Tuesday, November 24, 2009
By Gary Tilzer Breaking News: Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn Clears Legal Hurdle
*** Gov. Paterson Calls For Budget Power
In 2005 Bruno is passing lobbying and ethic reform at the same time he using his government position to rip off the tax payers according to federal prosecutors. He either has a large set of balls or he knows the game is fix and nothing is illegal in Albany.
From the NYP "For if the "historic" package on lobbying and ethics "reforms" trumpeted by Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and glowingly approved by several good-government groups is anything at all, it is - like the desert mirage - a chimera, the political equivalent of a Las Vegas magician's trick designed to shift an audience's attention away from an otherwise obvious sleight-of-hand. ALBANY'S EMPTY ETHICS REFORM(NYP) June 23, 2005 (notice how the good government group always do the bidding of the leaders)
NYT Today: Albany’s ‘Ethics’ on TrialThe trial of former State Senator Joseph Bruno makes clear that state law and its enforcers have too often allowed ethics in Albany to be optional (NYT Ed) The Times writes: "If Mr. Bruno broke no laws - something a jury will probably decide very soon - that would only confirm what many other New Yorkers have long thought: the problem is not what's illegal in Albany but what's legal."
The NYT Editorial Board
Problem is NYT has tried but failed over the years to change Albany
The real question now is the old gray lady ready to go to war with a new generation who runs Albany, who see the press as weak and not a factor in their governing or reelection. Now with thousands of less readers, it will be a tall order for the NYT to change the way Albany works
"Reformers' Feud." (Series Fixing Albany) March 4, 2004 "It would certainly be a crisis. Anyone who is familiar with Albany knows it's dangerous to presume that the Legislature will rise to an occasion, or do anything quickly. In the meantime, there would be no way for the public to have any idea of what lobbyists were up to."
"The 'Then What?' Problem" (Series Fixing Albany) Feb 16, 2004 "It's the ''then what?'' in Albany that seldom gets asked and almost never gets answered by New York's 212 legislators. Bills aimed at cleaning up Albany's governmental stables tend to disappear into legislative limbo. History suggests that the State Senate will pass an equally impressive-sounding but somewhat different batch of reforms and that the two versions will never be reconciled."
Pledges of Reform in Albany Stumble in a Familiar Whirl of Politics December 8, 2004 Lawmakers in both parties pledged in their November re-election campaigns to overhaul the notoriously dysfunctional state budget process, but by the time the dust had cleared in Albany yesterday, they had failed to fulfill this campaign promise. . . So, as with many things in Albany, the fate of the Legislature's promises to reform itself seemed caught in a net of complicated politics, entangled in the mostly contentious negotiations over a host of other proposals that seemed to swirl like the snow outside the State Capitol. . . ''The pre-election rhetoric has fallen far short of the post-election reality,'' said Blair Horner, a lobbyist with the New York Public Interest Research Group, who observed the events firsthand by stalking the hallways, as is his custom. ''Today was Albany at its most typical: secretive insider deal-making.''
"THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK" (NYT) March 13, 2007 It comes down to this: Can Spitzer force lawmakers, finally, to act responsibly - on behalf of all New Yorkers? . . . The Senate, nominally in Republican hands, vowed yesterday to resume spending at the unsustainable rates of the past, despite Spitzer's efforts not to cut spending, but to slow its growth. . .Spitzer promised that everything would change on "Day One" - a grand, if wholly rhetorical, notion. Day 90 - April 1, the budget deadline - is a different matter. If Spitzer hasn't prevailed by then, he never will.
It Not Just the NYT Editorial Board that is ignored
TO MAKE ALBANY WORK - WITHOUT REFORM, MESS SET TO WORSEN May 30, 2006 (NYP) 'We've gone beyond dysfunctional - to chaotic.'NEW York state now passes budgets on time - but that doesn't mean it's not still dysfunctional. The current state budget, for example, boosts spending much faster than revenues, raises our sky-high debt even higher - and relies on more than $3 billion of one-shots that plug today's budget holes while increasing future budget gaps. Result: The state now faces gaps totaling at least $9.8 billion (and as much as $12.8 billion) in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 budgets."
Media Master Bloomberg tell the NYP "If you want great services, you have to have good people . . . You have to pay them fairly." At the same time according to newspaper reports the city is looking to layoff workers to close a 4.1 Billion dollar budget gap, Bloomberg is working to pay back the UFT for staying out of the mayoral campaign with higher pay. 4% increases is the buzz. Today's NYP Editorial Mayor creampuff makes the case that the mayor has already increased teacher pay 43% during his watch
Stuy Town: High Finance Continues to Manipulates Government
Fannie Mae created in 1938 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal mission is to tear down barriers, lower costs, and increase the opportunities for home ownership and affordable rental housing for all Americans. Freddie Mac's mission is to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the housing market. Effort by several New York legislators to get bondholders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to include them in any restructuring, hit a wall. In separate letters to the group of legislators, the two lenders said that while they "understand" and "support" tenants concerns, they are in no position to help Wall Street Hijacks Federal Agencies Created to Provide Affordable Housings * Black eye over Stuy Tishman Speyer mortgage default imminent as the owners work with the pension funds to try to restructure the debt with their bondholders. The California pension fund has already written off the billion they contributed to the 5.4 Stuy purchase price. Reports are today that after the court ruling that Stuy rents were illegally raised and the colapse of New York housing market that the complex is now worth $1.8 billion, a third of the purchase price.
Update Daily News continues to beg Albany November 15, 2009 Editorial Masters of disaster: State Senate fiddles while fiscal Armageddon gets closer True News November 11, 2009 The Greatest Generation vs. Today's Take Albany Generation It is funny how the Daily News Editorial Board continues to beg to a generation that has tuned them out. It not denial when you don't care Nothing from nothings: State Senate Dems again fail to do their duty to New Yorkers
Above the Fold Court: Land Can Be Seized for Arena The 6-1 ruling by the New York State Court of Appeals allows the contentious $4.9 billion, 22-acre Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn to proceed. The project includes a new arena for the New Jersey Nets *** Obama Sets Dec. 1 Troop Deadline * Obama promises to 'finish the job' in Afghanistan
More Coming soon on the following issues
Quinn rails on yard plan
Homeless beggar jars a sham: AG Andy rips sidewalk beg 'con' * Homeless Organization Is Called a FraudWheels come off!
Pedicabs few & far between as crackdown takes effect
Gov of La Mancha Albany New York state must cut spending By SHELDON SILVER ***
More budget talks last night *** Aqueduct Racetrack Still Awaits a Decision ***Former Bush Treasury Official Eyeing Self-Financed GOP Run For Governor *** Sheldon Silver may make pact with Gov. Paterson, leave Senate on the spot (NYDN) *** Paterson, lawmakers fail again to strike budget deal*** The Times Union says we should listen to Moody's ***AG received defense cash campaign fund took tens of thousands of dollars from law firms representing clients that his office was investigating, records show *** Cuomo Took Cash From Lawyers With Matters Before Him (Update4) (Bloomberg News) *** Paterson was in Buffalo at two fund-raisers *** Video of the Monserrate Inquisition Panel's second meeting *** Special interests have helped fill Sen. Carl Kruger's campaign coffers *** Paterson: Cut My Way, Or Give Me the Power to Cut My Way *** Reaction to the Paterson Declaration *** Skelos: Paterson Wants a Credit Downgrade*** 'What's Next, Martial Law?' *** PM Let Me Cut Budget, Paterson Says; No, Lawmakers Reply (NYT) *** Skelos And Sampson, Albany's New BFFs *** Paterson Softens School Cuts in New Plan *** Paterson Proposes Emergency Legislation To Close Budget Gap (NY1) ***Gov. David Paterson modified his deficit reduction plan to reduce cuts to education and health care *** 1199 And GNYHA Remain Dissatisfied
Inspector Clouseau Another Troopergate Chapter Closed *** Felton Admits Troopergate Role, Won't Be Fined
Inside City Hall O invites mayor to state-dinner gala ***Gaming Out The Bloomberg III Cabinet: Schools, Parks, FDNY and DEP *** "He wouldn't share a stage with fellow Democrat Bill Thompson, but President Obama invited Thompson's campaign rival, Mayor Bloomberg, to attend a White House state dinner tonight." *** Bloomberg defended the move of trapping straphangers in the train where a murder took place *** Metro says "Bloomberg angrily defended" the move to lock the train doors *** A Philadelphia newspaper carries the news of Bloomberg defending the closing of the D train doors after the stabbing *** British media picks up the story of "horrified passengers forced to stay" in the D train *** A woman at Bloomberg's campaign headquarters said Africans "were exercised that the campaign had not produced a separate poster for them." *** Mayor Mike Bloomberg should meet with common folk after buzz about campaign trickery *** Is New York Ready for Instant Runoffs?
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