Category: News and Opinion

One of the tricks, or possibility of playing a trick (which I would never do), in the presentation of social and economic data is adjusting it – for population, income, inflation, and other conditions – so it is truly comparable and meaningful across geography and time.

With the May 31 release of fiscal 2004 state and local finance data from the U.S. Census Bureau, you may have heard that New York’s state and local taxes are still the highest per capita in the country.  The per capita measure doesn’t take into account the higher overall wages and costs in downstate New York, which both limits the pain of higher taxes and requires them to purchase public services of equivalent scope and quality.  Thus I have always used the Bureau’s other measure,  revenues and expenditures as a share of the income of area residents, as the more fair and accurate metric.  No matter:  New York is still number one among states, and by some margin, and New York City is much higher than the rest of the state.

The Bloomberg administration is making a pretty dumb argument when they say in Friday’s Post “that anti-terror grants may have been spread around the country for political reasons”.

If we buy that line, then isn’t Mike admitting that his strategy over the last 4 years was a failure? He’s admitting all the money he contributed or raised for various right-wing Republicans ended up not helping the City. Isn’t he saying that the warm welcome he gave the Republicans during the 2004 convention wasn’t useful? That the supposed clout that Republican Congressmen like Peter King, John Sweeney & Tom Reynolds have in DC doesn’t amount to much.

It was somewhere around this time (early June) a few years ago, while musing with a political crack head, I hinted that each new petition-drive was becoming more and more mundane. His answer felt like a bucket of cold water thrown into the sleeping face of a political addict. He told me that he looked forward to every new election-cycle with eager anticipation and excitement, since each New Year in politics, brings unique personalities, situations, events and occurrences. He was right. And although I fall off the wagon from time to time-especially when these somnambulant black electeds piss me off (which is often) – I always remember his words around this time. You see, this is when the phone starts ringing non-stop, as people recruit help or references while putting together late campaigns. This year however is slightly different. This is the year of the withdrawal(s). Lots of candidates are withdrawing, and by the end of this article you will get the inside scoop on some more withdrawals upcoming. Some may or may not surprise you.

Andrew Cuomo, in his acceptance speech, vowed to fight against bringing back the death penalty.

"We will not breathe life into the death penalty in the state of New York," Cuomo said.

I wonder what Elliot Spitzer & Shelly Silver, both of whom support capital punishment think about that.

Irish legends suggest that a leprechaun is a mischievous elf, who resembles a little old man. He possesses gold-which he hides away- and is very very lucky. Sometimes, he even touches things and they turn into gold, literally or figuratively. So looking back at Mayor Bloomberg’s personal life, his business and political career, I now posit the question: Is Mayor Bloomberg a leprechaun?

By his own admission he got lucky in business. He even admitted to skirting around the peripheries of ethics and public-safety (my words), while conducting business in the early days. This can be extrapolated from the many things written about his business conduct. Some say that brilliant people make their own luck, so maybe the guy is brilliant. And as such, he should be admired.

The well worn path to prominence in New York politics is to bestow benefits on the small number of active interests already privileged by state and local policy.  Then when “forced” to impose sacrifices on everyone else, even those comparatively worse off, blame “inevitable” circumstances, or the other political party.

It is three years until the next Mayoral election, and New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson has already lost my vote.  Lost it by saying two words I never want to hear from any elected official or aspirant:  “senior citizen.”  I don’t want to hear those words not because I have anything against senior citizens; indeed, I hope to become one myself one of these days.  It don’t want to hear them because today’s senior citizens have just about the greatest sense of entitlement, both in terms of what they are to receive and what they ought not have to pay, of any just about anybody on the planet.  And public policy, including tax policy, already benefits them to an enormous extent – especially in New York City.

On the eve of the State Democratic & Republican conventions, pundits are exclaiming that the polls predicting a decisive fight for the Republican nomination for Governor and an easy win for Eliot Spitzer among Democrats means that the GOP is doomed this year.

Without getting into whether polls this early should be believed, I’d like to look back and try to see if hard-fought Statewide Primaries for Governor or Senator have hurt, helped or made no difference to candidates.

1968 – Democrats chose Paul O’Dwyer in a 3-way Primary to face Republican Senator Jacob Javits, who did not have Primary. Javits was considered the overwhelming favorite all year and the Democratic Primary had a low-turnout and not very exciting.  Javits did win by over 1 million votes.

Every fortnight from here on in I will try to produce a column called: “The Grapevine”. I suggest you fasten your seatbelts for this the first column. What this column will do is breakdown the things that are being said in “out- there-land”, better known as the political grapevine. The reason I choose to do it on a bi-weekly basis is because I don’t want to be known as the Cindy Adams of NYC politics. It wouldn’t just be about political-gossip. I do intend to track down sources/players, and also ascertain the veracity and plausibility of the stories I report. I will try to inform not ridicule. It will be all about “the story behind the story”, if you catch my drift.

Today’s Journal News reports:

"Assemblyman Lou Mosiello of Yonkers appears to be headed for a new job on the state’s Parole Board. Should he accept the nomination, Mosiello would have to step down from the state Assembly.A likely successor to Mosiello in the Assembly  should he decide to accept the Parole Board position, is former state assemblyman Michael Spano, the brother of state Sen. Nicholas Spano.

Mosiello is a retired police sergeant and former county legislator county legislator who stepped into the Assembly race in 2004 after Michael Spano abruptly aborted his campaign. Spano held the seat for nearly 12 years and left so he could spend more time with his family."

Wednesday brought the welcome news that Matthew Long, the son of Conservative Party boss Mike Long was released from the hospital. Matthew Long was seriously injured in an accident while riding his bike to work during the transit strike.

It’s ironic that this occurred the same week, that Westchester State Senator Nick Spano introduced a bill would require the MTA to pay half of the strike fines levied against the TWU for illegal strikes, strikes like the one that was  indirectly responsible for Matthew Long’s injuries.