Fear and Debt

The Health Care Association of New York put this together to advocate against cuts to health services in New York State.

Given the usual breathless, actor-portrayed predictions of death & destruction from these types of advertisements, at least this self-parody reveals a sense of humor.

All is well though, because Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch says the state should just borrow $6 billion to close the budget gap. Yeah, that’s a great idea.

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• Updated: Behold … the Ravitch plan! (timesunion.com)
• New York on borrowed time (timesunion.com)
• Ravitch Sets Broad Plan on New York Fiscal Crisis (nytimes.com)
• N.Y.’s Paterson Says Financial Review Board in Ravitch Plan (businessweek.com)
• Skelos: Yep, there will be borrowing (timesunion.com)

Hometown News at Noon: Thursday, March 4

Governor David Paterson is facing more trouble. A state commission charges that the governor lied under oath about taking free Yankees tickets to Game One of the 2009 World Series, and allegedly offering to pay for the pricey seats with a backdated check.  The state Public Integrity Commission is turning over the case to the state Attorney General and Albany County District Attorney to see if criminal charges should be filed.  Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says the governor needs to speak out about the latest distraction.

Governor Paterson is contesting the findings from the state panel, insisting he did nothing wrong.  The state ethics laws bar the governor and his staff from accepting gifts from lobbyists.  The Yankees were registered as a lobbyist in order to secure funding for the new Yankee Stadium.

Governor Paterson says he’ll be vindicated as another investigation continues into his alleged role in a domestic violence incident involving one of his top aides.  Paterson says he’s frustrated, but can’t disclose any information while he cooperates with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s probe. According to the “New York Times,” a mutual friend of the governor and Sherr-una Booker said that Paterson asked her to convince Booker to drop the issue.  Deneane Brown reportedly told investigators that she arranged a call between the woman and Paterson.  Paterson says he’s angry that facts have been mis-stated and lies are being told in the case, and he hopes Cuomo’s investigation leads to the truth.

Freshman Congressman Eric Massa has suddenly dropped his re-election plans.  Massa, a Democrat representing traditionally  Republican rural areas in the Southern Tier and south of Rochester, cites the recurrence of cancer for his abrupt decision to retire.  Massa denied what he called “unsubstantiated” allegations that he harassed a junior male aide.  The House ethics committee is investigating the allegations.  The 50-year-old Massa apparently did not inform his party about his plans in advance.

What appears to be the fourth suicide attempt in under three months at the Erie County Holding Center is being investigated. 29-year-old Jeremy Kiekbush was found dead, hanging by a bed sheet in his cell just after 12 noon yesterday.  Kiekbush been in the Holding Center for a single night after allegedly trying to run over a police officer during a chase Monday night.   Kiekbush’s wife says she reported to Amherst police that he had threatened to harm himself. The latest suicide comes as a federal lawsuit continues against the jail, claiming poor conditions and a suicide rate five times the national average.  Erie County officials have been hesitant to send in a federal suicide prevention expert.

An Amherst man accused in a shooting last September is facing attempted murder charges.  Thirty-one-year-old Philip Purdue was arrested in Buffalo for wounding Shawn Wilson last September 19th.  Purdue is being held without bail.  Wilson survived the shooting, but was found dead a month later.  His death is being investigated.

Police in Tonawanda are crediting an alert citizen with helping to nab the so-called zip-tie bandits.  Cops say a resident near Katz Jewelers on Delaware Avenue called police Tuesday morning to report suspicious activity.  Investigators say 20-year-old Arthur Swain was busted coming out of the store with a duffel bag allegedly containing an AK-47 gun.  Police say 19-year-old Joshua Green was waiting in a getaway car.  Authorities say the two confessed to six other robberies in the area in which they used plastic zip-ties to restrain store workers.  Police say the heists took place in recent weeks at stores in Buffalo, Amherst, Niagara Falls and Kenmore

A registered sex offender living in Niagara Falls has been charged with allegedly luring a woman to his house and raping her.  Police say 52-year-old Richard Bailey allegedly posted a job offer on the internet.  Investigators say the victim arrived at his house Sunday, thinking she was applying for a secretarial job but authorities say Bailey attacked her once she was inside.  Bailey has been charged with felony counts of rape, criminal sexual act and predatory sexual assault.  Authorities say Bailey was classified as a level one sex offender after pleading guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge of sexual misconduct stemming from a 2007 rape accusation in Orleans County.

A blaze consumed a Buffalo home last night.  The two-family house on Gatchell Street went up in flames around 8:30 p.m.  An occupant of the front apartment had to be rushed to a hospital after being rescued from the burning home.  Five others who stay in the back apartment made it out unharmed.  The cause is being investigated.

Buffalo residents won’t have to shell out more money for sewer services.  The city Sewer Authority has approved a new budget which keeps rates stable for the fifth year in a row.  Officials credit the agency’s ability to cut expenses.  The proposed budget includes a one-point-four-percent spending reduction.

Dear Governor Paterson: I never liked you

I have my biases just like anyone else.

Add to that the fact that I’m somewhat vindictive and not particularly forgiving and, frankly, it makes me the type of person whose bad side you don’t want to get on. And if you are on my **** list and you fall? Well, I’m not going to feel guilty about enjoying it.

I’m not saying this as a threat. It is merely a disclaimer. Usually you get those at the end in small print, but I like to put mine out front.

I was never a fan of David Paterson. I’m not afraid to call him “the accidental governor.” I mean, let’s be honest here. If Eliot Spitzer were a combination of more discreet and less freaky, we still wouldn’t know anything about David Paterson. And we’d all be just fine with that, I’m sure.

When Paterson assumed the role of governor, he had a radio tour to introduce himself. I was working for WECK and WLVL at the time and got the same email every other talk show host in the state got; announcing that the new governor might consider being a guest on my show to tell the taxpayers what he was all about.

I called the number on the email, hoping to set up a live interview with the governor, the third we’d had since I had started my talk show several years ago – but the first who had offered to do a live interview. Or at least, I thought that’s what the offer was.

I wish I could recall the conversation verbatim, but I cannot. I do remember whoever I talked to telling me that Cheektowaga and Lockport were not important enough to warrant the new executive’s time. The woman on the other end of the phone didn’t seem to care that radio waves were capable of traveling and just because the stations were licensed to Cheektowaga and Buffalo didn’t mean that only residents of those communities would hear it.

“Yeah, we’re licensed to Cheektowaga,” I told her, “but the majority of our listeners are actually from Buffalo, the second largest city in the state. You may have heard of it?”

The preceding paragraph is paraphrased, but that was the gist.

It didn’t matter. She wasn’t buying it. And just as quickly as David Paterson had become governor, I was done with him. Frankly, if his media people were that clueless, I could only imagine how bad he must be.

He didn’t disappoint. He struck me as equal to his aide in terms of cluelessness. Honestly, I’ve been thinking for days of something he did that impressed me or gave me any sort of notion that he may have been more intelligent than I gave him credit for. I came up empty.

The thing that has frustrated me most about Governor Paterson has been his constant insistence that he was “making the tough decisions” by deciding to raise taxes. I’ve never gotten the impression that any politician ever has lost sleep over deciding to raise taxes.

Now, deciding not to run for a full term as governor cause your administration is plagued with scandal? I’m thinking that might have caused “the accidental governor” to lose a few winks.

So it’s been decided that this partial term will be his last. Good for us. I would have to say to the governor, though, “Why wait? I mean, really. Just go now. You haven’t accomplished anything yet. And now that you’re a lame duck, you’re not going to.”

In short, allow me to add myself to what is surely going to be a long line of journalists who suggest to to governor that he should do us all a favor and resign.

If that seems vindictive to you, it’s because it is. Not that it matters. He won’t care about my opinion. I’m not from a big enough city.

What Not to Do: Paterson Edition

David Paterson allegedly directed two state employees to contact and pressure the victim of domestic violence allegedly perpetrated by David Johnson, one of his top staffers, and urge her to characterize the event as “non-violent” and convince her to skip a court date.

It would seem to me that we may have a very short Ravitch Administration in 2010, after all.

On Day One, Everything Changed, Alright

Governor David Paterson has canceled his campaign to become elected Governor of the State of New York. The fall-out, coincidentally enough, stems from a New York Times story that had nothing to do with alleged sex and everything to do with alleged abuse of power. While Paterson has been carrying a ridiculously heavy burden trying save this sinking ship of a state, he never polled well, and this story just killed it. You don’t recover from 15% approval ratings with “abuse of power” hanging over your head. Not when it’s alleged that your cop detail bullied a battery victim.

The 2006 Spitzer-Paterson ticket self-immolated within its first term. Meanwhile, Spitzer’s scandal is so remote now that he’s actually poised to make a political comeback. And every time he opens his mouth, he happens to make a great deal of sense.

So, right now we have exactly one announced candidate for Governor – former Republican Congressman Rick Lazio, from Long Island. A decade ago, he fought a tight race against Hillary Clinton for the US Senate. Now, a bit grayer, Lazio pledges to bring fundamental reforms to Albany. I’ll be frank – a lot of what’s on his agenda is stuff that I can get behind. One of his ideas is a unicameral legislature. That’s great, but only under certain circumstances.

It is anticipated that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is going to run on the Democratic ticket. I wonder if it would be unprecedented to have two Italian-Americans from the Island of Long (the Cuomos are from Queens) running against each other for governor? Cuomo troubles me because he comes packed with loads of baggage, and is more of an entrenched machine politician. As AG, Cuomo’s office has made some significant strides towards governmental transparency and consolidation of taxing entities. He has a reform record on which to run, and he naturally has a massive enrollment advantage.

Like Buffalo, New York State operates under a mid-50s political mindset. Incumbency is king – legislators go back to Albany every year en masse, and get re-elected based on the ten thousand dollar big-checks they deliver to fire departments and senior centers. Take away member items, as we did for county legislators, you get a legislature that will have to work harder to get re-elected.

When you get right down to it, the biggest problem that plagues Albany is legalized corruption.

The way things get done there have everything to do with money, and little to do with policy. In the exquisitely rare instances that Albany hacks get bumped from office, they invariably step over to begin a six-figure gig lobbying their former colleagues. Special interests give massive amounts of money and get their pet projects passed. Legislators dole out member items and get re-elected. Actual decisions get made by three men in a room – everyone else goes along. The gay marriage vote and debate was so striking because it was an example of actual legislative debate where no one knew the outcome.

The entire operation is a broken joke, and what I am most concerned about is whether an Andrew Cuomo or a Rick Lazio have the right ideas, but also the political skills to get real reform done. It’s not hard – NYU’s Brennan Center has pretty much set forth a blueprint for democratizing New York.

By “political skills” I bring up the notion of Carl Paladino running as a tea party candidate for governor. While he may be something of an unlikely millionaire folk hero here, no one downstate knows who the hell he is and it would cost millions for him to get some name recognition. Paladino’s got the scratch, but will he spend it?

Whom will the Golisano/Pigeon axis of patronage endorse? Who will buy get the Independence Party line?

I thought Spitzer would reform this place. He didn’t – in part because the Senate and Assembly wouldn’t play ball, because Spitzer was rude to them. Paterson hasn’t done much better.

So, as luck would have it, we find ourselves again at a fork in the road. Do we – can we – elect someone who has the will and ability to bring real, meaningful reform to this state? Or will we elect someone who talks a good game but has no intention or ability to buck the special interests who bankroll everything in Albany?

Mother of All Scandals!1!

Governor Paterson is not going to resign.

All of this is viral marketing to build up hype for what will ultimately be a pretty benign profile piece on a controversial political figure, and that Cuomo’s people are promoting the crap out of the whole this-is-career-ending meme.

Don’t believe the hype.