Joe Bruno, that is.

He was on the state payroll for 39 years, and his base legislative salary was $79,500. But you will be financing his retirement with an annual pension of $95,000, based on 41.7 years of pension credits.

How’s that?

Well, the pension calculation also takes into account an additional “stipend” of $41,000 he got as majority leader. And he gets an extra two years of pension credits as a Tier 1 system worker qualified for Section 80-a benefits for legislative employees who began before July 1, 1973 under a law that somehow got through the Senate in 2000 — while Joe Bruno was majority leader.

So, he passed a law that approved more money for him.

To eject Dale Volker from the State Senate this November.

The Senecas are being quite clever with respect to Judge Skretny’s Monday ruling that the Senecas could not legally operate Class III gaming on Michigan Avenue.

They’re going to keep it open, and keep building the new casino, until the matter has been “finally resolved”, which means that it’s been decided by the Supreme Court, or by the 2nd Circuit and the Supreme Court declines to hear the case.

Since the Senecas aren’t a party to the lawsuit that led to Skretny’s ruling, they aren’t immediately required to do anything about it. Either the Justice Department or some other federal law enforcement branch will order the Senecas to shut down, or else someone will go to court and seek an injunction. To do that, they’d have to prove that there is an imminent threat of irreversible harm for which money damages would be inadequate. I don’t think the casino meets those criteria. After all, if the final decision of the courts is that the casino is illegal and must shut down, then all the Senecas have to do is lock the doors; the “harm” is reversible.

Personally, I do not at all like the idea of sovereign Seneca exclaves being carved out of urban property so that Class III gaming might take place there in contravention of the New York State Constitution. I would much rather that State law be changed to permit legal gambling under specific circumstances and regulations, which would keep the property on the tax rolls. I would much rather that the people of Buffalo and Niagara Falls and Salamanca at least had a direct hand in approving or disapproving casino gaming in their cities via referendum. I would much rather that the deal with the Senecas had been made directly between the Nation and the municipalities, so that the money received by the host community could have been maximized beyond the current fraction of a fraction of slot revenues that Pataki negotiated.

But Skretny’s decision is that the exclave-carving was perfectly legal and remains in place. So, my opinion on that issue is worthless, pending appeal. Assuming that the exclave is maintained, and assuming that the Senecas go back to the drawing board pending appeal and are able to finagle a way to maintain the Buffalo casino (which I fully expect them to do), then I hope they build something glorious that will help transform the Cobblestone and Canal Side areas into fantastic tourism destinations.

I want that Casino to encourage - not discourage - pedestrian traffic to and from the building so that it’s less of a fortress and becomes part of the fabric of that area.

The Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls is an example of a casino project that is integrated into its surroundings, offering a park overlooking the Falls, shopping, improved pedestrian access, and parking that is ample yet unobtrusive.

Responsible New York is just the latest effort by someone fed up with New York’s mediocrity and nonsense to try to shake things up. In this case, however, it’s being funded with $5 million from a billionaire, so there’s a lot more where that five mill came from.

It’s been reported that the new Responsible New York PAC will attempt to raise/spend/donate $1,000,000 for candidates “Baby” Joe Mesi and Kathy Konst in their bids to be elected to State Senate.

So long as Responsible New York works independently from the campaigns, that very well might happen. Here, however, Golisano has already met with Konst privately, and Golisano’s political guru, Steve Pigeon, is also very closely connected with Mesi, so the issue of coordination between the PAC and the campaign becomes an issue that will, no doubt, be decided by Judge Makowski. (He always seems to get these types of cases).

If the PAC spends more than $6,000 on the primary campaign and/or $9,500 on the general for, e.g., Mesi, you can bet that Iannello or Ward will sue. They’ll argue that there is improper coordination and that the PAC should be limited to those maximum amounts. Anything more would require the expenditure to be “independent of the candidate or his agents”, and no one from a campaign could “authorize, request, suggest, foster or cooperate in any such activity”.

Another problem arises from another section of the election law:

14-116

8. Except as may otherwise be provided for a candidate and his family, no person may contribute, loan or guarantee in excess of one hundred fifty thousand dollars within the state in connection with the nomination or election of persons to state and local public offices and party positions within the state of New York in any one calendar year. For the purposes of this subdivision “loan” or “guarantee” shall mean a loan or guarantee which is not repaid or discharged in the calendar year in which it is made.

Golisano’s goals for change in Albany are shared by many, especially in upstate and western New York. The problem is that laws are designed specifically to prevent the extraordinarily wealthy from having an unfair advantage in elections, unless they themselves are running.

Late yesterday, it was reported that Golisano’s plans have, therefore, changed…

Trying to avoid the legal restrictions of a political action committee, Golisano plans to amend his filing with the state Board of Elections to create a different kind of entity that will enable him to spend unlimited amounts for or against - but not on behalf of - state legislative candidates, according to his top advisor Steve Pigeon.

Instead of a PAC, Golisano will create an unauthorized multi-candidate political committee, which will act independently of all candidates (and still be called Responsible New York), Pigeon said. This committee will not make any direct contributions.

The Golisano camp had already filed paperwork with the state yesterday to create the PAC he unveiled this morning and said he would seed with $5 million….

…But, Brehm said, a political committee that is independent and not authorized by any particular campaign can spend whatever it wishes on ads, mailings, and signs.

Such committees, which deal with mandated free speech requirements, merely have to register what candidates they are oppose or support and how much it has taken in and spent.

According to Pigeon, Golisano will still establish a PAC called People for Responsible New York, which will accept donations up to $100 and will make campaign donations (adhering to the existing campaign finance limits) to candidates Golisano is supporting.

One thing that is not clear is whether the fact that Golisano has already spoken to some candidates, plans to have candidates fill out questionnaires and might meet with them after they do so would disqualify him legally from claiming his committee is independent and unauthorized.

Brehem did not have an immediate answer.

Golisano and Pigeon maintain they are merely seeking out the viewpoints of candidates, but will be working alone in deciding whom to back and how to spend Golisano’s money.

So, there ya go.

If a neglectful owner like Robert Freudenheim gets slapped with a city lawsuit for permitting his property to crumble and become a public nuisance, why isn’t a neglectful owner like the City of Buffalo held accountable for maintaining its properties at some basic, limited nature?

David Torke has been documenting city-owned blight for years, and it’s a problem that has no easy solution. The city doesn’t have the money to demolish them all, and it probably doesn’t have the money, manpower, or political will to cut lawns and secure the properties.

A few weeks ago, Sam Hoyt’s land banking bill passed the state Assembly and Senate, and is awaiting Governor Paterson’s signature. If signed, it could provide at least part of the answer. The bill would create an Erie County land bank, which Buffalo could opt to join (and hopefully would). A land bank acquires and demolishes the vacant structures, and then holds onto the land until such time as a reasonable redevelopment project is proposed to it.

Local housing advocates have pushed the idea of a countywide land bank for years. They point to Flint, Mich., as the best example of its success in curtailing blight and stabilizing neighborhoods.

“The newly passed land bank legislation, based on highly regarded best-practice models, adds a powerful tool for New York’s distressed areas,” said Michael Clarke of the Local Initiatives Support Corp. in Buffalo, a nonprofit group at the forefront of the vacant housing issue.

In Flint, the county-run land bank has become the city’s biggest landowner and the primary vehicle for putting its huge inventory of housing back into productive use.

The land bank’s primary job is acquisition and demolition, but it doubles as a redevelopment authority.

Since Sam Hoyt and Byron Brown don’t get along, the city isn’t saying it would join a regional land bank, but may seek to get its own bill in Albany. Perhaps the city might just go with the regional approach, as it seems to make perfect sense given that the vacancy problem is no longer just limited to city limits, and the last thing we need is two land banks when one will do just fine. You can learn more about the Flint program at its website.

After much ribbing about the non-existent and/or empty “views” section of his website, Republican candidate for Congress in the 26th district has finally gotten around to having some.

I am running for Congress to bring real change to Washington, D.C., restore accountability, get people to stop the partisan bickering and start solving the problems families are facing. This is what Western New Yorkers are demanding, and it is what they deserve.

By working together we can make these things happen, and we can get Washington working again for Western New York.

If we do that then we can help create jobs at home, lower taxes for hard working families, develop a real energy policy, and ensure access to affordable healthcare for all Western New Yorkers.

Washington working for Western New York. That’s a great idea. Um, what’s his predecessor been doing along those lines for the past 10 years? It’s all platitudes cribbed from some primer on how to run as a Republican but sounding like a Democrat. Republicans don’t give a shit about “affordable healthcare”. They’re far more concerned with taxation of the wealthiest 1%, not “hard working families”.

The most important thing for our families is having jobs not just for us, but for our children. Right now Western New York is facing the challenge of entering a 21st century economy and not having enough jobs for our children. Fortunately, Western New York is well equipped to face these challenges. We have a world-class workforce, excellent educational institutions and a work ethic second to none. What needs to happen is the government, in Washington and Albany, needs to get out of the way and let businesses do what they do best – create jobs. When I am elected, I will fight everyday for policies that increase the incentives for businesses to take risks, be entrepreneurial and ultimately create jobs.

How is Washington in the way, and would he do to get it out of said way? Taxes and spending, evidently - no surprise, coming from a Republican candidate. The problem is that the Republican party has put the Democrats to shame in terms of the growth of government and government spending at the federal level since George W. Bush came to office. Why are we to believe that Lee would not help perpetuate that state of affairs? Bush has grown government, kept taxes low to help the budget deficit balloon, engaged in nation-building adventures in the middle east and then shortchanged them when it got difficult.

Definitely Washington is broken. Definitely Albany is broken. What can Lee as a congressman do to fix Albany? Again - platitudes that sound phenomenal but have no meat to them.

Lee also says we need a “comprehensive energy policy”:

- Lessen our dependence on foreign oil by increasing American made energy through exploration;
- Promote new, clean, reliable sources of energy;
- Encourage conservation, and;
- Increase investment in research funding for alternative energy.

Respectively, how, what, how, and what? The call from McCain and Bush has been for drilling everywhere. Respectfully, that’s like putting a Band-Aid on an amputation site. Nice sentiment, but it would take literally years - if not a decade - before any such drilling would have any effect on the market. Furthermore, conservation is now in full effect, given the cost of fuel. Price is up, demand is way down. So, if all this is run by the market, why does lower demand equal ever-higher prices?

Again - demand for gasoline has been dropping, yet the price continues to rise. The idea that this is just market forces at work doesn’t fly. In 2008, it is high time that we develop and reach a consensus on a fuel for personal conveyances to replace petroleum. We’re using technology that’s over 100 years old.

Lee also believes that health care is an issue. The buzzword is “market-based”. Anything the Republicans recommend will be characterized as “market-based”, while they will criticize the Democrats’ plans as being “socialized medicine”. Meanwhile, all of the plans being suggested are market-based. No one is proposing socialized medicine.

While Mr. Lee complains that WNY is not getting its fair share of federal dollars, he also argues:

I will fight for a more transparent and fair system that will ensure real earmark reform. Any dollar being spent by the federal government should be done so in the light of day not behind closed doors. I want to change the way Washington does business by ensuring that we have an open system that holds our leaders accountable. Just like a CEO would want, Western New Yorkers deserve to know exactly how their money is being spent - that can only happen with a more transparent and accountable Washington.

How? What sort of transparency is he proposing? And which is it? More fair share, or fewer earmarks?

In other news, Chris Lee held a fundraiser last night. It was a swanky affair at the Marriott on Millersport. All of the Republican glitterati were in attendance, and Tom Reynolds introduced Lee to the crowd. Illuzzi was there enjoying the free food, making subtle threats, and writes:

I had the pleasure of attending what was truly an “All-Star” fundraising event last night kicking off NY 26 Congressional Candidate Chris Lee’s fundraising efforts.

Congressman Tom Reynolds declared the event to have set a new record for a first time candidate’s congressional fundraising event. Over 300 people in attendance!!! Early estimates are over $175,000 raised at the event.

That averages out to over $580 per person.

Lee is an unemployed child of wealth who inherited part of the sell-out of his father’s business. He’s pledged to spend $1 million of his own money on the race. Will he, like Chris Collins, forego his federal salary if elected? I recall Jack Davis making that pledge 2 years ago. Why should taxpayers cut a six-figure check with benefits and pension for a millionaire heir?

Senate President Joe Bruno has decided not to seek re-election this fall.

Gee, and not a moment too soon.

According to Politics on the Hudson, he says, “it is time for me to move on with my life”. Newsday quotes him as having said, “enough is enough.” Capitol Confidential has his full annoucement, and Bruno says, “it’s time to move on.”

But, timing in life is everything. While there may never be a good time to make these kinds of life decisions, I have decided that it is time for me to move on with my life.

Perhaps Senator Bruno has seen which way the wind is blowing, and realizes he probably won’t be majority leader next January. Either way, there’ll be a new person with the other two in the room who make all the decisions in the excuse for representative democracy that is the State of New York.

HT Albany Project

Via Capitol Confidential, comes this video of a news conference that Governor David Paterson held yesterday with Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and various taxpayer activists.

The Suozzi Commission recently concluded that, among other things, a property/school tax cap is necessary to help ease New Yorkers’ local tax burden, which is significantly higher than the national average. Although opposed vehemently by exactly whom you’d expect, the vast majority of New Yorkers support it. Suozzi reminded Paterson of that fact in a humorous fashion as the two of them essentially declared political war on opponents.

The state comptroller has a new website:

New Yorkers have a right to know how their tax dollars are spent. Open Book New York is a project by the Office of the State Comptroller that gives taxpayers unprecedented access to the financial information of State government.

Easy-to-use online search tools identify spending for 113 State agencies and public authorities and display more than 60,000 State contracts. These tools will help you find out how much state government spends on everything from travel and employees’ salaries to telephones and consultants. You can also search State contracts in real time to see who is doing business with the State.

The long crawl towards Albany transparency continues apace.

The small aircraft hanger that passes for a casino in Buffalo’s cobblestone district has shat out its first single-digit percentage payout from slot revenue that goes to the host community.

Buffalo’s the host community, right?

Or is it the great County of Erie?

Or both?

The payout is $700,000 whole, entire dollars. That buys less than 7,000 barrels of light crude. Or something.

In any event, as the Buffalo News indicates, this is going to be a battle:

The money will be staying in Albany for the foreseeable future because the city and county cannot agree on a formula to split it up.

City Hall and County Hall have staked conflicting claims on the revenues, a pot of money from slot machines that’s expected to swell to as much as $7 million annually when the permanent Buffalo casino opens in 2010.

“There’s no question in my mind that the city should get 100 percent of those revenues,” said Mayor Byron W. Brown, who makes a case for the state-mandated “host community” share to flow entirely to Buffalo.

“The casino is located in Buffalo. The city provides all the police support services and infrastructure,” Brown said. “The intent of the 2002 gaming compact between the Seneca Nation and New York State was to aid weak communities, like Buffalo, with those casino revenues.”

But County Executive Chris Collins is equally adamant about spliting the payments right down the middle.

“I’m still thinking a 50/50 split between the city and county is the right formula,” Collins said.

While the casino is situated in Buffalo, it’s a regional asset, the county executive said.

Fighting over crumbs. What a crap deal this was, and all the politicians who were associated with its negotiation should be ashamed. Ceding territory to a foreign entity in the middle of Buffalo? Taking an entire swath of land off the property tax roll in order to get a tiny percentage of slot revenue (and slot revenue only - not tables). They should have held a referendum and let the people decide whether they wanted this. Or better yet, they could have proposed lifting the idiotic, hypocritical ban on Class III Casino Gaming through New York’s constitutional process. We have casino gaming at racetracks, and we have the lottery, and we have Keno, and we have all sorts of manifestations of gambling that to ban proper casino gambling has become just silly.

The thing is - all of this was predictable and I predicted it. Niagara Falls and Niagara County underwent the same nonsense when the first casino cash made its way down the pipeline, and ne’er-do-well Mayor Anello threatened to lead a picket over it.

I think that the intent was for the city to be the “host community” and to reap the entire benefit of the casino. The county is overreaching here and should take a step back.

From Politics on the Hudson:

[T]he state Commission on Property Tax Reform, headed by Nassau County executive Thomas Suozzi, is recommending a school property-tax cap of 4 percent annual growth, tying property taxes to incomes (called a circuit breaker) and relieving schools of state and local mandates.

“There are only three options to address the ever increasing cost burden of the New York State education system: 1) decrease expenses (or at least decrease the rate of growth), 2) increase state aid, or 3) increase property taxes,” the report reads.

“These options involve hard choices, but this Commission concludes that, regardless of any other factors, it must be a priority to limit property tax increases above a capped amount.”

The entire - yet preliminary - report is here (.pdf).

It’s 112 pages long, so no I haven’t read the whole thing yet. But this stood out within the first few pages:

High property taxes have the most negative impact on low and moderate income working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and small business owners, who must shoulder this burden regardless of their ability to pay. Whether your concern is decreasing education costs, or increasing education spending, or addressing inequities in school funding, or improving programs, virtually all agree the answer cannot be to continue to increase property taxes at the current rate. The rate of increase in property taxes over recent years is unsustainable, and simply unfair to those who cannot afford to pay.

and

Expenses are high. New York schools outside of New York City spend more per student than any state in the nation – an estimated $18,768 in 2008-20091. New York’s per student spending is more than 50 percent above the national average. New York is a proud state with a progressive history and a social compact devoted to improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers. Generations of New York’s leaders, committed to maintaining its status as a national model of social responsibility, have adopted laws and regulations that require local school districts and local governments to provide certain functions in certain ways. The unintended consequence is government that is very expensive. The thorny challenge is to help school districts and other local
governments reduce these expenses, while remaining faithful to our social compact.

State aid as a percentage of total cost is below the national average. It must be noted that New York State spends a great deal on public education, well above the national average. In fact, the State has dramatically increased spending over the past several years and intends to do even more over the next several years, which the Commission applauds. However, the State’s contribution represents, as a percentage of the total cost, only 43 percent, which is below the national average of 47 percent.

In addition to the property tax cap on the rate of growth and the “STAR Circuit Breaker”, which ties STAR property tax relief to one’s ability to pay, the commission suggests changing state mandates that help drive up the cost of education throughout the state, including salaries, pension, and health care costs.

Take a look at the report and report your thoughts in comments. This might be one of the most significant reform efforts in the state in decades. Is it enough? Is it a good start? Will it help?

Good? That it’s being considered at all, and some solutions are being proposed. Bad? I don’t really know. I’m mostly concerned that it’s a Spongebob Band-Aid being placed over a gaping wound.

From another local website, Republican County Legislator, and candidate for SD-61 Michael Ranzenhofer writes:

Michael Ranzenhofer (R), a veteran of 19 years as a county legislator from Amherst, is off and running as the expected Republican candidate for the State Senate seat being vacated by retiring Mary Lou Rath.

“Spending is out of control in Albany,” said Ranzenhofer in a telephone interview … “My platform will be about cutting spending, reducing taxes, and eliminating the terribly burdensome regulations that drive up the cost of doing business in this state.”

As a county lawmaker, Ranzenhofer says he never voted for a tax increase. The lawyer/legislator also said he has tried to cut wasteful and unnecessary spending, pushed for road and bridge repairs, and helped restore the ranks of volunteer fire fighters by offering an education incentive similar to what is offered by the military for years served. The “V-Fire” program allows for fire fighters with at least five years experience to become eligible for free education at Erie Community College.

He never voted for a tax increase, and he didn’t do a whole lot to battle spending increases. He was instrumental in promoting the Giambra budgets that led to fiscal disaster. He is loath to lend any support to rank-and-file county workers, but went along with every single request for a variable minimum put forth by Giambra and Collins (a variable minimum is a way for the government to give a candidate for an appointed county job years’ worth of seniority on day one - and an instant pay raise).

He never voted for a tax increase, but one of the gimmicks he pushed for time and time again throughout his time on the legislature was for a gas tax holiday. Unfortunately, gas taxes happen to pay for road maintenance, and if one was to ask his constituents on Tonawanda Creek Road in Clarence whether that road has properly been maintained, I think they’d give you an earful. The road slid into the creek years ago, and hasn’t yet been fixed.

As for the county budget crisis of a few years ago, Ranzenhofer says he stood up against the political establishment and the power brokers by refusing to go along with the one percent sales tax increase without accompanying spending cuts.

“I insisted we must have cuts to go with tax increases, and frankly many people backed away [from me],” says Ranzenhofer. “But I held fast that we can’t do business this way and I was the first legislator to favor a control board because no information about our finances was forthcoming from the county executive’s office. I thought we needed a control board to make sure fiscal discipline was re-established.”

Think about that for a second there. He had been in the legislature for about 16 years before the budget crisis came down the pike, and he was the majority leader during the run-up to it. He was supposed to be that control board - the legislature is a check on the executive’s power, yet Ranzenhofer and the other Republicans in the legislature behaved as if it was a rubber stamp for anything and everything Giambra wanted.

That led to a $200 million budget deficit that had to be plugged.

Yes, he’s made noise about spending cuts, but when the budget crisis was in full effect, and legislators met with Giambra during late-night and weekend sessions to figure out what would get cut, and by how much, Ranzenhofer was absent. It’s so easy and convenient to bleat on about how we need to find $200 million in spending cuts.

But when the hard work came along to figure out where the cuts would be made, he let others do the work and take the heat.

He claims to want to work bipartisanly, yet he has no record on which to run, and no evidence of bipartisanship exists there.

In essence, Ranzenhofer is saying that the county needed the hard control board to clean up what was partly his own mess.

Now that the county has a control board, which currently is at odds with the county executive over borrowing for capital improvements, Ranzenhofer says he still favors a hard board “but I think the time will come where they can go from hard to soft where in the past I felt a hard board was essential.”

Ranzenhofer says if elected to the 61st District seat, which includes the city of Tonawanda, Town of Tonawanda, Amherst, Clarence, Newstead, and all of Genesee County, he will work in a bipartisan fashion to get things done.

Republicans are expected to put plenty of resources behind Ranzenhofer’s bid to keep the seat in the GOP aisle, given the very slim majority Republicans hold in the Senate.

For his part, Ranzenhofer says, “I think the importance [of the seat] is that if it goes from the Republican side to the Democratic side, it could change the over-all balance of power in the state and we would, in effect, have one-party rule which includes the governor. Taxes would skyrocket and spending would go way up. We would also see a very liberal fiscal and social agenda.”

One would hope that the importance of the seat is to represent one’s constituents in Albany. One would hope that the importance of the seat in this day and age is to work for change and reform in a dysfunctional state legislature.

But then, we’re talking about the guy who voted against the creation of the County Charter Revision Commission, so we’re unlikely to see any push for reform from him.

Spending went way up under Giambra and the Republican county legislature.

Ranzenhofer, who said he is also seeking minor party backing, says he is out every night, going from place to place throughout the district, talking to one and all about his candidacy.

He’s been in the County Legislature since 1989. The question that he should be asked over and over again: What is your record?

Hand it to him for one thing - he sure has vast experience dealing with dysfunctional governmental entities.

The price of just about everything has shot up like crazy, and Albany thinks you deserve relief.

Are they proposing lowering taxes and fees across the board? Are they going to spend less to make up the difference? Is there any chance that New York politicians might adopt just a smidgen of their constituents’ frugality in the face of the ever-higher cost of living?

No.

But here’s a C-note, kid. Now scram.

Yes, it’s true that New York is one state; geographically and to a degree politically.

Economically, though, there’s a distinct difference between upstate and downstate; between east and west. The upstate economy is saddled with fail. Whether it’s taxes higher than that of neighboring states, regulations that are too onerous, or a general business unfriendliness, there’s really no compelling reason why a company might locate in Utica or Rochester or Buffalo when Erie and Toledo and Columbus are also available.

I’ve said before many times that, to compete, all of upstate should be a massive empire zone. That hasn’t happened. But under former governor Spitzer, at least upstate had a dedicated upstate economic “czar” named Dan Gundersen. Not only that, but his office was going to be based in Buffalo.

Governor Paterson is considering scrapping the downstate/upstate economic czars. Upstate business leaders and the heads of Unshackle Upstate aren’t happy, and they hope that - if this does happen - that Gundersen become the head of the united Empire State Development Corp.

I think that it’s a given that, when forced into competition, downstate interests will prevail over upstate interests, and losing a dedicated advocate for upstate business development is a massive step backwards.

Upstate New York of the 2000s is not unlike the eastern Europe of the 1990s. It needs Sachsian shock therapy. It needs people to fight for it. It needs fundamental change in the way government works.

All I know is that, Albania and Slovakia have more robust economies than Western New York.

UPDATE: Read what In Java, Literally has to say. NYCO notes this Rochester D&C article alleging that Gundersen is very loosey-goosey with his state plastic.

Talk about finding out about something too late.

Today - April 29th - is Albany “Reform Day”. Citizens from across the state will be converging on Albany to promote the following agenda:

Enough… of rules that concentrate Albany’s power in the hands of only three men.

Enough… of sham ethics investigations conducted by partisan boards.

Enough… of campaign finance rules that allow incumbents to scare off high-quality, first-time candidates.

Enough… of district lines drawn by a majority party, with nothing in mind but the preservation of that majority.

Enough… of campaign funds subsidizing the personal lives of elected officials.

I don’t care if you’re a Goldwater conservative or a Kennedy liberal, that’s the kind of Albany reform just about everyone can agree on. (Everyone, that is, who isn’t on Albany’s payroll).

Today is the 29th, and today is the first I’ve heard of this via this post at the Albany Project. People are even being bused to Albany:

Buses will leave from Binghamton, Ithaca, Kingston, Long Island, New York City, Oneonta, Rochester, and Westchester.

That’s correct. A bus is not leaving from the second-largest city in the state.

You know, if I had known about this I would have promoted the bloody hell out of it, and tried to organize a Buffalo contingent to go along. Western New York is in a world of hurt due to the mismanagement and dysfunction of state government, and it’d be important that we join in this effort.

Oh, well. Maybe next time.

Yesterday, the board of the New York State Thruway Authority - a quasi-governmental entity with little or no oversight by politicians over the money it collects and spend - voted to raise tolls 5% next year, and 5% the year after. This follows a 10% hike earlier this year, and is compounded by a diminution in the savings you get by using EZ-Pass.

From the Buffalo News:

The toll increase encountered vehement opposition from freight haulers and commuters during a series of statewide public hearings earlier this year. State Comptroller Thomas P. Di- Napoli issued a report saying the toll hikes were unnecessary. And it prompted Assemblyman Mark J. F. Schroeder, D-Buffalo, to call for abolishment of the Thruway Authority.

About $1 billion of “off-Thruway” costs, such as running the state canal system, and the need to repair much of the road’s half-century- old infrastructure has forced the authority to enact another round of toll hikes, Thruway Authority Executive Director Michael R. Fleischer said Friday.

It wouldn’t be so bad if there wasn’t so much waste at the Thruway Authority; if it hadn’t been used as a dumping ground for borrowing and spending by the state so that it could be kept off the regular Albany books. It wouldn’t be so bad if so much of the toll revenue didn’t go simply to administering itself. It wouldn’t be so bad if the roadway was actually well-maintained throughout. Have you ever crossed the Pennsylvania border on the I-90? The New York side, for which you pay, is like a washboard. The Pennsylvania side is smooth as silk. And toll-free.

He also said the DiNapoli audit underestimated federal aid by a minimum of $125 million for a five-year budget period, though Fleischer said New York State took no steps to obtain federal aid in its latest budget.

Nevertheless, Schroeder said he has joined State Sen. George D. Maziarz, RNewfane, in sponsoring a bill that would abolish the authority and transfer the Thruway to the state highway system.

“We elect leaders to administer these vital functions of government,” Schroeder said outside his office in South Buffalo. “They shouldn’t be in the hands of some pseudo-governmental board of political appointees who answer to no one.”

Schroeder said Thruway Authority spending is indicative of the explosion of authorities in New York, which he estimated at 640. He said they have contributed $81.5 billion worth of debt to state government, with the Thruway Authority alone in debt for $2.4 billion.

“This out-of-control borrowing is irresponsible,” he said.

Trucking officials say the new toll hikes, combined with higher gasoline prices, will only increase the cost of all delivered goods.

“Unfortunately, the timing right now could not be worse,” said Kendra Adams, spokeswoman for the New York State Motor Truck Association. “With the economy faltering and high diesel costs, any additional costs the industry incurs has to be passed on.”

That, she said, will result in higher costs for staples like food and clothing.

That’s the thing that all the anti-car forces tend to ignore. While it’s easy as pie to mock commuters and people who must or enjoy driving long-distance, trucks use that roadway, too. The same trucks that now pay $4.30 / gallon for diesel fuel will now pay higher tolls to bring things like hemp and soy milk to the local cooperative market. These things affect the whole of society whether you like it or not. Priuses don’t deliver freight.

Kudos to Schroeder and Maziarz for at least raising the issue of state authorities being so out-of-control that their abolition or reformation is needed. Something drastic has to change, and the state needs to fundamentally change how it does business.

As with most things coming out of Albany, insult is added to injury:

Adams acknowledged the Thruway remains the road of choice for New York truckers, and as one of the safest and best maintained highways in America, the industry has no problem paying its fair share.

“But the majority of new toll revenues will be diverted to the canal,” she said. “That makes it that much more difficult to accept.”

It’s because of the Erie Canal? Hell, the Thruway at least serves an economic purpose. While it will cost you north of $12.00 to drive from Williamsville to Albany, if you take a boat through the canal, it will cost you $5.00 - 20.00 per day (depending on vessel size), and the toll is only paid if you pass through a lock or lift bridge. A ten-day pass is between $12.50 - 50.00 (again, depending on vessel size).

If the Canal is so deep in the hole, why not - I don’t know - raise tolls and fees on boaters?

New York State. It’s like a panhandler that won’t go away.

If Bruce Andriatch can do a column’s worth of bullet points today, I can do this.

1. The Buffalo Board of Education is dysfunctional? Gee, who’dathunkit? Everybody whining about people needing to move into the city should focus efforts on this one area of import. They futzed with the GPA calculations to let some well-connected kids get into City Honors? No shit. It’s about time people started blowing the whistle on the corruption that rots this area at the core.

2. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began a campaign to introduce oversight and stricter control over the doling out of member item dollars from the state legislature. Pork barrel spending has been used by a spendthrift legislature to help insure re-election. Some scrutiny and oversight never killed anyone. The New York Sun says the AG needs to follow-up on this initiative without regard to his possible future political ambitions.

3. Local assessors are balking at the idea - suggested by the county Comptroller - of a single, countywide assessor’s office. If reformation of something as uncontroversial and mundane as property assessment runs headlong into obstructionist self-preservation, what chance is there of any bigger reforms happening? People need to start waking the hell up, attending town board meetings and getting active on a grassroots level to start demanding that needed, common-sense reforms be implemented. It’s time to stop sitting on our asses and waiting for Collins or Marinelli or anyone else to do it for us. We need to do it ourselves.

4. The governor is spooked by the economy and has implemented a half-assed hiring slowdown among state departments:

The reductions you propose must be achievable, recurring and serious,” Paterson said in the memo released Monday. “Your plan must reflect the creativity needed to provide the services the public expects at a lower cost.”

“Above all, you must rethink your hiring practices. Only job openings absolutely essential to your agency’s operations and protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers are to be filled,” he said. “Positions that do not fit this criterion must be left vacant.”

I treat this like it’s a great and positive move. In reality, it should have been standard f-ing operating procedure for decades, now.

5. UB Law School students want the law school moved downtown. That would be a great idea, so that students could more easily and readily actually go to court and see what goes on.

6. The federal government’s attempt to brand an art professor a bioterrorist has boarded the Failboat. That seems to be a relatively popular cruise for the Bush Administration.

7. Suddenly, I want to watch this show.

Posted by BuffaloGeek

Erie County Legislator