaders.

Now, Paterson is facing his own tests.

The Democrat is starting to see the annual string of pro-labor measures to improve pension and other benefits for unionized public workers and retirees.

Those efforts have passed with overwhelming or unanimous support in the Legislature, only to be vetoed by former governors George Pataki and Eliot Spitzer.

But Paterson, in office just three months after 20 years in the Senate's Democratic minority where he benefited from the bales of campaign contributions spread about by unions, lacks the public mandate of those who were elected to the office.

And he lacks Bloomberg's billions that would help him fight off the kind of nasty union TV ad campaign that hurt Spitzer early in his brief time in office.

Paterson, who rose from lieutenant governor when Spitzer resigned March 17 over a prostitution investigation, has also sought to rebuild bridges between the executive and legislative branches.

That, however, can be seen as a sign of weakness in the Capitol's brand of power politics.

So far, his record is mixed.

Despite forecasting a falling sky in March, he eventually supported an even greater increase in the record amount of school aid.

He also allowed the teachers' unions to attach a measure that will make it easier to get tenure, although in a slightly weakened form.

The measure prohibits school districts from using student performance on standardized tests as a measure of whether a teacher should get tenure, which provides almost lifelong job security.

But more recently, Paterson angered the United University Professions union, part of the powerful New York State United Teachers union, by giving the State University of New York about $140 million less of an increase than was sought.

University workers rallied outside the Capitol chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, SUNY cuts have got to go."

They said the cut put SUNY on the road to being "dismantled."

But as with most lobbyists and activists in Albany, the demonstrators had a better sense of outrage than math.

Paterson didn't "cut" SUNY funding, which will still increase by $20 million to $4.53 billion.

That doesn't include the $3.75 billion more in capital funding and another $6 billion in capital cash committed for coming years.

And Paterson plans more as he commits to fulfilling Spitzer's promise to bring SUNY to the national fore in higher education.

The "cut" to which the unions referred was the 3.5 percent spending reduction Paterson is requiring of all agencies as revenues decline.

He said the 2009-10 budget must result in a true cut of 5 percent to 10 percent.

Paterson has another test headed his way.

The Legislature will soon send to his desk a bill that would prohibit state and local governments from trying to change generous health benefits provided to retirees.

That would take the costly item off the table in collective bargaining for at least a year while a panel considers the future of health care for retirees.

That panel, created by the Legislature, is heavily represented by labor, whose members could eventually collect the benefit.

There are no seats on the panel for representatives of local government.

So the accidental governor's trial by fire will get hotter in June, because these measures are often slipped into the final, late hours of the legislative session when few are watching.

Paterson so far hasn't let up on legislators, who would rather not be known as the people who have been raising your taxes, in one form or another, for years.

That's the cycle Paterson said he must end, this "trying to cut the same the same piece out of the pie."

"They don't understand," he said, "that there is no pie."

------

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.

"Paterson says he wouldn't pick NYRA"

Associated Press

Last updated: 6:42 p.m., Wednesday, May 28, 2008

ALBANY -- New York Gov. David Paterson says he doesn't think the New York Racing Association deserves to run thoroughbred racing, but he won't try to stop NYRA's latest franchise struck with former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The charge comes as Belmont Park, run by NYRA, prepares for the Belmont Stakes on June 7, which could see Big Brown become the winner of the Triple Crown.

Paterson says NYRA's past -- filled with state and federal investigations into corruption charges and the private group's recent stay in bankruptcy court -- show it doesn't deserve the 25-year extension.

NYRA won that in February along with a $105 million state bailout.

But Paterson says an agreement by state government should be honored even with a change in governors.

NYRA has operated Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga race tracks since 1955.

"NY attorney general: E-ZPass perks 'illegal'"

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:32 p.m., Wednesday, May 28, 2008

NEW YORK -- Board members of the state's Thruway Authority on Wednesday agreed to stop using the free E-ZPass vehicle tags that exempt them from paying tolls on New York's highways.

The decision came after a push by State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to end such travel perks -- a decades-long tradition at many public agencies.

Cuomo also demanded that members of the board of New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority do the same.

The Daily News revealed on Tuesday that about 60 past and present MTA board members -- many of them multimillionaires -- had gotten the free tags for life.

Among them is former MTA Chairman Peter S. Kalikow, who owns dozens of cars and reportedly has eight tags.

Board members serve the public "without salary or other compensation," according to state legislation that created both the MTA and the Thruway Authority.

Therefore, Cuomo's office warned, compensation in the form of an E-ZPass is "illegal."

Cuomo aide Benjamin Lawsky said in a letter to the MTA that the agency "should immediately terminate and rescind all free E-ZPass tags it has provided to its current and past board members," adding, "If the MTA wants to say thank you, maybe they should give flowers and some chocolates to board members, not an E-ZPass worth many thousands of dollars."

The authority's chairman, H. Dale Hemmerdinger, said Wednesday after a meeting of the MTA board that the practice has never been questioned, The New York Times reported.

But given the attorney general's position, he said, the MTA will ask a court to determine whether the E-ZPass perk constitutes compensation.

MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said he could not immediately confirm Hemmerdinger's statement.

Agency officials said they would release a statement later Wednesday.

Lawsky also cited a 2007 legal opinion by the attorney general's office that two upstate public authorities had wrongly provided free health care benefits to board members.

More than 100 agencies were told to stop such payments, among them the MTA, where four board members paid minimum health insurance premiums while the agency paid the balance.

The MTA stopped paying the premiums.

The MTA is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in New York, serving millions who use the region's bridges, tunnels, subways, railways and buses.

In a tight economy, with the toll for the George Washington Bridge that links New York City to New Jersey costing $8, the Thruway Authority will no longer provide the freebie passes to any current or former board members, Thruway Authority spokeswoman Sarah Kampf said in a statement.

Seven such accounts had existed, she said.

Gov. David Paterson said he was unsure whether Cuomo's opinion is correct.

"We are actually checking that to see who is right," the governor said in a statement.

"And if the attorney general is right, there will be a response."

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Westchester, a frequent MTA critic, said it doesn't matter to him "whether it's legal or illegal."

"It matters that it's dopey."

He elaborated: "They're going to be coming to us with fare increases and toll increases and tax increases and a capital plan, and this is the fight they're picking before they do that?"

DAVID PATERSON COMES ACROSS AS A VERY WEAK AND INEFFECTUAL GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ...

"Paterson still has test to pass"

By FRED LeBRUN, staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, May 25, 2008

David Paterson has been our esteemed governor now for three months, and it's time to start asking that one hard question.

Granted, he swept into office unexpectedly and at the 11th hour in the state budget-making process, under shocking circumstances and with virtually no preparation, agenda or even much of a clue.

Regardless, this is New York, and the state motto is adapt or die.

Or at least it should be.

So.

Is Paterson up to the job?

Thus far the answer is yes and no, and more no than yes.

He's certainly a quantum leap ahead of his predecessor in terms of winning personality and style.

The current governor is witty, self-deprecating, collegial, warm and friendly, and gets along great with friend and foe.

He knows how to get even disagreeable sorts to work together.

Effective governance is always a matter of compromise and consensus, a fundamental Eliot Spitzer chose to deny.

Paterson is a master at it, and so his ability to get things done is far greater than Spitzer's and not to be minimized.

But his advantage in style, in this instance, is merely potential in a bottle.

On substance, he is so far a disappointment.

Paterson has quietly let Spitzer's entirely laudable reform goals and agenda slip into oblivion with hardly a nod.

If anything, he's taken a strong step backward by embracing the outrageous pre-Spitzer campaign contribution limit of $55,000 per person.

That clearly marks him as a dear friend of special interests.

It may be true that Spitzer's personal limit of $10,000 per contribution was a joke because he was at the same time advocating bundling that netted many times that from contributors.

Still, the symbolic value of self-imposed limits was bringing badly needed pressure for change.

Paterson, who's already declared he'll run for his own full term the next time around, is sending a strange message in that he seems to be more concerned with getting re-elected than advancing a public policy agenda, which he has so far failed to do.

According to a Siena poll made public last week, 35 percent of New Yorkers still don't know what to make of David Paterson.

I suspect that is a view shared by at least an equal percentage of those in government and politics who work with and around his evolving administration.

"David Paterson," wryly observed one lobster-backed Capitol veteran who's seen a lot of governors and administrations come and go, "is a nice guy."

The individual did not elaborate, which is damning with faint praise indeed.

Paterson hasn't advanced much of an agenda, and he has not stuck his neck out for any particular issue or bill that would help to define what he expects, or what he won't tolerate.

Although there are two issues on the immediate horizon that should have an enormous impact on how the public perceives him and go a long way to answering the very real questions in the air at the moment over his leadership abilities: economic development and tax reform.

The most anticipated report of this political season is the one by the Commission on Property Tax Relief, chaired by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, which will offer a plan to cap local property taxes.

It was due to be made public last week but won't come out until June.

The issue is a live grenade politically.

Suozzi has already forecast to some extent the punch that's coming.

We can expect recommendations that will include an actual cap on property taxes, a "circuit breaker" that is triggered when taxes exceed a certain percentage of a person's income, and relief from state mandates for local governments.

All of these recommendations will come with a price that has to be paid from another source.

As other states have shown us, a tax cap offers no guarantee of much actual relief.

But the public is being encouraged to clamor for it, just as the teachers unions are gearing themselves to fight it hard.

The unions see the tax cap as an infringement on local control and financing of school districts, and there are plenty of examples from around the country to prove the point.

So which way will the governor go, and how strongly?

His leadership will make all the difference in how we define property tax relief in this state.

Just as the lack of leadership will be quite apparent as well.

This is one he can't duck.

Upstate development got a genuine burst of inspiration when Eliot Spitzer appointed Dan Gundersen as upstate economic development czar, and pledged $1 billion just for upstate-identified projects.

Paterson is on the cusp of undercutting significant upstate progress by reverting to a downstate-oriented Empire State Development Corp.

Already the $1 billion pledged upstate has eroded to $700 million.

Losing Buffalo-based Dan Gundersen and upstate decision-making for upstate problems would be disastrous, in short order.

Regrettably it seems Paterson is orienting himself to what he knows, downstate, and he's got to fight that.

Again, it's a matter of sending the wrong message, which is just as tangible and important as style and substance in getting the job done -- and therefore getting re-elected.

Fred LeBrun can be reached at 454-5453 or by e-mail at flebrun@timesunion.com.

Paterson Faces Suit Over Order On Marriage.

ALBANY — An Arizona-based conservative Christian group said on Friday that it planned to sue Gov. David A. Paterson to block his directive to state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed outside New York.

Brian Raum, the senior legal counsel for the group, the Alliance Defense Fund, said that it would file a lawsuit next week claiming that Mr. Paterson’s order sidestepped the Legislature.

The Alliance, which was founded by the Rev. James C. Dobson and others, has been active in efforts in other states to limit marriage to heterosexuals.

“This is directly the province of the Legislature,” Mr. Raum said. “The Court of Appeals said marriage in New York is one man, one woman. And if that’s going to change, it has to come from the Legislature. What Paterson is doing is circumventing that process.”

Through his chief spokeswoman, Mr. Paterson declined comment. The governor said this week that his directive was intended to bring state agencies into compliance with an appellate court ruling in February that said New York must recognize same-sex marriages that have been performed outside the state.

Also on Friday, Senate Republicans in Albany were trying to decide how to respond to the governor’s directive. The majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, a Republican, said in a radio interview on Friday that he hoped to have an answer from his counsel by next week about whether they could take the governor to court.

At the same time, Mr. Bruno conceded that any legislative action the Republican-led Senate might take would be largely symbolic because such a measure was almost certain to fail in the Assembly, which has supported same-sex marriage.

Mr. Bruno ruled out moving a bill to make a political statement. “We’re not committing because we’re waiting to see how the rest of this plays out,” he said. “The bottom line is, whatever we do, the Assembly won’t join us. The Democrats control the Assembly.”

The Assembly overwhelmingly passed a bill last summer to allow same-sex marriages, but Senate Republicans have refused to bring the bill to a vote.

Mr. Bruno said the basis for any legal battle would be an argument that the governor’s directive violated the doctrine on the separation of powers. The directive, written by the governor’s legal counsel, David M. Nocenti, asked all state agencies to revise their policies to conform to the appeals court ruling and to report back to Mr. Nocenti by June 30. “It’s the executive taking legislative powers away,” Mr. Bruno said on WGDJ-AM (Talk 1300), a radio station in Albany. “If there’s going to be a court battle, that’s what it’ll be over, not the issue itself.”

He said the Senate Republicans are not opposed to gay rights. “I don’t care whether they’re gay, black, white, Oriental, whatever. Equal justice. That’s what it’s all about,” Mr. Bruno said.

"Paterson mailing called 'mistake' - Event governor's wife sent invitations to on state letterhead canceled"

By IRENE JAY LIU, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, May 31, 2008

ALBANY -- First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson stumbled in her first foray into the fight for the Senate majority, mixing politics and governance by putting a fundraiser invitation on state letterhead.

Paige Paterson was scheduled to headline a June 24 Manhattan fundraiser for Democratic Senate candidate and family friend Don Barber, who is running against Sen. James Seward in the 51st Senate District.

Barber is currently Caroline Town Supervisor in Tompkins County, a businessman, and a farmer.

In the invitation, Paige Paterson said, in part:

"This is the kind of leadership we need in New York."

"I know you will agree with me that our 'blue' state should be led by a Democratic Senate, and Don's campaign will help us achieve that goal."

Printing the invitation on state letterhead was "absolutely something that should not have happened."

"And the event has been canceled," said Erin Duggan, a spokeswoman for Gov. David Paterson.

"It was an honest mistake," she added.

According to Duggan, the Barber campaign had asked Paige Paterson to do a letter for the event, and then called the office for a sheet of state stationary.

A junior staffer unwittingly complied, and the campaign printed copies of the letter on its own, so no state resources were used except the one sheet of paper.

Still, Duggan emphasized it should not have happened.

"We hold the first lady's office to similar standards as the governor's office even though she's not a state employee or an elected official."

The event will be rescheduled, and new invitations will be printed.

Besides the issue of the state letterhead, the invitation is notable in its overtly political tone.

So far, Paterson has stayed out of the public fight for the Senate, in which Republicans are defending their 32-30 majority.

But it isn't clear whether that will continue once the legislative session is over.

Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno heralded Paterson's understanding of "partnership" and said that Paterson "gets pressure to be more political as the leader of the party."

The Barber event, had it gone forward, would have included on its attendee list state Democratic Chair June O'Neill, Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, and a number of Democratic senators.

While the Barber race is not currently considered in the top tier of competitive Senate races, the attendee list indicates there is high-level party interest in it.

Irene Jay Liu can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at iliu@timesunion.com.

"Much ado, little accomplished on state issues - New governor, Senate spar as session nears end with important issues unresolved"

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

First published: Monday, June 2, 2008

ALBANY -- It took two months, but Gov. David Paterson's honeymoon with the Legislature started winding down last week -- just in time for the usual end-of-session frenzy.

On Wednesday, after he was criticized in the press for touting things like cheaper copier paper as budget reduction measures, Paterson was taking heat for what was arguably his boldest move so far: directing state agencies to recognize gay marriages performed in other states.

Republicans promptly broke their 2-month-old detente and suggested they might sue.

At a news conference Thursday, Paterson turned aggressive:

"And for those busy legislators who think I'm making an end-around, maybe they should go to the Legislature and actually do something."

It was a departure from the humorous, conciliatory tone Paterson had set after taking over for Eliot Spitzer, who battled relentlessly with Senate Republicans.

With 12 days left in this year's session, it should come as no surprise that relations are getting testy.

It's the time of year when politicians tend to spar more as they jockey for position in the usual end-of-session negotiations.

And it's the time when interest groups typically bemoan the lack of progress.

So far, the governor and lawmakers have little to show in the face of vast challenges: rising gas prices, complaints about sky-high property taxes, and Paterson's warning of billions of dollars in deficits starting next year.

But this year state government may be on the verge of a replay of the early 1990s when a recession prompted then-Gov. Mario M. Cuomo to make midyear budget cuts.

"We're watching the money not come in," said Sen. Efrain Gonzalez, D-Bronx.

After being thrust into the job in late March after Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal, Paterson admits he's had a steep learning curve.

As lieutenant governor, Paterson focused on four areas: energy policy, stem cell research, domestic violence prevention and promoting businesses owned by women and minorities.

Now, he's got dozens of balls in the air.

That's literally given the governor a headache.

Legally blind, with only limited vision in one eye, Paterson has to hold documents an inch or less from his face to read them.

All the additional reading of briefing documents, he believes, led to his brief hospitalization and surgery earlier in the month for glaucoma, which initially hit him like a bad migraine.

"The concentration that I had to make to make this adjustment, it sometimes feels overwhelming," Paterson said.

Amid that backdrop, lawmakers suggest this year won't be known for groundbreaking legislation.

Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari, D-Cohoes, last month quipped that the session "started with a bang," but added, "Let's end with a whimper and get out of town."

"Understandably, everybody gets a pass," said Michael Tobman, a New York City-based lobbyist.

So far, this year has been marked not by legislative successes but by ideas that have died in the Assembly or Senate.

Those include a congestion pricing fee to relieve traffic in midtown Manhattan and a short-lived idea to tie teacher tenure decisions to student test performance.

As for the reform platform on which Spitzer and Paterson rode into office, talk of changing campaign finance and ethics laws now is almost nonexistent.

Other areas of inaction include:

Property taxes: Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, appointed by Spitzer to study the issue, is expected next week to call for a tax cap similar to those in other states, and property tax breaks based on income.

But a cap is opposed by the powerful New York State United Teachers, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has said he's unlikely to look at one this year.

Economic development: A number of initiatives, including improvements in the way industrial development agencies use tax breaks to foster new business and revision of brownfield laws, are stalled.

On brownfields, for instance, the state has basically frozen funding on new cleanups of former industrial sites since last winter, when critics said the major tax breaks were going to lavish hotel developments in Westchester and New York City rather than depressed areas like Buffalo.

Some lawmakers believe the brownfields issue could be easily fixed if leaders and the governor were to hash it out.

"This is low-hanging fruit," said Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo.

Energy plants: Regulations that streamline the process of siting of new power plants expired in 2003 and have yet to be renewed, even as the state's energy demands increase.

Pay hikes: Judges, commissioners, lawmakers and statewide elected officials including the governor have gone without raises since 1999.

The judiciary is particularly vocal.

Gambling: Still on hold are the development rights at Aqueduct race track and averting the closure of New York City's OTB.

Ultimately, this year may be better remembered for its scandals -- a growing investigation into public pension abuses, an inquiry into the State Police and, of course, Spitzer's exit.

Andrew Stengel, director of national election advocacy for the Brennan Center for Justice, which has called the Legislature the nation's most dysfunctional, said it's business as usual.

"This legislative session isn't surprising; ... the Assembly and the Senate have acted in a way that is unaccessible, unaccountable, not deliberative," he said.

"A lot of this is a function of the culture of the Legislature."

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

Gov. Paterson Introduces Campaign Finance Bill

Paterson proposes campaign finance bill
By VALERIE BAUMAN | Associated Press Writer
June 4, 2008

ALBANY, N.Y. - Gov. David Paterson introduced a proposal for campaign finance reform Wednesday, but good government groups doubted it would pass in the final days of the Legislative session.

Paterson's measure would lower contribution limits and close a loophole allowing limited liability companies to contribute far more than individual companies. It would also give the state Board of Elections more enforcement power, and would add a fifth member to the board to eliminate the gridlock of an even political split.

"Too often, decisions in Albany are shaped by wealthy donors and special interests," Paterson said in a written statement. "We need to change that and restore New Yorkers' confidence in how Albany does business."

At the same time Paterson released his proposal, reform groups released a "report card" objecting to what they described as broken promises by the Legislature and the governor.

The groups praised some government efforts, including ethics reform in 2007 that toughened penalties and lobbying reform that strengthened the ban on gifts to legislators.

But they had other complaints, including a lack of campaign finance reform and the elimination of the Lobbying Commission, which had its responsibility transferred to the Commission on Public Integrity.

"We are working on a comprehensive package of campaign finance reform legislation," said Dan Weiller, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Mark Hansen, a spokesman for Senate majority Leader Joseph Bruno, said the Senate has been working on reforms.

"Families in New York want reforms that will help their wallets and pocketbooks and help them keep their jobs," he said. "New Yorkers want reforms that the Senate majority is pushing for, such as more property tax relief, more openness and accountability on school district spending, a cap on spending by state government and suspending the gas tax to provide relief at the pump."

Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group said with only nine days left in the legislative session, lawmakers should be passing reform legislation instead of introducing new bills.

"The sweeping reform that was promised in November 2006 has simply not occurred," he said.

NYPIRG and other groups didn't have sympathy for Paterson's unusual position of becoming governor in March after former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was linked to a prostitution ring and resigned.

"The advocacy groups would be far better served by getting their members and New Yorkers across the state to rally behind the governor's bold package, and help the governor get this bill passed by both houses, so that he can sign it into law," said Risa Heller, a Paterson spokeswoman. "One thing is for certain, constant naysaying will not lead to progress."

Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters said politicians sometimes introduce "bills to cover their butts" at the end of session.

"This obviously has been an atypical legislative session year," Weiller said. "On the question of waiting until the end of session, it would be inaccurate to suggest that legislation introduced in June is not good, or doesn't effectively address issues of importance to the people of the state of New York."

"Paterson tightens standards for use of consultants"

Associated Press

Last updated: 3:42 p.m., Friday, June 6, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson is ordering state agencies to watch their spending when they choose to give work to a private consultant instead of a state worker.

The executive order only lets agencies use consultants when it's the most efficient or cost-effective option.

Unions sought the move to protect the state employees who make up their membership.

It's not uncommon for agencies to hire professional consultants, often engineers.

Paterson's executive order creates a task force to track contracts worth more than $1 million per year.

Agencies who contract with consultants will have to explain to the task force within 10 days why they didn't use state employees.

The Division of the Budget projects the state will spend more than $800 million on consultants in 2008-2009.

WE HAVE A CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST OCCURRING HERE UNDER DEMOCRAT DAVID PATERSON, IT CERTAINLY DOES SEEM ...

HANDING CONTROL OF OUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OVER TO A BANKER WHO CAN PROFIT FROM HIS INVOLVEMENT HERE AS CEO OF M&T BANK ...

A BANKER WHO ALSO HAS A POTENTIAL FOR CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST DUE TO HIS POSITION ON THE BOARD OF THE NEW YORK STATE BUSINESS COUNCIL, WHICH IS A LOBBY GROUP FOR BUSINESSES IN NYS ...

And so ...

"'New sheriff' for state's economy - Governor taps M&T Bank CEO to lead economic development agency"

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

First published: Friday, June 6, 2008

ALBANY -- Robert G. Wilmers, the head of M&T Bank, was tapped to be the unpaid chairman of Empire State Development Corp. on Thursday, Gov. David Paterson announced.

The unpaid nature of the state job will allow the 74-year-old chairman and chief executive officer of the $66 billion-asset M&T to keep his $925,000 job there.

Wilmers is charged with finding upstate and downstate directors to team together under him at ESDC, Paterson's office said.

Wilmers joined Paterson in Rochester in a public appearance, noting that he has been a constant critic of the lack of success in improving the upstate economy.

"Gov. Paterson determined that the best way to shut me up was to give me this job," he joked.

ESDC has lost its three top officers in recent weeks as Paterson overhauls the structure and management.

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's hand-picked leaders resigned as Paterson dismantled Spitzer's system of two paid chairmen, one for upstate and one for downstate.

Just a few hours before Wilmers was selected for chairman, Dan Gundersen, the lone remaining ESDC leader, revealed he was stepping down.

Gundersen served as upstate chairman while Patrick Foye, who resigned earlier, focused on downstate.

Government insiders said the arrangement caused inefficiencies and competition for staff attention.

"We can drive the economies of upstate and downstate with a single plan," said Paterson.

"There's a new sheriff in town and I'm going to insist on it."

"For too long our economic development has been thought to be politically motivated, patronized often with poor judgment and often with too much cronyism," he said.

"That is going to stop on a permanent basis."

Wilmers praised Paterson as the "Dewitt Clinton of the 21st Century," the former governor who is credited with developing the Erie Canal.

A resident of both Buffalo and Manhattan, Wilmers made the Forbes list last year of top paid CEOs, with $10.45 million in total compensation, most of that from stock gains from M&T options.

M&T Securities had been listed by ESDC in an Empire Zone report as a company that had not lived up to its commitments, but officials with Paterson and the company described that as an error Thursday.

Economic development professionals applauded Wilmers' appointment.

"Wilmers has been a passionate advocate for upstate New York over the last two decades," said Brian McMahon, executive director of the New York State Economic Development Council, which represents economic development professionals.

"He's from New York City."

"He has done business throughout New York state because his bank is throughout the state."

"He is an outstanding choice."

McMahon added that "Upstate New York is going to miss Dan Gundersen."

"He was a tremendous asset."

Gundersen drew criticism from several lawmakers for setting up a residence in Saratoga Springs even though he was hired to work from the Buffalo-based upstate headquarters of ESDC.

He ended up moving to Buffalo and giving himself a pay raise of $27,500 for a salary of $187,500.

He could not be reached for comment.

"I can't find a finer public servant in New York State than Dan Gundersen."

"He hit the ground running and served admirably the people of New York," said Assembly Economic Development Committee Chairman Robin Schimminger, D-Kenmore.

"I've know Bob Wilmers since he arrived in Buffalo many years ago."

"... He will be an excellent addition to the Paterson team."

Wilmers' post requires Senate confirmation.

Paterson is looking for the appointment to take effect July 12.

Wilmers is a member of the board of the Business Council of New York State.

He also served as chairman of the New York Bankers Association in 2002 and was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1993 to 1998.

"We were concerned that the drift would be back to where we were before (Spitzer): for upstate to be involved in economic development, we would have to go through Manhattan," said Larry Brinker, government relations director for the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce and a member of Unshackle Upstate.

"By appointing Mr. Wilmers, we in upstate have a strong voice."

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

AND IT STILL IS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED, AND PATRONIZED WITH POOR JUDGMENT AND TOO MUCH CRONYISM ...

JUST THAT IT IS DAVID PATERSON'S POOR JUDGMENT NOW THAT RULES ...

THE POLITICAL MOTIVATION IS TO GAIN DAVID PATERSON CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS ...

SO THE CRONYS ARE NOW HIS ...

WE HAVE GONE FROM HAVING A PROSITUTE-USING PETTY TYRANT FOR A GOVERNOR HERE IN NYS TO HAVING WHAT APPEARS TO BE NOTHING MORE THAN A WEAK, BLIND FOOL WHO IS BEHOLDEN TO SPECIAL INTERESTS WHO THINKS OUR STATE TAX DOLLARS BELONG TO HIM TO HAND OUT TO SPECIAL INTERESTS AS HE CHOOSES, AND PROVISIONS OF OUR STATE CONSTITUTION TO THE CONTRARY BE DAMNED ....

"Governor supports cleaner coal plant in Chautauqua County"

By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:52 p.m., Tuesday, June 10, 2008

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Gov. David Paterson on Tuesday promised up to $6 million of state funding toward the development of a new kind of coal-fired power plant in Chautauqua County.

The Jamestown plant would serve as a demonstration facility for an emerging technology that captures carbon dioxide emissions and sequesters the heat-trapping gas underground and out of the atmosphere.

"There is no silver bullet to solving the twin threats of climate change and growing energy demand, and New York should have a comprehensive strategy to address both," said Paterson, who visited the Jamestown site Tuesday.

Paterson committed up to $6 million to a coalition researching the project.

The Oxy-Coal Alliance, made up of Praxair, Dresser-Rand, Ecology & Environment, Foster Wheeler, Battelle Labs, the University at Buffalo and AES Corp., is seeking additional funding through federal grants.

"This is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate new, world-class technology right in our own community," Charles McConnell, a Praxair vice president said.

"Demonstration projects are fundamental to building a road map to commercial implementation of carbon dioxide capture technology in the future."

The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities has been planning a new municipal plant since 2003.

The idea of making it a demonstration project for carbon sequestration emerged last July in response to environmental concerns.

The project has the potential to remove more than 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, BPU officials said.

"The BPU has been committed to developing a plan to replace our aging plant facilities in a way that would meet or exceed environmental restrictions, striving for carbon neutral or negative emissions," BPU Chairman John Zabrodsky said.

Several environmental groups, however, say Jamestown does not need another plant to replace one being shut down which supplies about 20 percent of customers' electricity.

They say the city's needs could be met more cleanly and less expensively by a combination of energy efficiency and renewable energy development.

In a statement, opponents including the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, New York Public Interest Research Group and the Atlantic chapter of the Sierra Club, also criticized Paterson for investing state money in "unproven technology during a time of fiscal crisis" and for doing so before the completion of environmental studies.

"This power plant is ill-advised from both environmental and economic points of view and does not deserve to go forward," said Walter Simpson, co-founder of the Western New York Climate Action Coalition.

Opponents said the cost of the carbon capture and storage technology would increase the cost of electricity produced by the plant by as much as 40 percent.

One thing the state hopes to determine with the project is whether sequestration works in New York's geology, particularly upstate where it is considered favorable.

The carbon dioxide can be sequestered 3,000 to 5,000 feet below the ground, beneath a layer of solid cap rock.

Researchers on the Jamestown project also will explore ways to reuse carbon dioxide.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the state investment, saying the project "propels Jamestown and upstate to the forefront of energy innovation when the sky-high price of oil shows we must diversity our energy supply."

Several conditions must be met before the project can go forward, including the establishment of a sequestration site.

Also, the state must enact legislation authorizing the siting of a carbon capture and sequestration facility in New York.

A working group of scientists and other experts will help guide the legislation.

The project, which could be operational in 2013, would create about 28 new jobs, retain 33 others and create 525 temporary construction jobs.

DAVID PATERSON IS TOO WEAK TO STAND UP TO THE SPECIAL INTERESTS IN ALBANY ...

DAVID PATERSON IS TOO WEAK TO STAND UP FOR THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK STATE ...

DAVID PATERSON IS AFRAID OF THE SPECIAL INTERESTS ....

DAVID PATERSON IS SIMPLY THE WRONG MAN FOR THE TIMES IN NEW YORK STATE ...

And so ...

"Union foes killing property tax cap in NY Legislature"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:12 p.m., Tuesday, June 10, 2008

ALBANY -- A proposed property tax cap supported by Gov. David Paterson, his expert tax-relief commission, and 72 percent of New Yorkers isn't likely to even reach the floor of the Legislature this session.

Powerful labor unions joined New York's teachers' unions lobbying lawmakers Tuesday to kill the proposal, which would limit the growth of local property taxes to about 4 percent a year.

School officials, education advocates and union leaders argued the cap would hurt classroom instruction and slow some recent progress improving student performance.

They said a limit would be especially difficult in a time of rising costs for fuel, health care and pension costs.

But Paterson's commission found 71 percent of a district's budget goes to salaries and benefits, mostly for unionized workers, and that despite record state aid -- nearly $1.8 billion this year alone -- property taxes continue to rise.

They are now the country's highest at 79 percent above the national average.

Lawmakers facing an election year have little interest in crossing Albany's powerful labor groups, which spend millions of dollars a year in campaign contributions, political support and lobbying.

And neither Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno nor Sheldon Silver, the Democratic speaker in the Assembly, has supported Paterson's plan.

"We agree that something has to be done," said David Albert of the state School Boards Association, which opposed the measure Tuesday.

"We have to be responsible to the electorate, but at the same time, we have to make sure we provide a sound education."

"People are willing to pay more in taxes for good quality schools," he said.

The association estimates 75 percent of the cost of local and state school funding goes to salaries and benefits.

The association's 2007-08 survey of most districts finds the typical mid-career teacher, with a master's degree and 10 years experience, is paid an average of $55,670.

The average superintendent in the state makes $158,883.

Teachers' salaries are rising about 4 percent a year, according to the association's annual survey.

And most districts now require employees to contribute to their health insurance coverage, Albert said.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said New York's mean annual wage for a high school teacher is $64,020, tops among all states.

When asked Tuesday about the proposed limit, Bruno listed several other measures he supports ahead of a cap.

But none of those have much of a chance in the Assembly under Silver, who is also not supporting Paterson's proposal.

Paterson's bill, released last week, hasn't even been introduced into the session, which ends June 23.

"It might not be introduced," said NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin.

"It's not having a lot of success at this point."

But Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, who headed Paterson's property tax committee, was still meeting with lawmakers Tuesday.

He said that after years of rising taxes, the time for a cap is now because it has the backing of a thorough report, the governor and angry taxpayers.

He noted a Siena College poll in January that found 72 percent of New Yorkers supported a property tax cap.

"This is something that voters are very angry about," Suozzi said, noting that property taxes are driving away employers and young New Yorkers.

He said the decade-old STAR program, which has grown to provide $5 billion in state subsidies annually to school districts, has resulted only in continued tax growth and spending beyond inflation.

When it was created, the Legislature beat back Gov. George Pataki's attempt to include a tax cap.

But on Tuesday, Suozzi was alone following the appearances by NYSUT, the school boards association, the state Parent Teachers Associations, other school, labor and the political groups with which they have long been allied.

The groups want measures other than a cap, including more state funding and a "circuit breaker" that would direct more taxpayer relief to the neediest taxpayers under established programs, including STAR.

"I think that the people who are lining up against the property tax cap are people who have grown accustomed to the status quo," Suozzi said.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

IS NYS GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON JUST A LUMP OF MALLEABLE PUTTY IN THE HANDS OF THE POWERFUL SPECIAL INTERESTS PROMOTING GAMBLING IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK FOR THEIR BENEFIT?

IS HE LOOKING TO CONSOLIDATE HIS GRIP ON CORRUPTION IN NYS AS HIS PREDECESSOR ELIOT "I LIKE YOUNG PROSTITUTES" SPITZER WAS TRYING TO DO?

STAY TUNED ...

"Shakeup of racing board in works - Governor Paterson planning to appoint pro-casino senator as chairman of regulatory panel"

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

First published: Saturday, June 14, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson on Friday announced intentions to appoint his own chairman of the Racing & Wagering Board, a pro-casino Democratic senator who likely will lead a shakeup among the executive staff of the Schenectady-based regulatory agency.

Sen. John Sabini, D-Queens, a bettor well-acquainted with tracks and casinos across the country, was nominated for a six-year appointment to the post now held by Dan Hogan, an appointee of Gov. George Pataki.

Sabini, if confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, would have to stop betting at tracks and gambling halls in New York.

He has been the ranking Democrat on the Senate Racing & Racing Committee and is well versed on racing and gambling issues.

He has been looked to as a key resource within the minority conference, said Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan.

Yet he has been facing an uphill battle to win re-election, largely because his Queens Democratic Party has endorsed rival Hiram Monseratte, a Hispanic former cop who lost to Sabini in a close race two years ago in a district with an increasing Latino enrollment.

Sabini would take the post of Commissioner Michael Hoblock, the former Republican senator from Colonie, who has been continuing to serve as commissioner since his term expired Feb. 1, according to Paterson's aides.

Hogan would remain on the commission.

Hoblock is also the former chairman of the commission who refused to step down when directed to by Pataki.

The current chairman, Hogan, has about four more years on his term remaining.

Commissioner John Simoni, a Saratoga County Republican selected by Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, has about two years remaining.

The chairman, paid $120,800, picks the executive director, whose pay is $146,699.

John Cansdale currently holds the post.

The next chairman will have the ability to replace several executive posts, including Cansdale's, working in concert with Paterson.

Sabini has accepted campaign donations from the gambling industry, including $8,200 from the Oneida Indian Nation, operators of Turning Stone Casino.

AS THE DAYS GO BY, NYS GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON PROJECTS MORE AND MORE WEAKNESS AS NYS GOVERNOR ....

HE IS SEEN AS WEAK BY THE PEOPLE WHEN HE SPEAKS ...

HE IS NOT RESPECTED ...

SO HE DOES NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES ...

THE GUMPTION ...

TO STAND UP TO THE THUG-LIKE EX-BOXER WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE, THAT BEING REPUBLICAN JOE BRUNO ....

WHO IS IN IT FOR HIS OWN POCKET FIRST ...

And so ...

"End of session, but few answers - With just days remaining, solutions to problems elusive as governor faces partisan bickering in Legislature"

By IRENE JAY LIU, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, June 15, 2008

ALBANY -- With only five days left in this year's historic legislative session, Gov. David Paterson is trying to wrestle big solutions out of a distracted, fractured and weary Legislature.

But if a news conference Thursday was any indication of the state of negotiations, the governor may have to lower his expectations.

On that day, Paterson and the four legislative leaders -- Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco and Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith -- met to discuss with the media priorities for the end of the legislative session.

The news conference began conventionally but soon devolved into half-joking, clearly pointed sniping between Bruno and Silver, and the governor doing little to stop the partisan back-and-forth.

At issue in particular was the governor's bill to cap local property taxes at 4 percent per year, a proposal neither Silver nor Bruno supports.

Bruno rejected Paterson's proposal, touted the Senate Republican's proposed legislation, and blamed Silver for lack of progress on the issue.

"Nothing is going to happen."

"So we are going to cover ourselves and posture."

"I know the governor is here and I'm here talking about this, I'm hoping the speaker will be willing," he said.

Bruno's proposed legislation would eliminate residential school property taxes in school districts that vote to phase out property taxes over five years, with revenue replaced by additional state funding.

"Senator Bruno clearly wants the Assembly to protect him from his spending habits," Silver shot back.

Silver has said that he would support a tax cap, but only if it included provisions to ensure continued funding for schools.

Concluding his remarks, Bruno said to Paterson, "So, governor, thanks for the invite, thanks for your leadership, now it's up to you to get a result."

Just three months into his tenure as governor, that is precisely the challenge Paterson faces in the session's last five days amid a looming state fiscal crisis, a Legislature preoccupied with November's elections and the high-stakes fate of the Senate majority in question.

"The governor is pushing very hard to get things done, but the Senate Republicans appear to be in a state of paralysis," said Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Bronx.

"They are vulnerable on so many fronts that no matter what they do legislatively, they may hurt one of the marginal incumbents," he said.

"Anybody would have difficulty closing things down this year," Schneiderman said.

Bruno spokesman Scott Reif disagreed, saying that their cooperation with the Democratic governor demonstrates their commitment to getting things done.

"I think it's actually going pretty well," Reif said.

"If there's paralysis, it is because the Senate and Assembly Democrats are creating it," he said.

"We are showing good faith and working with the governor."

"It is the Democrats of the Senate who are creating this election-day war."

In fact, both leaders have said they will work with Paterson, but neither house has brought to a vote the governor's property tax cap legislation, or many other bills.

Of the 18 bills Paterson has introduced, only five have become law.

But in a recent interview on WMHT television, Paterson warned the Legislature about the consequences of not putting actions with words.

"I think what's upset the public about the Legislature is that everything is calculated."

"Everything is strategic."

"And somehow not addressing an issue at all becomes preferable than coming to Albany and being decision-makers," he said.

At the news conference, Paterson, Bruno and Silver asserted that they continue to negotiate a number of issues, but when asked what would be accomplished by the end of this session, the governor wouldn't go into the specifics.

"We have to draw a distinction between open government and open negotiation...you've never seen a governor and state leaders negotiating on television."

"What you do see, and what you are hearing today, is people expressing their views and debating the issues."

"The openness of negotiations -- I probably have an idea, I'd rather not share it, because real responsibility in the end is to put meaningful legislation into law by the end of this session and respond to the people of this state."

Irene Jay Liu can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at iliu@timesunion.com.

"Paterson enlists voters in tax cap fight"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:32 p.m., Tuesday, June 17, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson, buoyed by a poll that shows three in four New Yorkers support his property tax cap proposal that's getting no debate in Albany, tried to turn up the pressure on the Legislature Tuesday in the session's waning days.

Paterson said he refuses to drop the issue that the state's powerful teachers union and other lobbyists declared dead before arrival in April.

Paterson's insistence, forcing Democratic and Republican lawmakers to choose between their labor benefactors and their voters this election year, is adding to a rising tension in Albany where the last day of the 2008 session is scheduled for Monday.

A Kingston Daily Freeman editorial Tuesday criticized the Legislature for being unwilling to take up the tax cap proposal in the face of Albany's powerful special interests.

"Taxpayers may be squealing in outrage and pain about property taxes, but it's only the pay-to-play crowd that gets heard," stated the editorial headlined "Mockery of Democracy."

Paterson said New Yorkers are "voting with their feet," leaving for lower taxes and greater job opportunities in other states.

"We're losing our human capital," he said.

On Tuesday, he had taxpayers backing him up.

"We don't want to keep losing all our friends and neighbors and sons and daughters," said Andrea Vecchio of the East Islip Taxpayers group.

"Enough is enough."

She was among anti-tax representatives and chamber of commerce members from Rochester, Binghamton, Rockland, Glens Falls and Poughkeepsie who supported Paterson, a Harlem Democrat.

They wore T-Shirts and caps with "74" emblazoned on them, referring to the 74 percent of New Yorkers supporting the 4-percent cap on the growth in property taxes, according to Monday's Siena College poll.

"74 percent," said Democratic Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi who ran Paterson's tax relief commission.

"That's better than any coalition."

"Or are they just going to ignore that and play the typical Albany game ... and do nothing and go home," Suozzi added.

The Assembly's Democratic majority and the Senate's Republican majority haven't even introduced Paterson's bill.

Instead, the majorities have opposing tax-relief measures.

That likely will keep Paterson's tax cap from a floor debate.

Paterson said the Senate Republican majority's proposal to allow school districts to phase out property taxes altogether is half a solution and would require an increase in the state income tax.

Paterson said the Assembly Democrats' plan to increase relief for the neediest taxpayers under existing programs is a good second step, but not a substitute for a long overdue cap on the nation's highest property taxes.

"I need a partner in the Assembly and we need the governor to be there," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Rensselaer County Republican.

"The governor is there trying to do something about property taxes."

"We ought to get something that's for real."

"We ought to do it three ways and we ought to have an open discussion about that."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, said he could support a tax cap as long as there is a "state commitment to make sure the resources are there."

Paterson also aimed at the coalition opposing a tax cap, including the New York State United Teachers union, one of the most powerful lobbyists and biggest campaign contributors in Albany.

He said it was outrageous that the coalition declared the tax cap dead weeks ago.

"The governor is obviously attempting his very best to make his arguemnt for his legislation and as advocates in a democratic system we're doing our very best to raise our argument with lawmakers and citizens," said NYSUT union President Richard C. Iannuzzi.

"Obviously, there are times when we will respectfully disagree with the governor and this is one of them."

Paterson said he will continue to present the tax cap proposal statewide, and said he may bring the Legislature back before the fall elections for a public debate.

------

AP Writer Michael Virtanen contributed to this report from Albany.

WHY IS NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON SUBVERTING OUR GOVERNMENT HERE IN NEW YORK STATE?

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, June 23, 2008

The fine print

The law that rescued New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. comes with an unusual provision that allows the board of directors to meet in secret for two months.

Deep in the bill signed Tuesday by Gov. David Paterson is a passage that lets the board disregard open government laws.

It says the board may meet in executive session, including by telephone, on an emergency basis "without notice at any time" until Aug. 1, 2008.

"I don't know that it's necessary."

"It always bothers me when there's an aberration from the general rule," said Robert Freeman, executive director of the Committee on Open Government.

Most public bodies must meet openly and notify the public of the time and location.

Executive sessions require a public vote on a motion based on a limited set of legal reasons, such as talking about litigation or firing someone.

Staffers for Sen. William Larkin and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow did not know why the clause was inserted and said the proposals came from the governor's office.

Paterson's spokesman also did not have an answer.

Contributors: State editor Jay Jochnowitz and Capitol bureau reporter James M. Odato. Got a tip? Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@timesunion.com.

"Good government groups knock NY lawmakers"

By VALERIE BAUMAN, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:44 p.m., Thursday, June 26, 2008

ALBANY -- While New York lawmakers are virtually high-fiving each other for what they called groundbreaking political progress, good government groups are unimpressed with the 2008 legislative session.

"After promising to change the way Albany operated, the governor allowed the process in Albany to return to it's bad old roots: secrecy and insider negotiations," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

The biggest objection from observers was the traditional "three men in a room" dealings and a lack of transparency.

Much of Paterson's major legislation wasn't adopted, including an extensive plan for campaign finance reform introduced earlier this month on the same day good government groups held a press conference chastising lawmakers for a lack of action on the issue.

Paterson ran as former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's lieutenant governor on the promise of changing state government's bad reputation.

Then Spitzer was linked to a high-priced prostitution ring and resigned, leaving Albany reeling.

Now groups like NYPIRG and the Women's League of Voters are objecting to the status quo that continued to grip Albany under Paterson's leadership.

"We are somewhat sympathetic of our governor, who had to take over and finish our budget in two weeks, but the budget was done behind closed doors," said the league's Barbara Bartoletti.

"We thought things would get better, but they didn't -- they got worse."

Paterson, however, rejected the criticism.

"In only three months the governor was able to achieve enactment of 26 of his priority bills ..."

"This was, by any measure, a historically productive legislative session," Paterson spokeswoman Risa Heller said.

"We look forward to working with the legislature, the advocates and other interested parties in the coming months on a variety of issues including campaign finance reform and the property tax cap."

Newly minted Senate majority Leader Dean Skelos and Paterson have described the session as productive.

Skelos stopped short of calling it a success, saying crushing property taxes in New York still haven't been dealt with.

Officials in Skelos' office declined to comment on the criticism of good government groups.

"Considering all of the tumult New Yorkers endured in the first half of this year, the 2008 Legislative session was remarkably successful, though our work is not done," Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in a written statement.

"In a time of economic challenges and political distress, Governor David Paterson worked with the Legislature to achieve a balanced and on-time budget."

He also cited successful measures on gun control, to prevent foreclosures, save New York City Off-track Betting jobs, end mandatory overtime for nurses, and reform the state's brownfields program.

But good government groups were horrified when a bill that would have protected children from lead poisoning failed at the last minute.

It would have mandated preventive measures by the state Department of Health and offered state tax credits to landlords who update their properties.

It's an issue that could gain more traction next year, but "meanwhile, children very well may die," Bartoletti said.

The groups did praise a few developments as positive -- tougher state oversight of doctors, the reforms in the way New York gives tax breaks for cleaning up brownfields and net metering of electricity.

NYPIRG praised Paterson and the Legislature for coping with the abrupt departure of Spitzer and managing to pass a budget a little more than a week late.

They also hailed the bills that brought relief to home owners facing foreclosure and protections against identity theft.

Overall, though, special interests got their way in this election year instead of the voters, Bartoletti said.

Some of the biggest winners were the unions.

One bill that passed both chambers would give the public employee unions the ability to veto any attempt to change retiree health benefits -- even if a government employer found a way to offer the same benefits for less money.

It would create a one-year moratorium that would prevent state and local governments from changing benefits, but many think it's likely to become permanent.

"For the state as a whole, and for the state's economy, this is a bad thing," said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute.

"It simply adds to the very high cost of government in New York and is one of the things that is going to perpetuate our heavy tax burden."

Unions argue the moratorium is necessary while a 12-person task force -- which will include several union members -- evaluates health plan options.

"What was passed was a two-year study about how to best fund health plans," AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes said.

He said the moratorium will allow time to review the health care benefits before there are any changes.

The bill has been sent to Paterson, who hasn't made a decision on it yet.

Whatever he decides, the good government groups will be watching.

"We certainly would encourage more openness as we go forward," Bartoletti said.

"Especially in these times when things economically are changing rapidly."

"People should be able to feel that the government is working for them, not the special interests."

------

On the Net:

http://www.nypirg.org

http://www.lwvny.org

http://www.aflcio.org

http://www.empirecenter.org

"Analysis: NY governor's first 100 days of tumult, trials"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 10:52 a.m., Thursday, June 26, 2008

ALBANY -- It was supposed to be a joke, but there was truth lurking beneath the schtick.

Gov. David Paterson was laying out his agenda with legislative leaders at a news conference this month when he was asked if there was any progress on a bill requiring insurance coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Paterson, subtle as a Warner Brothers cartoon, covered his face with his hands and flopped his head onto the podium in surrender: "Yes."

"I have it."

The gag went over well.

The Democrat's feigned frustration at the slow grind of the Albany process was an apt reaction to his first 100 long, frustrating and unpredictable days that started with the unfathomable self-destruction of Eliot Spitzer.

"It was a supreme test of my endurance and ability and obviously patience and self-confidence," Paterson told The Associated Press.

"After this, I figure I'm about ready for anything."

The accidental governor, they call him.

Paterson, legally blind since infancy, grew up in Harlem and then on Long Island steeped in New York City politics.

His father, Basil, is a former secretary of state.

The son said he never thought about becoming governor, making him perhaps the only one in New York's Capitol to feel that way.

Even as lieutenant governor, the former state Senate minority leader wasn't included by pundits or in polls as a potential governor.

There was no room among the Andrew Cuomos, Rudy Giulianis and Michael Bloombergs to think of a Gov. Paterson.

Not even he thought so.

"I didn't realize how much I didn't take it seriously until the day it happened," he said.

"I was profoundly shocked."

That day was March 17, shortly after Spitzer was named in a federal prostitution investigation and resigned.

"The first week I was governor, I remember we were getting ready to make a decision," Paterson said.

"I heard on the radio a decision was coming down and the governor would rule on it."

"It took me 10 seconds to realize they were talking about me."

He knew, intellectually, that he was governor.

Becoming governor came a couple weeks later.

"The moment came for me in the budget negotiations when I realized that we were going to have to make a lot of cuts and they were going to have to be across the board and I didn't get that anyone else knew or appreciated it," Paterson said.

"That's when I felt like the governor because I felt a personal obligation to the voters.

"I realized, 'If I don't do something, it's not going to get done,'" Paterson said.

For a governor who didn't take office until just two weeks before the budget was due and already halfway through the legislative session, he has a list of action to back up what his office calls a "historically productive" session that ended last week.

He says 26 of the bills he made a priority passed.

They include: Reform of the "brownfields" law intended to clean up polluted sites for reuse but which was known mostly for waste and political scandal; a measure to better protect homeowners in default as part of the national subprime mortgage crisis; a deal to save New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. and preserve 1,500 jobs; and a law that ends a costly and time-consuming process to get rid of teachers convicted of having sex with students.

Few, however, say the bills are earthshaking for Albany, a place in need of a thorough shaking.

But Paterson can also take credit for less tangible success.

He used his sharp sense of humor and conciliatory approach to salve a fractured New York state government.

In 2007, hard-edged Spitzer was quickly mired in political conflict, then political scandal, then the prostitution investigation.

New York's first legally blind, black governor faced a bigger obstacle than most.

Spitzer's fall came in the middle of negotiating a $121 billion budget riddled with looming deficits.

He chose to begin his administration admitting to past marital affairs and drug use as a youth so the actions couldn't be used to compromise his agenda.

He also had emergency eye surgeries brought on by the stress of reading reams of documents, nose to paper, required to do the job.

"The institutional challenge that Gov. Paterson assumed was probably tougher than any governor in modern history," said Robert B. Ward of the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

"When I came in, I thought I could take advantage of the crisis in management because everybody basically wanted to help me," Paterson said, comparing it to support for the president after Sept. 11.

"This was the problem other governors have had in that they would come in and throw down a bill," Paterson said.

"Either you win it or you don't ... the only problem is, government isn't set up that way."

"That's how you play football."

"That's not how I see it and, I argue, that's not how the framers of the constitution saw it," Paterson said.

Instead, he worked with lawmakers, making unheard of visits to their working sessions and, on the last day of session, going to legislators in the Senate and Assembly to thank them.

"Have they accomplished an awful lot?"

"No," said Maurice "Mickey" Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"But is the tone just an awful lot better?"

"Yes."

"That's really important."

"The idea of politics as scorched earth is nothing I really approved of."

So far, Paterson's charisma and character got him through his first legislative session as governor admirably, noted Lee Miringoff of the Marist College poll.

"But he's got to set his direction," he said.

"The likeability is nice, but he's got to be governor, or else."

"Because the vacuum will fill and the other people sitting around that triangular table aren't shy."

------

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.

"Closure of workers' comp centers questioned - Critics say shutting 11 state offices to save money makes it harder for people to get to hearings"

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

First published: Thursday, July 17, 2008

ALBANY -- It's been two-and-a-half years since Lorraine Hamm tripped on a phone line and tore her rotator cuff and injured her neck and back.

Since then, her life has included a frustrating regimen of periodic visits to state Workers' Compensation Board offices in either Schenectady or, sometimes, Queensbury.

"It's a nightmare, believe me," said Hamm, of Ballston Spa, recounting the ongoing effort to collect compensation payments, which were first opposed by her employer, a Glens Falls nursing home, and then delayed by problems with the workers compensation trusts, akin to insurance carriers that are supposed to make the payouts.

Now, with news that the state Workers' Compensation Board is closing 11 of its 30 service centers statewide, including the Schenectady location, Hamm has another headache.

Rather than riding the bus to a hearing, as she could to the Schenectady office, she will have to take her aging Isuzu Trooper to Queensbury and lay out $30 or $40 for gas each round-trip.

"It would be horrendous," she said.

Hamm isn't the only one questioning the state's move.

While state officials say no one will be more than 50 miles from a Workers' Compensation office, that means claimants in rural areas such as Fulton or Montgomery counties now may have to travel 100 miles round trip.

"There will be claimants that cannot afford to go to their own hearings," said Raymond Seligman, Hamm's lawyer.

Others wondered why a call from Gov. David Paterson for state agencies to cut 3.35 percent of their budgets should even apply to the Workers' Compensation Board, which is funded by assessments on insurers, not from the state's general fund.

"It is an utterly insensitive move," said Peter Walsh, another compensation lawyer.

Walsh also questioned whether the decision exhibited a lack of knowledge about upstate New York, since many of the 11 were in rural areas like Norwich, Oswego or Olean.

"It's going to hurt the public," added Bill Jones of Mayfield, a former Fulton County sheriff's officer who is on workers comp and has been traveling to Schenectady when called in for hearings.

Complaints like this will likely resound from other quarters of New York as various state agencies put Paterson's cuts in place.

The reaction illustrates just how hard it can be to trim spending even modestly.

Between the complaints and potential attacks by powerful public employee unions if their members face layoffs or relocation, cutting the state's budget can open up a whole new world of potential headaches.

Lawmakers may get involved as well.

Hamm said she's contacted local legislators, including Assemblymen Robert Reilly and George Amedore as well as Sen. Hugh Farley.

Amedore's office sent her a copy of the closure notice, and Hamm hasn't yet heard from the others.

But this being an election year, it's a good bet that legislators statewide may start protesting the closures.

The Workers' Compensation Board is one of just dozens of agencies making cuts to help cope with a $5 billion projected budget gap next year.

Many are losing staff through attrition, including the Office for the Aging, departments of Health, Insurance and Labor, as well as SUNY.

The Paterson administration stressed that the governor's cuts go beyond those enterprises run out of the general fund.

"This is trying to keep costs down for business and taxpayers in general," said Workers' Compensation spokesman Brian Keegan, who added that Paterson's calls for cost savings are aimed at all agencies, even those funded by user fees.

He also noted the the 11 centers slated for closure handle only 15 percent of the state's hearings.

"What Gov. Paterson believes is it's important to bring down overall spending," added Matt Anderson, a spokesman for the Division of Budget.

He explained that Workers' Compensation savings should be passed along to the insurance carriers, which could then contain costs for businesses.

"We need to cut across government and make it more efficient," said Anderson.

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

"Travel probe's integrity compromised? - DA among those accusing ethics panel chief of improper behavior during investigation"

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

First published: Friday, July 18, 2008

ALBANY -- The leader of the state's Public Integrity Commission is facing accusations of unethical behavior himself for his handling of the commission's probe into last year's battle between former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno.

District Attorney David Soares, in letters obtained by the Times Union, alleged Public Integrity Commission Executive Director Herbert Teitelbaum should not be involved in investigating the Spitzer administration's release of documents on Bruno's use of state aircraft because he compromised the integrity of the commission's probe.

"We had received allegations that . . . Teitelbaum was inappropriately releasing confidential information pertaining to the commission's investigation," Soares wrote to Commission Chairman John D. Feerick on Feb. 26.

"We have secured evidence which supports the allegations."

Two letters from Soares complaining about Teitelbaum, the other dated March 3, stress the Albany County Democrat's deep concerns.

Soares spokeswoman, Heather Orth, reviewed the letters and said they were authentic.

Asked directly if he still holds the view about Teitelbaum, Soares said he had no comment.

Teitelbaum declined a request for an interview.

His spokesman, Walter Ayres, provided two letters of support recently authorized by commissioners.

"The commissioners thoroughly reviewed the issues raised in the district attorney's letter and continue to have full confidence in Mr. Teitelbaum's ability to lead the commission's investigations," Ayres said.

He added that Soares continued to provide confidential information to the commission even after alerting Feerick to his concerns about the executive director.

On Monday, Darren Dopp, a Spitzer aide under investigation by Teitelbaum for allegedly violating the public officer's law, alerted the commission that he, too, distrusts Teitelbaum.

He wrote to Commissioner Daniel Alonso, a former assistant U.S. attorney named to the commission by Spitzer.

He claimed in the letter, also obtained by the Times Union, that Teitelbaum conducted an unfair and improper probe by engaging in "ex parte communication with members of the Spitzer administration" to reveal facts of the case and to discuss on whom to place blame for alleged wrongdoing in the release of travel documents.

Several probes of the matter were triggered by allegations that the travel documents were collected improperly and released to damage Bruno for political gain.

Dopp said in an interview that Teitelbaum furnished confidential information to former Spitzer aide Lloyd Constantine and others.

He said Teitelbaum conferred with one of his former law partners who now works in Gov. David Paterson's administration.

Constantine would not confirm such actions by Teitelbaum.

He said he is prevented from discussing the matter because of attorney-client privilege.

He served as a special counsel to Spitzer during the probes involving the released documents.

Dopp also claimed Teitelbaum passed details of the case to a third party who benefited from the knowledge.

Dopp wrote that an immediate investigation of Teitelbaum's behavior is critical.

Alonso did not return a call, but Commissioner Andrew Celli, also a Spitzer appointee, said in an interview that Teitelbaum's performance has been terrific and that he does not question his integrity.

People familiar with his style describe Teitelbaum as a tough interviewer, extremely aggressive and demanding.

The concerns addressed about Teitelbaum arise as the commission is preparing a report of its findings with supporting documentation.

Some of the Spitzer administration officials investigated by the commission are getting the opportunity to plead to violating one provision of the public officer's law dealing with conduct that could raise suspicions of improper acts.

The violation carries no fine.

Lawyers for William Howard and Richard Baum, two former Spitzer administration officials being probed, declined to confirm the arrangements.

Dopp said no offer was made to conclude the case against him.

He said the commission seeks to force him to prove his innocence before an administrative law judge to avoid a fine of up to $10,000 and a reputation-damaging conviction.

"Mr. Teitelbaum insists that I plead guilty to knowingly and intentionally violating laws," he said.

"I cannot admit to violating the law on purpose because it isn't true."

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

This morning on the radio news up here in the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York, they had our blind governor Daivd Paterson on the radio crying the financial blues ....

Corporations and bid-nesses in the CORRUPT EMPIRE aren't making profits, so they aren't paying taxes ....

Now there is a BIG SHORTFALL in tax receipts ...

So the blind man is going to have to call back the legislature to PUNISH US TAXPAYERS and CITIZENS by cutting out some more of our government up here ....

The governor and the legislature between them have billions of dollars in SLUSH FUNDS LOOTED from our state treasury ....

But that money is SACRED, because they agreed among themselves that it would be so .....

So they are going to cut out public health protection and infrastructure maintenance and public access to government ....

And downwards and backwards we slide up here ....

The idea that we are a civilized society of laws up here is a total joke ....

And so ...

BUT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO TALK WHATSOEVER FROM BLIND GOVERNOR PATERSON ABOUT CUTTING OUT THE PORK ....

PATERSON IS A POLITICIAN THROUGH AND THROUGH ...

AND TO A POLITICIAN LIKE PATERSON, PORK IS SACRED ....

NOR IS THERE ANY TALK FROM THE POLITICAL SHILL GROUP, THE NEW YORK CITY-BASED "CITIZEN'S BUDGET COMMISSION", ABOUT CUTTING OUT THE PORK ....

BUT THEY ARE JUST SHILLS, AFTERALL ....

And so ...

"State faces tight times - Paterson to reiterate need for possibly drastic measures to make up for revenue shortfalls"

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

First published: Tuesday, July 29, 2008

ALBANY -- Later today, Gov. David Paterson turns up the volume on his message of bad economic news.

During a televised message scheduled for 5:10 p.m., Paterson is expected to lay out projected shortfalls in state revenues that may require cutbacks in spending, services and jobs.

Through the late spring and summer, the governor has been warning of hard times ahead -- he issued similar forecasts at least twice last week, and he's long spoken of a possible $5 billion gap next year.

But he's said little so far regarding how he expects to deal with budget shortfalls beyond calling for a 3.35 percent reduction among state agencies.

The governor's brief address will be followed on Wednesday morning by a press conference with Paterson and Budget Director Laura L. Anglin that will give a more detailed look at the situation.

Strictly by the numbers, state revenues haven't plummeted, although they've grown steadily weaker over the last year.

That has been the trend nationwide, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, which tracks such figures around the country.

Nationally, sales tax revenues did not grow during the last quarter for the first time in six years, according to the institute.

And considering inflation and increases in spending, state tax revenue actually dropped some 5 percent.

While state workers on Monday were buzzing with talk of possible hiring freezes, early retirement incentives or even layoffs, the best indication of what the governor is planning may have come earlier this month with a little-noticed bulletin he sent to state agencies titled "New Process To Better Prioritize State Spending."

The notice instructs the various state agencies to look at their core mission and evaluate the myriad programs they run to determine how necessary each might be.

"The governor believes in the midst of a fiscal crisis we have to separate the critical functions of state government from those that we can't afford," said Division of Budget spokeswoman Jeffrey Gordon.

"This is the first time in my memory that such a thing has been done," said Robert Ward, deputy director of the Rockefeller Institute.

Ward said such a approach makes sense, especially when it's compared with an across-the-board cut that would apply to all state agencies.

Even so, the governor's priority-setting could mean that specific agencies and programs may be slated for cuts.

With that in mind, here's a quick look at how the governor may be able to tighten the fiscal belt, which this year encompasses $121.6 billion in expenditures.

Raise taxes. Some groups and Assembly Democrats have proposed raising income taxes on the state's highest earners to help fund property tax rebates for low- and middle-income homeowners; the idea of an income or corporate tax "surcharge" has certainly come up during past budget crunches.

In the early 1990s, for instance, the state imposed a 15 percent corporate tax surcharge which was phased out later in the decade.

The governor could call legislators back for that.

Employee givebacks in pay, benefits or overtime. With public employee unions recently negotiating contracts, Paterson would have to convince union leaders to come back to the bargaining table, which would be difficult, say observers.

Moreover, there's been no indication the governor has sought to do so.

"So far, we've not heard from him," said Darcy Wells, spokeswoman for the Public Employees Federation, a major state union.

Cutbacks in aid to counties and school districts. This, however, could drive up local taxes, essentially passing the bill down the line.

Job cuts. The nuclear option, but one that the governor could choose if the options listed above prove to be politically unpalatable to lawmakers and unions.

But while the term conjures images of thousands of state workers out on the street, the reality probably wouldn't be that harsh: Job reductions frequently entail lots of "bumping," in which laid-off workers move into vacant, albeit lower-paying, jobs.

According to the state Department of Civil Service, for instance, there were 64,450 vacancies earlier this month out of 238,352 positions, allowing for lots of bumping into unfilled slots. (A note of caution: Not all of those unfilled positions are funded.)

Either way, there may be no way to avoid dealing with personnel when talking about the state's financial bind, since 67 percent of state operation dollars go to employee costs.

"It's hard to imagine how you're getting out of this fiscal mess without examining public employee compensation," said Elizabeth Lynam, deputy research director at the Citizens Budget Commission, which follows state finances.

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

"Paterson says deficit grows"

Associated Press

Last updated: 5:32 p.m., Tuesday, July 29, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson says the state deficit for 2009-10 fiscal year has so far increased more than $1 billion -- to $6.4 billion -- and hard choices including bringing the Legislature back for a special session are necessary now.

The Democrat says a hard look at the size of the state work force and spending is required to offset declining revenues in a worsening economy.

He made his comments in a rare televised address.

He says he will detail his proposals in coming days.

Paterson still isn't calling for some drastic measures other states have taken, including layoffs and cuts to health programs for the poor and to schools.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos says he supports Paterson's plan to further cut spending in his agencies, but that cutting school aid would be totally inappropriate.

"Paterson calls for economic session of Legislature"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:22 p.m., Tuesday, July 29, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson on Tuesday again said New York state government faces an economic crisis and as proof said the projected budget deficit for 2009-10 fiscal year has increased more than $1 billion -- to $6.4 billion -- since April.

So he's calling the Legislature back "from vacation" for a special emergency economic session on Aug. 19 to cut spending, stem falling revenues, and protect New Yorkers from rising property taxes and heating bills this winter.

"It's simple," Paterson said in a rare statewide televised address for a governor.

"Costs are rising steadily and revenues are dropping dramatically."

"These times call for action and today I promise you there will be action," Paterson said.

Paterson, however, didn't make any specific orders.

He also didn't call for some of the drastic measures other states have already taken, including layoffs and cuts to health programs for the poor and to schools.

He said he prefers to work with the Legislature to turn back the "crisis."

He said details will be released as soon as Wednesday.

"I think it's a good sign that he's talking tough," said Elizabeth Lynam of the independent Citizens Budget Commission.

However, she adds that the Legislature and Paterson, now in his fourth month on the job, "are behind the eight ball.

"There was volatility before, uncertainty and bad news," she said.

"They are behind the curve."

However, she said that by New York's standards, this action early in the first half of the fiscal year begun April 1 is a quicker start.

The drawback is that 2008 is an election year for the Legislature, and lawmakers usually take the time after the regular session, which ended in June, to campaign.

They are also unlikely to want to cut funding for the special interests that fund their campaigns.

Labor unions and special interests including those from health care and schools have already sought to blunt any proposals against them, saying they support the need to cut spending but not in their area.

"That's why this is really going to be a test of the governor's leadership," Lynam said.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said he supports Paterson's plan to further cut spending in his agencies and that all state spending should be reviewed.

But the Long Island Republican said he wouldn't touch the most politically sensitive big-ticket item: school aid.

State school aid is now more than $20 billion a year after a series of record increases, including a $1.8 billion increase in April.

"I think that would be wrong," Skelos said at a press event on Long Island.

"We made a commitment to our school districts, we made a commitment to our property taxpayers."

"Cutting school aid would be totally inappropriate."

"We were a free wheeling, runaway train for the last five or six years," said Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith of Queens, the successor to Paterson as leader of the Senate Democrats.

Earlier this year, Smith had called for Albany to make harder fiscal choices but got no support from Paterson or legislative majority leaders.

Smith had called for $2 billion in cuts through a hiring freeze, elimination of "nonessential" capital spending, taking cash from public authorities left over from the past fiscal year, and requiring technological efficiencies.

"I would probably call for less spending," Smith said.

"But I think the governor is doing the right thing."

"He's saying the candy store is no longer open."

"He's telling the Legislature to be tough with special interests who have been running Albany."

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Albany's support of politically popular programs that commit overspending for years is to blame, and it's exacerbated by the downturn.

He noted that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, by comparison, paid off debt and created substantial reserves in good economic times to prepare for inevitable downturns.

"The state in flush times has spent and borrowed in response to requests," DiNapoli said.

"So we're not prepared, frankly, as the city is."

The state made midyear aid cuts in 1990, but that led to outrage by unions representing teachers and other public employees, all of which have become more powerful lobbyists and campaign contributors since then.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said education, health care for children and affordable housing programs can't be cut because they would harm lower and middle income New Yorkers.

He has previously supported a temporary income tax increase on millionaires to raise revenue.

"If it is our intention to ask working families to shoulder the burden of these cuts, we must ensure that our most affluent citizens share that burden," he said.

Paterson's latest warning and promise to act comes after a token trim in the increase to state agencies' spending in the current state budget adopted in April.

Thirteen states have already reduced their enacted 2008 budgets, according to a June survey by the National Association of State Budget Officers and the National Governors Association.

Despite Paterson's repeated calls for urgent action since he took office in March, New York has made only small cuts after annual increases in spending that have historically been nearly double the rate of inflation.

The current budget includes further increases sought by unions representing teachers and public workers.

In January, while Albany was still trying to figure out if hard times were ahead, Bloomberg ordered city agency heads to cut expenses by 2.5 percent this fiscal year and 5 percent the following year.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a 10-percent cut in state agency spending.

By contrast, Paterson in April asked agency heads who work for him to trim their increased aid by 3.35 percent.

"Paterson seeks hiring freeze, spending cuts"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:03 p.m., Wednesday, July 30, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson has frozen most hiring, ordered an additional 7 percent cut in agency spending and called on the Legislature to approve $600 million in additional cuts to shore up state finances in a New York economy that his budget director says is "officially" in recession.

Paterson on Wednesday proposed cutting state spending by a total of $1.23 billion in the current budget to offset a "mammoth" decline in revenues.

He projects there will be $26.2 billion in budget deficits over the next three years, a high figure even for a state government that routinely contends with deficits because of rising spending.

"We are now officially saying New York is in a recession," said Budget Director Laura Anglin.

She said New York's recessions have historically lasted 25 months, longer than national recessions.

Paterson said he will seek the Legislature's approval for $600 million in cuts spread throughout state programs, which may include midyear reductions to school districts.

But Paterson said he doesn't currently any tax increases, including a temporary income tax hike for millionaires pushed by Assembly Democrats.

He said the 7 percent cut in agency funding, on top of a 3.35 percent cut in the spring, shouldn't hurt services at parks, in state police, for highway maintenance, or support for schools and hospitals.

Paterson has also called the Legislature back to Albany for an emergency economic session on Aug. 19 to enact the $600 million in cuts that need the Legislature's approval.

That could include funding cuts to higher education, local hospitals and other programs as well as the leasing of state assets and services -- such as the lottery -- to private companies.

Those cuts, which could force higher local school tax bills, will contain most of the pain Paterson said is needed.

As for the $630 million in cuts Paterson can order alone within the executive branch, the Democrat said a "hard freeze" on hiring is now in effect.

That doesn't mean any layoffs, but each of the thousands of openings each month must now be deemed essential by the governor's office before it is filled.

Layoffs are possible if the Legislature doesn't meet its cost-savings target.

"It is up to all of us to disengage from a kind of self-absorption," Paterson said.

He referred to years of high spending in the Legislature, where he served for 20 years, that created budget deficits bailed out by Wall Street tax revenue.

"We have to wake up New York to the possibility that we all have to feel some pain."

Paterson's proposal to cut $1.23 billion from the $56.3 billion general fund in the state budget amounts to about 2 percent, if the Legislature agrees to its $600 million part.

But any cut in funding is rare in Albany, where special interests including public worker unions have great influence.

"It's a start, but it's only a start," said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute.

"It's good that he's proactive."

"But the question is, could he be more proactive?"

State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long likes the Democratic governor's tone, but called the cuts "a very small amount."

"While it may be baby steps, it at least is a beginning," Long said.

He said Paterson issued a rallying cry against high spending and taxes that drive employers and young New Yorkers out of state.

He said this election year, whether a lawmaker is "Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, they should go back and say, `My concern was about my children and your children.'"

"The time has come to spend within our means."

As for the Legislature, the Senate's Republican majority has already taken cuts in school aid off the negotiating table.

Meanwhile Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, said his majority won't cut its highest priority health and education programs from pre-Kindergarten, school aid that has hired more teachers and reduced class sizes, and health care for the elderly.

"I would not support the layoff of state workers," said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican.

"We don't balance the state budget by throwing people out on the street."

Instead, Skelos said the state can save money through efficiencies, such as ending special commissions and task forces that cost the state in travel expenses.

He also said the state should adopt the Senate Republicans' proposal to cap state spending at 4 percent, which he said would save about $2 billion a year.

While "everything is on the table," he said he won't cut the state's $20 billion in school aid, which received a historic increase in April of about $1.8 billion.

He also won't raise taxes or fees and said Paterson's idea of privatizing state assets and services through sale or lease won't work.

McMahon said the state has been here before.

"There are lessons to be learned here from history," McMahon said.

He said former Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo, in 1990-91, addressed a fiscal crisis with "tax increases, borrowing one-shots and denial," which cost him his job.

His successor, Republican Gov. George Pataki, cut spending and taxes in 1995.

It cost him his early popularity, but was a key element in two successful re-election campaigns.

"Paterson certainly sounds like Pataki circa 1995," he said.

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AP Writer Karen Matthews in New York City contributed to this report.

"Raising a call for aid to states - Paterson uses visit to Washington to urge Congress to help avoid national crisis"

By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY, Washington bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, August 1, 2008

WASHINGTON -- In his first major national speech since taking office four months ago, New York Gov. David Paterson on Thursday implored Congress to send more federal money to states facing budget woes or else risk a "national crisis of bankruptcy."

The governor specifically asked for federal dollars to build a high-speed rail system between Albany and New York City.

Paterson's comments in an address to the National Press Club continued his recent warnings that soft economic conditions in New York could mean a hiring freeze in the state's work force and cuts in services.

The nation's financial situation "is the most severe economic challenge to America since the Depression," Paterson told an audience of reporters, lobbyists and lawmakers.

The only solution, he said, was quick action by states and the federal government to curb spending -- while, at the same time making "targeted" investments in infrastructure.

Paring down now might prevent more devastating cutbacks later, Paterson said.

New York state is facing a $6.4 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2009.

The economy was also the focus during a reception that Paterson and New York's congressional delegation attended Wednesday night on Capitol Hill.

In the gathering with New York lawmakers, Paterson pressed for more federal funds for the low-income home heating program.

On Thursday, Paterson used his hourlong address at the National Press Club to chide federal leaders for what he called "the inability of our country to invest in the states that comprise it."

He also called on lawmakers to help narrow the divide between what New York residents pay in federal taxes and the amount they get in return through federal grants and other spending.

Paterson said the shortfall is $62 billion annually.

In particular, Paterson pressed the federal government to spend more money investing in infrastructure, such as wastewater facilities and roads.

"The federal government is going to have to put more into the states that support it before we have a national crisis of bankruptcy and further fiscal insolvency," Paterson said.