Last night the Legislature and the Governor, in classic three-men-in-a-room fashion, passed a new tax bill complete with a unanimous Senate vote while the pages were still warm and no one had time to read them. You can see the resulting tax brackets here.
It's not precisely the "millionaire's tax" but it's also very different from the pre-2009 rates. Whether taxes on the rich have gone up or down depends on where you start counting from, giving the Murdoch papers and their friends room to complain about tax hikes while everyone else considers it a tax cut.
Might this change have something to do with calls for fairness and a shift away from the "inequality is good for you" models of the past coming from the Occupy movement, including the folks he doesn't want on his doorstep in Albany?
He said the Occupation protests had nothing to do with his change of heart.
"My job as governor is to make the best decisions I can at the time to meet the needs of the state at the time," Cuomo said. "The role of government is to try and help the people of the state, bring a direction for the circumstances of the moment."
Maybe. Meanwhile, one of his predecessors, a ghost I'm less than happy to invoke on this site, is telling a different story:
"Occupy Wall Street has won, not that they achieved changes in policy, but I think that they have had a demonstrable effect on political discourse: What we are talking about, and what the agenda is most like these days," Spitzer said.
Spitzer added that he believed that, before Occupy Wall Street, nobody was paying attention to equity issues, the distribution of income and the inherent unfairness of the current economic structure.
Somehow I think protesting had an impact on the political conversation, even as it makes the very serious people nervous. The Three Men in a Room seem to have noticed that the conversation around them is changing, even if they haven't changed much.
In NY's race to the bottom, we hear Gov. Cuomo just agreed to grant $40 million in tax credits over five years to BAE whose Johnson City facilities were damaged by Hurricane Irene flooding. In exchange, BAE will keep about 1,400 jobs in the region.
Cuomo's Facebook announcement celebrated "not losing" the jobs without disclosing that BAE was getting a whopping $28,000 per worker, a tidy reward after threatening to leave the state.
If BAE sounds familiar, they are the UK-based global defense manufacturer whose alleged bribes helped bring down Tony Blair.
Saudi Prince Bandar allegedly received $2 billion in secret kickbacks for defense contracts.
BAE never admitted guilt in funneling the secret payments, but paid almost half a billion in fines to have the UK charges dropped in a first-of-its-kind "plea bargain" modeled after US "settlements" made between large corporations and the Bush DOJ in lieu of prosecution.
It's clear BAE knows how to wheel and deal politicians the world over, but did the NY taxpayer just get hosed or do we need to take these kinds of measure just to keep jobs from going over state lines?
I have mixed feelings about Governor Cuomo. One one hand, after the Spitzer/Paterson disaster, he has gone a long way towards restoring the credibility of the Governor as an institution. He also forced Gay Marriage through the legislature, which was no small feat. And his approval ratings remain sky-high, which bodes well for Democrats trying to recapture the Senate chamber in next year's elections.
On the other hand, his fiscal and economic policies sometimes leave me wondering what exactly he is trying to accomplish. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of government spending in New York that is wasteful and unjustified. A recent audit found astonishing levels of wasted funds. Please, cut that waste.
And in the same vein, I can't understand what Cuomo is thinking regarding his opposition to renewing the millionaires' tax. Keeping the tax is incredibly popular, so much so that even a Republican Senator supports it. Furthermore, keeping the tax would add $2.8 billion to the state's treasury next year. To put that in perspective, the budget deficit next year is predicted to be $2.4 billion. That means just by keeping the tax and doing nothing else, the state would run a $400 million surplus next year. There are a lot of needs for that money, like putting a vital rail extension on the Tappan Zee Bridge, plans for which have recently been cancelled in an extreme case of shortsightedness.
"Because then it wouldn't put any state, and I'm concerned about this state, at a competitive disadvantage," Cuomo said.
Cuomo says extending the tax only in New York would hurt business and cause the rich to flee the state.
Why is Cuomo speaking in the future tense about the wealthy fleeing New York? The tax already exists.The wealthy have not fled New York. Cuomo, who has always tried to paint himself as a nonpartisan pragmatist is doing exactly what true pragmatists don't do: they don't make up facts to serve political ends. It seems that Cuomo wants to be able to say in a 2016 presidential race that he never raised taxes as Governor. Well, I have a better suggestion for him: having a budget surplus would help more.
Bill Clinton raised taxes but will always have the legacy of a fiscal hawk because he created surpluses. So I'm not even asking Governor Cuomo to be a liberal. Just be Bill Clinton.
NEW YORK, NY - On the southeast corner of Occupy Wall Street, among the protesters, sleeping bags, and news cameras, hundreds of people have stopped by a small "political action table" to add their name to the 72% of New Yorkers who oppose giving a $5 billion tax break to New York's millionaires and billionaires. More than 1,500 individuals have signed onto the No Tax Break for Millionaires pledge since October 6th, calling on Governor Cuomo to stop the massive windfall New York's wealthiest will receive when the current millionaire's tax expires on December 31st of this year.
The #OWS petition calls for "the adoption of the 'Buffett Rule' at the Federal level" and advocates that "no Millionaire or Billionaire pays less in taxes than someone making less than them." The expiration of New York's millionaire's tax will lead to a $5 billion hole in the budget, which will be closed with additional cuts to vital public services on which all New Yorkers rely. Volunteers say the emergency economic and fiscal crisis that led to the 2009 surcharge is still in place and perhaps even aggravated.
Support for stopping the millionaire's tax break is palpable in Zuccotti Park. "Ninety-five percent of the people who come up to the table sign at least one petition. We can hardly close up the table when we need to because people are grabbing flyers and petition clipboards away from us," says Amy Miller, a political activist and psychologist. "The level of engagement, the openness of the OWS crowd to engage with the political system, and the cohesive support for a millionaire's tax is obvious."
The petitions will be delivered to elected officials, including Governor Cuomo, this month. Signed copies are also posted atwww.occupywallstreetkit.com. In addition, the volunteers collected another 1,000 signatures against hydro-fracking and registered voters at the table. The petitions against hydro-fracking are in collaboration with a group called United For Action, dedicated to a ban on the dangerous form of gas drilling. The team that put together the Political Action Table, a group of friends, have also handed out over 3,000 flyers since October 2nd.
An extension of the soon-to-expire millionaire's tax was, for months, considered a dead issue. Governor Cuomo's most recent budget favored the wealthy and punished the 99 percent with brutal cuts to education, basic public services, and even assistance for homeless children. Since the birth of Occupy Wall Street, however, there has been massive pushback - including an October 11th march against the 1% (a walking tour of well-known millionaires' homes in the Upper East Side), a newly revitalized coalition of labor and community groups opposing the tax break called 99 New York, and a Siena poll from October 17 showing that 72% of New York voters support extending the tax on those making more than a million dollars a year.
"We've been telling people that the millionaire's tax, on both the federal and state level, is no substitute for across-the-board tax reform. Instead, these specific surcharges are immediate and feasible actions that, especially in the case of New York, will help to stop further cuts on people whose services, jobs, and general well-being have already been subjected to brutal cuts," said Kate Linker, a writer and political activist. "We only worked in the afternoon and early evening. Had we worked all day, there would likely be hundreds more signatures," Linker added.
Governor Cuomo recently compared his opposition to extending the tax to his father's opposition to the death penalty. While Governor Mario Cuomo fought a popular policy due to a moral imperative, Governor Andrew Cuomo is fighting for the millionare's tax either due to the disproved myth of tax flight or, even worse, a desire to please his biggest donors here in New York State. "Comparing State executions to popular calls for a more equitable society is apples and oranges," says Jamie Ansorge, a law student and political consultant active in reform efforts.
"Sitting here in Lower Manhattan, the movement has shown me that this resurgence of civic engagement can change the course of political events in New York," Democracy for New York City (DFNYC) president and table volunteer Josh Silverstein said.
###
To volunteer for the Political Action Table, email Naomi at ows.table@gmail.com or sign up at www.occupywallstreetkit.com. You can also find templates for petitions and the final results of the effort on this site.
Volunteers at the Political Action Table are active across the city in other groups, including Greater NYC for Change, the Downstate Young Democrats, Democracy for New York City, United for Action, and the Strong Economy for All Coalition.
- Show quoted text -
Gov. Andrew Cuomo today drew an interesting comparison between his opposition to the millionaires tax and his father's anti-death penalty stance.
At a Red Room news conference, Cuomo said he wouldn't be swayed by voter surveys showing support for the tax on the state's wealthy, noting he supported the tax on the federal level (in a bit of Cuomoian logic, the governor said he, in fact, supported a millionaires tax on New Yorkers, just a federal surcharge being pushed by President Obama).
Impishness aside, Cuomo said his opposition was a principled one, similar to his father Mario's unwillingness to go along with the death penalty, a policy deeply rooted in the elder Cuomo's Catholic faith.
"My father was governor of this state. He was against the death penalty. Everyone in the state wanted the death penalty - everyone. It was near 80 percent. And he was the governor of the state and he said he wasn't going to sign it. Every year - go back and talk to some of the people who know the history - every year we had to scramble and make sure there wasn't an override of the veto.
(snip)
"The point is, we don't elect - the governor isn't a big poll taking machine. And that's what we do, we take a poll and do whatever the poll says and you wouldn't need me ... so the fact that everyone wants it, that doesn't mean all that much. I respect the people, their opinion matters, but I'm not going to go back and forth with the political winds."
The political winds? WTF are you talking about, Gov? The polling on this suggests that sentiment to retain the Millionaire's Tax is getting stronger, but it's not like New Yorkers have simply changed their minds. They've been pretty consistently in favor since before you were elected.
And comparing this to your father's opposition to the death penalty? What the hell? Is your opposition to the wealthiest New Yorkers paying their fair share in a time of fiscal crisis also deeply rooted in your Catholic faith?
Or are you just grasping at straws trying to defend a deeply unpopular giveaway to the very people who drove the economy into the ditch in the first place?
Beautiful day in New York as countless citizens exercised their new right to marry. The City and the state rolled out the rainbow welcome matt in an extraordinary show of support.
A Prominent Republican is joining a prominent Democrat in predicting that Gov. Cuomo will become President Obama's running mate for vice president next year.
More like this, please. From an emailed press release:
GOVERNOR CUOMO SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER
Removes Concrete Barriers on State Street; Reopens Hall of Governors on 2nd Floor to Give Public Greater Access to Their Government
ALBANY, NY (01/01/2011)(readMedia)-- Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed an Executive Order, the first of his administration, removing physical barriers erected in and around the New York State Capitol in order to give the public greater access to their government. As a result of the Executive Order, a series of concrete barriers stretching the length of the Capitol along State Street will be immediately removed
The order also reopens the Hall of Governors on the second floor of the Capitol to the public. The Hall, where many of the executive chamber offices are located, has been closed to the public since 1995.
"This is more than just a symbolic gesture, this literally reopens areas of the Capitol building that have been closed to the public for years," Governor Cuomo said. "In order to restore faith and trust in government, we have to tear down barriers that have excluded people from the governing process. Today we take the first step in that effort."
Several correspondents on the scene (including the person who submitted the pictures to us) report that Carl was pretty well lubricated and enjoyed spending time with another core constituency, guys in blackface.
Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm kinda gonna miss this guy.
On Tuesday, a memo from the Department of Environmental Conservation's Commisioner, Pete Grannis, to the Governor was leaked to the press. In the memo, Commissioner Grannis tried to make the case that DEC was already at its lowest point in staffing, that the requested layoff of 209 personnel would seriously impact the ability of the Department to fulfill its mission.
was fired Thursday by Gov. David Paterson for what a state source ascribed to "poor performance and insubordination."
The immediate cause was the leak of a memo, sent by DEC to the Budget Division, that laid out in stark terms the possible consequences of the planned layoffs of more than 200 agency employees.
CATSKILL - Greene County legislators and administrators learned late Monday afternoon, and confirmed on Tuesday, that Gov. David A. Paterson's office is withholding $500,000 in federal Greene County Department of Social Services reimbursement funds because the county legislature did not install Paterson's selection for interim Greene County Treasurer.
County legislature chairman Wayne Speenburgh said Tuesday that the county only learned of the withholding when a DSS staffer contacted Albany on Monday to find out why the June reimbursement payment was excessively late....
Speenburgh said that rather than react without the facts, they awaited Tuesday's business day and received confirmation from NYS Senator James Seward and NYS Assemblyman Pete Lopez that the money was, in fact, being withheld, and that it was because of the dispute over the interim Treasurer's position.
The dispute doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The County Treasurer resigned, and the County Legislature appointed a staffer to fill the seat temporarily. The Governor's office then insisted that it had the power to appoint, and nominated the Democrat running for the office in November. As that candidate puts it - I'm pretty certain rightly - in the article:
"I would argue that this does not help me," Pavese said.
And as other Democrats put it in the article:
"I want to stress again that the Democratic caucus of Greene County does not agree with the decision of the Governor to withhold this money," said Frey.
"I had never in my wildest dreams could have imagined the Governor would hold Greene County hostage," he said.
Fellow Democratic County Legislator Forest Cotten, of Catskill, concurred.
"I'm completely shocked and outraged," said Cotten. "I cannot believe the Governor would pick on the poorest members of our community."
"This county has upwards of 30 percent of people who receive assistance from DSS," said Cotten. "We absolutely cannot afford to lose this money."
I've heard a lot more talk lately about the state withholding funds from counties, mostly because Oneida County was talking about keeping some funds it sends the state in its own accounts unless the state paid what it owed. It's also come up in conversations about the Tompkins County budget and what happens if you don't live up to every state mandate the way the state wants.
When I was pondering running for Assembly, I realized early on that a key part of my platform was going to have to be a lowered local sales tax. That wasn't a voluntary thing - it was what I expected to result from demanding reform of a legislature that doesn't have to pass home rule legislation put forward by members who step out of line.
With luck, the Governor's office will come to its senses, but the damage has likely already been done. Much as I'd like to put this one down to the unpleasant side of Governor Paterson's apparently random style of governing, these are real issues we're going to be fighting over for the next few decades.
Do we want counties to be the local office of state government?
Redlich and Paladino Continue Battle of Wits Before Big Debate
Is everybody excited for the big gubernatorial debate coming up on Monday? I know I am, because I have a weird affinity for third party candidates. As the Wall Street Journal observed earlier this week (ew, I hate linking to that paper) all the third-party candidates have been invited at Crazy Carl Paladino's insistence.
And probably to his detriment. His borderline insanity becoming more apparent with each passing day, he's apparently too foolish to concede defeat in the battle of wits currently being instigated by Libertarian candidate Warren Redlich. Last week, Redlich went for the jugular with this YouTube parody of Paladino's infamous encounter with New York Post reporter Fred Dicker. It was the funniest thing I've seen all season.
Could the debate on Monday be even funnier? If Paladino continues taking the bait the way he did in the Journal...
Mr. Redlich said he is "the only real choice for anyone who is toward the right of center," asserting that Mr. Paladino "has made himself difficult to vote for." (A spokesman for Mr. Paladino, Michael Caputo, said Mr. Redlich is "so busy leering at teen girls and pushing for legalized narcotics that Carl wouldn't want his vote anyway.")
...which gave Redlich the in to release this response today...
Mr. Redlich admits to reading Mr. Paladino's e-mails. However, he does not "leer" at them and more importantly, he doesn't forward them.
On the drug issue, Mr. Paladino should be among the first to recognize the problems with our current policy. It failed to prevent his own son Patrick from "struggling with an addiction to drugs and alcohol," as reported by the New York Times.
Mr. Paladino might want to learn that well-known saying: "People who own taxpayer-funded glass office buildings shouldn't throw stones."
...then we could have quite the LIB vs. GOP smack-down on Monday.
This is what I like about Warren Redlich. He knows how to deal with Paladino in a way Cuomo doesn't want to. Redlich's strategy appears to be to instigate Crazy Carl into even more public mudslinging, and so far it's working. The Paladino campaign is bleeding votes thanks to it's candidates lunacy, and Redlich's libertarianism is probably the most attractive alternative.
How does this help the Democratic Party? By syphoning votes away from the Paladino Party (or whatever he's calling his new for-sale party line), Redlich is giving us some extra help by making sure the Tea Party dies a quick death in New York State. If Redlich's campaign ends up leaving Carl's for-sale Tea Party line short of the 50,000 votes it needs to rear it's ugly head again, he will have done much better by us Democrats than most of us are currently giving him credit for.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it. And stay tuned to see if anything like this goes down at the debate.
I'm not entirely sure why this exists, but its hysterical. The Buffalo News says that its the same people who did the Tiger Woods video depiction last year. View at your discretion, there's some depictions of Paladino's email...
Libertarian Gubernatorial CandidateUses Dino-Dicker Confrontation to Hilariously Frame His Issues
Remember a few weeks ago when Carl Paladino flew off the handle in a confrontation with New York Post political guru Fred Dicker? And do you recall the observations earlier this week that it might be the Libertarian's year thanks to the alienation of 'Dino supporters as a result?
Libertarian Gubernatorial candidate Warren Redlich has just posted what I consider to be the most hilarious political satire video of the year to take advantage of the fallout.
Just for the record, that's not really Fred Dicker in the video. Redlich confirmed that it's a fellow LP activist. But I still think this is a classy dig at Paladino.
Even more classier, Redlich did what Paladino should have done in real life by issueing a public "apology" to Mr. Dicker for the fictitious indcident:
In light of the recent confrontation between journalist Fred Dicker and Governor candidate Warren Redlich, the Redlich campaign today issued the following statement:
We regret that the incident turned ugly. "I apologize for losing my temper, and for my colorful language," Mr. Redlich said.
Honestly, I was laughing my ass off. Finally, I thought, a candidate willing to stick it to Paladino the way it should be done: with humor. Paladino is not worth taking seriously, and many of his antics, while patently offensive, are also laugh-out-loud stich-worthy.
I also like the way Redlich uses the dig to frame his two main sticking points agianst his two strongest opponents, Paladino himself and our guy, Andrew Cuomo. I had the pleasure of eating lunch with Mr. Redlich earlier this week. My main intention was to simply get face time with another Albany area attorney who might need my services as a paralegal. But he's glad enough to have a firm that's shrinking, and was even more proud to say, and I quote: "I'm the only candidate who's not full of crap."
I like how he ran with this so much, that I'm even going to give you the rest of the release below the fold; he ties the joke into some serious questions for both major party candidates.
I'd been thinking the Libertarians and Warren Redlich would be facing an uphill climb this year - not just for Governor, but for the 50,000 votes statewide needed to give them state recognition and ballot access.
Redlich still has a tiny budget and a small base of supporters, but given that Paladino has lurched into social conservatism and has the Conservative line, I wonder if Redlich might become a haven for New York State's remaining socially liberal Republicans (yes, they exist here and vote) to express their preference.
In a few years, we could see people complaining about the "corruption of the Libertarian establishment" - that seems to be the nature of fusion parties in New York - but there could be some interesting reverberations here. Would they work with the Republicans the way the Conservatives have? Might they keep their platform clearer than the Independence party?
"I didn't march in the Gay Pride parade this year. My opponent did. There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual. That's not how God created us, and that's not the example that we should be showing our children - and certainly not in our schools," Paladino said.
You know Carl, if I had cheated on my wife and sired children with my mistress, I'd keep my trap shut on what "we should be showing our children." You might want to think twice about making morality the cornerstone of your stump speeches.
I think we're catching on to what to expect from God's bullies of morality.
It's been obvious since Crazy Carl stomped hapless Rick Lazio in the primary that Paladino is in way over his head. The not-ready-for-primetime campaign has stumbled from one ridiculous embarrassment to another over the last few weeks. Now comes word that he's bought TV time across the state to make a "major announcement" later today. Lord only knows what this is all about.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino is planning to make some sort of major television announcement tomorrow at 5:13 p.m., my sources tell me.
"Paladino has purchased a [block of TV time] in Buffalo with the 3 network affiliates at 5:13 with a satellite uplink avail for downstate media. You cannot turn on the major channels with-out seeing Carl.
"The broadcast will be rerun in Rochester, Albany and Syracuse (broadcast ) and Channel 12 on LI, plus Westchester Fox cable later that evening," Source 1 tells me. "YNN and NY-1 [were] asked to sell Paladino time for statewide reach -- they both declined. [He is] trying to buy FOX statewide at 5:13... Simulcast difficult -- may be on at 6 p.m. Huge audience. Then the campaign looked to put it up statewide on a Sports network where few women watch. [It] fell through -- too complicated for simulcast. [About] 45 % of general elections upstate will see it.... Satellite will reach [approximately] another 30 % through news outlets."
Paladino is taping this message -- whatever it may be -- at 4 p.m., and it will post online at 5:13 p.m., Source 1 said.
....
"He's getting contacted by a lot of Republicans, Conservatives and Tea Party leaders... At a Democrat rally [tonight] he was talking to some very old friends [from Buffalo]."
Paladino, Source 2 said, went home and "he's spending time there, and he's making his mind up what he's going do. There are party regulars telling him he needs to apologize. There are party irregulars telling him to go foward and reveal" some sort of bad oppo about Cuomo. "He's taking his own counsel."
The only thing that seems not to be in the works is a Paladino announcement that he's pulling out of the race... But who knows???
Paladino "taking his own counsel" is a scary thought indeed.
So what do you think he's up to? A McCain-esque "suspension" of his campaign while he does...I dunno, something? Does he reveal some sort of evidence of Cuomo shenanigans? Does he go all Ross Perot on us and reveal a plot against his family? Does he apologize for something (or everything?)
Or is he just a nutter jerking the chains of 19 million New Yorkers?
The poll, which I believe is somewhat flawed but still very useful, shows Andrew Cuomo up by 24 on Carl Paladino. While I believe that number is high (I think his lead is actually closer to 16-20), the crosstabs paint a beautiful picture: This race is over.
First, let me explain why I think the top-line number on the poll is flawed - Siena is predicting just 31% of the electorate to be Republicans (overall ~31-47-22). I think the number will be significantly higher with a more motivated base. However, even when the numbers are rejiggered to predict what would happen if Republicans were 40% of the electorate (40-40-20), Cuomo still leads by 16 points.
The most telling statistic is this: 10% of Democrats are planning to vote for Paladino, but 25% of Republicans are planning to vote for Cuomo. That means that the Republicans need to be 62% of the voters on election day for Paladino to win (weighting the crosstabs 62-29-9 produces a 8/100ths of a point lead for Paladino). Nate Silver recently explained that a lead of 9 points for a governor this close to election day has only been overcome once in the last 12 years, and a lead of 12 points or more has not been overcome in that timeframe. There is no reason to believe that this year will be any different.
On the heels of his clergy group's endorsement of GOP AG candidate Dan Donovan, "true Democrat" Ruben Diaz Sr. is open to endorsing Carl Palin-dino for governor because Cuomo has so far declined to meet with Diaz's group of anti-gay bigots:
"(Cuomo) doesn't want to because he believes the gay community would get angry and he doesn't want to get the gay community angry," Diaz Sr. said.
"Now Paladino came and he's coming back. Soon. Soon. And we believe that anyone that wants to be governor should be governor for everybody - for everybody - gay, straight, Chrisitan, Muslim, Jews, Hebrews."
Yeah, it's all a conspiracy! But maybe Diaz has a point- why exactly would Cuomo want to give legitimacy to a bigoted State Senator who didn't even possess the organizational muscle to help his best "amigo" in the Senate win re-election in the neighboring Senate district? That is certainly not worth alienating the Gay Community for.
But then again with Diaz on board, Palin-Dino just might pull out the swing district of the Bronx.
Also check out this awesome video F-U to Diaz from Rosie Perez where she calls out Diaz for his bigotry in the name of New York's latinos:
