Category: News and Opinion

You all know that Senator Kevin Parker and I have had our run-ins; that’s old news. Truth be told, Kevin and I have been political friends much longer than we have been feuding. But friends fight: that’s life. And believe me when I say that both Kevin and I are feisty and passionate human beings; so we will probably fight again. Today however, I have to tip my hat to him, for his determination in bringing a term limits referendum bill through the state legislature. I know he isn’t alone. I know that Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and many others in the NYC delegation are working overtime, and also behind the scenes to make this bill pass; and I commend them all. 

As the health care debate ramps up, I’m not entirely pleased with what I read coming out of Washington and in the press. It seems that too much deference is being given to a broken system by those who are afraid to take on vested interests, and too much money might be being added to a system that doesn’t work — community rating and health insurance tied to place of work. There has been some discussion of the inequity of the current system, in which younger generations and the less well off lack health insurance and yet pay taxes to subsidize the better off people who have it. And there has been some discussion of the soaring cost of health insurance, and the need to slow it down. But there has been less discussion of the negative economic consequences of the tie between place of work and place of employment. Getting rid of that tie, more than almost anything else, could stimulate the economy.

So, almost two weeks ago I got this call that John Liu was more than likely going to flip from Public (S)Advocate and do the Comptroller race instead. I said fine. Then I asked if I could run with the story right away, and I was told to wait just a bit. I said fine. Then I got caught up in my own campaign issues and dropped the ball -by not calling back my source to follow through. I could have scooped everyone/lol. 

So, now that John Liu has switched, let me say that I am leaning towards supporting him in this race. Let me also say that I am leaning towards supporting Saquan Jones to replace Al Vann in Bed-Stuy. I am also leaning towards Anthony Weiner in the mayoral race, and as much as I respect both Billy Thompson and Tony Avella as candidates, I haven’t pulled the trigger on that endorsement for Tony Weiner as yet: but I am close. I will do that endorsement column by Easter. I will make a firm decision by then. 

Governor Paterson has had not much good news lately but Sunday’s NY Post might have printed some.

You might have read about the results of school district audits conducted by the staff of New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli over the past year. In a state with the highest public school spending relative to its residents’ incomes, and therefore the highest state and local taxes as a share of income collected for schools, DiNapoli’s staff has found that the school districts waste nickels and dimes, and sometimes follow only 49 steps in 50 step financial procedures. According to the New York Times, “state auditors found that the Niagara Falls, N.Y., school district overpaid 272 employees by more than $500,000 in 2006, apparently incorrectly sending out an extra paycheck to each of them. Separately, they discovered that a laptop computer assigned to a school administrator in Vestal, west of Binghamton, had been used to visit Internet sites for pornography. And they determined that districts in Mount Vernon, Newburgh, North Syracuse, Schenectady and Williamsville could have saved a total of $212,000 on electricity if they had shut off computers at night and used power-save settings.” Superintendents and school board members “complained that the audits could be too focused on relatively minor infractions and accusatory in tone.”

I agree with the superintendents and school board members about the minor infractions, but believe the tone could be even more accusatory. Without any staff at all, using only widely available public statistics, I’ve been able to find far more telling explanations of why New York’s school spending is so high, as reported in prior posts. Based on that data, the real story is the questions DiNapoli didn’t ask.

People say some dumb things sometimes, and that’s just the way it is folks; remember this. Whether in politricks or poli-sci, (sh) it happens. Whether in casual conversation or in serious discourse, people say some dumb things sometimes. That’s all. And some of these sayings become lore as soon as they leave stupid lips; others move you to anger or even tears; some awaken latent fears. For example; when Hilary Clinton used the “assassination” innuendo to justify staying in the presidential primary, I personally thought it was the lowlight of the entire race. And yet Barack Obama did the most decent thing any US president has probably done for an opponent: he redeemed her. He awarded her the coveted “Secretary of State” job. And this has gone relatively unnoticed. Barack Obama is truly a decent human being. His mother and her folks raised him well.  

Last night in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Al Sharpton held an event akin to a citizen’s forum. I really hope that Rev would travel all around the state and do one of these every month. It is sorely needed: believe me. This was another good moment for the Reverend. He needs more like this. He brought out a few electeds, plus the education chancellor (Klein), to face the citizens and answer questions pertaining to the stimulus package monies about to flow down from Washington. The questions and answers went all over the place. One minute they were talking stimulus, next minute it was green jobs. One minute it was education, next minute it was job-development. One second it was about crime, another second it was about the police. But that’s okay, since the needs of the black communities are all over the place: we are in trouble in many a predominantly-black neighborhood: serious trouble.

As part of the rescue package designed to put off the collapse of our transit system for five years, the State of New York proposes the creation of a single regional bus authority for the entire MTA region. The proposal would supposedly create operating efficiencies, by merging administrative functions, and improve coordination, by allowing bus routes to run between suburban and New York City counties, if that is where the demand is. What I suspect, however, is that merging the bus systems is just an excuse to combine the lower cost city routes with higher cost suburban routes, so the former could be used to subsidize the latter. And the geographic area covered by such an agency would simply be too big to allow hands on management by its top officials, so any efficiencies would be lost by layers of management.

In my prior post, I pointed out that because San Francisco requires a public referendum for pension changes, the types of deal-in-the-dark pension privileges that have been handed out, in New York and elsewhere, hadn't happened there. But a tip came from the Pension Tsunami folks that perhaps San Francisco isn't so great on generational equity issues after all. That city (like our city) has a huge retiree health care liability, due a provision that allows employees to retire after just five years and receive free health care for life. And to reduce it, the politicians and unions have cooked a scheme worthy of the New York State Legislature.

AN EVENT OF WORLD SHATTERING IMPORTANCE WILL BE TAKING PLACE AT COUNCILMAN LEW FIDLER’S 41^st AD DEMOCRATC CLUB, 2952 Avenue R (corner of Haring), Brooklyn, NY–Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 7:30 PM

The purpose of this piece is to announce an event featuring David Weprin and David Yassky. Despite this, I ask you to read on. A friend asked that I do this announcement, and made one request along with it:

“MAKE IT SEXY!”

No, the event is not a contest for the nerdiest looking member of the City Council — Alan Gerson will not be attending (Is Gerson Yassky without the charisma, or is Yassky the hipster‘s version of Gerson? Wasn’t he in “The Forty Year Old Virgin”? Is there really a mathematical formula that says Schumer – Weiner = Yassky? And would Weprin be more exciting if he took dance lessons, so he’d be cutting a rug instead of wearing it? )