The Queens Courts and the AG Prosecution of CM Wills Case is A 3 Year Joke
Wills Skips Court Date Again YES
Again While the Council Ethics Committee Ignores
* A judge spared embattled New York City Councilman Ruben Wills from being arrested, after the Queens Democrat failed to appear in court this week due to what lawyers said were medical complications from an undisclosed health issue, Politico New York writes.
2 of 3 NY Senators Skip Their Committee Meetings
I-Team: 2 of 3 New York Senators Skip Their Committee Meetings (WNBC) The meetings are supposed to be opportunities for lawmakers to debate, vet and advocate for proposed legislation. But more often than not, the meetings are sparsely attended affairs held in nearly empty conference rooms with little discussion beyond opening pleasantries. To measure committee attendance, the I-Team reviewed more than 200 committee meetings amounting to nearly two full days of video archived on the state Senate website. The overall attendance rate was 35 percent. Unlike in the State Assembly, where rules require lawmakers be physically present to cast their committee votes, Senate rules allow members to send in “vote sheets” without ever showing up in person. The result is a lot of committee meetings where chairpersons simply move a list of bills forward based upon written instructions of absent members. On one occasion last year, the Standing Committee on Rules approved 25 bills in just five minutes despite video showing fewer than half of the senators on the committee were physically present in the room. Another time, the Standing Committee on Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks, and Recreation approved 17 bills in just five minutes. Only two of the 14 committee members were present. Lawrence Norden, deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice, a government watchdog, said Senate rules may actually incentivize poor committee attendance. Because it is nearly impossible for bills to get a committee vote without the blessing of Senate leadership, members of the minority party may feel as though there is little point in showing up to fight for their own bills, Norden said. Conversely, members of the party in power may have little incentive to show up, because their legislation is almost guaranteed to sail through. “There isn’t an opportunity in the committees the way there is in some other states for dissension, for the ability to force a conversation or hearing if the chair or the majority leader in the Senate doesn’t want it to happen. So in that sense, it’s For example, last year Sen. Roxanne Persaud (D-Canarsie) proposed a bill to provide cash assistance to single mothers struggling to afford diapers. Sen. Tony Avella (IDC – Bayside), Chair of the Children and Families Committee, declined to bring the diaper bill to a vote. Avella blamed Persaud for failing to push her own bill hard enough. “She never asked for the bill to be moved,” Avella said. “She never called me or filled out the form to move the bill out.” When asked why Persaud didn’t push harder to move her own bill out of committee, she suggested to do so would have been pointless.
I-Team: 2 of 3 New York Senators Skip Their CommitteeMeetings (WNBC) The meetings are supposed to be opportunities for lawmakers to debate, vet and advocate for proposed legislation. But more often than not, the meetings are sparsely attended affairs held in nearly empty conference rooms with little discussion beyond opening pleasantries. To measure committee attendance, the I-Team reviewed more than 200 committee meetings amounting to nearly two full days of video archived on the state Senate website. The overall attendance rate was 35 percent. Unlike in the State Assembly, where rules require lawmakers be physically present to cast their committee votes, Senate rules allow members to send in “vote sheets” without ever showing up in person. The result is a lot of committee meetings where chairpersons simply move a list of bills forward based upon written instructions of absent members. On one occasion last year, the Standing Committee on Rules approved 25 bills in just five minutes despite video showing fewer than half of the senators on the committee were physically present in the room. Another time, the Standing Committee on Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks, and Recreation approved 17 bills in just five minutes. Only two of the 14 committee members were present. Lawrence Norden, deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice, a government watchdog, said Senate rules may actually incentivize poor committee attendance. Because it is nearly impossible for bills to get a committee vote without the blessing of Senate leadership, members of the minority party may feel as though there is little point in showing up to fight for their own bills, Norden said. Conversely, members of the party in power may have little incentive to show up, because their legislation is almost guaranteed to sail through. “There isn’t an opportunity in the committees the way there is in some other states for dissension, for the ability to force a conversation or hearing if the chair or the majority leader in the Senate doesn’t want it to happen. So in that sense, it’s For example, last year Sen. Roxanne Persaud (D-Canarsie) proposed a bill to provide cash assistance to single mothers struggling to afford diapers. Sen. Tony Avella (IDC – Bayside), Chair of the Children and Families Committee, declined to bring the diaper bill to a vote. Avella blamed Persaud for failing to push her own bill hard enough. “She never asked for the bill to be moved,” Avella said. “She never called me or filled out the form to move the bill out.” When asked why Persaud didn’t push harder to move her own bill out of committee, she suggested to do so would have been pointless.
Monday Emergency Spending Plan State Budget Deal Stalled Over Teen Felony Law Sat Update Threat of Withheld Pay Moves Deal Closer
With the state Senate gone and the Assembly miserable, Gov. Andrew Cuomo proffered a possible deal to try to break the deadlock over the state’s late budget, but the outlook for an end to the budget season was far from certain, The New York Times writes.
Thursday: Budget Talks Collapse
Charter school funding delaying already overdue budget (NYP) * State budget talks collapsed Wednesday night as the sides continued to be split over criminal justice and education issues, and even after half a dozen budget bills were completed in the two houses lawmakers left Albany to go home, The Buffalo News reports. * There are five key issues still unresolved in the state budget, with disagreements over the specifics of a bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18, though ride-hailing services are expected to be legalized upstate, Gannett Albany reports. * Cuomo Hails Progress on Budget, but a Long Easter Break Beckons (NYT) Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he and New York lawmakers had agreed on issues like free tuition at state schools, opioid treatment and the so-called millionaire’s tax.* After Lawmakers Near State Budget Vote, Negotiations in Albany Break Down Again (NY1)
New York State #1 in Tax Burdens Wednesday: Another Big Ugly Being Passed
New York State Passes an Emergency Budget but Skips Thorny Issues (NYT) After a deadline and a grace period expired, lawmakers passed a so-called extender budget to keep the state running as they try to settle policy issues. * Senate begins vote on $162B state budget (NYP) * New York's newest ugly budget (NYP) Remember all the jeers at then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2010 comment, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”?
That’s business as usual for the $150 billion New York state budget. The process has been extra-messy this year, as lawmakers and the governor, for the first time in the Cuomo era, missed the deadline to pass the spending plan. But the basic ugliness is unchanged. It now looks like the last budget bills will pass sometime on Wednesday — after the 1,700-plus-page “extender” bill that passed Monday settled many issues. Yet legislators (as usual) had no time to read Monday’s massive legislation before voting. As Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) put it, “We were asked to read the Bible this morning and vote on it.” Knowing lawmakers would go along to avert a government shutdown, Gov. Cuomo packed the bill with his priorities: a $2.2 billion set-aside for his failed “economic development” slush funds — including $400 million for his scandal-plagued Buffalo Billion. He even got $38 million for fresh ads for his Start-Up NY program, which has spurred just 772 jobs over three years — including some that are now gone. The Assembly and Senate meanwhile were distracted by battles over symbolic issues like “raise the age” — which in practice will only move a few juvenile cases out of criminal court. (Prosecutors already avoid criminal charges in the vast majority of cases.) The governor had suggested the reason for missing the deadline was uncertainty over tax-and-spending changes ahead from Washington. But Albany learned nothing new from DC before it did finish up. And, again, most New Yorkers — lawmakers included — will take days to find out everything that’s in the package. It’s all laughably far from the “efficient and effective” governance that, Cuomo likes to say, “restores competence, integrity and fiscal discipline.” New Yorkers who want that, it seems, will have to move out of state.* State Senatebegins approving budget bills that include boost for NYCHA and affordablehousing (NYDN) * Lawmakers sometime late Wednesday or Thursday are hoping to adopt a final state budget that provides tuition breaks for some college students, legalizes ride-hailing in upstate and taxes millionaires to help fund new spending, The Buffalo News reports. * The Democrat-led Assembly came to terms late Tuesday on a bill that would raise the age of criminal responsibility in the state to 18, an issue that had been a major stumbling block in the state budget negotiations, The New York Times reports. * Getting work done before the last minute is not in the Legislature’s nature, but a two-month delay is fundamentally unfair – especially from a state that expects school districts and local governments to live under a tax cap, the Times Union writes. * The budget process has been extra messy this year, as lawmakers and the governor missed the deadline to pass a spending plan, so New Yorkers who want efficient, effective government will have to move out of state, the Post writes. * De Blasio gets one-year extension controlling public schools
Tuesday
With a full budget still out of reach, the state Legislature passed a pair of emergency spending bills to permit the state government to continue to function, and to buy lawmakers more time to resolve several contested policy issues, The New York Times writes. * Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is seriously considering getting the warring Senate Democratic minority and Independent Democratic Conference factions in the same room to talk about progressive issues like Raise the Age, Ken Lovett writes in the Daily News. * The Assembly and state Senate may no longer be headed up by crooks – but at least the old guys knew how to corral their caucuses and strike a deal in state budget crunch time, the Daily News writes, calling it an abysmal performance even by Albany’s pitiful standards.* Juvenile leadership fails in Albany budget crash (NYDN) * Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted there was no great rush to pass the remaining measures under the state budget, but Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the governor was wrong as the budget seems to be turning from stalemate to brinksmanship, State of Politics writes. * According to four anonymous state sources, Cuomo and legislative leaders reached a tentative deal on most items in the state budget and were working to submit the budget bills for a possible vote later this week, Newsday reports. * The budget stalemate is likely to lead to a delay in pay for some of the state’s nearly 150,000 workers because the Legislature’s two-month budget extender wasn’t signed until late Monday evening, hours before payroll processing was to begin, Gannett Albany reports. * The state budget extender not only keeps the state government operating, it also includes nearly $1.8 billion for Cuomo’s economic development projects, including another $500 million for various projects throughout Western New York, Politico New York reports.
Monday 4/3/17 NYP: Shit Show Budget
Emergency spending plan to pass amid 's--t show' budget talks (NYP) * With No Deal, Cuomo Will Ask for Emergency Budget Measures (NYT) With no agreement as of Sunday evening, New York legislators could face a pay freeze, but issues like raising the age of criminal responsibility have knotted negotiations.* Albany Works Overtime as Budget Deal Proves Elusive (NYT) * After failing to reach a state budget agreement over the weekend, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is resorting to a strategy popularized by his predecessor, David Paterson: a temporary budget extender. * Cuomo said he was sending an emergency measure to both houses to keep the state government “fully functioning” until May 31, with lawmakers agreeing to pass the extender bill Monday after a budget deal couldn’t be reached over the weekend, The Buffalo News reports. * State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan is being undermined by his No. 2, state Sen. John DeFrancisco, whose actions have complicated budget talks and highlighted tensions between the Senate’s conservative upstate members and more moderate downstate ones, Ken Lovett writes in the Daily News.
Albany nears budget deal while threat of withheld pay looms (NYP) ALBANY – Under the threat of losing their pay for seven weeks, state lawmakers inched closer to a budget agreement Saturday * New York is facing the potential of its first ever state government shutdown unless Cuomo and the Legislature can reach a budget deal, as state Senate Republicans raised the possibility of rejecting Cuomo’s extender if they don’t like it, the Daily News reports.
Cuomo’s budget deal in peril over teen felony law (NYP) Cuomo and state lawmakers failed to reach agreement on key details of their $153 billion spending plan just hours before Saturday’s deadline to have a new budget in place. A dispute over a criminal-justice issue — whether to treat to treat 16- and 17-year-olds accused of felony crimes as juveniles instead of adults — was a main impediment. Democrats and Republicans could not agree on whether the teens should be treated as adults for certain serious crimes and if separate youth courts should be created to handle their cases. Sources said GOP lawmakers were trying to remove the issue from budget talks but Democrats refused to back down. Legislative leaders are also still haggling over whether to raise the cap on the number of charter schools allowed in New York City and provide charters more financial assistance, as well as how much money to disburse to all public schools. Government-watchdog groups slammed the secrecy. The governor said late Friday that if the legislature doesn’t pass a budget this weekend, he’ll do an emergency extension through May 21. * As Clock Winds Down, Albany Budget Deal Is So Close, Yet So … (NYT) The state on Friday seemed perilously close to producing a late budget, with stumbling blocks centered on issues like charter schools and raising the age of criminal responsibility.* Cuomo, state lawmakers blow new budget deadline amidgridlock on negotiations (NYDN) * At the stroke of midnight, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement saying that if no budget agreement is in place by the end of the weekend, he will put forth emergency legislation to extend the current budget, the Times Union reports. * A dispute over whether to treat to treat 16- and 17-year-olds accused of felony crimes as juveniles instead of adults was a main impediment to budget negotiations, with GOP lawmakers trying to remove the issue and Democrats refusing to back down, the Post reports. * Democrats across the country are looking for a hero, and Cuomo can make a real impact if he moves quickly on including Raise the Age in the state budget, with the lives of thousands of young people hanging in the balance, Van Jones and Jessica Jackson Sloan write in the Daily News. * At the stroke of midnight, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement saying that if no budget agreement is in place by the end of the weekend, he will put forth emergency legislation to extend the current budget, the Times Union reports.
Assembly
Snow Job
Along New York Harbor, ‘On the Waterfront’ Endures (NYT) Much has changed since the days when mobsters controlled the waterfront, but investigators say organized crime still has a presence there.
BOEPort Authority
Outgoing Port Authority exec to cash in with double-dip pension(NYP)
As Port Authority commissioners decided how to spend $32 billion over the next ten years, three Democratic state legislators from New Jersey argued that $3.5 billion for a new bus terminal in Manhattan was not sufficient, the Times reports.
Most New Yorkers Are Roughly 1 Paycheck Away FromHomelessness: Study (DNAINFO)
Cuomo vetoed legislation late Saturday that would have shifted the cost of expensive
The increase in the state’s minimum wage is a huge victory for the working class, and those counting the proceeds of their well-earned raises owe thanks to Cuomo and de Blasio, who pushed the issue in New York City and around the state, the Daily News writes.
Legal Services for the Poor from counties to the state in the coming ye
New York's forgotten poor: Income needed to survive is nearly 3 times poverty rate
De Blasio leaves subway fare cuts for low-income ridersup to MTA, thinks it's too expensive for city (NYDN)
City council talks public money for Citi Bike pushinto poorer neighborhoods (NYDN)
Sandy Repairs Not Done, Broken Promise
NYC;s Economic Problems and the Poor
Sandy Repairs Not Done, Broken Promise
40% of homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy still not fixedafter de Blasio promised to repair all by end of 2016 (NYDN)
More on Sandy
No Money for Constitutional Convention Promoting
Cuomo remains noncommittal on the idea of promoting a constitutional convention, which he has described as the best way to initiate reform in the state, as funding proposed to study possible issues never made it into his final spending plan, the Times Union reports. *
No Bail From the Speakers Bail Fund
New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s ballyhooed bail fund to free low-level detainees hasn’t given out a single penny more than a year after it was announced as the first major step in reducing the jail population, the Daily News reports.
Corruption
The case for letting Preet Bharara stay on in New York (City Journal)
Groundhog Day EDITORIAL: Cuomo vows to clean up Albany — again via @poststar
Weakening the Social Neighborhood Structure of NYC
Budget
Trump's Dumping of Obama Care Will Blow A Hole In NYS's Budge What Will It Do to HHC?
ars, though he promised to introduce a new plan in the coming months, the Times Union writes.
ars, though he promised to introduce a new plan in the coming months, the Times Union writes.
CUNY
CUNY’s Independence Is Under Attack by Cuomo, City Council Members Say (NYT) The City Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus say that actions heralded by the governor could put the university and its mission at risk.*
Cuomo Pushing for State Takeover of CUNY, But Local Officials Concerned About Effects (NY1)
3.0 de Blasio Details of UFT Pact 5CUNY SUNY
“Look at Donald Trump,” said Bradley Tusk, a former Michael Bloomberg campaign manager who is openly pushing for a candidate to challenge de Blasio. “He didn’t have anything besides a message.” Tusk’s message around a de Blasio challenge would be “corruption, laziness and incompetence.” Protesters fight zoning plan by giving de Blasio a fake turkey “Other than that he’s great,” he deadpanned. De Blasio’s gym habits — which include late-morning trips to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park YMCA on work days — would be featured prominently in Tusk’s campaign. The mayor’s aides say he is in constant communication with his staff, even at the gym, but Tusk doesn’t think New Yorkers are buying it. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to say, ‘Why is he at the gym at 10 o’clock on a Tuesday morning?’” said Tusk, who has formed a group, NYC Deserves Better, to try to unseat de Blasio. (NYDN)
The 2013 de Blasio Campaign Prop Arrest
de Blasio Stonewalls Bullies the Weak Press On U.S. Attorney Bharara Meeting
Everyone in the Press Who Talked to de Blasio's Press Spokesman Levitan Knew About Berlin Rosen Conflict of Interests With the Administration That Supreme Court Justice Lobis Pointed Out Yesterday
“Look at Donald Trump,” said Bradley Tusk, a former Michael Bloomberg campaign manager who is openly pushing for a candidate to challenge de Blasio. “He didn’t have anything besides a message.” Tusk’s message around a de Blasio challenge would be “corruption, laziness and incompetence.” Protesters fight zoning plan by giving de Blasio a fake turkey “Other than that he’s great,” he deadpanned. De Blasio’s gym habits — which include late-morning trips to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park YMCA on work days — would be featured prominently in Tusk’s campaign. The mayor’s aides say he is in constant communication with his staff, even at the gym, but Tusk doesn’t think New Yorkers are buying it. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to say, ‘Why is he at the gym at 10 o’clock on a Tuesday morning?’” said Tusk, who has formed a group, NYC Deserves Better, to try to unseat de Blasio. (NYDN)
The 2013 de Blasio Campaign Prop Arrest
Fake News Derived from a Fake Event
John Catsimatidis — who’ll announce a run for mayor in January — threw wife Margo a birthday party in a private room in the Metropolitan Club. (Page 6)
Developer Files Plans for 28-Story Residential Tower at LICH Site (DNAINFO)
The building was run like a “RICO enterprise’’ complete with “mail fraud, wire fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice and transportation of stolen property,’’ the suit says. The plaintiffs even claim to have a company mole as a witness. That person is a former rental agent and Two Trees worker who acknowledged that the defendants “intentionally sat down and agreed in advance to take part in an unlawful scheme to illegally charge inflated rents to rent-stabilized tenants,” the suit says. The lawsuit suggests that government officials turned a blind eye to the allegedly illegal shenanigans because they were “influenced no doubt by campaign contributions made by Defendants and their associates. “It is a matter of public record that seven developers wrote checks totaling $245,000 to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York before de Blasio announced plans for a Streetcar along the Brooklyn waterfront, with stops near the developers’ projects, including $100,000 from Defendant Jed Walentas,’’ the suit says. De Blasio has denied any connection between the big bucks and pushing his street-car plan. Court papers describe the Walentases as a $4 billion family empire “known for its singular role in transforming the Brooklyn neighborhood of “DUMBO” (an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) where the company’s holdings include 12 buildings comprising more than 3 million square feet of commercial and residential real estate.’’ The family also is behind the $3 billion conversion of the old Domino Sugar factory in Williamsburg into luxury pads. Two Trees bought the 125 Court St, property at Atlantic Avenue in 2003 for $16.5 million, according to reports. They then went after millions of dollars in public funding by promising to provide rent-stabilized and affordable housing, the suit says. But over the years, the developers knowingly misrepresented the market value of units so they could illegally inflate rents, the court papers say. The lawsuit adds that “despicably, Defendants even perpetrated this fraud upon the low-income tenants of the units designated as ‘affordable housing.’ ” The tactics led to a 300 percent tenant turnover rate at the building between 2005 and 2013, or 10 times the citywide figure, the suit says. Berman said he is seeking $10 million in back rent for his clients.*
Conflict of Interests Berlin Rosen Works for the Mayor and Two Trees During Affordable Housing Deal Developer 40 More Apts Out of 2200?
Berlin Rosen who is not for some reason not listed as registered lobbyist work for a lot of real estate developers. Berlin Rosen’s current and recent clients include Two Trees Management Negotiations between Mr. de Blasio’s team and two trees' Walentas’s firm took place over a few days. The two men share a mutual adviser: Jonathan Rosen, one of the mayor’s top political hands and the chief executive of a public affairs firm, Berlin Rosen that counts Mr. Walentas’s company as a client. Berlin Rosen served as a consultant to de Blasio campaign and runs he slush fund PAC NY1 which pushes the mayor’s agenda.
de Blasio Stonewalls Bullies the Weak Press On U.S. Attorney Bharara Meeting
De Blasio refuses to address upcoming Bharara meeting (NYP) de Blasio — who is under heavy fire over everything from a federal corruption probe to his beleaguered child-welfare agency — shut down a press availability Tuesday rather than answer questions about his upcoming meeting with US Attorney Preet Bharara. “This is not what we’re talking about,” de Blasio said, when a Post reporter asked for details about the Bharara meeting following a photo op regarding the NYPD’s bulletproof squad-car windows in The Bronx. “C’mon c’mon — we’re on this topic,” the mayor insisted. The US attorney sit-down was revealed Friday — and since then, de Blasio has kept his media briefings on-topic only. When another reporter asked Tuesday about comments he made that characterized drunken driving as a minor offense not worthy of reporting to federal immigration officials, he snapped, “This is not about this topic here.” The mayor left while several reporters had their arms raised to question him.
Everyone in the Press Who Talked to de Blasio's Press Spokesman Levitan Knew About Berlin Rosen Conflict of Interests With the Administration That Supreme Court Justice Lobis Pointed Out Yesterday
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