NYS Assembly: Who Needs the Presumption of Innocence, anyway?

by: DogFederationofNewYork

Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 10:59:19 AM EST

Dog owner group calls on elected Albany representatives to uphold state laws,
challenges A3765 (Englebright) as direct violation of civil rights and misuse of public funds

Republicans win two Assembly seats

by: devtob

Wed Feb 10, 2010 at 15:17:11 PM EST

Two suburban seats that were Democratic are now Republican -- AD 3 (Suffolk County), where Dean Murray beat Lynn Thoden (it's close, but absentees usually follow the machine vote), and AD 89 (Westchester County), where Robert Castelli beat Peter Harckham by 10 percent.

Details, below.  

This is How the Machine Works

by: BingChester

Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 11:00:47 AM EST

Speculation about the Weprin-for-Weprin exchange started even before David Weprin lost the Democratic comptroller primary on the same day his brother won a battle for the Council seat he had to give up to run citywide.

And why is this nefarious display of machine politics essentially impossible to stop?

David Weprin announced his decision to members of the Saul Weprin Democratic Club last night. He's pretty much a sure thing for the Democratic nod in the special election for Mark Weprin's seat, since the nomination is controlled by the AD's four district leaders, two of whom are Mark and David Weprin.  

Brilliant!

There's no doubt that we need to shake up this state.  At almost every level of state and local government, machine politics insulate politicians from the will of the people and create regimes of insider-control.  While the "three men in a room" analogy is well-known, there are more smoke-filled backrooms than the one in Albany and we, the people, are the losers in this transaction.  

We can't take down the machine all at once.  We'll have to dismantle it piece by piece.  2010 is another opportunity to dismantle the machine.  And I have the perfect place in mind.

September Special Session

by: phillip anderson

Thu Aug 20, 2009 at 12:42:29 PM EDT

UPDATE: Word is that this will be a Senate only special session.

Stop Greg Ball from making a mockery of the health-care debate

by: cliffweathers

Sat Aug 15, 2009 at 10:45:53 AM EDT

There will be plenty of astroturfing and choreographed outrage from Ball and his acolytes, and it's all designed to destroy President Obama's health-care plan, which will make health care affordable and accessible to millions of Americans.

Assembly Passes Marriage Equality!

by: Roatti

Wed May 13, 2009 at 00:02:51 AM EDT

The State Assembly approved legislation on Tuesday night that would make New York the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage - a pivotal vote that shifts the debate to the State Senate, where gay rights advocates and conservative groups alike are redoubling their efforts.

In a sign of how opinion in Albany has shifted on the issue, several members of the Assembly who voted against the measure in 2007 voted in favor of it on Tuesday.

The final vote was 89 to 52, including the backing of five Republicans.

Now it's on to the Senate, where the bigoted opposition is stronger.  But let's savor this victory for the moment and give major kudos to Sheldon Silver and the Assembly leadership for bringing this to a successful vote.

And don't forget to call your Senator to express your support for the Senate version!

Tedisco Out As Minority Leader?

by: phillip anderson

Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 22:58:01 PM EDT

Now it seems those whispers are growing louder.

Tedisco may be out as leader no matter what

Republicans are split on whether Assemblyman James Tedisco should remain minority leader if he returns to the 42-member conference. Some of the conference members say they are squarely behind Tedisco, who was voted to a two year term as minority leader at the start of the year.

Others are saying that he must step aside for Assemblyman Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, to ascend as leader.

"It's tenuous," said Assemblyman Dan Burling, R-Warsaw, who says he likes both Tedisco and Kolb but is aware of the sentiment within his conference.

Privately, some conference members say Tedisco has done a lot to create attention on the minority, but they want the resources of the conference used more for policy, such as alternative budget packages.

One member said about two dozen members are ready to call for a change if Tedisco returns unsuccessful from his congressional campaign.

Looks like Tedisco may be screwed no matter what happens.

Full Budget Breakdown Now Online

by: phillip anderson

Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 11:09:20 AM EDT

You can download the pdf here.

Have fun.

On the web: NYSenate CIO blog.

More Budget Reactions

by: phillip anderson

Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 10:16:46 AM EDT

New York Times - Paterson Tries To Defend Budget Deal

Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders on Monday defended their secretive negotiations and the eye-popping $131.8 billion budget they produced over the weekend, even as they warned that further deterioration in the economy could force them to return to the bargaining table in the coming months.

In a subdued appearance in the Capitol, Mr. Paterson, joined by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith, described the deal as a necessary consensus between cutting spending and finding new revenue in the face of a large, and continually growing, budget gap.

"I think that there's a balance now between taxes on higher incomes and taxes on everybody, so that there's a shared sacrifice," Mr. Paterson said. He also said that he might have to revisit cuts to services and so-called nuisance taxes - like levies on sugared sodas and downloaded songs - that he agreed to abandon in the new deal.

"I would like to tell you that this budget brings about the end of our fiscal crisis, but I can't do that; that would be intellectually dishonest," Mr. Paterson said. But the deal was an important step, he added. "We can see the light at the end of the tunnel."

But as outside analysts began poring over hundreds of pages of the budget, they said they saw little evidence of stern spending discipline, even in the face of a major recession. In closing a budget deficit that in the end surpassed $17 billion, lawmakers relied on billions of dollars in new taxes and fees, some of which may not even raise as much revenue as hoped if the economy continues to worsen. And like every Albany budget, whether in good years or bad, this one includes $170 million worth of what critics call pork-barrel spending for lawmakers' pet projects.

"The disappointment from the business community is that the Legislature doesn't seem to understand how serious this crisis is, and that it threatens our future," said Kathryn S. Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business trade group. "The response - of holding the state budget basically harmless - just doesn't fly with people who are cutting salaries, laying people off and aren't sure where their business is going."

Mr. Paterson and his staff appear to have won significant concessions from the health care sector by overhauling outdated Medicaid reimbursements, while shifting money away from expensive in-patient care to preventative care and clinics. Over time, officials said, that shift would save both operating costs and capital money.

...

"What does the future hold? One way of looking at that is, New York - and every other state - are going to be in desperate straits if the federal stimulus money runs out in two years," said Robert B. Ward, deputy director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, an Albany research organization. "It won't be long until the drumbeat starts to make this a longer-lasting enhancement of federal aid."

- Albany's Big 3 Is Cut to One as Silver Flexes Might

It's Sheldon Silver's Albany now.

Mr. Silver, the powerful and cagey Assembly speaker, achieved what he wanted in the budget that emerged from the shadows of the statehouse this weekend, cementing his newfound role as the capital's center of gravity.

He won the policy fight, forcing Gov. David A. Paterson to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, an idea that the governor decried as potentially disastrous three weeks ago. The $131.8 billion budget, which could hardly be called austere, is largely a reflection of the liberal tilt of Mr. Silver, and the Assembly's predilection for big spending on social programs, no matter the economic climate.

Mr. Silver also dictated the process, turning back the clock to the most secretive budget negotiations the capital has seen in years, casting aside the open government that Mr. Paterson and other Democrats once said would follow the party's sweeping victories in recent state elections. He argued that technicalities in recently passed budget reform legislation allowed the Legislature to circumvent requirements for open meetings among those negotiating the spending plan.

And the speaker preserved the Legislature's cherished spending on pet projects, pushing successfully for $170 million for members to dole out in district spending, leaving that pool of money essentially untouched, despite the fiscal crisis.

He argued that "nonprofit organizations throughout the state have been devastated by the economic downturn," but lawmakers appropriated money for gun clubs, churches, a yoga foundation and the Wantagh American Legion Pipe Band, among thousands of other projects.

Critics say Mr. Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side who has been speaker for the last 15 years, is the symbol of all that is broken in state government, a man who long ago forsook principle for power. They also say that he lacks the fiscal discipline to prudently manage the state's escalating future deficits.

Allies say he is the only senior Democrat in state government fielding a competent staff with the expertise to lead the state, and that he will usher in a more activist left-leaning agenda on important policy issues, like the recent agreement among state leaders to eliminate many of the remaining stringent Rockefeller era penalties for drug offenses.

Daily News - New York State Democrats cheer as rest of us grumble

Just as the Chinese emperors of old imposed the Death of a Thousand Cuts, the New York State Democrats are proposing the Death of a Thousand Hikes.

Drafted in shameful secrecy, the new budget has a host of hikes that are incidental when taken one at a time:

A 500% hike in the surcharge on utilities, an average of $100 a year.

A $90 increase in the cost of health insurance.

A $1.20-a-month "public safety" tax on cell phones.

Another "public safety" surcharge: $10 a year on car insurance policies.

A 75-cent increase in the fee for a learner's driving permit.

A 24% hike in car registration fees.

A 4% increase in the tax on car service fares.

A 9% increase in the cigar tax.

A 58% increase in the wine tax.

A 27% increase in the beer tax.

Together, the increases are burdensome in already hard times, more so because the budget preserves as sacred $170 million in political pork.

New York Post - SETTING NY BACK 30 YRS.

New York's ruling Democratic triumvirate took a giant generational leap backward yesterday to the destructive days of John Lindsay, Abe Beame and Nelson Rockefeller.

The budget created by Gov. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith is a monstrously bloated, tax-and-spend plan that, in one fell swoop, reverses a three-decade-long effort to strengthen business and prevent taxpayers from fleeing the state.

The wrecking ball of a new state budget, approved in Kremlin-like secrecy by the troika, also ranks as one of the biggest betrayals in process and substance by a governor in New York history.

The reform effort being reversed by Paterson & Co. began in 1975, when then-newly elected Democratic Gov. Hugh Carey, ending 16 years of Republican rule, famously declared that the "Days of Wine and Roses" were over.

Gov. David A. Paterson emerged from behind closed doors Monday to defend the state's newly proposed $131.8 billion budget, but business groups railed against its massive tax hike package as education and health care special interests complained it does not spend enough.

Critics of the 2009 budget rushed to the Capitol and flooded lawmakers' telephones to try to unravel support, especially those from upstate.

But Paterson, who in a session with reporters appeared to undermine some elements of the plan he had just negotiated, said there were few options for a government that saw its projected deficit leap by billions in just a couple weeks, to $17.7 billion.

"None of this makes sense," he said of a plan that imposes record tax increases and cuts many popular programs. But he said the choices were difficult and a "shared sacrifice" by all New Yorkers. "This is in response to a crisis," he said.

...

But several Senate Democrats emerging from a caucus meeting said their 32-member coalition is holding steady and will back the budget despite GOP criticisms that it especially targets upstate for cuts and tax increases. With the GOP vowing to vote no, it would take only one Democrat to vote no, resulting in an unbreakable tie because the state has no lieutenant governor.

"We don't like the things that are in there," said Sen. William Stachowski, a Lake View Democrat. He said he would support the budget today. "We've never had to deal with a $17 billion budget hole," he said.

The Nation - A Progressive Victory In New York

Governor David Paterson and the leaders of the Legislature have struck a deal to create two new tax brackets for those earning above $300,000 and $500,000. The new tax structure would raise an estimated $4 billion annually.

This is largely due to the work of State Senator Eric Schneiderman, the Working Families Party, and others who responded to the state's $15 billion budget deficit by asking the wealthy to pay their fair share and demanding an end to the injustice of people earning $20,000 per year paying the same tax rate as Bernie Madoff, Donald Trump and the hedge funders -- 6.85 percent. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was instrumental in making progressive tax reform part of the final budget negotiations.

Initially, Gov. Paterson proposed the same tired conservative economic policy that has dominated the past thirty years--$9 billion of harsh cuts in education, healthcare and social services, and $5 billion in new taxes that would hit the struggling poor and middle-class the hardest. No sacrifices for the wealthy. Although there are still cuts that will cause a lot of pain for working people and the poor, this budget will be vastly improved.

Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party, told the Times: "It's a profound breakthrough for tax fairness." In the perennial balancing act between a transformative politics aimed at a more humane and sustainable society, and the necessary compromises to begin addressing people's immediate needs, progressives have scored an important and timely victory.

What are they saying in your neighborhood today?

Budget Deal Reax Roundup

by: phillip anderson

Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 09:52:55 AM EDT

New York Times - Albany Agrees on a Plan to Raise Taxes on Top Earners

Gov. David A. Paterson and leaders of the Legislature have reached a deal to temporarily raise taxes on New York's highest earners in order to close the state's yawning budget deficit, lawmakers and officials involved in the talks said on Saturday.

The new plan, which would expire after three years, would represent the largest state income tax increase in recent history, significantly larger than the surcharges imposed from 2003 to 2005, when the state last faced a major recession.

...

Currently, New York's highest tax rate, 6.85 percent, kicks in for couples and joint filers making more than $40,000.

"It's a profound breakthrough for tax fairness," said Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party. "The era of phony prosperity has ended, and a new era of real shared sacrifice must begin."

- N.Y. State Leaders Outline Budget Deal

Concluding the most secretive budget negotiations in recent memory, Gov. David A. Paterson and leaders of the Legislature outlined a $131.8 billion agreement on Sunday that would close the state's gaping deficit with billions of dollars in new taxes, financing from the federal stimulus and a substantial slowdown in the growth of health care spending.

The final days of negotiations between Mr. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith have been conducted under a veil of secrecy so profound that even well-seasoned Albany cynics were taken aback.

And despite the enormous fiscal pressure the state faces, the budget contains $170 million in financing for pet projects - an amount unchanged from last year - suggesting that Albany's appetite for with what critics call pork-barrel spending appeared to be undiminished. Listed in the budget were grants to gun clubs, an upstate museum dedicated to bricks and brick-making, the Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta and an organization known as the Urban Yoga Foundation.

- Top Earners Hold Mixed Views on Plan for Higher Taxes

A lot of people would probably love to have the headaches of someone who earns more than $500,000 a year. But those headaches grew over the weekend with the announcement in Albany of new tax brackets for the highest earners. While there were no tears spilling into Champagne flutes over brunch on Sunday, there were voices of frustration among those facing higher payments to the State of New York

Jorge Colmenares, founder and owner of Miracol Energy, an investment firm in renewable energy, said that he earned more than $500,000 and that he was happy to do his part. But he wondered about the negative effects of higher taxes on consumers.

"If you continue to take away from people in the form of taxes, it is restricting them more in spending," he said while shopping on Madison Avenue. "On the one hand, I would agree: With the wealth that you can create, you should give back. But is the government using that money correctly? There's a lot of skepticism these days as to whether that's actually going to be the case."

Carmine A. Nicoletti, 51, of Great Neck, who owns a printing company in Queens, declined to state his income, but said that his household earned enough to fall into one of Gov. David A. Paterson's proposed tax brackets.

"I'm O.K. with it," he said of paying more taxes, while at Via Quadronno restaurant on the Upper East Side. "I'd rather pay my share if the economy is going to benefit. I mean, I don't like to pay taxes, but I don't mind if it helps my country. It shouldn't affect my family."

Julian N. Carter, 42, of the Upper East Side, said that he fell into the $500,000-and-higher tax bracket as a banker at Société Générale and that he supported the new tax.

"I'm absolutely in favor of it," he said outside the restaurant Frederick's Madison on Madison Avenue. "Listen, the reality is that someone has to pay the bill, and it has to come from taxes. You can't be selfish. My view is you have to redistribute."

Daily News - State's staggering new $131.8B tax-and-spend plan has critics howling

Gov. Paterson and legislative leaders unveiled a record $131.8 billion tax-and-spend budget deal Sunday night.

Despite Paterson's repeated warnings about the state's fiscal crisis, total spending actually increases by $10.5 billion, or 8.7%, according to state leaders. The bulk of that, they say, is $7.2 billion in federal stimulus money that is required to be spent in the coming fiscal year.

The remainder includes $2 billion in spending cuts rejected by lawmakers as well as $1.3 billion in capital and debt service spending. Even without factoring in the stimulus money, state taxpayer-supported funding should grow by at least $800 million, Paterson's office said.

...

Among those are vehicle registration fees, a cigar tax, a beer and wine tax, a utility assessment, an auto insurance surcharge, driver's license fees, a rental car tax and a registration fee for tobacco sellers. Bottled water drinkers will pay a nickel more because the drink has been added to the 5-cent bottle deposit law.

...

After spending most of yesterday not commenting even on the size of the new spending package, Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) finally released the details Sunday evening.

To close a record two-year deficit of $17.7 billion, they say, the budget contains a combination of $5.2 billion in spending cuts, $5.2billion in new taxes, $1.1 billion in nonrecurring revenue and the use of $6.2billion in federal stimulus money.

They also say it increases state taxpayer-supported spending by just 1% for the fiscal year beginning Wednesday and reduces New York's long-term deficits 80%.

"We have produced a budget that provides a solid foundation to move forward and address challenges ahead," Paterson said. "We have accomplished this with a budget that holds government accountable to the people of New York, and protects those who cannot protect themselves."

New York Post - WHAT DEMS ARE 'UP' TO -- $132B

Open your wallets extra-wide, New Yorkers.

Democratic leaders yesterday released details of a state budget deal that would push spending to a staggering $132 billion next year -- an increase of 10 percent -- while they ask residents to fork over a record-breaking $7.8 billion in taxes and fees.

The huge spending plan is $10.7 billion higher than the bare-bones plan Gov. Paterson released less than four months ago in a call for fiscal austerity.

It comes in the wake of a $4 billion soak-the-rich income-tax hike, the elimination of a $1.5 billion property-tax rebate plan, and $2.3 billion in new and extended business taxes and nuisance fees.

Among other things, the budget would add nickel deposits to bottled water, ratchet up taxes on beer and cigars, and raise income taxes at least 14.5 percent on families making more than $300,000 a year.

But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) refused to give up even a dime of the notorious $170 million slush fund lawmakers use to dole out grants to favored nonprofits and community groups.

More than $6 billion in aid from Washington forestalled much of Paterson's proposed reductions to schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other health care institutions. But $6.5 billion in cuts and $4 billion from increasing taxes on the rich were required to close a two-year deficit of $17.7 billion.

The budget "closes the largest deficit in state history, stabilizes our finances and institutes critical reforms that will help eliminate waste and inefficiency in our government," Paterson said in a statement.

The plan boosts myriad taxes and fees on everything from driver's licenses to marine fishing licenses.

Still, elimination of the popular STAR rebate checks is sure to anger hard-pressed homeowners. The checks sent $1.4 billion back to taxpayers statewide - $370 million to Nassau and Suffolk residents - helping offset ever higher school levies.

The basic STAR and enhanced STAR exemptions - which reduce tax bills - are unaffected.

School taxes may rise in some districts despite the restoration of $1.1 billion in cuts proposed by Paterson. Superintendents said they were disappointed that education aid would grow by just $405 million, with the Island receiving 5 percent instead of its traditional 13 percent share.

Buffalo News - 'Spending and taxes both soar in state's new budget

The state's new, inflation-busting budget will require New Yorkers to pay more to go fishing and hunting, drive a car or motorcycle, have life insurance, operate the lights and heat in their homes, buy cigarettes, own a cell phone and drink beer, wine and bottled water.

Single taxpayers making more than $200,000 a year will see a jump in taxes, as will bus companies, nuclear plants, food processing companies, racehorse owners, farmers, pesticide applicators, grocery stores and anyone wanting to open a hospice.

In all, the total number of new taxes, fees and various assessments and surcharges will top $7 billion in the new budget that state lawmakers will vote on beginning Tuesday. The governor's office put the number at $5.3 billion, but that misses a number of levies.

The higher taxes will help pay for a budget that will soar to $131.8 billion-$10.7 billion more than what Gov. David A. Paterson proposed just three months ago. Federal bailout money accounts for two-thirds of that sharp increase, with the rest coming from new spending and debt.

The higher tax figures do not include the financial hit from some tax breaks being rescinded. Gone, for instance, are the annual STAR property tax rebate checks that arrive each fall right before Election Day. That will cost taxpayers $1.5 billion this year.

New York Magazine - Tax the Rich!
How did the poor win the New York tax war? Welcome to the era of the moneyed underclass.

"It's not an easy time to defend the rich," says Kathryn Wylde, head of the Partnership for New York City. "In the current environment, with the anti-Wall Street sentiment, it's just politically unattractive."

Dan Cantor, who runs the labor-affiliated Working Families Party, gave his own diagnosis. "We just work much harder than the right-wingers. They think they can just do it by writing checks to the politicians. We don't have money. We have our passion."

That's not quite true. In Albany, the wealthiest and most well-connected groups often are representing the little guy. The teachers unions burn through $4 million a year on donations to state lawmakers and lobbying expenses, rivaling the outlays of the state's hospital associations, which also pressed for a tax hike.

Since December, the supporters of the rich tax-an alliance of organized labor and community-activist groups-waged a campaign that further weakened Governor Paterson. They spent millions on ads attacking him and staged feisty protests. (At one near City Hall last month, 1199 SEIU president George Gresham mocked his adversaries: "Where are the wealthy going to go? Iowa?")

Cantor says his party also banged on 72,000 doors, collecting over 12,000 "handwritten" notes calling on Albany to raise taxes.

At the last minute, real-estate and business trade groups pulled a long-dormant nonprofit group, Taxpayers for an Affordable NY, out of the mothballs. But it hasn't done much good. The deeper problem, says Real Estate Board head Steven Spinola, is that "the business community is not as monolithic as the unions."

What are they saying in your neck of the woods?

VIDEO: Malcolm Smith On Rock Law Reform

by: phillip anderson

Fri Mar 27, 2009 at 13:14:33 PM EDT

It's Official: Rockefeller Drug Law Reform Deal Reached

by: phillip anderson

Fri Mar 27, 2009 at 12:48:22 PM EDT

New York Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders have agreed to ease drug laws that were once among the harshest in the nation and led a movement more than 30 years ago toward mandatory prison terms.

The agreement rolls back some of the tougher sentencing provisions pushed through the Legislature in 1973 by then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican who said they were needed to fight a drug-related "reign of terror."

Critics have long claimed the laws were draconian and crowded prisons with people who would be better served with treatment.

Paterson says Friday that judges will now be able to use techniques like treatment and counseling that have proven more effective than prison for low-level offenders. At the same time, penalties will be toughened for drug kingpins.

It's long overdue and I'm very curious to see the reactions to the details from those who have been following this decades long tragedy closest.

The full press release from the Three Men is in the extended entry.

UPDATE: Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) just released this statement:

"I am very proud to be a part of history today and finally see the Rockefeller Drug Laws reformed.  The reforms announced today will restore judicial sentencing discretion and substantially expand alternatives to incarceration for non-violent drug offenders.

It has been a long hard fight to reform these archaic drug laws and today is the culmination of decades of hard work and advocacy from countless people, all of whom deserve praise for helping to achieve these needed reforms."

Finally: Rockefeller Drug Law Deal Reached

by: phillip anderson

Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 02:49:27 AM EDT

Albany Reaches Deal to Repeal '70s-Era Drug Laws

Gov. David A. Paterson and New York legislative leaders have reached an agreement to dismantle much of what remains of the state's strict 1970s-era drug laws, once among the toughest in the nation.

The deal would repeal many of the mandatory minimum prison sentences now in place for lower-level drug felons, giving judges the authority to send first-time nonviolent offenders to treatment instead of prison.

The plan would also expand drug treatment programs and widen the reach of drug courts at a cost of at least $50 million.

New York's drug sentencing laws, imposed during a heroin epidemic that was devastating urban areas nearly four decades ago, helped spur a nationwide trend toward mandatory sentences in drug crimes. But as many other states moved to roll back the mandatory minimum sentences in recent years, New York kept its laws on the books, leaving prosecutors with the sole discretion of whether offenders could be sent to treatment.

...

Passing drug law revisions would give Senate Democrats a significant legislative victory at a time when Republicans are hammering them, saying they are disorganized and ineffective.

Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Manhattan Democrat who has led the effort in the Senate to overhaul the drug statutes, said he was confident he had support in the Senate to pass the plan.

"It's no secret the Senate's old majority was the primary barrier to reforming our drug laws," he said. "But this is one of the reasons we fought so hard to take the majority. This is what our supporters have expected us to do."

This four decade long experiment proved to be an utter disaster that destroyed families, especially those of people of color, denied judges the discretion to serve justice and led to the distortion of the state's political system by taking poor urban drug offenders from their communities and placing them in rural upstate prisons where they were counted as residents for purposes of apportionment, funding and redistricting.

It's profoundly disappointing that it has taken so long to finally repeal much of this sad abomination, but I guess it's better late than never. And let's face it, those folks in Albany needed this pretty bad as well, particularly Paterson and Smith.

Completely Made Of FAIL

by: phillip anderson

Wed Mar 25, 2009 at 13:27:31 PM EDT

Paterson Playing Hardball, To Cut 8,900 State Jobs

by: phillip anderson

Tue Mar 24, 2009 at 17:35:18 PM EDT

Citing a $16.2 billion budget deficit that appears to be growing larger by the day, Gov. David Paterson this afternoon said his administration will eliminate 8,900 jobs, starting this summer.

"This is not a decision that has been reached lightly," said a letter that went out minutes ago from Paterson's state operations director Dennis Whalen.

"However, given the fact that savings through labor concessions were not achieved, Governor Paterson was forced to make this difficult decision for the good of the entire state."

Budget Division spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said the job cuts will probably start in July and they apply to "full-time equivalents," which means some of the target might be reached by attrition.

In his message to agency heads, Whalen said they will be providing updates and bulletins over the next few weeks.

Still unknown was where most of the cuts may fall, by geography and by agency.

That's pretty damn harsh, especially given that huge chunk of change we just got from the feds, funds that were supposed keep states from having to lay off staff in the middle of a severe recession.

Dennis Whalen's full letter is in the extended entry.

UPDATE: Malcolm Smith's office just released this statement:

These are difficult times and no segment of the state is immune to the harsh reality of the fiscal crisis. We urge the union leadership who represent the public sector workforce to step up and renegotiate a fair agreement that is consistent with the principle of shared sacrifice all New Yorkers must accept during times of economic distress. Public employees are among the most vital contributors to our workforce, but at the same time, they must also be our partners as we strive to change the structure of our state's budget and get New York's economy back on track.

The Senate Dems Should be More Like Sheldon Silver

by: Roatti

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 17:34:09 PM EDT

Silver, if nothing else, has his finger on the political pulse of his conference and was able to cut a compromise where the MTA bailout's bridge tolls would be cut to $2. While I will never forgive Silver's deletion of congestion pricing in the most opaque manner legislatively possible, he appears to at least understand now that an essentially functional (and I use that term loosly) MTA is necessary to the city's survival.  

The Senate's (and frankly, the Governor's) obstinacy to politically painful actions and hard choices is not what I was expecting when we took over the chamber in the last cycle.  To be sure, it's a hell of a lot better than if Skelos was running the show, as every idiot in his conference has flat-out opposed any new bridge tolls.  But the Senate majority is not making an encouraging sign with this action, or lack thereof.  

The MTA finance committee just voted today to implement a drastic fare hike. To the Senators or any staffers who might be reading this, think ahead to next year's election: do you want to be known as the conference who let the MTA die? Stop twiddling your thumbs and make a hard choice. You wanted control and you got it- now use it.

And You Wonder Why His Poll Numbers Are Tanking...

by: phillip anderson

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 12:08:28 PM EDT

David Paterson said the M.T.A. board should go ahead with raising fares at its Wednesday board meeting, implicitly admitting that state government will not enact a revenue package to mitigate fare hikes beforehand.

"I don't think that the agency should delay any action," Paterson just said at a Red Room press conference.

Yesterday, he said he was "not really optimistic" that he and lawmakers would reach an agreement on time. When asked if he was meeting about an M.T.A. bailout in the next 48 hours, Paterson repeated that he's been "trying to reach an agreement for the past several weeks."

...

A reporter asked Paterson if he felt he had failed.

"No, I think it's an aspect of government that we all have to recognize: these two gentlemen run conferences in the legislature that need consensus and the three houses have to agree," he said. "Ascribing any kind of blame to one sector of the triad is often a way that people try to explain it, but you've got to have consensus. That's the way our democracy works."

I'm sorry, but that's just pathetic. Look, I know that getting a deal that both works to actually solve the problem and is acceptable to enough lawmakers in both chambers is a very difficult thing to do. It most certainly is. But, people expect their leaders to, ya know, lead. Leaders need to make the case for the way forward and work hard to bring it about, not just walk away when the going gets tough.

Is this a case of the Governor not having sufficient juice anymore as his poll numbers take a dive off a cliff, or is this simply an ineffective executive tossing his constituent's interests aside because the job is too demanding?

Regardless, there's plenty of blame to go around here, but only one of the three men in a room carries the title "Governor." Only one of them represents all New Yorkers. Walking away is simply unacceptable.

And he seriously thinks he's running for anything next year?

Typical

by: phillip anderson

Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 16:02:34 PM EDT

And no, I am not making that up.

Not If Or When, But How Much: WFP's Stepped Up 'Outside Game' Creates The Space For FSTR

by: phillip anderson

Mon Mar 16, 2009 at 10:43:27 AM EDT

Democratic leaders in the State Senate will seek income tax increases on at least some affluent New Yorkers and a sales tax increase of a quarter of 1 percent to help balance the state budget, a Senate official with knowledge of the plans said in an interview over the weekend.

"The hole is too deep to dig ourselves out by cuts alone," said the Senate official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the details of the proposal were still being hammered out. "The debate now is over where to start."

The move by Senate Democrats, who have a slim majority, will significantly increase pressure on Gov. David A. Paterson, who has said he would consider raising income taxes only as a last resort and only after the Legislature had agreed to steep cuts in state spending.

...

The Senate official said discussion within the leadership had moved in recent days from whether such a tax was needed to what contours it would take.

Among the questions were the income level at which it would kick in, the amount of the tax and whether it would include a sunset provision.

...

"It's better to tax the rich than crucify the poor," said Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party, a union-backed group that has lobbied aggressively for higher taxes on the wealthy to help close the state's $14 billion budget gap.

"The Senate is signaling that it needs to balance the budget in a balanced way, meaning smart cuts and fair taxes," Mr. Cantor said.

And while this move was in many ways always inevitable, the Working Families Party has helped greatly to bring it about by creating the space necessary to allow lawmakers to pull the trigger. As Crain's points out, their "outside game", as I like to call it, was key and it should be considered another rather large notch in their belt. It indeed was "textbook".

New York's chattering classes are no longer debating whether state income taxes will be jacked up on high earners. Now the only question is by how much. And the credit-or blame-for successfully framing the debate goes largely to a minor political party that's starting to have a major impact on state government.

The left-leaning Working Families Party has orchestrated a tax-reform campaign straight from the textbook of retail politics. Last week, it staged eight simultaneous rallies that drew nearly 100,000 people statewide, including 50,000 at City Hall. It has knocked on 42,000 doors, generating 7,000 handwritten letters to lawmakers. Radio advertisements saturate the airwaves in Albany. Its YouTube video "highlighting how easy the state's tax system is on millionaires," as a party spokesman put it, is being watched a thousand times a day.

"It certainly has made a difference," says Assemblyman Jonathan Bing, D-Manhattan, pointing to identical bills in the Assembly and Senate that would raise rates on people with adjusted gross incomes above $250,000.

It is not just the advocacy campaign, Mr. Bing says, but the Working Families Party's ability to oust incumbents that grabs legislators' attention. Indeed, the party campaigned relentlessly for months before last November's elections to evict state Senate veterans Serf Maltese and Caesar Trunzo, resulting in the Democratic takeover of the chamber. That, in turn, has made the tax increase achievable.

...

"We haven't won anything yet, but I feel like we're winning the debate," says Mr. Cantor, who has run the party since its creation.

State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, who is carrying the bill in the Senate, says: "They've been moving public opinion. And they have been effectively reaching out to those of us in the Legislature to encourage us-to show that not only is this the right thing to do, it's the politically popular thing to do."

The opposition has been meek by comparison. A conservative political action committee, New Yorkers for Growth, started an online petition, and the Real Estate Board of New York put together a group called Taxpayers for an Affordable New York, which includes the Business Council of New York State. The latter group sent a mailing to 125,000 high-earning households and launched a Web site that has generated 1,000 e-mail messages to legislators.

And take note of a key part of WFP's campaign, something they haven't done much of in the past. They are finally using using new media tools to augment their already impressive ground game, and doing so with great success. The video mentioned above was a huge hit and the Fair Share Tax Reform site has been very, very successful.

The Fair Share site, meanwhile, has generated 25,000 e-mails in addition to arranging the rallies, letters, commercials and personal meetings with lawmakers.

"They have a system, a very powerful system, for raising money and taking over the airwaves," says Kenneth Adams, president of the business council. "Millions of average New Yorkers across the state don't have those systems-and frankly, neither does the business community-to mobilize to oppose this."

Mr. Schneiderman says the Fair Share campaign has tapped into the growing public sentiment that "the redistribution of wealth to the wealthy went too far." But Mr. McMahon says the Working Families Party and its allies have used "class warfare" to "create the illusion of a mass movement."

Here's what Mr. McMahon does not get: That video cost next to nothing to produce and was distributed for free via YouTube, not by "taking over the airwaves". It was spread virally (it was a big hit on twitter, for example) by folks sympathetic to its undeniable message. Anyone of those supposed "millions of average New Yorkers" could have done the same. They didn't.

It's also rather insulting to the 100,000 or so folks who rallied from one of the state to the other to refer to their movement as an "illusion". As for the "class warfare" swipe, one of the things that makes WFP's video so potent and poignant is that it very simply and effectively illustrates that there has indeed been class warfare engaged in for the last few decades. Guess who has been winning? It's certainly not those "millions of average New Yorkers". This is obvious to everyone when they learn that they pay their state income taxes at the same rate as Donald Trump and Bernie Madoff.

The big takeaway for me is that WFP's game is getting stronger by their embrace of these new tools. Now, they haven't abandoned the "inside game" by any stretch. Trust me, I'm sure they are bringing the heat to lawmakers personally as well. But, they've added new tools to further increase the effectiveness of their outside game. If they can fully integrate an effective new media communications strategy with their already formidable ground game, watch out. This may be but the first example of an even more robust combined effort on their part.

Must Read Rock Law Report From NYCLU

by: phillip anderson

Wed Mar 11, 2009 at 16:52:06 PM EDT

There has emerged over the last decade a broad consensus among policy experts, criminal justice scholars and lawmakers that the War on Drugs, with its singular emphasis on incarceration, has failed.

In 1993, on the 20th anniversary of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, New York State Corrections Commissioner Thomas Coughlin, III, said the state was "lock[ing] up the wrong people ... for the wrong reasons."

Former Republican state senator John Dunne was a sponsor of the state's mandatory sentencing scheme for drug offenses. He subsequently organized a coalition that has advocated for fundamental reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. In 2004 he observed, in a television spot, "the Rockefeller Drug Laws have been a well-documented failure."

Yet, as the 36th anniversary of these laws approaches, the state continues locking up the wrong people for the wrong reasons.

This report presents and marshals the empirical evidence that demonstrates New York's mandatory-minimum drug sentencing scheme has failed, utterly, to accomplish its stated objectives. It has not reduced the availability of drugs or deterred their use; it has not made us safer.

The overwhelming majority of those serving time for drug offenses have been convicted of low-level, nonviolent offenses. Many of those individuals have substance abuse problems, and many suffer from a range of disabilities that will not be addressed in prison.

They leave prison prepared for little else but failure and re-incarceration. These individuals are all but guaranteed a vastly diminished earning capacity, if any at all. Families come apart. And because prosecution of drug offenses targets neighborhoods that are already under great social and economic stress, the drug war destabilizes entire communities.

For this dysfunctional approach to criminal justice policy, New York taxpayers pay dearly. Based on cost estimates calculated by the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform, taxpayers will pay about $600 million to incarcerate drug offenders in 2009 alone.

The costs are not only fiscal. The selective enforcement of the drug laws has done great damage to the integrity of the criminal justice system. The state's drug sentencing laws are the legacy of a grim racial history. And the nature of the injustice worked by these laws can only be fully understood in this historical context.

From the late 19th Century into the 1960s, Jim Crow laws were enforced with the objective of denying blacks equal protection of the laws and full participation in civil society. By the late 1960s the legal infrastructure of Jim Crow had been dismantled. But over the subsequent decades a successor was revived in statutes prohibiting drug use. Prosecution under these statutes has led to massive, unprecedented rates of incarceration - and prisons populated almost exclusively by people of color.

The Rockefeller Drug Laws are the Jim Crow laws of the 21st Century. This report includes demographic maps of urban centers throughout the state that depict in bold relief the racial and ethnic bias that informs the state's drug-law policy.

The Rockefeller Drug Laws are unjust, irrational and ineffective. Period.

The racial and ethnic profile of the population sent to prison for drug offenses is particularly striking. It is well established in scientific literature that the demographics of those who use or sell illicit drugs reflect the demographics of the general population. In other words, there are greater numbers of whites - as compared with blacks and Latinos - who use and sell drugs. However, nearly 90 percent of those incarcerated for drug offenses in New York State are black or Latino. And in this respect the year 2007 was unexceptional. Gross racial and ethnic disparities among those sent to prison for drug offenses have become statistical constants - both in New York State and nationwide.

The enactment of the Rockefeller Drug Laws in 1973 was a bold, albeit simplistic, political response to a complex public policy problem. The politics of this initiative were driven in part by then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller's aspiration for national office. Any such candidate must demonstrate a commitment to upholding law and order. And in the early 1970s there was concern among New Yorkers, and Americans generally, that a sharp rise in heroin use and property crime posed a growing threat to public safety. The governor responded by promoting, and ultimately signing into law, the nation's most harsh and inflexible drug sentencing statutes.

Here's a map of NYC from the report.

Twenty-five percent of NYC adults sent to prison in 2006 came from neighborhoods with just 4 percent of the adult population. More than half were admitted for drug offenses, and 97 percent were black or Latino - even though whites use and sell drugs in far greater numbers than blacks or Latinos

...

Community District 5, which includes East New
York, is populated largely by people of color. Just 5 percent of residents are non-Latino white. In 2006, at least 400 residents of the district were incarcerated; 40 percent of those individuals were sent to prison for drug offenses.

Community District 12, which includes the neighborhoods of Kensington and Borough Park, is 63 percent non-Latino white. In 2006, just 39 people living in the district were sent to prison. Approximately 25 percent of those individuals - about 10 - were sent to prison for drug offenses.

There's tons more data in the report and I really can not recommend it highly enough.

On the web: The Rockefeller Drug Laws: Unjust, Irrational, Ineffective