I’m sure you heard that AG Cuomo is investigating Pension spiking.  via the WSJ

New York became the latest state to shine a light on the practice of pension “spiking”—big increases in a government worker’s salary just before retirement to boost the lifelong pension payout.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday his office was investigating what he called “manipulation” of government workers’ salaries and overtime pay to increase their pensions, which are mostly calculated based on the final years of income. Mr. Cuomo called the moves a burden to taxpayers.

Spiking, which is legal in most places, has come under increased scrutiny in the past couple of years. As private-sector workers have fallen upon tougher times and have seen their retirement savings shrink, anger has grown over what are perceived to be overly generous retirement benefits for public employees. In particular, six-figure pensions that can result from spiking have drawn headlines.

Remember this line?

A look at who is working overtime shows the ranks still dominated by officers at or nearing retirement eligibility.

Um, that would be reference to some of the $6.5 million dollars in City of Rochester Police overtime.

Just a quick thought as we wind down down operations in Iraq.

7 years ago we invaded Iraq.

What do we have to show for it?

Just a little editorial to start your Friday - Pass the Health Care bill

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.  My stance has been pretty consistent - Some form of a single payer system like Medicare for all.  A Medicare buy-in would be wonderful.  The proposed Health Care bill is not that at all.  Not even close.  In the end, we get mandated coverage with no public option, delayed benefits and Insurance companies seem to be in the drivers seat.  Many items don’t kick in for a couple of years.

That is why all last year, I worked actively to get as strong a bill as possible,  Challenged electeds in the Democratic party who used compromise as starting point not a closing tactic.  Challenging those organizations who supported such mentality at the expense of what I deemed common sense.   From my perspective, I was pretty fierce publicly and privately.  Privately, it did cost me some relationships with folks in activist circles.

Still - I think we have arrived at the end game.  It’s over folks -in order to keep the idea of Health Care reform alive and the conversation still on the table - we need to pass a bill - this bill.

• It provides some improvement to some people’s lives.  The bill certainly can be improved, made better, all of that but…
• Starting over and trying to get a “better bill” isn’t going to happen because we won’t get a better bill - we get nothing. The GOP gets to claim victory tout obstruction as a success tactic.
• It gives Democrats - a success point.  The Democrats need to prove that they can govern - something they haven’t been able to do the past year as their legislative agenda has stalled in the Congress. Look if you are reading this blog you are somewhere between knee and neck deep in political sausage making meaning you are in the minority.  Most people haven’t a clue as to what is going on.  Passage of this bill moves the Health Care conversation to other aspects - the economy and immigration and so on -
• Passage of this bill provided a real, concrete starting point for continued health care conversation.  It moves health care reform from theory to reality.  It also provides something to tweak.

Finally, this - those electeds, groups or individuals who believe the health care bill and all that went into it is some sort of success model or destination to hold up as the shining light on the hill.   I say - no.  Those who buy into that belief - that shining light is simply a bug zapper.   Mark my words, we will be revisiting Health Care.  Passage of this bill simply means that we will revisit it w/in several years as opposed to another couple of generations.

I received an email this afternoon.  It started out like this:

We came across a very brief obituary notice this morning, about a curious individual with a single word for a name, in an obscure newspaper of diminishing circulation and soon to cease publication altogether itself. The notice read:

Hope, a professional political campaigner and poster model of
Washington, DC, dead at the age of 26 months, from starvation and
abuse. No surviving close relatives.

Then, it went on to discuss how the president never had any intention of letting a public option pass, let alone single payer.  It’s been a scam from the beginning and the Dems have been in on it.  So what does a good progressive Dem do?  How about, vows to never vote for a Democrat, or a Republican again?  Can this work?  I’m thinking that it has to.

As my brother-in-law told me, just the other day, historically, democracies do not last.

This may be the last stand.For their part the Democratic Party tied its wagon to a fundamentally corrupt health care bill, based on a secret deal made long ago by President Obama personally to kill off any prospect of a public  option of any kind. So cynical was the deception in which Democratic members of Congress also conspired that while 51 Senators stated they supported a public option of some kind, after being forced into the procedure of reconciliation (which would only require 51 votes) the Speaker of the House further conspired to suppress even the very weak public option passed in her own chamber, so that those Senators would never have to honor their pledges.

Check out the facebook page and join a movement to change the political landscape.  Our very democracy is at stake.

Oh come on.  Why are we doing this? Look the  concept of government intervention is fine but somehow I suspect that what is really at stake here is people built houses on a beach and now that the beach is eroding (naturally) they feel their property values will decline and want someone to “do somethign about it.”  Seems to go with the territory or beach as the case may be.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

After a month of thinking about it - The father of American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi decided to run for the U.S. Senate.  Why?

Why am I not running for Congress, the House, again? Why am I running for the Senate? Because one senator can stop government,” he said. “I will be that senator, to stop government until they stop spending.”

Gee, an obstructionist.  Bully for him.  What a stupid quote.  Stop all spending.

Dioguardi joins others who are vying for the Senate seat Kirsten Gillibrand currently hold

Others on the list include Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, former Nassau County legislator Bruce Blakeman, former White House aide David Malpass and Bush administration adviser Dan Senor.

WOW - somehow I didn’t expect this when I heard about it, but good for them

Via the D&C

Residents in the 6,861-person rural village voted 1,142 to 1,037 Tuesday to dissolve their 179-year-old municipality during an emotional and contentious vote inside the Seneca Falls Community Center. At least 125 absentee ballots remain out, and the Seneca County Board of Elections expects to have those ballots tabulated by March 23.

Driven by concerns about high taxes, residents voted to dissolve and have the village absorbed into the surrounding town of the same name beginning in 2012.

Consolidation.  Let’s see how it works.  Brockport is next.

Sorry all, I’ve been out of the blog loop lately - rather large undertaking at work which should pay off shortly.  Anyway, work as usual cut into blog time.   A special thanks to ladkiddo who kept the blog fires burning -

I hope to start posting shortly.   Nevertheless, I found time to get my taxes done.  For the first time in recent memory I’m getting money back from New York State - $8 bucks. I wish there was a way to donate to the state coffers like you can for some charities.

But the best part?  I got to listen to my die hard Republican tax preparer say that I got a bigger tax break from Barack Obama than George Bush.  See, some how I qualified for an $800 credit or deduction or something - anyway - $800 bucks.   Huge smiles as I repeatedly said phrases like Barack Obama cut my taxes, or god bless Barack Obama for cutting my taxes, or Obama gave me a bigger tax break than Bush.

I enjoyed my evening.

Meanwhile the State is planning on delaying tax refunds by several weeks.       Frankly, as I said before I think it is ridiculous.  Maybe ridiculous isn’t the right word but if what the Governor is saying is true on why the State needs to delay the refunds - New York has a cash flow problem which is scary.

I haven’t had the stomach to write much about what is going on with Health Care Reform as I don’t see this bill moving us in the direction that we need to go.  Somebody, somewhere, thinks this this is a groovy bill.  I do not.  I’m sure we can find a little addendum in a hidden corner that is going to allow a few extra people to afford health care in 2014, but really, I mean, seriously, reform?  Government subsidies for private insurance?  Forcing people to purchase from private companies?  Seriously?

Dennis Kucinich got it, though.  He knew this was a bad move for the American people.  He supported single payer all along.  He and Eric Massa were our stalwart proponents for universal, single payer health care.

But, today, somebody got to him.  Today, Dennis has said he will vote for this bill.

In a big get for House Dems, Dennis Kucinich just made it official: He’s voting for the Senate bill, making him the first member to go on record fliping his vote from No to Yes.

“In the past week it’s become clear that the vote on the final bill will be very close,” Kucinich, who voted No last time because of the lack of the public option, said at a presser moments ago. He acknowleged that he’d be voting “not on the bill as I would like to see it, but as it is.”

“However, after careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi” and others, Kucinich said, “I’ve decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation.”

Kucinich’s stance was being closely watched by both sides, partly as a test of President Obama’s ability to corral the support of reluctant Dems. Obama wooed him directly with a lift on Air Force One and gave a big health care speech in his district earlier this week.

I wonder if there’s a  shower on Air Force One.

Rahm must have a very big stick.

Jose Peralta is in and Hiram Monseratte is out!  Covering the election, The New York Times had this to say:

Hiram Monserrate, who was expelled from the State Senate after being convicted of assaulting his companion, was handily defeated on Tuesday by José R. Peralta in a special election in Queens for Mr. Monserrate’s former seat.

[snip]

…the election followed a fierce, if brief, campaign in which a debate over same-sex marriage, which Mr. Peralta favors and Mr. Monserrate opposes, often overshadowed discussions on issues that are vital to many of the largely Hispanic district’s working-class and immigrant residents, like affordable health care and school overcrowding.

With 94 percent of the vote counted, unofficial returns from the overwhelmingly Democratic 13th State Senate District showed Mr. Peralta with 66 percent and Mr. Monserrate with 27 percent. The Republican candidate, Robert Beltrani, an administrative law judge, came in third with 7 percent.

Unconsummated Love Affair between Eric Massa and Right Wing Pundits Edition

It’s Monday March 8th, and us conservatives LOOOOVE Eric Massa to pieces for dumping on Obama and telling stories about Rahm Emanuel naked in the shower! Rush Limbaugh, Red State, and National Review Online, among others, were getting pretty excited about the idea of Massa on their side. Here is what Dick Morris had to say:

Eric Massa, a renegade Democrat from the Southern Tier of New York state faces his wrath. Massa’s sin was to vote against Obamacare. So Pelosi and the ethically challenged House Ethics Committee are investigating him for “verbally abusing” a male member of his staff.

In this age of more serious offenses, using “salty language” to express his displeasure with staff work would not seem to rank high on the list of indictable offenses. If it were, Lyndon Johnson would have been impeached. But Massa is being hung out to dry as an example to other would-be independent-minded Democrats. The attacks on him have gotten so bad that Massa has announced his retirement after only one term in office….

It’s Wednesday. Uh, gee, we never said we liked Massa, did we?  But we definitely still like the naked shower story. After Massa’s Tuesday TV appearances failed to satisfy the blood lust for anti-Obama stories, everything was different. Rush Limbaugh backtracked:

Thursday. Okay, so now us conservatives have sobered up and realized that Massa is not our guy after all. Let’s get back to familiar turf. It’s Nancy Pelosi’s fault, Yeah, that’s the ticket. Massa was a dry hole, so back to Pelosi-bashing:

Some perspective: Three and a half years ago, Rep. Mark Foley was forced out over a sex scandal, and it became clear that the Republican House leadership had been sitting on the facts for a long while. For old times sake, let’s take a look at Hannity’s enthusiastic defense of then-Speaker Dennis Hastert in 2006:

Okay, now we’ve really got the right handle on it, thanks to Rush… Mark Foley was Pelosi’s fault too. Leave it to Rush to find the crazy and illogical sweet spot in any uncomfortable truth.

My hand wouldn’t have been up in the air for this one, had I not just stumbled across Swing State’s lead article this morning:

New York State has an unusual way of conducting elections. Here, one candidate can run for office on the ballot lines of more than one political party. All votes each candidate receives on all lines get added up into one final total - it’s called “fusion voting,” and it’s actually not permitted in most states. But it adds a very interesting wrinkle to New York politics.

I mean, I knew we voted like this, but I didn’t know that all states did not. These are the sates who have fusion voting:

Wikipedia says the list is:
Connecticut
Delaware
Idaho
Mississippi
New York
Oregon
South Carolina
Vermont

This type of voting was significant to victories in our 21st Century elections. We all know those people who can’t bear to pull the lever for a Democrat, but a Working Families candidate makes that choice more palatable. Have a look at our winners, thanks to this voting style:

(Thank you WFP)

Year	CD	Democrat	Overall Margin	WFP Votes	Without WFP
2002	1	Timothy Bishop	2,752	2,951	-199
2004	27	Brian Higgins	3,774	8,091	-4,317
2008	29	Eric Massa	5,330	9,003	-3,673
2009	20	Scott Murphy	726	3,839	-3,113
2009	23	Bill Owens	3,584	6,589	-3,005

Everyone was waiting with bated breath to see if Scott Congel would come up with the funds needed to move ahead  on the project at the former Medley Centre.  Stlo7 wrote this last week:

…The question is how much does Scott Congel owe?  Is he still on the hook for $500K and is that on top of the $322K payment he just missed?

Yesterday afternoon,at the 11th hour, the #322K payment was made. YNN has the story:

There was a sigh of relief in Irondequoit Monday after the developer of the former Medley Centre made a critical payment, one that was originally due at the end of January.

It’s the deadline that had Irondequoit waiting all weekend.

[snip]

“At 2:00 today I received an e-mail,” said Irondequoit Town Supervisor Mary Joyce D’Aurizio.

Three hours before the 5 p.m. deadline, an e-mail informed D’Aurizio that $322,813 had been wired, plus nearly $10,000 in interest.

At this point, the PILOT program is intact.  D’Aurizio had this to say:

Had the payment not been made, the PILOT program could have been cancelled and the entire project put in danger.

“That payment had to be paid,” said D’Aurizio. “I think he knows now that we do mean to follow all of the articles of the PILOT and stay on track for this development.”

Last week we re-introduced you to Dick Ravitch, our current lieutenant governor, who is doing his best to put together a budget for New York State.  As we were reminded by commenter, Mike, his plan is to borrow, big time.  This is how PolitickerNY explains it:

it allows short-term bond issuance so that a gaping budget hole need not be filled this year, and it installs new controls on budgeting with a semi-independent board that must approve the budget and see that spending and revenue are generally in line over a five-year horizon. (This has been the problem of Albany and other governments: spending goes up faster than revenues, so five years out, the state has generally tended to face big gaps).

Underlying this plan is a very big implication: that Ravitch believes Albany cannot bridge the $9 billion gap in the budget this year, offering up the heretofore prohibited practice of borrowing to fill the operating budget.

I, for one, have no understanding of budgets or financing, borrowing or interest or anything involving numbers and $ signs.  Mr Ravitch, on the other hand, has a great understanding of economics and a record of pulling economies back from the brink of disaster.  He has a plan in mind:

A seemingly more likely possibility is that Ravitch sees this as his one window to reform Albany’s budgeting practices, and by tying it to the current year’s budget is his one and only chance at getting any of his ideas passed. Thus, in this tough election year, he is offering a trade for the Legislature, which presumably wants nothing less than an embarrassing long-running budget impasse. He offers the legislators the ability to get out of their responsibility to balance this year’s budget, and in exchange they must give up certain budgetary powers and controls that they otherwise would never be willing to cede.

Short term goals, long term goals- I say, let’s give him  a shot.  (If that doesn’t work, we can always get Mike in there to set things to right.)

TAP has a post up from Friday (thank you devtob) regarding a NYT story examining the relationship between NY mayor, Michael Bloomberg and our junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand. Being closer to the source, they were able to pick up nuances that I had missed.  Apparently, the potential contenders for Kirsten’s seat have all been encouraged by Bloomberg’s people.

Check this out:

The Times has always been close to Bloomberg, as is evident again in the story’s lede:

He gripes about her in private conversations with his aides and her colleagues on Capitol Hill. He has yet to take up her invitation to sit down for dinner. And his political team is constantly shopping for potential candidates to oust her.As New York experiences a tumultuous election season, one question is captivating political insiders: Why does Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg so dislike Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand?

The story never really answers that question, because to do so would mean bringing up the issue of Caroline Kennedy’s maladroit candidacy for the appointment.

The story recounts how Bloomberg and his minions have been advising/encouraging several potential Gillibrand challengers — former Bush/Cheney war-flack Dan Senor most lately, but also Long Island Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, Harold Ford, and fellow Manhattan billionaire Mortimer Zuckerman. (Manhattan Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s short-lived, but nasty, challenge is oddly unmentioned, though Bloomberg types worked on that, too.)

So, is this all because of Caroline Kennedy’s failed bid for the senate seat?  Is it really all about who the Mayor can keep under his thumb?  Is it all about controlling the vote of one senator from NY? I hate to think so, but, politics being what it is, it makes perfect sense.