Politics Now

By Tom Precious

ALBANY – Lawmakers and other state officials would face new criminal penalties for not turning over information about people trying to bribe them and limitations would be placed on immunity from prosecution by people testifying before grand juries in public official corruption cases.

Those were among the latest plans offered Tuesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in reaction to two busts by federal prosecutors of state lawmakers in the latest line of corruption cases to hit Albany. “There have been too many incidents for too many years,’’ Cuomo said at an event Tuesday in Manhattan in which his plan was endorsed by the statewide district attorneys association.

The package, not yet released in the form of actual legislation, would include making it a misdemeanor for lawmakers and other public officials not to report suspected wrongdoing by their colleagues.

Continue reading "Lawmaker arrests one week, new anti-corruption ideas the next" »

By Robert J. McCarthy

Tom Precious of The Buffalo News Albany Bureau provided the latest in this morning's print and on-line editions about the mini-controversy brewing over Monday's New York Post story. The Post's Fred Dicker indicated that Cuomo forces were interested in replacing Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver with Majority Leader Joseph Morrelle of suburban Rochester.

The Precious story introduced the very real point that no upstate Democrat has ever held the powerful speaker's post in modern times, raising real questions about the Morrelle Theory even if he is a close confidant of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

But the story continues to have legs. Here is the link to a blog appearing today by Nick Reisman on the Capital Tonight blog.

And Glenn Blain of the Daily News offers this insight.

Cuomo insiders deny the story about Silver, but remains a topic of interest around the state.

By Tom Precious

ALBANY -– The Cuomo administration is shooting down a story today in the New York Post that reported Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top aides were working over the weekend on a plan to lead a coup against Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

The Post story, which interestingly said Cuomo's move to oust Silver comes at the same time he is dangling a pay raise for lawmakers, said Cuomo has grown tired of the corruption cases in the Assembly and Silver’s control over the house going back to the days of former Gov. Mario Cuomo. (The claim, also interestingly, comes less than two weeks after Cuomo publicly praised Silver for his role in the recent 2013 budget talks).

Continue reading "Cuomo administration: Gov not trying to take out Silver" »

By Robert J. McCarthy

If there was one topic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo seemed to passionately defend during his visit to Buffalo this week, it was his new gun control legislation that ranks as among the toughest in the nation.

"Keeping guns from criminals and the mentally ill?" he said during a conversation with the editorial board of The Buffalo News. "Who could argue with that?"

Continue reading "Cuomo points to gun law success -- with or without Byron Brown" »

By Tom Precious

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the criminal corruption charges brought this morning against Sen. Malcolm Smith "horrific and very troubling if true.''

Cuomo, in an editorial board meeting this afternoon with The Buffalo News, noted the conspiracy charges brought against Smith, a Queens Democrat, for trying to engage in a bribery scheme to help him get on the GOP ballot to run for New York City mayor.

Continue reading "Cuomo checks in on Malcolm Smith arrest" »

By Tom Precious

ALBANY -- The tab for taxpayers to give a $350 tax break to some middle class taxpayers and to cover part of the higher payroll costs for businesses under the new minimum wage hike program is rising to levels higher than predicted by state officials last week.

The $350 tax break -- in the form of well-timed checks delivered to a million or so taxpayers just before the November 2014 election day that will feature Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers on the ballots -- is now projected to cost the state $410 million annually. That is up from the $350 million to $375 million officials estimated a week ago.

That tax break will go to households with at least one dependent child and adjusted gross incomes between $40,000 and $300,000. Critics have questioned the logic behind defining a family making $300,000 as middle class, and say the plan discriminates against couples without children and lower income families.

Continue reading "Tax breaks costing more than first projected" »

By Tom Precious

Albany -- It was hardly a secret that Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year did not break a sweat -- and that would be a kind way to characterize it -- to try to help his fellow Democrats take over (firm) control of the state Senate.

And Cuomo this year has praised the coalition of Republicans and five breakaway Democrats in charge of running the Senate.

So when state GOP boss Ed Cox came out blasting the new state budget deal, the state Democratic Party -- run by Cuomo -- today came back with a curious response.

"We agree that there are aspects of state policy that need changes and they will be made next year when the Democrats take over the state Senate,'' the party said in a statement this morning. The betting is more than a few Senate Democrats are chuckling over that line.

By Tom Precious

ALBANY -- The Cuomo admininistration wasted no time in taking a victory lap for provisions it got through in the new state budget.

Besides the various and usual items Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been talking about publicly for weeks, a senior Cuomo admininstration official noted with some delight that legislative efforts to give the governor less control over economic development spending was not part of the final budget.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that items like state incentives for "innovation hot spots'' around the state, which Cuomo proposed in January but were not included in the Assembly and Senate one-house budget bills earlier this month, did end up in the enacted budget given final passage by teh Assembly at 11:59pm Thursday.

"The whole program that we laid out in the State of the State we got,'' the senior official said in a meeting with a few reporters, including The Buffalo News, in his Capitol office Thursday.

The official sought to beat back various criticisms about the budget, whether a provision giving taxpayer subsidies to employers of certain teenage workers to help them cover the costs associated with a minimum wage increase or big tax hikes on wealthy people down the fiscal road. [As for that minimum wage tax credit, the official said he knew of no specific corporations that pushed the idea and said it was the work of the governor's office and Senate negotiators; earlier in the day Thursday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he did not like the idea, but agreed to it as a compromise to get a minimum wage hike through.]

Critics have also complained about a program to give $350 checks to taxpayers with at least one child and household incomes of between $40,000 and $300,000. The program will not begin until the fall of 2014 -- just before election day for the governor and lawmakers -- in a move that fiscal watchdogs have said gives Albany's elected officials a handy political calling card to use with voters.

The Cuomo official said the matter of timing about when the checks would go out in 2014 was never a topic in closed-door talks between the administration and legislative leaders. "When you state it in the context of a campaign, obviously that's not what it's about, but (it's about) giving the middle class a tax cut,'' the official said.

The official stressed the importance of the budget getting adopted on time for the third year in a row, something not accomplished in three decades. "It was the symbol of dysfunction,'' the official said of the years of late state budgets, sometimes into August. "And don't underestimate that. It was the longest running play for 20 years. It's what everyone knew about their state government ... and it was a window through which they saw their state government and it exposed the ongoing gridlock and fighting and fingerpointing.''

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By Tom Precious

UPDATE

ALBANY -- The Senate is now saying anchors away. They are coming back Sunday at 3 p.m. to begin passing the budget bills that were printed days ago (like the capital, public protection and general government and legislative budget bills). So what about the ones still hanging out there that affects millions of New Yorkers, like state aid to education? Or the big revenue bill with all its (mostly back-loaded into 2014) tax cuts? Or the minimum wage hike?

Well, we haven't seen those yet, and if they aren't in print by tonight that means the Senate won't be able to take them up even on Tuesday. That is unless, of course, Cuomo gives the Senate a message of necessity to avoid having to let those bills age three business days. That's the message of necessity power he used in January to quickly get the gun control bill onto the floor, a route still being criticized, including in lawsuits, by gun control advocates. Cuomo has said he has "no plans'' to give such a message with the budget. Key word: "plans."

And, as any good insider must be wondering: how are they going to work out the school runs? Those are documents that details, in tiny type and many lines, the various pots of money that all add up to how much money each school district in the state will get in the budget. There is no better kept, and time-honored secret, than the annual school run process. It is the most bread and butter moment for rank-and-file lawmakers; few lawmakers may read the thousands of pages of the state budget, but all of them read every last line of the school runs because they know there is nothing else in the fiscal plan that so directly affects so many constituents.

The documents are put together in secret by only a few staffers who actually understand how the formula works. Then the documents are locked up in a room at the state education department across the street from the Capitol until both Senate and Assembly staffers are called to bring the school run documents on carts at the exact same moment to be delivered to anxious senators and members of the Assembly.

So, under the Senate's thinking with their budget adoption schedule, Senate staffers say they will be releasing the school runs when the education budget bill is adopted, which they say could be in the early morning hours of Tuesday. That's two days before Assembly members return to town.

One has to wonder, given the strangeness of how this process is playing out during what was to be a vacation week for lawmakers: how many legislators have non-refundable travel tickets?

ORIGINAL POST

It's been called the "easy'' budget, the "boring'' budget, the "simple'' budget.

Not so.

Lawmakers were to return Sunday afternoon to start passing budget bills and wrap up things on Monday. But Assembly officials are now saying the return of lawmakers has been put off until Thursday at 10:30am. (That's when a small window opens during the Passover Jewish holiday and the day before the Good Friday Christian holiday.)

Things did not look good this morning when the internal bill tracking system was down and by this afternoon showed that none of the remaining budget bills -- key ones, like education and revenue bills -- were in by midnight last night to let them age for three days for passage on Monday.

No word from the Senate yet on its timetable, but it takes two to make a budget. (See update above for how strange this 2013 budget process is becoming.) News of the Assembly not coming back was confirmed in an email from Mike Whyland, the spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Whyland said, though, that there are no major problems, but it has come down to a scheduling issue.

Recall that it was Wednesday evening when Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders announced they had reached a deal on the 2012 budget and were talking about budget bills being passed starting on Saturday -- as in yesterday.

The sides have been stuck on some final tax break matters, relaxing marijuana laws and other provisions. And there has been no sign of specific state aid numbers for the state's 700 school districts.

By Tom Precious

ALBANY – The Senate’s top Republican said a slowly improving economy and tax breaks for businesses changed his long-held view that the state’s minimum wage should not be raised.

Senate co-leader Dean Skelos, a Nassau County Republican, noted that businesses will get a tax deduction to cover the costs associated for their teenage employees who will see the wage going from $7.25 to $8 per hour in January and then to $9 by January 2016. (How much that funding pot will total has not been resolved.)

Skelos said tips workers will also see their wages held flat. Between not hiking the pay of tips workers and having the state give tax breaks to companies with teenage workers, Skelos said about 40 percent of employees at the minimum wage level will end up affecting the payroll expenses of their employers because of the minimum wage deal.

Asked the theory behind government subsidizing the payrolls of employers with teenage workers affected by the rate increase, Skelos said, “We wanted to have a youth wage, which would have made sure young people get 85 percent of the minimum wage, which was supported by many in the industry. The Assembly didn’t want to do it, so we came up with an alternative to make sure young people have the opportunities to get jobs and businesses are protected.’’

Skelos said a number of new business taxes -– affecting small companies, manufacturers and others – will benefit from the budget deal tentatively announced Wednesday night. But Skelos, in an interview with The Buffalo News Thursday afternoon, acknowledged the tax deals are still not closed down. He said the sides have agreed that a tax rebate program – giving $350 checks to households with incomes between $40,000 and $300,000 and with at least one child between birth and age 18 – will cost $375 million. He said a utility tax surcharge that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wanted to extend for five more years will be extended for three years and be cut by 25 percent next year.

But as for the specifics on all the tax cuts? “Now we’re working through the numbers on the business tax credit and manufacturers,’’ he said.

Skelos said the sides are also still discussing a topic raised by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who earlier this week said Cuomo has too much control over how economic development funds are spent in communities. Skelos said there should be more legislative input in how regional councils spend money in the 10 different regions.

How will that be resolved in the budget? “I think the governor will be respectful of our opinions. I don’t believe anything is going to be iron-clad language that says you have to do this or you have to do that. I think he understands that there should be more involvement of the Legislature and I think we’re going to work that out,’’ Skelos said.
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