What a picture!

by: Dan Jacoby

Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 21:52:46 PM EDT

The article really says very little new; what is fascinating is the picture -- everyone in the picture blurred as if in motion, except for Malcolm Smith, who is center and in fine focus.  My guess is that the original picture had everyone in sharp focus, but they blurred everything except Smith (even the table and wall are blurred).

Although the title of the article is "Blame Panic in G.O.P. For Standoff in Albany," I wonder if the picture is an attempt to place blame on Smith without directly saying so.

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith statement

by: Andrew C. White

Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 16:57:02 PM EDT

STATEMENT FROM AUSTIN SHAFRAN, PRESS SECRETARY FOR SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MALCOLM A. SMITH

"This was an illegal and unlawful attempt to gain control of the Senate and reverse the will of the people who voted for a Democratic Majority.

Nothing has changed, Senator Malcolm A. Smith remains the duly elected Temporary President and Majority Leader.  The real Senate Majority is anxious to get back to governing, and will take immediate steps to get us back to work."

This is about to get real interesting.

Good News Everybody! Foley and Johnson Ok "Quick Fix" MTA Plan

by: BingChester

Mon May 04, 2009 at 23:25:28 PM EDT

Thankfully, after a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, it appears that Senator Foley and Johnson will support the plan.

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

Meet Albany's 'King Geek'

by: phillip anderson

Tue Mar 24, 2009 at 12:17:22 PM EDT

Albany's King Geek

A few months ago, Andrew Hoppin was advising President Obama's NASA transition team and contemplating his next move. He was settling back into New York after leaving the NASA Ames Research Center near Sunnyvale, Calif., where he co-founded and managed the NASA CoLab-a program that aimed to bring efficiency and transparency to the creaky government agency through new technologies. He encouraged astronauts to Twitter from space.

...

So in January, he approached his friend, Andrew Rasiej, a fixture in political tech circles. It was perfect timing; since early January, Mr. Rasiej and Micah Sifry, co-founders of Personal Democracy Forum and techPresident.com, had been advising the New York Senate majority leader, Malcolm Smith, on using technology to make Albany more open, transparent and efficient-the same kind of work Mr. Hoppin had been doing at NASA. Mr. Rasiej encouraged Mr. Hoppin to consider applying his talents to New York State.

"I told him, Obama's people will be looking over your shoulder because they won't be able to move fast enough," Mr. Rasiej told The Observer. In the Senate, Mr. Rasiej explained, Mr. Hoppin had the opportunity to "move the ball farther" and set an example for upgrading government for every state in the nation.

"They convinced me that they were really serious about this," said Mr. Hoppin, 37, who is mild-mannered, of medium height and wears gray suits with blue shirts to match his eyes. He often keeps his top button unbuttoned. "They would take Albany, which doesn't have the best reputation for being the most efficient place, and do it right with transparency and technology." Mr. Smith, along with Senate secretary Angelo Aponte, appointed Mr. Hoppin to be the first ever chief information officer for the New York State Senate.

...

To be sure, if Mr. Hoppin and his team have a mantra, it's "efficiency, transparency and participation." In just a few weeks, they announced that senators could (finally) access their email on the Web (efficiency). They launched a Facebook page, Twitter account and Tumblr blog to announce new projects from the chief of information office (transparency). And they helped create, literally overnight, two Web sites to solicit suggestions from constituents on the M.T.A.'s budget shortfall (NYMTAIdeas.org) and opinions on the state's budget deficit (NYBudgetIdeas.org), as well as a prototype Web site for the Plain Language Initiative, which translates extracts data and legal jargon from M.T.A. budget documents into readable text, tables and charts to help commuters understand why the M.T.A. board is proposing bridge tolls, fare hikes and service cuts (participation).

And that's only the beginning. Within the next month, the team will launch a new Web site designed with Drupal, an open-source software program, (which powers Observer.com) that will make blogging available to senators and include applications for more public participation. Constituents will be able to post views on new bills and initiatives, as well as review and "vote" up and down on the ideas of others. The CIO team is organizing training sessions for senators and their staff on social networking platforms and how to pay attention to online feedback. Last week, they hired mobile specialist Nathan Freitas to create new phone applications that will allow citizens to get government news on the go. This week, they hired a Drupal whiz, Craig Leinoff, who worked as technical officer and contributor for Jewcy Magazine.

The group plans on creating a wiki-an editable, community-created online document-that will welcome ideas and suggestions from New Yorkers and other state government staffers on their road map to upgrading Albany.

"Technology has to be a strategic asset of every office, rather than something that is off in a corner," Mr. Hoppin told The Observer. "There's a lot of room for government to use technology for better transparency, better efficiency, better participation, but also empowering legislators to do a better job-but it requires putting technology at the center."

An embrace of new technology and new communications tools should be a very welcome development for those of us who have advocated for more access to usable information about how the state is governed. It's so refreshing to see that the Senate appears to be genuinely interested in making data that by all rights the property of the citizens of New York available in a useful manner. It is also quite a breath of fresh air to see the New York State Senate(!) adopting robust two way communications across a number of platforms.

This is stuff that other states have been doing for years and we have a lot of catching up to do. But, the years of neglect do have a silver lining. This new team is essentially starting from scratch in many of these endeavors. They have the opportunity to build an entirely new series of tools and processes without being much burdened by bad decisions or purchases or policies from a decade ago. That's a luxury early adopter states don't really have.

What will Hoppin's team do with this opportunity to profoundly re-engineer the Senate's relationship with information as well as with those the Senators were elected to serve? I guess we'll see. That said, I'm very, very encouraged so far.

On the web: NY Senate CIO blog.

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.

Monserrate Gives Up Committee Chair

by: phillip anderson

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 16:13:41 PM EDT

"Today, Senator Monserrate and I met to discuss the proceedings he is facing. As a result of this meeting, Senator Monserrate asked to temporarily step down as Chair of the Senate's Consumer Affairs Committee. I have accepted his request and such action is effective immediately. Senator Monserrate will retain his duties as a member of the State Senate during this time, but will not have the privilege of serving as chair until such time as his legal proceedings have been completely resolved."

Earlier, Smith's spokesman, Austin Shafran, said the Senator Monserrate's indictment would be discussed in the Senate Dem conference.

Hank Morris And Ending Pay For Play In New York

by: phillip anderson

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 09:33:10 AM EDT

It's time to end pay for play
Until Albany enacts public financing for state races, offices like the comptroller's will remain too susceptible to corruption

If money is power, then the most powerful public official in New York is its comptroller, the sole trustee of a state employees pension fund worth more than a hundred billion dollars.

Just how that power can corrupt was evidenced last week in a searing criminal indictment by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and a corresponding civil complaint by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. In this hard-core version of Albany's already scandalous pay-to-play culture, two top advisers to former Comptroller Alan Hevesi allegedly shook down major firms and investors seeking business with the pension fund, garnering over $30 million in kickbacks and gifts.

...

The sweep of this indictment, how-ever, leads to the conclusion that those reforms aren't enough - that more fundamental changes are needed. Albany must finally enact public campaign financing for statewide officials. And to reassure taxpayers that the pension fund has the best possible oversight, a task force must evaluate whether there should be a board of trustees.

...

Whether New York should change its sole trustee arrangement needs to be examined. What doesn't need to wait is campaign financing. Not needing millions of dollars to run reduces the temptation to abuse the office.

Since DiNapoli took office, he has been recommending public financing for comptroller races. His proposal would cap spending in the primary and general election campaigns and allow the candidates to get $6 in public funding for every $1 raised. This still requires the candidates to solicit contributions of more than $1 million in private funds. It's a start.

The Morris indictment, however, should spark support for public financing for all statewide races. In the past two years, Gov. David A. Paterson, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have all supported campaign financing reform, if not outright public financing. Which ones will now take ownership of the movement for campaign reform - Paterson? Silver? Or Smith?

Attorney General Cuomo just hung a "For Sale" sign for all to see on Albany.Now, we need to see who's going to take it down.

The three men now running our state government have talked a good game for years on enacting significant and meaningful campaign finance reform. Now that the largest obstacle to achieving those reforms, the late GOP majority in the state Senate, has been removed, it's put up or shut up time.

The people of New York deserve nothing less than full public financing of campaigns. It could very well be the best money we've ever spent.

Your telephone is ringing, Governor Paterson. Pick it up.

The Reviews Are In

by: phillip anderson

Wed Mar 18, 2009 at 10:22:57 AM EDT

New York Times - Paterson Rejects Democrats' M.T.A. Plan

In an intensifying battle among Democrats, Gov. David A. Paterson on Tuesday flatly rejected a Senate version of a rescue plan for the financially troubled Metropolitan Transportation Authority and said he would continue to push for tolls on the East and Harlem River bridges.

Mr. Paterson chided the Democratic majority in the Senate for choosing what he described as a short-term solution that left big holes in future budgets at the authority. His strong stance suggested that the debate over how to prevent sharp fare increases and service cuts could drag late into the budget season.

"The solution must be taken now," Mr. Paterson said. "Unfortunately there seems to be a belief that these types of issues can be deferred into some sort of future activity. This is what's gotten Albany in trouble time and time again."

The governor was asked if there were any way the Senate plan could be adopted and provide a solution for the authority's problems.

He answered bluntly, "No."

Daily News - Get serious, Malcolm: Senate Majority Leader Smith delivers a massive turkey of an MTA plan

A scribbler on a napkin could have crafted a more coherent plan for preserving mass transportation in New York than the slapdash dodge offered yesterday by state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith.

Challenged to ensure the survival of affordable, reliable transportation for millions of riders, Smith and his Democrats delivered half measures that were, at best, half baked.

The flaws in Smith's prescription were as fundamental as can be - starting with the fact that his numbers didn't add up. This would be laughable except that, left unchecked, he and his colleagues would subject subway, bus and commuter line passengers to enormous fare hikes and declining service.

The senator protests that he is engaged in a serious effort to get the Metropolitan Transportation Authority onto long-term sound footing. He asked that we present this assertion as a matter of fairness. There. We've done so.

Now, we note - we emphasize - that rarely have we seen such a huge and damaging gap between a politician's rhetoric and reality. That's because Smith's presentation was an exercise in political calculation rather than considered policy-making.

A handful of his members, among them Brooklyn Sen. Carl Kruger, don't have the backbone to play straight with constituents.

Mired in deficits, the MTA will be forced to impose backbreaking fare hikes and service cuts, and to abandon track, station and signal maintenance, unless the Legislature provides funding.

A commission chaired by former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch proposed a modest payroll tax and tolls for the East River and Harlem River bridges. Gov. Paterson signed on, as did Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver after easing the tolls a bit. But Smith & Co. balked without providing a remotely credible alternative.

He promises they'll figure that out later. Right. Sure. First he'll have to clear up a detail: He says he would hold a fare hike to 4% this year, but when the MTA runs Smith's figures, they total out to requiring a 17% boost.

Poor guy, his plan is an epic bomb.

New York Post - MALCOLM IN THE MUDDLE

Forging a rescue of the cash-strapped MTA was Malcolm Smith's first big test as Senate majority leader.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Gov. Paterson were already on board with a bailout, at least in principle. All Smith had to do was bring his house into agreement.

He couldn't.

Indeed, if Senate Democrats were looking for the fastest way to run New York's transit system into '70s-era ruin, they couldn't have done much better than the snake-oil-infused compromise they proposed yesterday.

...

Still, it's clear that Smith has absolutely no control over his conference.

Yesterday's travesty was engineered by the same loathsome Senate foursome who withheld their support from Smith as majority leader until he bought them off with plum committee chairmanships.

That's not leadership. That's a commercial transaction.

If only New Yorkers who depend on a safe, reliable transit system had that kind of leverage.

If only Malcolm Smith had a spine.

New York Times - Falling Down on the Job of Maintaining Mass Transit

One night in 1981, the State Senate was in pitched battle over proposals to raise taxes to help pay for mass transit in New York City and the region. The bills needed 31 votes to pass. The 31st and final vote in favor was cast by Howard C. Nolan, a senator from upstate.

There was one slight problem. At the time Mr. Nolan's vote of "aye" was counted, he was actually in a hospital, having an operation. Had he been in the Capitol, he said later, he would have voted against the taxes.

Say what you will, those were the days when a state leader could round up votes, even from the unconscious.

...

It would be simple to say that Mr. Smith had fallen down on the job. The plain fact is that much of the state government is run by two exceptionally weak men, Mr. Smith and Gov. David A. Paterson. Both are hobbled by threadbare support from their party, and they give no evidence that they have the political skills to work around that.

Mr. Smith has a majority of 32 to 30 in the Senate, and at any moment, several in his own party are ready to throw him into a ditch. He has yet to supplement his power with the least bit of support from any Republicans, who have fallen from the majority after four decades and grumble that they can't even get a photocopier fixed in a building where they were once lords of the manor.

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The Assembly made some compromises, limiting the new tolls to $2. But Mr. Smith could not get the agreement of any Republicans and apparently lost a number of Democrats who did not want to ask their constituents to pay to drive into Manhattan, although drivers who use the bridges are outnumbered 7- or 8-to-1 by riders of mass transit.

Ouch. That's going to leave a mark.

Back to the drawing board, senators, because this plan appears to be DOA.

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

Malcolm Smith Speaks: Listen Here

by: phillip anderson

Mon Mar 09, 2009 at 18:25:27 PM EDT

This is the part where I usually do my obligatory critique of the new Majority's New Media outreach efforts and question the efficacy of sending me a raw mp3 file. Not today though.

As always, baby steps.

MTA Bill Languishes, Weiner Says Exempt NYers From Bridge Tolls

by: phillip anderson

Mon Mar 09, 2009 at 15:39:03 PM EDT

There was talk over the weekend that a deal for a Metropolitan Transit Authority bailout was near. However, today a deal  seems far away as ever as opposition to the plan in the Senate has solidified in the form of at least 5 Senators who stand against it.

Majority Leader Malcolm Smith played down concerns that a few members were holding up the plan.  Smith insisted that the Senate does not have a full plan in place for members to decide on yet. "We're still going over the plan itself," Smith told reporters at a press conference this morning.

Smith and Paterson say that there is still time for a plan to be reached before the March 25 deadline. On that date the MTA says that it will have to make major cuts to service and increase fares if it has not received a bailout.

Critics say that the MTA bailout is the first real test of Smith's leadership. Smith faces dissension from the three Democratic Senators who stood against him in his bid to take over as the Democratic leader in the Senate.

...

The problem is that the majority has yet to hire all the staffers it needs to complete the task. Advocates worry that if there is not a deal on the MTA bailout before  budget talks heat up the plan will be lost in the shuffle.

Rep. Anthony Weiner has proposed his own plan, one that may help bring some of those senators on board. Why? Weiner's plan would exempt New Yorkers from the proposed tolls over the East River bridges.

Representative Anthony D. Weiner on Monday released his version of a rescue plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in which tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges that would be paid only by people who do not live in New York City.

Mr. Weiner, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn, and who is is planning to run for mayor in November, has long been an opponent of putting tolls on bridges where they don't already exist.

But he said on Monday that making new tolls - which he would set at $4.15 - payable only by non-city residents would be a compromise that could gain traction in Albany and would be a bit like reviving the commuter tax, which was eliminated 10 years ago.

He predicted the tolls would raise $391 million a year.

"This is my contribution to trying to solve this problem," Mr. Weiner said in a telephone interview.

Could this be what breaks the logjam? I guess we'll know soon enough.

On the web: Streetsblog.

Senate Dems Roll Rock Reform To Budget

by: phillip anderson

Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 13:49:27 PM EST

"Our Conference gathered Wednesday night to discuss proposed reforms to the Rockefeller Drug Laws, including the Governor's proposed bill and the Aubry/ Schneiderman legislation (A.3984/S.2855). The conversation was thoughtful and frank, and our members expressed a consensus that we need to undertake Rockefeller Drug reform. At the conference, our members raised a number of issues and concerns that must be taken into consideration, specifically the importance of investing new economic development resources into the communities that currently house the potentially thousands of non-violent offenders who would instead enter drug treatment facilities under proposed Rockefeller Drug Law reform.

It became clear in our discussions that this is as much a budgetary and economic issue as it is a sentencing issue. For this reason, the Senate intends to include the key provisions of Rockefeller Drug Law reform in our upcoming budget resolution to ensure that:

·          There is adequate funding for treatment facilities;

·          We invest in communities that currently house non-violent offenders who will instead enter drug treatment facilities to mitigate any economic impact and diversify the local economy with new economic development initiatives;

·          We secure additional funding for counties that incur additional costs because of local treatment and incarceration requirements. The proposed Executive Budget cuts back on funding for local probation-we will restore those funds to protect local municipalities from another unfunded mandate; and

·          Expand judicial discretion to ensure that judges can make informed sentencing decisions.

We believe the best way to comprehensively achieve each of those goals would be to include these provisions as part of the State Budget.

As savings from Rockefeller Drug Law reform are realized, that funding   will be dedicated to meeting the costs that may be incurred as a result of the reforms initiated. However, the Senate is currently working with our colleagues in government to determine what streams of funding in the federal stimulus package are also available to offset upfront costs that are incurred.

Rockefeller Drug Reform can be a win-win. We are addressing this issue in a diligent and prudent manner to protect communities, save taxpayers millions of dollars, and reduce the high rate of recidivism that occurs under the current policy. We look forward to negotiating an agreement with the Assembly and the Governor that helps us simplify and improve outdated sentencing laws."

I'm honestly not sure what this means for the prospect of finally repealing these laws that have quite obviously failed. I suspect that ultimately this is good news and the reasoning put forward by the Majority Leader appears sound. That said, I'd love to hear from anyone who can shed a bit more light on exactly what just happened here.

Little help?

Just Say Yes

by: phillip anderson

Tue Mar 03, 2009 at 09:44:19 AM EST

Just say yes to drug law reform

To listen to the three people who effectively run state government, this ought to be the year when New York finally reforms the Rockefeller era drug laws.

Put Governor Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver or even Senate Majority Malcolm Smith before a microphone, a camera or two and the right audience, and they'll express their passionate opposition to what amounts to 36 years of failure.

"Few public safety initiatives have failed as badly and for as long as the Rockefeller Drug Laws," Mr. Paterson said in his State of the State speech two months ago.

This week, especially, is the time for the governor to act upon such forceful and unequivocal words. In the Assembly, where Mr. Silver vows to "break this state's addiction to mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent offenders," the membership is ready to pass legislation that would give judges the discretion to send those found guilty of having smaller amounts of illegal drugs to treatment rather than prison and to allow thousands of inmates to seek reduced or commuted sentences.

The Senate, which finally has a leader who supports drug law reform, is expected to consider a bill later this session that also would give judges more discretion in sentencing.

...

Their fate is largely in the hands of governor who, as a state senator, used to favor much more sweeping reform. In a radio interview last year, just two months after becoming governor, Mr. Paterson said his opposition to the Rockefeller Drug Laws hadn't changed at all.

So why wouldn't he embrace Mr. Silver's plan? Why wouldn't Mr. Smith support it as well? Some 6,000 or so people could then get the treatment they need more than anything else. All it requires, really, is the leadership that's been absent for so long.

It's long past time to do this.